Figure 1.-- France began colonizing North Africa (1830). Algeria was from the beginning the major colony. The Second Republic abolished slavery in all French colonies, including Algeria (1848). This outlawed the slave trade and slavery illegal in Algeria, Tunisia, and the rest of France’s colonial empire. Yet thousands of slaves, mainly women and children, continued to be sold, bought and freed. 【Brower】 French topographers began to establish studios and we begin to see images like this. There was a market for ethnographic photographs. The CDV mount looks to have been taken in the 1860s. Here there was no accompanying information. We do not know who these two women and the boy are. But because they are not veiled, we suspect that the women are slaves and because the boy is probably one of their sons. That would make him a slave as well. He looks to be the son of their owner. It is difficult to tell. Note that both women have jewelry, which suggests a degree of status. We are still assessing the image. We note many similar images from British-influenced Egypt. Click on the image for a fuller discussion.

"... I have been heard with extreme astonishment accompanied with a smile at a proposition for destroying an institution closely inter-woven with the frame of society in this country, and intimately connected with the law and with the habits and even the religion of all classes, from the Sultan himself on down to the lowest peasant."

The Islamic Caliphate conquered Christian Byzantine provinces in the Middle East and North Africa in which slavery had already began to decline. After only about a century, the Caliphate began to splinter early in the medieval period giving rise to largely independent emirates. Slavery continued to decline as the Koran discouraged Muslims from enslaving fellow Muslims. Manumission of Muslim slaves was promoted as a way of expiating sins. 【Gordon, p. 40.】 Thus there was a strong motivation for slaves to become Muslims. Slavery continued largely through importing captive Africans, For nearly a millennium, the African slave trade was almost entirely based on the Muslim world importing captive Africans, This only changed to ny significant extent when Portuguese navigators began moving south along the western coast of Africa to fund trade routes to the East, India and China (15th century). Soon the political landscape changed when the Ottoman Empire conquered the the Arab lands of the Middle East including Egypt and gained control over North Africa (16th century). With this the Ottomans inherited the Indian Ocean and Trans-Saharan slave trade. Slavery thus was a part of Ottoman society and the frame on which the established slave trade in the Indian Ocean and across the Sahara functioned. Slave catching and transport of slaves may have been conducted beyond Ottoman territory or by emirates over which the Ottomans had only limited control. But the end markets where these Africans were sold and labored were in territories over which the Ottomans had full control. Major battles were fought with the Christian powers, especially Spain, for control of the Mediterranean. While Ottoman control over the Indian Ocean territories was tenuous, the Middle East became Ottoman provinces. Control over North Africa varied, but eventually evolved into functionally independent emirates. This was a time of huge economic and political change. Europe developed modern science and increasingly productive progress. The Ottoman Empire made little technical progress and came to rely on Christian Europe for technology. The North African emirates made almost no technological and economic progress. Slavery in accepted in Islam, legitimized by the Koran, but has no racial basis,. In practice this was, however, not a clear cut matter. 【BBC】 This was because many captives were taken from non-Muslim areas, especially Africa. And the enslavement of non-Muslims was a well established practice and sanctioned by the Koran. The Ottoman slave trade before the conquest of the Arab lands, involved capturing and enslaving Christians in eastern and central Europe and the Caucasus. The semi-autonomous North African emirates conducted the Barbary Coast slave trade. They had two sources for captives to enslave. These emirates had been participating in th Trans-Saharan slave trades for centuries. They also conducted slave capturing raids along Europe's southern coast, some times reaching Ireland and Britain. (The Gilbert and Sullivan 'HMS Pinafore' operetta is not entirely fanciful.) But the rise in he Mediterranean serious affected coastal communities. The decline of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of Europe gradually changed the power dynamic, ending Ottoman slave raiding. Particularly lucrative was ransoming the captives. The Barbary Pirates continued raiding Mediterranean shipping into the 19th century. The major powers generally paid off the Barbary emirates/states as a cost- effective approach. The young American republic decided to take them on. Britain using the Royal Navy launched a campaign to end the slave trade (1807) and eventually slavery itself in the Empire (1835). The British effort to end the slave trade would take decades. One of the most difficult problems, especially when dealing with Arab states was the entrenched support intertwined with Islam for the slave trade and slavery. Britain established a protectorate in Egypt, largely because of the Suez Canal (1869). They moved to close the important slave market in Cairo and end slave trading in Egypt and Sudan. This resulted in the Madist rebellion in Sudan (1881-98). It was finally ended by the last great cavalry charge of history--in which a young Winston Churchill participated. Slavery persisted at low levels in Arabia , the Ottoman Empire and Iran.France began colonizing North Africa (Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco) as well as large areas of Western and Central Africa ,part of the Scramble for Africa (1880s-90s). France also abolished silvery in its colonies (1848), but was not as aggressive as Britain in interfering with Arab society. And thus slavery persisted at a low level in French colonies. 【Brower】 This seems to reflect how entrenched slavery was in Islamic society. And it helped to avoid incidents like the Madist revolt in their colonies.

