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Islam and slavery have a long history of accomodation defined by the existence of the Islamic (or 'Arab' or 'Oriental') slave trade for over a thousand years until last century. The subject has modern relevance because, despite official proscriptions, Islamically-condoned slavery (or at least slavery asserted as such) is still practised in parts of Arabia and Africa - most notably Sudan. The subject describes a tension between the goals of the modern abolitionist movement and contrary outcomes tolerated by Islam, especially with respect to the circumstance of young children 'born into' slavery and the plight of waqf slaves who may be held in slavery indefinitely. It is also true that in the last century Islamic countries were among the last in the world to finally disavow and reject slavery. The accomodation of slavery within Islam is a rich subject with some interesting variances between the main traditional schools of Islamic thought (madhhabs). Finally, Islamic slavery has, - with respect to racial equality and the social mobility of slaves and former slaves - produced some commendable outcomes at least in comparison with slavery practised elsewhere in the world.

Originally reforming character of Islamic slavery

The major juristic schools of Islam have historically accepted the institution of slavery; and in the contemporary period only reaffirm this. (See Islam and Slavery#Contemporary Islamic juridical support for slavery) Muhammad and those of his companions who could afford it themselves most certainly owned and trafficked slaves, and some acquired more by conquest. However, it has been said that the Islamic dispensation enormously improved the position of the Arabian slave through the reforms of a humanitarian tendency both at the time of Muhammad and the later early caliphs.

The development of Islamic law and jurisprudence brought major changes to the practice of slavery inherited from Middle-Eastern antiquity, from Rome, and from Byzantium, which were to have far-reaching effects. Bernard Lewis considers these reforms to be the cause of the vast improvements in the practice of slavery in Muslim lands. The reforms also seriously limited the supply of new slaves. Chief among them was the basic presumption of freedom; and the ban on the enslavement of free persons except in strictly defined circumstances.

The Qur'an and Hadith in many places proclaim the emancipation of a slave to be a suitable expression of Islamic charity, or as a condition of Tawbah for certain sins. As already stated, Muslim jurists considered slavery to be an exceptional circumstance, with a basic assumption of freedom until proven otherwise. Furthermore, as opposed to pre-Islamic slavery, enslavement was limited to two scenarios: capture in war, and those with slave parentage (birth to parents where one was free and the other his/her slave slave concubine would produce a child born free).third source desired to definitively rule whether free birth to a slave parent may occur in any other circumstance

Slavery in Islam does not have racial or color component, although this ideal has not always been put into practice. Nevertheless, historically, black slaves could rise to important positions in Muslim nations. In early Islamic Arabia, Slaves were often African blacks from across the Red Sea, but by expansion of the Islamic empire in later times, slaves could be Berbers from North Africa, Slavs from Europe, Turks from Central Asia, or Circassians from the Caucasus. The majority of slaves throughout the history of Arabia were, however, of African origin. The Arab slave trade was most active in eastern Africa, although by the end of the 19th century such activity had reached a significantly low ebb.

Annemarie Schimmel, a contemporary scholar on Islamic civilization, asserts that because the status of slave under Islam could only be obtained through either being a prisoner of war (this was soon restricted only to infidels captured in a holy war) or born from slave parents, slavery would be theoretically abolished with the expansion of Islam. Islam's reforms seriously limited the supply of new slaves, according to Lewis. In the early days of Islam, he notes, a plentiful supply of new slaves were brought due to rapid conquest and expansion. But as the frontiers were gradually stabilized, this supply dwindled to a mere trickle. The prisoners of later wars between Muslims and Christians were commonly ransomed or exchanged. Patrick Manning states that Islamic legislations against the abuse of the slaves convincingly limited the extent of slavery in Arabian peninsula and to a lesser degree for the whole area of the whole Umayyad Caliphate where slavery existed since the most ancient times. He however notes that with the passage of time and the extension of Islam, Islam by recognizing and codifying the slavery seems to have done more to protect and expand slavery than the reverse.

