Race and slavery in the Muslim world

The role of anti-blackness in the Arab slave trades

Introduction

People with a Western education will have been taught about the transatlantic slave trade. Those historically inclined will also be familiar with the large Arab slave trades that similarly affected Africa.

Few will need convincing that racial ideology played a key role in the transatlantic slave trade. In contrast, the important role that race played in the Arab slave trades is far less appreciated.

While people of any race could be enslaved on religious grounds (that is, for being non-Muslim), slavery in the Muslim world was still highly racialized. Black slaves were treated differently from non-black slaves. They were more often reduced to lower forms of labor, had less opportunity for social mobility, and were more likely to be victims of the horrific practice of castration. Additionally, there was widespread opposition to “contaminating” one’s lineage through intermarriage with blacks.

Medieval Muslim scholars provided specific intellectual justification for the enslavement of black people—they described them as subhuman and as natural slaves. Just as Muslims were considered superior to non-Muslims, so were pale-skinned Arabs deemed inherently superior to dark-skinned Africans. Culturally, as evident in attitudes and language, blackness and slavery gradually came to be regarded as synonymous in Muslim society.

The connection between blackness and slavery became increasingly overt with time. In the early 1600s, the West African scholar Ahmad Baba tried (and failed) to convince his Muslim contemporaries that black people shouldn’t be enslaved for their race alone. Later in 1699, the Moroccan Sultan gave orders to enslave all black Africans in Morocco. In the 19th century, an Arab historian lamented that “many common folk believe that the reason for being enslaved according to the Holy Law is merely that a man should be black in colour.” All this and more is the subject of the full piece below.