Roman Empire

Slavery was a well established institution in the Roman Empire. With the rise of Christianity and the fall of Rome, slavery began to decline in the West. We know that there were African slaves in Rome, but they were relatively small in number. Roman slavery was primarily the result of war and the captives taken during those wars. And Rome's armies never penetrated the Sahara. Arab tribal forces rebuffed a minor attempt to conquer Arabia Felix by Aelius Gallus, govenor of Roman Egypt, (26 BC). The primary interest was trade with India. Rome would eventually occupy northern Arabia, again primary to control trade routes to India. The enslaved Africans within the Empire most tricked in because of Egypt's connections to Sub-Saharan Africa through the Nile. Roman slaves were drawn from widely differing peoples and there was no association with race. Slaves might be blond, blue eyed Anglo-Saxons from Brittan or blacks from Sahara as well as every other racial type. Slavery in Rome had no racial basis. Even those of Italian stock were enslaved. It was thus impossible to tell from one's physical appearance if one was a slave. This complicated control. The Roman Senate debated establishing a distinctive dress for slaves. In the end, the Senate decided against a slave attire, partly because they decided it was dangerous because it would show the slaves just how numerous they were

Byzantine Empire

Byzantium developed out of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Emperor Constantine took a crucial step when he established his capital at Byzantium (330 AD). At the time the eastern territories were the richer, more valuable territories parts of the Empire. We have not yet delved into Byzantine slavery, but like Rome before it, as best we can tell there were relatively few enslaved Africans. This was largely because Byzantium even when it possessed Egypt never established an importance naval and commercial presence on the Indian Ocean. We need to pursue this in more detail.

Islamic Caliphate

Slavery in Muslim societies were strongly influenced by cultural norms in Arabian society before Mohammad. 【Lewis】 The armies of the Islamic Caliphate conquered Byzantine Christian provinces in the Middle East and North Africa where slavery had begin to decline as part of Christian teachings. After only about a century, the Caliphate began to splinter early in the medieval period giving rise to largely independent emirates. Slavery continued to decline as the Koran discouraged Muslims from enslaving fellow Muslims. Manumission of Muslim slaves was promoted as a way of expiating sins. 【Gordon, p. 40.】 Thus there was a strong motivation for slaves to become Muslims. Slavery continued largely through importing captive Africans. Arab traders operating off East Africa began dealing in slaves as well as gold and ivory. For nearly a millennium, the African slave trade was almost entirely based on the Arab slave traders capturing Africans and the Muslim world importing those captive Africans. This only changed to any significant extent when Portuguese navigators began moving south along the western coast of Africa. For the first time Europeans had real access to Sub-Saharan Africa (15th century).

Turkic Peoples

Both the Byzantines and the Caliphate as the Sumerians and other peoples of Mesopotamia before them were plagued by the war-like nomadic people of the Euro-Asian Steppe. This was the origins of the Persians, one of the many Steppe people. Another were the Turkic tribes. The Steppe people would raid into the rich territory of the settled agricultural people to the south. The same occurred in China which was the reason China built the Great Wall. The Chinese faced the Mongols and Manchus. Turkic peoples are a collection of several diverse ethnic groups of West, Central, East, and North Asia. While they were ethnically diverse, there were cultural ties--beginning with Turkic languages. The Huns may have been a Turkic tribe, although there is disagreement on this. Unlike the Mongols, the Turkic tribes were more important in the central and more westerly areas of the Steppe. Turkic tribes were one of the first obstacles that Genghis faced in his effort to unify the Mongol tribes.

Seljuk Empire (1034-1194)

The Seljuk Empire Turco-Persian, Sunni Muslim empire which stretched from from Anatolia and the Levant in the west to the Hindu Kush in the east into Central Asia in the north to the Persian Gulf in the south. It is important here because it was responsible for the turification of Anatolia. The Byzantine Empire successfully defended most of Anatolia from the Arab onslaught. It was Seljuk armies that conquered Anatolia and began the turcification process. We know very little about slavery in the Empire, but unlike the Byzantines, the Seljuks has not only conquered the major Arab lands of the Levant and Persia, but had a permanent presence on the Indian Ocean. Which means the Arab African slave trade was conducted within the Seljuk Empire. The Seljuk Empire began to disintegrate with rivals to the imperial throne (1092).