Pre-Islamic slavery

Slavery was widely practiced in pre-Islamic Arabia, as well as in the rest of ancient and early medieval world. The majority of slaves within Arabia were of Ethiopian origin, through whose sale merchants grew rich. The minority were white slaves of foreign race, likely brought in by Arab caravaneers (or the product of Bedouin captures) stretching back to biblical times. Native Arab slaves had also existed, a prime example being Zayd ibn Harithah, later to become Muhammad's adopted son. Arab slaves, however, usually attained as captives, were generally ransomed off amongst nomad tribes. The slave population was recruited by the abandonment, kidnapping or sale of small children. Free persons were also able to sell their offspring, or even themselves, into slavery. Enslavement was also possible due to legal offences of the law, as in the Roman Empire.

Two classes of slave were apparent: A purchased slave, and a slave born in the master's home— the latter over whom the master had complete rights of ownership, although was unlikely to be sold or disposed of by the master. Female slaves were at times forced into prostitution for the benefit of their masters in accordance with Near Eastern customs, the practice of which is condemned in the Qur'an .

Slavery in the Qur'an and Sunnah

Verses of the Qur'an admonishes Muslims to show equable kindness to orphans, parents, travellers and slaves. Verse directs part of obligatory charity toward the freeing of slaves. Verse grants well-behaved slaves the right to be advised the terms for their release in writing. Verses and propose the freeing of a slave as a means of expiation for certain sins. Verse 4:92 states that a Muslim should free a 'believing' slave as expiation for involuntary manslaughter. Verses , , and recognize the right of Muslim men to own slave concubines. The Qur'an mainly contains "broad and general propositions of an ethical nature rather than specific legal formulations" in its approach to slavery, Sikainga states.

In the personal example of the conduct of Muhammed we see all of the behaviours of slaveholding, slave trafficking, the employment of slaves, household slavery, emancipation and adoption of slaves, slave concubinage, and approval for the enslavement of captive individuals or even of entire tribes as the result of military enterprises (see Muhammad's slaves).

Islamic jurisprudence

Muslim jurists defined slavery as an exceptional condition, with the general rule being a presumption of freedom (al-'asl huwa 'l-hurriya — "The basic principle is liberty") for a person if his or her origins are unknown.

Enslavement

Islam recognises only two circumstances founding a person's enslavement: capture in war (on the condition that the prisoner is not a Muslim), or enslavement from birth. Other methods of enslavement acknowledged in pre-Islamic Arabia - such as being sold or given into slavery by oneself or family members, or being forced into slavery by reason of indebtedness - are not recognised.

Islam accepts the circumstance of children being enslaved from birth. The children of the marriage of two slaves are born enslaved as the property the owner of the woman. If a free man marries a female slave not his own, any children they have will be enslaved from birth as the property of the woman's master. The same is true same is true for the child born of a slave parent from an 'irregular union'. The children of a married slave girl (not an umm walad) likewise will be enslaved to her owner, whether their father is a slave or a free man. If a child is born of a master and his or her slave, the child in that exceptional case will not be enslaved though any children that she may previously have borne by another man remain also as slaves and the property of her master.

Emancipation

A slave mother who bears a child of her master obtains the special status umm walad (lit. 'mother of a child'). An umm walad may not be sold, pledged, or given away as a gift, but her master is entitled to demand service from her and he has the power, if he is a muslim, to give her in marriage to another man, even against her will. In all cases an umm walad is entitled to emancipation upon the death of her owner with all the children she has given birth to since being taken as her master's concubine.

The Quran (for example at verses 4:92, 5:91, and 5:84) and hadith make it commendable for masters to emancipate slaves in expiation for certain misdeeds eg. for commiting an involuntary manslaughter the release of a 'believing' slave is required. With reference to Qur'an verse 24:33 a slave also may demand a written expression of the terms for his or her release if the master considers him or her worthy of it. Such a contract is known as mukataba. The mukataba contract may stipulate a series of payments that the slave is required to make, or stipulated services to be provided, or some other condition such as the mere passage of time. If the consideration is sums of money, the master must grant the slave the right to earn and to own property. A slave thus released is referred to as mukatab.

The slave who comes into the possession of an owner who is related to him or her in the direct line, either ascendent or descendent, is free.

A slave bequeathed as waqf (ie. endowment for the benefit of a pious foundation such as a mosque), can never become free.That is because of the nature of waqf being a completed gift that is perpetual, irrevocable, and for a religious or publicly beneficient purpose.

