Muslim Slaves Used as Soldiers
Slavery is based on dominance and submission of one over another for labor and services. It dates back beyond recorded history. Reference to slavery can be found in the ancient Babylonian code of Hammurabi. Slavery was common in Tigris-Euphrates civilizations and in ancient Persia. The ancient Egyptians used slave labor to build temples and pyramids. It was also a familiar custom to the ancient Hebrews (Slavery 2002).
It has been found among groups of low material culture such as the Malay Peninsula and even among Native Americans, to more highly developed societies, such as the United States. Most people believe that slavery became popular with the development of an agricultural economy, domestic and concubine slavery appeared among the nomadic Arabs, Native Americans devoted to hunting, and seafaring Vikings (Slavery 2002). Some say slavery originated as a result of wars, and the conquest of one group over another. However, slavery as a result of debt dates to very early times. Some Africa has a history of "putting up wives and children as hostages for an obligation...if the obligation was unfulfilled, the hostages became permanent slaves"(Slavery 2002). In Greece and Asia Minor, there were public slaves, such as those belonging to temples.
With a change in economic life, there was a gradual disappearance of agricultural slaves, who then became tenant farmers, those who were "technically free but bound to the land by debt" (Slavery 2002).
This paved the way for "economies in which the agricultural slave became the serf" (Slavery 2002).
Although, serfdom was popular during the Middle ages, domestic slavery still existed. While the church encouraged manumission, "many slaves were attached to church official and church property" (Slavery 2002).
Sale into slavery was a popular punishment for serious crimes.
During the Byzantine Empire, slavery flourished. "Islam, like Christianity, accepted slavery, and it became a standard institution in Muslim lands, where most slaves were African in origin" (Slavery 2002). For Islamic life, owning slaves was a sign of wealth. Salves were used as soldiers, concubines, cooks and entertainers.
Another form of Muslim slavery was in the eunuch guardians of the harems, eunuchs had been widely known in Greek, Roman, and especially Byzantine times, but it was among the Muslims and in East Asia that they were to survive longest. In Muslim countries, slavery and freedom had a much more fluid boundary than in the West, with some slaves and former slaves reaching position of great power and prestige" (Slavery 2002).
The Portuguese explorations of the African coast during the 15th and 16th centuries resulted in the exploitation of Africans as slaves for roughly five hundred years as slave raiders maintained lucrative businesses conducted with appalling brutality (Slavery 2002). Slave trading remained an important part of commerce for the Caribbean islands, South America, and North America until the 1800's with the Abolitionist movement. However, slavery still existed in other parts of the world. In 1948, the Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations to "achieve worldwide abolition of slavery...contained a provision prohibiting slavery or trading in slaves"(Slavery 2002).
In 1966, the United Nations reported that slavery still existed in parts of Africa and Asia. Although efforts to end slavery have continued, slavery and forced labor still exists in several Third World Countries, such as Sudan, Mauritania, and Myanmar (Slavery 2002).
There is much concern regarding the fact that slavery still exist in several Muslim countries. The Koran deals directly with "the issue of slavery... states that subjected or conquered people should be given the option of converting to Islam...if they refuse, only then may they be taken as slaves...and Muslims should never be enslaved by other Muslims" (Schindler 2001). When Christianity was born, the Roman Empire spanned the globe, so the question of newly conquered people never arose. Christian conversions were voluntary, thus slavery was not a religious issue, although it was obviously practiced contrary to Christian belief (Schindler 2001). However, slavery in the Islamic East developed differently. "Black slaves, called Zanj, were used extensively in mines and sugar and cotton plantations throughout lower Mesopotamia and southwestern Iran" (Schindler 2001). In 1868, a rebellion was organized, by a messianic mullah, and spread rapidly. It gained support from the "urban poor, disaffected peasants, and also from the black soldiery the Caliphate had sent to put it down" (Schindler 2001). So successful were the rebels that...
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now