Interim Period

Smaller emirates were established as the the Seljuk Empire fractured. The Crusaders entered the Levant and established small states along the Mediterranean coast. The Crusader success was only possible because there was no strong Muslim empire in the Middle East. Steppe tribes seized control in the north. The Mongols struck sacking Baghdad (1258). The Arab world would never really recover. He took advantage of the chaos created by the Mongol invasion. The Mongol invasion shattered the Seljuk state and the weak remains of the Arab Caliphate. This put the imperiled integrity of Islam itself. The remains of the Seljuk Empire was raided by Turkish warriors led by Osman I who established a small foothold in northeastern Anatolia.

Persia

There is a long history of slavery in Persia, covering ancient, medieval, and modern periods. all of which, however, are poorly documented. Persia is one of the earliest civilizations in the world and one of the great powers of the ancient world. It was on the fringe of Mesopotamia where the Sumerians, one of the great River Valley civilizations launched agriculture and civilization. One of the peoples the Sumerians and Babylonians had to contend with were the Elamites, a non-Persian people who inhabited modern southwestern Iran--including the ancient cities of Anshan and Susa. The Elamites, perhaps because of their location adjacent to the Sumerians left a written record, one of the few pre-Achaemenid civilizations of what we now know as Persia/Iran to do so. And in that record, as was standard for ancient people, slaves are mentioned. As a result we know that slavery was an accepted institution in Persia even before the arrival of ethnic Persians. And this did not change when Persians established themselves in what is now Iran. The arrival of African slaves is difficult to date with any certainty, but appears to date primarily from the Islamic era. Small numbers of African slaves may have existed earlier, especially when Persian armies conquered Egypt (525 BC). The Persian conquest of Egypt was planned planned by Cyrus, but became the major achievement of Cambyses' reign. The Persians riled Egypt for a century until defeated by Alexander. During that time, some African slaves must have appeared in Persia. Much later Arabia including Arabia Felix/Yemen was briefly acquired by Persia (575 AD). These extensions of Persian empires were for relatively short periods. We believe that African captives were a relatively small proportion of slaves in ancient Persia which did not have a huge slave population to begin with, although admittedly actual data is virtually nonexistent. This changed with the Arab conquest of Persia (633-54 AD) which led to collapse of the Sassanid Empire. This meant the inevitable decline of the Zoroastrian religion and the Islamization of Persia. It also meant the beginning of the flow of enslaved Africans into Persia on a sustained basis. At the time, Arab merchants were establishing trading posts along the developing Swahili coast of eastern Africa looking for gold, ivory, spices, and other luxury goods (7th century). Capturing and enslaving Africans became one of their most important commodities. In this effort, Islamicized Swahili chiefs became an important part of the Arab Indian Ocean slave trade. One of the two maritime corridors for the Indian Ocean slave trade was the Persian Gulf leading to Persian ports and Basra--a major slave market funneling captive Africans into the Middle East, including Persia. The Arab traders also landed captive Africans along the Makran (Gulf of Oman) coast.

Ottoman Empire (1299-1922)