A slave may be emancipated by a promise of his or her master, either verbally or in writing, proposed to take effect when the master dies. Such a promise is enforceable, but not if the master acts in the interim to sell the slave.

Emancipation may be bestowed as an act of piety by an owner, as recommended by the Qur'an, or by an unequivocal declaration by the master to the slave that he or she has freed him or her. Similarly, if the master declares to a third person that the slave is free, then that declaration is legally binding. The slave is then called atiq -'freedman'.

After a slave is freed, his/her relationship changes to that of mawla(client) of his/her former master, who becomes his/her wali(patron). Patronage and clientship cannot be alienated and clientship devolves upon the heirs and freedmen of the client.

Prerogatives of masters over slaves

Islam regards enslaved persons as the ordinary property of their owners. Islamic leglislation provides for their sale and purchase as for any ordinary goods, with certain restrictions for the umm walad. The slave-owner can sell, bequeath, give away, hire out and pledge his or her slaves. He or she may compel them to earn money for him or her in any legal activity. He or she may forbid them to participate in trade or business except as directed by him or her.

Obligations of masters to slaves

Cruelty toward slaves is forbidden. Azizah Y. al-Hibri, a professor of Law specializing in Islamic jurispundence, states that both the Qur’an and Hadith are repeatedly exhorting Muslims to treat the slaves well and that Muhammad showed this both in action and in words. Al-Hibri for example quotes the famous last speech of Muhammad and other hadiths emphasizing that all believers, whether free or enslaved, are siblings.

With regard to the satisfaction of their bodily needs, slaves are classed with domestic animals. Sustanence must be provided for slaves (as for animals) but they do not have an enforceable right to have the same food or the same clothes as their masters, although for the master to provide so is classed as commendable. Slaves must not be compelled to more labour than they can perform. It is expressly laid down that the slave has the right to a periodfor a siestaduring the hottest part of the day in the summer season. If a master fails in his or her duty to sustain his or her slaves, the slave may complain to a judge who is authorised sell as much of the master's goods as is needed for the slave's keep. If the master still does not have the means, by the judge's orders he or she must sell, hire out or manumit the slave. If all that is impossible the slave becomes the social responsibility of the state.

In the instance of illness, it is required for the master to meet slaves costs including food, clothing, shelter, doctors fees, and medicines.

A task of masters is religious instruction. Although conversion and assimilation into the society of the master didn't automatically lead to emancipation but there was normally some guarantee of better treatment and it was deemed a prerequisite for emancipation

Legal disabilities and dispensations of slaves

Within Islamic jurisprudence, slaves are able to occupy any office within the Islamic government, and instances of this in history include the Mamluk who ruled Egypt for almost 260 years and the Eunuchs (castrated human male) who have held military and administrative positions of note..

In circumstances slaves may marry, own property, and lead the Muslim congregational prayers (the five daily ritual prayers).

There are several disabilities on the civil and economic rights of persons enslaved under Islam which may affect them at all times of their lives:

• they may not inherit property, even if they are freed upon their owner's death
• their evidence is generally rejected in a court of law
• they cannot hold property and must hand over to their owner any they may acquire
• except as their master's agent they may not carry on trade or business
• slaves may lawfully killed in vengeance (talio) if their master or their master's kinfolk kill the slave of another person
• except in the Hanafi madhhab, slaves may be killed for killing other slaves but no free person may be killed for killing a slave. If they are killed by a free man, the killer is only liable to at the time of the death not to pay their owner their sale value and not full blood-money compensation. Thus, their owners may kill them with impunity.
• they are not permitted marriage without their owner's consent. A master cannot be compelled to give his/her consent to his/her slave's marriage. By the view of some madh'hab (but not others), a master may compel his/her slave(s) to marriage and determine the identity of their marriage partner(s)
• the mahr that is given for marriage to a female slave is taken by her owner, whereas all other women possess it absolutely for themselves

The property of slaves is owned by the master unless the master has granted the terms of a mukataba, which allowed the slave to earn money to purchase his or her freedom and similarly to pay bride wealth.

