The Arab-Muslim Slave Trade: Lifting the Taboo

- Not many studies devoted to Arab slave trade

The issue of Eastern and trans-Saharan slave trade organized by Arabs remains unknown,
deliberately ignored or considered a taboo subject.

- Time Period

Arab trade slave is a major component of African history: lasted more than 13 centuries. Began in
early seventh century up until the 1960s.

- Geographical Location

Africans were deported to Muslim regions on two main roads: 1) the maritime traffic between the
coast of east africa and the middle east, and 2) the trans-saharan caravan traffic.

Slaves were sold in the slave markets of cairo, baghdad, istanbul, mecca, and other centers.

- Eastern Part of Africa

Slaves captured during bloody expeditions were then transported by sea from enclaves situated on
the eastern coast of the continent.

This is between present-day Somalia and Mozambique, to shores of Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.

Zanzibar would serve for centuries as a hub for this traffic.

- West Africa

The Arab slave trade in this region took place between the vast area from Niger Valley to the Gulf of
Guinea, following the trans-Saharan roads.

The crossing could last up to three months with a high mortality rate due to the dire conditions of
the trip.

- About this, German explorer Gustav Nachtigal said:

“The poor children of the black countries seem to meet death here, at the last stage of a long, hopeless and painful
journey. The long journey accomplished with insufficient food and scarce water, the contrast between the rich natural
resources and the humid atmosphere of their homeland and the dry and anemic air of the desert, the fatigue and the
privations imposed by their masters and by the circumstances in which they find themselves, all this has gradually ruined
their young strengths. The memory of their homeland that has disappeared along the way, their fear of an unknown
future, the endless journey under the blows, hunger, thirst and deadly exhaustion have paralyzed their last faculties of
resistance. if the poor creatures lack strength to get up and walk again, they are simply abandoned, and their minds slowly
fade under the destructive effect of the rays of the sun, hunger and thirst.”

- Characteristic of Arab Slave Trade

Appalling violence, castration, and rape.

Men were systematically castrated to prevent them from reproducing and becoming a stock.

Mutilation caused high death rate; six out of 10 people who were mutilated died from their wounds
in castration centers.

African women and girls, were captured and deported for use as sex slaves.
They were used as servants, harem keepers, laborers in fields, mines, and hydraulic yards, and as
cannon fodder in armies.

Some historians say, Arab slave trade has affected more than 17 million people.

In the Saharan region alone, more than nine million African captives were deported and two million
died on the roads.

- Arab slave trade was legitimized by Islam (or Muslim scholars?)

Tunisian Arab historian ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) wrote:

(Summary: negroes are lower degree of humanity, closer to animal stage, only ones to accept
slavery)
“the only peoples to accept slavery are the negroes, because of their lower degree of humanity, their place
being closer to the animal stage.”

Algerian Arab theologian Ahmed Al-Wancharisi (1430/1431–1508) offered legal and religious
recommendation on whether it is legal to buy and sell slaves:

(Summary: Accepting Islam after becoming a slave/property cannot liberate them. They became
slaves due to their disbelief)
“if their (slaves) conversion to Islam comes after the establishment of a property right [on these slaves], then
Islam does not demand liberation, because slavery was caused by unbelief. The state of servitude persists after
the disappearance of unbelief because of its existence in the past.”

- ill-treatment sometimes led to rebellion.

Revolt of Zanj: near the city of basra in iraq. Lasted 15 years (869-883). Slaves rose up, took control
of many cities, and founded an embryonic state. They were defeated only in 883.

- Impacts of Arab Slave Trade

Tragic impact on Afrian societies, some areas completely depopulated and devastated.

Promoted the development of racialist and essentialist theories that view blacks as inferior by
nature.

This racism still exists e.g., the same words are used to describe africans, blacks, and slaves.

- Ending

There is no day to commemorate the victims of the Arab-Muslim slave trade. No international
research program addresses this subject. No project implemented to identify, restore, and publicize
the sites and monuments linked to this Arab trade The way it has been done by UN and UNESCO for
transatlantic trade.