Before they were rich: �slavery at the origin of Islam �

Thomas J. MacMaster,

University of Edinburgh

Islamicate culture as slave society ….

Dated stereotypes?

Common tropes?�

Or reality?  

An enduring image

Their seventh-century analogues would almost all be slaves

‘Amr ibn Kulthum: “while they came back with treasures and captives, we returned leading kings as our captives.”

Slaves and former slaves from outside Arabia were among the first Muslims

•  Mariyya and Sirin •  Bilal ibn Ribah •  Lubaynah •  al-Nahdiah •  Umm Ubays •  Harithah •  Salim Mawla Abu-

Hudhayfah •  Salman al-Farisi •  Suhayb al-Rumi

The Muslims carried on many of the practices of their time

When the Banu Qarayza were defeated by the Muslims and their allies, the adult males were slain and the surviving members of the tribe were taken as slaves and divided among the victors

Twenty-eight āyāt regarding slavery:

•  al-Baqarah 177; 178; 221

•  al-Nisā 24; 25; 36; 92 •  al-Mā'idah 89 •  al-Tawbah 60 •  al-Naḥl 71; 75; 76 •  al-Mu'minūn 5; 6

•  al-Nūr 30; 31; 32; 33; 58

•  al-Rūm 28 •  al-Ahzāb 4; 5; 37; 50 •  Yā-Sīn 29 •  al-Mudjādalah 3 •  al-Ma'āridj 29; 30 •  al-Balad 13

Quranic vocabulary regarding slaves

•  mā malakat aymānukum (15 times) •  ‘abd (4 times) •  ad’iya (3 times) •  ama (2 times) •  fatayat (2 times) •  rajul (2 times)

•  raqaba/al-riqab (2 times)

2:178

عليكم كتب القـتلى في القصاص

والعـبد بالحر الحر واألنـثى بالعـبد باألنـثى

“Prescribed for you is legal retribution for the murdered, the free for the free and the slave for the slave and the woman for the woman.”

4:24-25 ملكت  ما  إلا  النساء  من  واحملصنات   أميانكم   عليكم  الله  كتاب    لكم  وأحل    بأموالكم  تبتغوا  أن  ذلكم  وراء  ما  

محصنني     مسافحني  غير   منهن  به  استمتعتم  فما   

فريضة  أجورهن  فآتوهن   جناح  وال    بعد  من  به  تراضيتم  فيما  عليكم     الفريضة   الله  إن    منكم  يستطع  لم  ومن    فمن  املؤمنات  احملصنات  ينكح  أن  طوال   ا  فتياتكم  من  أميانكم  ملكت  ما    

ملؤمنات   حكيما  عليما  كان   

“And (prohibited are) the ones who are married from the women except what the right hand possesses. This is the decree of God. And permitted to you what is beyond that; that which you seek with your wealth desiring chastity and not lustfulness. So that you benefit of it from them, you will give to them their bridal due as an obligation and there is no sin upon you regarding what you mutually agree of it beyond the obligation. Indeed, God is all knowing, all wise. And whomever among you is unable to afford to marry free chaste believing women, then from what the right hand possesses from your slave-girls among the believers.”

Isidore, Etymologiae, 9.4.45

Mancipium est quidquid manu capi subdique potest, ut homo, equus, ovis. Haec enim animalia statim ut nata sunt, mancipium esse putantur. Nam et ea, quae in bestiarum numero sunt, tunc videntur mancipium esse, quando capi sive domari coeperint.

“Mancipium is that which is ‘taken by hand’ and subjected, such as a human, a horse, a sheep. For these are living things which, when they are born, are considered as mancipium. And as well, those of the wild beasts are numbered and can be seen as mancipium when they have been captured and domesticated.”

24:33

على فـتياتكم تكرهوا والـنا أردن إن البغاء تحص الحياة عرض لـتـبـتغوا الدنيا

“And do not force your slave-girls into prostitution; if they desire chastity, though you may seek temporary gain in the worldly life.”

Isidore, Sententiarum libri tres, 3.47 Propter peccatum primi hominis humano generi poena divinitus illata est servitutis, ita ut quibus aspicit non congruere libertatem, his misericordius irroget servitutem. Et licet peccatum humanae originis per baptismi gratiam cunctis fidelibus dimissum sit, tamen aequus Deus ideo discrevit hominibus vitam, alios servos constituens, alios dominos, ut licentia male agendi servorum potestate dominantium restringatur. Nam si omnes sine metu fuissent, quis esset qui a malis quempiam prohiberet? Inde et in gentibus principes, regesque electi sunt, ut terrore suo populos a malo coercerent, atque ad recte vivendum legibus subderent. Quantum attinet ad rationem, non est personarum acceptio apud Deum, qui mundi elegit ignobilia et contemptibilia, et quae non sunt ut ea quae sunt destrueret, ne glorietur omnis caro, hoc est, carnalis potentia coram illo. Unus enim Dominus aequaliter et dominis fert consultum, et servis. Melior est subjecta servitus quam elata libertas. Multi enim inveniuntur Deo libere servientes sub dominis constituti flagitiosis, qui, etsi subjecti sunt illis corpore, praelati tamen sunt mente.  

“Because of the sin of the first man, the punishment of slavery was divinely inflicted upon mankind, so that those whom He views as not consistent with liberty, on them might slavery be mercifully imposed. And although original sin is remitted to all the faithful by the grace of baptism, nevertheless, God has equitably put this difference of life in men, constituting some to be the slaves of others, and others to be their owners, so that the licentiousness of evil-doing on the part of the slaves might be restricted by their masters. For, if all men were without the fear, who would prohibit anyone from doing evil? Then, among the nations, the princes and kings were chosen, in order to keep the people from doing evil by their terror, and to obligate them to the laws of right living. … Better is slavery in subjection than freedom in pride. For many are found freely serving God, though they are slaves to criminal masters, who, even if they are subjected to them in body, yet they are far above them in mind.”  

Communication between Muhammad and al-Muqawqis, the ruler of Egypt;

al-Muqawqis replied by sending Muhammad two Coptic slave girls, the sisters Mariya and Sīrīn, and a eunuch attendant, Mabur.

Freedmen and former slaves helped build the new movement

Expansion meant many more slaves came under Muslim control

Attitudes and practices regarding slavery among both the early Muslim and their Christian contemporaries were far more similar than different. Both operated in a Late Antique context in which slavery was normal and economically necessary but where notions of universal human laws and the benefits of good deeds had begun to impact its practice. Enslavement was, when Islam appeared, becoming something done only to the religiously and culturally other, rather than simply the unfortunate among one’s own. The Muslims carried these attitudes with them and only when they became, in the generation after Muhammad, fantastically wealthy did they begin to practice a form of slavery that might appear different from that of their Christian neighbors. But it wasn’t Islam that caused the divergences; it was the wealth of the Muslims and that wealth alone.