Under the Hanafi and Shafai schools of jurisprudence male slaves could marry two wives, but the Maliki permit them to marry four wives like the free men. According to the Islamic law, a male slave could marry a free woman but this was discouraged in practice.

Slavemasters have the absolute right of extra-marital concubinage with their owned female slaves. This is referred to in the Qur'an as ma malakat aymanukum or "what your right hands possess"). There are some restrictions on the this; the master may not co-habit with a female slave belonging to his wife, and he may not exercise this right against a female slave who is co-owned or already married without permission. General marital laws are also to be observed, such as not having sexual relations with the sister of a female slave. Although concubinage was only allowed as a monogamous relation between the slave woman and her master , in reality in many Muslim societies, female slaves were prey for members of their owners' household, their neighbors, and their guests.

In certain legal punishments, a slave would be entitled to half the penalty required upon a freeman. For example: where a free man would be subject to a hundred lashes due to pre-marital relations, a slave would be subject to only fifty. Other cases however, as with theft or apostasy, require the same punishment upon the slave as the free man, as long as the necessary conditions for such punishments are fulfilled.

According to multiple sources, religious calls have also been made to capture and enslave Jewish women. "It is hard to imagine a serious person calling for America to enslave its enemies. Yet a prominent Saudi cleric, Shaikh Saad Al-Buraik, recently urged Palestinians to do exactly that with Jews: `Their women are yours to take, legitimately. God made them yours. Why don't you enslave their women?` ,

History of slavery under Islamic rule

The 'Islamic' slave trade

The 'oriental' or 'Arab' slave trade is sometimes called Islamic slave trade, but religion was hardly the point of the slavery, Patrick Manning, a professor of World History, states. Also, this term suggests comparison between Islamic slave trade and Christian slave trade. Furthermore, usage of the terms "Islamic trade" or "Islamic world" implicitly and erroneously treats Africa as it were outside of Islam, or a negligible portion of the Islamic world.

In the 8th century Africa was dominated by Arab-Berbers in the north: Islam moved southwards along the Nile and along the desert trails. The Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia often exported Nilotic slaves from their western borderland provinces, or from newly conquered or reconquered Muslim provinces. Native Muslim Ethiopian sultanates (rulership) exported slaves as well, such as the sometimes independent sultanate (rulership) of Adal (a sixteenth century province-cum-rulership located in East Africa north of Northwestern Somalia). On the coast of the Indian Ocean too, slave-trading posts were set up by Arabs and Persians. The archipelago of Zanzibar, along the coast of present-day Tanzania, is undoubtedly the most notorious example of these trading colonies. East Africa and the Indian Ocean continued as an important region for the Oriental slave trade up until the 19th century. Livingstone and Stanley were then the first Europeans to penetrate to the interior of the Congo basin and to discover the scale of slavery there. The Arab Tippu Tib extended his influence and made many people slaves. After Europeans had settled in the Gulf of Guinea, the trans-Saharan slave trade became less important. In Zanzibar, slavery was abolished late, in 1897, under Sultan Hamoud bin Mohammed. The rest of Africa had no direct contact with Muslim slave-traders.

19th century and post 19th century

Slavery in Muslim lands was influenced by the revolution against slavery in 19th century in England and later in other Western countries which gave rise to a strong abolitionist movement in Europe. Contrasting with ancient and colonial systems, slaves in Muslim lands had a certain legal status and had obligations to as well as rights over the slave owner. Slavery was not only recognized but was elaborately regulated by Sharia law. Although emancipation of slaves was recommended, it was not compulsory. Lewis eludicates that it was for this reason that "the position of the domestic slave in Muslim society was in most respects better than in either classical antiquity or the nineteenth-century Americas", and that the situation of such slaves were no worse than (and even in some cases better than) free poors.

Ironically, the enlightened incentives and opportunities for slaves to be emancipated meant there was a strong market for new slaves and thus strong incentive to inslave and sell human beings. The processes of acquisition and transportation of slaves to Muslim lands often imposed appalling hardships, though "once the slaves were settled in Islamic culture they had genuine opportunities to realize their potential. Many of them became merchants in Mecca, Jedda, and elsewhere." The hardships of acquisition and transportation of slaves to Muslim lands drew attention of European opponents of slavery. The continuing pressure from European countries eventually overcame the strong resistance of religious conservatives who were holding that forbidding what God permits is just as great an offense as to permit what God forbids. Slavery, in their eyes, was "authorized and regulated by the holy law". There were also many pious Muslims who refused to have slaves and persuaded others to do so. Eventually, the Ottoman empire's orders against the traffic of slaves were issued and put into effect.