The Ottoman Empire was the greatest Turkish state and arguably the greatest power of the late- medieval era. The Ottoman Empire was founded (1299). It developed out of Osman's small toe-hold in Anatolia. The Ottomans threatened Christendom by sea in the Mediterranean. Sultan Mehmed II conquered Byzantium (1453). Sultan Selim I defeated the Mamelukes and brought the Levant and Egypt within the Ottoman realm. This transformed the Ottomans from one of many Muslim state into the Major Muslim state (1516-17) only rivaled by Akbar's India. Suleiman the Magnificent personally led Ottoman armies in finally taking the Christian strongholds of Belgrade and Rhodes, only failing at Malta. . He conqueror most of Hungary. He made major advances against the Safavid Dynasty in Persia, taking Baghdad and completing the conquest of the Arab lands as far west as Algeria (1534). Under Suleiman's rule, the Ottoman fleet dominated the seas from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and through the Persian Gulf. The Ottoman slave trade before the conquest of the Arab lands, involved capturing and enslaving Christians in eastern and central Europe and the Caucasus. The conquest of the Arab Levant changed this. The Arab slave raiding occurred in aeas beyond Ottoman control. But the transport of the captives was in areas under Ottoman control This meant Africans were sold and labored in territories over which the Ottomans had full control. Major battles were fought with the Christian powers, especially Spain, for control of the Mediterranean. While Ottoman control over the Indian Ocean territories was tenuous, the Middle East became Ottoman provinces. Control over North Africa varied, but eventually evolved into functionally independent emirates. This was a time of huge economic and political change. Europe developed modern science and increasingly productive progress. The Ottoman Empire made little technical progress and came to rely on Christian Europe for technology. The North African emirates made almost no technological and economic progress. Slavery in accepted in Islam, legitimized by the Koran, but has no racial basis,. In practice this was, however, not a clear cut matter. 【BBC】 This was because many captives were taken from non-Muslim areas, especially Africa. And the enslavement of non-Muslims was a well established practice and sanctioned by the Koran. The Ottomans warred for several centuries with the established Western states of Christendom. This gradually changed as a another power emerged in the north--Muscovy transformed into Tsarist Russia. At first the Tsars attacked the Islamic Khanates, but eventually the Ottoman Empire controlling the straits leading to the Mediterranean was targeted by the Tsars. And as the Ottoman Empire fell from great power status and became the Sick Man of Europe, they needed help. This led to the Crimean War (1854-56). And to receive Western help (Britain and France), the Ottomans needed to make concessions. Among them were concessions on slavery. 【Brill] The Grand National Assembly of Turkey formally abolished Ottoman Sultanate (1922). The Sultan himself was declared persona non grata. Slavery was abolished by the secular oriented authorities in the Turkish Republic with their new Constitution (1924). Also abolished and disbanded was the Imperial Harem. The the last Imperial concubines and eunuchs were recognized as free citizens of the Republic. 【BBC】

The Barbary States

The semi-autonomous North African emirates conducted the Barbary Coast slave trade. They had two sources for captives to enslave. These emirates had been participating in the Trans-Saharan slave trades for centuries. They also conducted slave capturing raids along Europe's southern coast, some times reaching Ireland and Britain and even Iceland. (The Gilbert and Sullivan 'HMS Pinafore' operetta is not entirely fanciful.) But the rise in he Mediterranean serious affected coastal communities. The decline of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of Europe gradually changed the power dynamic, ending Ottoman slave raiding. Particularly lucrative was ransoming the captives. The Barbary Pirates continued raiding Mediterranean shipping into the 19th century. The major powers generally paid off the Barbary emirates/states as a cost- effective approach. The young American republic decided to take them on.

Indian Ocean Emirates

Britain using the Royal Navy launched a campaign to end the slave trade (1807) and eventually slavery itself in the Empire (1835). The British effort to end the slave trade would take decades. One of the most difficult problems, especially when dealing with Arab states was the entrenched support intertwined with Islam for the slave trade and slavery. Oman in souther Arabia was an important part of the slave trade. The slave trade was so lucrative, and the emirate was transferred to Zanzibar. This put the Emir closer to the source of wealth and the island situation provided a degree of security that was impossible to achieve on the coast.

Egypt and Sudan

Britain established a protectorate in Egypt, largely because of the Suez Canal (1869). They moved to close the important slave market in Cairo and end slave trading in Egypt and Sudan. This resulted in the Madist rebellion in Sudan (1881-98). It was finally ended by the last great cavalry charge of history--in which a young Winston Churchill participated.

Persistence

Slavery persisted at low levels in Arabia , the Ottoman Empire and Iran.France began colonizing North Africa (Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco) as well as large areas of Western and Central Africa, part of the Scramble for Africa (1880s-90s). France also abolished slavery in its colonies (1848), but was not as aggressive as Britain in interfering with Arab society. And thus slavery persisted at a low level in French colonies. 【Brower】 This seems to reflect how entrenched slavery was in Islamic society. And it helped to avoid incidents like the Madist revolt in their colonies.

Sources

BBC. "Slavery in Islam" (2009).

Brill. Encyclopaedia of Islam.

Brower, Benjamin Claude. "Rethinking abolition in Algeria: Slavery and the "Indigenous Question," Etudesafricaines (2009), pp 805-28.

Gordon, Murray. Slavery in the Arab World (New York: New Amsterdam Press, 1987).

Lewis, Bernard. Race and Slavery in the Middle East (Oxford Univ Press: 1994).

Created: 4:49 PM 3/15/2022
Last updated: 1:33 AM 5/28/2023