Slavery in the forms of carpetweavers, sugarcane cutters, camel jokeys, sex slaves, and even chattel exists even today in some Muslim and non-Muslim countries (Some have questioned the use of the term slavery as an accurate description ). Chattel slavery in Mauritania and Sudan, Trokosi slavery ("a trokosi is a virgin girl who is dedicated (married) to a priest as a penance for a crime committed by a member of her family"), Child slavery in Asia, Child trafficking in west and central Africa are examples of slavery in twenty-first century.

Twentieth Century suppression and outlawry

Writing about 1862 the English traveller W.G. Palgrave says that in Arabia he constantly met with negro slaves in large numbers. The effects of concubinage were apparent in the number of persons of mixed race and the emancipation of slaves he found to be common. Doughty, writing about 25 years later, made similar reports.

Slavery was common in the East Indies until the end of the 19th Century. In Singapore in 1891 there was a regular trade in Chinese slaves by muslim slaveowners, with girls and women used for concubinage.

At Constantinople, the sale of women slaves, both negresses and Circassians continued to be openly practised until the granting of the Constitution in 1908.

It was in the early 20th century (post World War I) that slavery gradually became outlawed and suppressed in Muslim lands, largely due to pressure exerted by Western nations such as Britain and France (although the extent to which it died out and/or flared up again is disputed).

In 1925 slaves were still being bought and sold at Mecca in the ordinary way of trade. The slave market there consisted of the offspring of local slaves as well as those imported from the Yemen, Africa, and Asia Minor.

By the Treaty of Jedda, May 1927 (art.7), concluded between the British Government and Ibn Sa'ud (King of Nejd and the Hijaz) it was finally agreed to suppress the slave trade in Saudi Arabia. Then by a decree issued in 1936 the importation of slaves into Saudi Arabia was prohibited unless it could be proved that they were slaves at that date. It was not until 1962 that all slavery practice or trafficking in Saudi Arabia was prohibited.

Writing in 1969, Levy noted: 'Most Muslim states have abolished slavery, but it still flourishes in some of the Arabian Peninsular States such as Saudi Arabia, the Yemen and Oman though it has been abolished in Kuwait and Qatar.

The last nation in the muslim world, and for that matter the entire world, to formally enact the abolition of slavery practice and slave trafficking, was Mauritania in 1981 although it still exists there de facto.

Contemporary slavery in the Islamic world

Contemporary Islamic juridical support for slavery

In recent years, according to at least one scholar, there has been a "reopening" of the issue of slavery by some conservative Islamic scholars after it's "closing" earlier in the 20th century when Muslim countries banned slavery and "most Muslim scholars" found the practice "inconsistent with Qur'anic morality."

In 2003 a high-level Saudi jurist, Shaykh Saleh al-Fawzan, issued a fatwa claiming “Slavery is a part of Islam. Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam.” He attacked Muslim scholars who said otherwise maintaining, “They are ignorant, not scholars ... They are merely writers. Whoever says such things is an infidel.” At the time of the fatwa, Al-Fawzan was a member of the Senior Council of Clerics, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious body, a member of the Council of Religious Edicts and Research, the Imam of Prince Mitaeb Mosque in Riyadh, and a professor at Imam Mohamed Bin Saud Islamic University, the main Wahhabi center of learning in the country.

According to multiple sources, religious calls have also been made to capture and enslave Jewish women. "It is hard to imagine a serious person calling for America to enslave its enemies. Yet a prominent Saudi cleric, Shaikh Saad Al-Buraik, recently urged Palestinians to do exactly that with Jews: `Their women are yours to take, legitimately. God made them yours. Why don't you enslave their women?` ,

Contemporary slavery in Arabia as a consequence of Islamic religious approval

While slavery is illegal in Saudi Arabia despite Shaykh Saleh al-Fawzan's fatwa, the proclamation carries wieght among many Muslims. According to reformist jurist and author Khaled Abou El Fadl, it "is particularly disturbing and dangerous because it effectively legitimates the trafficking in and sexual exploitation of so-called domestic workers in the Gulf region and especially Saudi Arabia."

According to the U.S. State Department:

Saudi Arabia is a destination for men and women from South and East Asia and East Africa trafficked for the purpose of labor exploitation, and for children from Yemen, Afghanistan, and Africa trafficking for forced begging. Hundreds of thousands of low-skilled workers from India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Kenya migrate voluntarily to Saudi Arabia; some fall into conditions of involuntary servitude, suffering from physical and sexual abuse, non-payment or delayed payment of wages, the withholding of travel documents, restrictions on their freedom of movement and non-consensual contract alterations. The Government of Saudi Arabia does not comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.

According to BBC news, young children have been kidnapped or sold by their parents to Arab countries, where they are forced to become camel jockeys and "subjected to slave labour." ,

Children are routinely beaten, starved, overworked, raped, and forced to engage in camel races that sometimes result in the deaths of the child jockeys. Although UAE has promised to end slavery, human rights groups have suggested that those promises may be insincere.

Robot jockeys were introduced in the gulf state of Qatar in 2004 with the use of child jockeys being banned in 2005 by the Emir of Qatar, Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani.

Islamically-inspired resurgence of slavery in contemporary Africa

According to Australian art critic and writer Robert Hughes (writing for Time Magazine), slavery in Africa has been dominated by Arabs. ""Slave markets, supplying the Arab emirates, were still operating in Djibouti in the 1950s; and since 1960, the slave trade has flourished in Mauritania and the Sudan. There are still reports of chattel slavery in northern Nigeria, Rwanda and Niger."

According to Dr. Kwaku Person-Lynn, "The saddest and most painful reality of this situation is, that same slave trading is occurring today, still in the name of Islam. It is primarily happening in the countries of Mauritania, located in northwest Afrika, and Sudan, in northeast Afrika." and "If we assess what we have before us, this only leaves us to conclude that this is a horrendous misuse of Islam."

Slavery in Sudan

Slavery in the Sudan predates Islam, but continued under Islamic rulers. Though it never completely died out in Sudan, there has been a relatively recent upsurge in slave-taking that has its roots in Islam. According to John Eibner, an historian and human rights specialist writing in Middle East Quarterly:

Sudan is the only place where chattel slavery is not just surviving but experiencing a great revival. This renascence of the slave trade began in the mid-1980s and resulted directly from an upsurge of Islamism in Sudan at that time, and especially from the Islamist emphasis on the renewal of jihad. After gaining the upper-hand in Khartoum by about 1983, the Islamists' immediate goal was to transform the multi-ethnic, multi-religious population of Sudan into an Arab-dominated Muslim state, and to do so through jihad. Under Turabi's powerful influence, the ruler of the time, Ja‘far an-Numayri, declared himself to be (sounding like a caliph of old), the "rightly guided" leader of an Islamic state.

John Eibner of Christian Solidarity International, as quoted by the American Anti-Slavery Groups, discusses slavery in Sudan. He states:

"It begins when the armed forces of the government-backed mujadeen, or allied militias, raid a southern Sudanese village. They kill men on the spot, beat the elderly, and capture the women and children. Raiders and their victims start the horrific march to the North. Children are executed when they cry. People who try to run away are shot. The young girls are taken by soldiers into the bush and gang raped.

"Each victim later becomes one of two kinds of slaves, a house slave or a field slave. House slaves cook, clean, fetch water and firewood, and do other household chores. The field slaves cultivate the land, weed, and tend to livestock. Children usually tend cows and goats. But all slaves are mocked, insulted, threatened, and beaten into submission.

"Some masters are simply interested in labor and do not convert slaves to Islam. Other masters teach slaves Islam and give their slaves Muslim names. Many female slaves are subjected to genital mutilation or circumcision - a rite of passage for some Muslims, but something not practiced by the Dinka."

According to CBS news, slaves have been sold for $50 apiece.

According to CNN, Christian groups in the United States have expressed concern about slavery and religious oppression against Christians by Muslims in Sudan, putting pressure on the Bush administration to take action. CNN has also quoted the U.S. State Department's allegations: "The government's support of slavery and its continued military action which has resulted in numerous deaths are due in part to the victims' religious beliefs."

Writing for The Wall Street Journal on December 12, 2001, Michael Rubin said:

What's Sudanese slavery like? One 11-year-old Christian boy told me about his first days in captivity: "I was told to be a Muslim several times, and I refused, which is why they cut off my finger." Twelve-year-old Alokor Ngor Deng was taken as a slave in 1993. She has not seen her mother since the slave raiders sold the two to different masters. Thirteen-year-old Akon was seized by Sudanese military while in her village five years ago. She was gang-raped by six government soldiers, and witnessed seven executions before being sold to a Sudanese Arab.

Many freed slaves bore signs of beatings, burnings and other tortures. More than three-quarters of formerly enslaved women and girls reported rapes.

The practice of the enslavement of child war captives, enjoying the justification of the Islamic sharia, occurs currently and with widespread alarming frequency in the Sudan. Recent reports document instances of the Islamic slaveholders disciplining such captured child slaves with the hudud punishment of crucifixion. These practices and related massacres and religious hate crimes have been condoned and authorised by the Sudanese National Islamic Front since 1989.

While nongovernmental organizations argue over how to end slavery, few deny the existence of the practice. ...stimates of the number of blacks now enslaved in Sudan vary from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands (not counting those sold as forced labor in Libya)...

Slavery in Chad and Mauritania

IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks) of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports children being sold to Arab herdsmen in Chad. As part of a new identity imposed on them the herdsman "...change their name, forbid them to speak in their native dialect, ban them from conversing with people from their own ethnic group and make them adopt Islam as their religion."

In Mauritania, despite slave ownership having been made punishable by law in 1981, hereditary slavery continues, moreover, as claimed by the representatives of interested organisations such as Amnesty International:

"Not only has the government denied the existence of slavery and failed to respond to cases brought to its attention, it has hampered the activities of organisations which are working on the issue, including by refusing to grant them official recognition".

Disputation about the plight of slaves and official government denials

According to Seyyed Nasr, professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University:

If some write today that slavery is still practiced here and there, as in the Sudan or some other African lands, it is more like the slavery of sweatshops in China or the West today. In neither case is it a prevalent practice, nor are such practices condoned by religious authorities. -Nasr, The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity

Jok Madut Jok, professor of History at Loyola Marymount University, states that the abduction of women and children of the the black south by Arab north is slavery by any definition however the government of Sudan insists that the whole matter is no more than the traditional tribal feuding over resources.

Diplomatic spokesmen for the Republic of Sudan have denied that there is slavery in their country, and asserted that slave redemption programs are fraudulent attempts to make money. According to a June 2003 press release of Embassy of Sudan in the United States of America, there are documented instances of people, who were not slaves, being gathered together and instructed to pretend they were being released from slavery.

See also

• Slavery and religion
• Ma malakat aymanukum
• Christianity and Slavery
• Slaves freed by Abu Bakr
• Criticism of the Qur'an
• Muhammad's slaves

Notes

1. Sachau, p.133
2. ^ Lewis 1994, Ch.1 Cite error: The named reference "Lewis" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
3. ^ Brunschvig. 'Abd; Encyclopedia of Islam
4. Also see under [[Islam and slavery#Enslavement
5. Lewis (1992) p. 19, 74
6. The famous medieval jurist al-Ghazzali denounced the perception of a white man being better than a black one as adopting the same hierarchical principles of ignorance endorsed by Satan: something which al-Ghazzali believes would eventually result in polytheism. cf. Azizah Y. al-Hibri, 2003
7. Bloom and Blair (2002) p. 48
8. ^ Schimmel (1992) p. 67
9. Manning (1990) p.28
10. Lewis (1992) p. 4
11. Mendelsohn (1949) pp. 54—58
12. John L Esposito (1998) p. 79
13. Lewis, Bernanrd, Race and Slavery in the Middle East : an Historical Enquiry, Oxford University Press, 1990. p.6
14. Sikainga (2005), p.5-6
15. Kitab al-Aghani XI, 79f
16. ^ Sikainga (1996) p.5
17. p.79 Levy 1969, The Social Structure of Islam, by Reuben Levy - Professor of Persian in the University of Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
18. Levy, p.79
19. ibid.
20. `Abd. Brunschvig, Encyclopedia of Islam
21. Levy p.80
22. Khalil bin Ishaq, II,4
23. Sachau p.173
24. Sachau, p.150
25. Khalil bin Ishaq, II, 752
26. Sachau p.125
27. Sachau p.133
28. Sachau, p.126
29. Sachau, p.133
30. Levy, p.81
31. Sachau, p.286
32. Levy p.76
33. Khalil bin Ishaq, II, 329
34. ^ Azizah Y. al-Hibri, 2003
35. Khalil bin Ishaq, II, 166
36. Sachau, p.19
37. Juynboll, p.258
38. Khalil, p.102
39. Levy, p.77
40. Khalil, p.101
41. ^ Paul Lovejoy (2000) p.2
42. Esposito (2002) p.148
43. Levy, pp.76-81, 102, 114
44. Levy p.78
45. Khalil bin Ishaq op cit II, 616
46. Sachau, p.739
47. Khalil bin Ishaq, II, 329
48. Juynboll, p.204
49. ibid.
50. Levy, p.78
51. Qur'an 2:173
52. Khalil b. Ishaq, II, 662
53. Sachau, p.776
54. Sachau, p.783
55. Shirazi, Tanbih (p.271)
56. Khalil b. Ishaq, II, 4
57. Shirazi, p.90
58. Khalil bin Ishaq, II, 4
59. Sachau, p.173
60. Levy, p.114
61. Levy, p.76
62. See Tahfeem ul Qur'an by Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, Vol. 2 pp. 112-113 footnote 44; Also see commentary on verses : Vol. 3, notes 7-1, p. 241; 2000, Islamic Publications
63. Tafsir ibn Kathir 4:24
64. Bloom and Blair (2002) p.48
65. Sikainga (1996) p.22
66. ^ Manning (1990) p.10
67. Pankhurst (1997) p. 59
68. ^ Holt et. al (1970) p.391
69. Ingrams (1967) p.175
70. ^ Bernard Lewis, (1992), pp. 78-79
71. Seyyed Hossein Nasr (2004), p.182
72. Jok Madut Jok (2001), p.3
73. James R. Lewis and Carl Skutsch, The Human Rights Encyclopedia, v.3, p. 898-904
74. In his narrative of 'A Years Journey Through Central and Eastern Arabia' 5th Ed. London (1869), p.270
75. Doughty(author), Arabia Deserta (Cambridge, 1988), I, 554
76. S.Hurgronje, Verspreide Geschriften (Bonn, 1923), II, II ff
77. Levy, p.88
78. E. Rutter, The Holy Cities of Arabia (London and New York, 1928), II, 93
79. Levy, p.85
80. op cit. p.89
81. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4091579.stm
82. Abou el Fadl, Great Theft, HarperSanFrancisco, c2005.
83. Shaikh Salih al-Fawzaan "affirmation of slavery" was found on page 24 of "Taming a Neo-Qutubite Fanatic Part 1" when accessed on February 17, 2007 http://www.salafipublications.com/sps/downloads/pdf/GRV070005.pdf
84. The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists, by Khaled Abou El Fadl, Harper San Francisco, 2005, p.255
85. Can robots ride camels? by Ian Sample, The Guardian, Thursday, 2005-04-14
86. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37913
87. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52181
88. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26566
89. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26672
90. http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=52490
91. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4091579.stm
92. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4091579.stm
93. Nasr (2002) page 182
94. Jok Madut Jok (2001), p.3
95. "Fraud and Bigotry: Attempts to Resurrect Claims of". Embassy of the Republic of Sudan. 2006-06-23. Retrieved 2006-10-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

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The International Journal of African Historical Studies > Vol. 28, No. 1 (1995), pp. 1-24

External links

• Race and Slavery in the Middle East by Bernard Lewis
• BBC Domentary, Religion and Ethics - Islam and Slavery

• Islam
• Slavery
• Slaves of the Muslim world