The Arab Slave Trade: A Hidden History
While the Atlantic slave trade has been exhaustively documented and condemned, a far longer and more extensive slave trade operated for over thirteen centuries under Islamic auspices: the Arab slave trade. From the 7th century until the early 20th century, tens of millions of Africans, Europeans, and Asians were enslaved and transported across the Islamic world. Yet this history remains largely unknown in the West and often minimized in Muslim-majority countries.
The Scale and Duration
The Arab slave trade dwarfed the Atlantic slave trade in both duration and geographic scope:
Timeline: The Arab slave trade began in the 7th century with the Islamic conquests and continued officially until the early 20th century—a span of approximately 1,300 years. In contrast, the Atlantic slave trade operated for roughly 400 years (1500s-1800s).
Numbers: Conservative estimates place the number of slaves transported in the Arab slave trade at 14-17 million Africans alone, with some scholars suggesting the total could be as high as 18-20 million when including European and Asian slaves. The Atlantic slave trade transported approximately 12-12.5 million Africans.
Geography: The Arab slave trade spanned three continents, operating routes across the Sahara Desert, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean. Slaves were transported to the Middle East, North Africa, Persia, India, and as far as Indonesia and China.
Religious Justification
Unlike the Atlantic slave trade, which existed despite Christian teaching, the Arab slave trade operated with explicit religious sanction from Islamic law:
"Slavery in the Islamic world was based on the religious law of Islam. This law, developed by Muslim scholars in the first four centuries of Islam, sanctioned slavery and regulated it." (Bernard Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East)
The Quran explicitly permits slavery and never condemns it:
"O Prophet, indeed We have made lawful to you your wives to whom you have given their due compensation and those your right hand possesses from what Allah has returned to you [of captives]." (Quran 33:50)
Islamic law divided the world into Dar al-Islam (House of Islam) and Dar al-Harb (House of War). Non-Muslims in Dar al-Harb were considered legitimate targets for enslavement through jihad warfare:
"When a Muslim warrior captures a non-believer, they may be enslaved according to Islamic law." (Consensus across madhabs)
The Mechanics of the Trade
The Saharan Route: Millions of sub-Saharan Africans were marched across the Sahara Desert to North African markets. The mortality rate was catastrophic, with some estimates suggesting that for every slave who reached the market, several others died en route from dehydration, starvation, and exposure.
"The mortality rate among slaves crossing the Sahara was extremely high, possibly exceeding 50% in some caravans." (Ralph Austen, African Economic History)
The Red Sea and Indian Ocean Routes: East African slaves were shipped across the Red Sea to Arabia and the Persian Gulf, or across the Indian Ocean to Persia, India, and beyond. The island of Zanzibar became a major slave market, with an estimated 50,000 slaves passing through annually at its peak in the 19th century.
Castration: A particularly brutal aspect of the Arab slave trade was the widespread practice of castrating male slaves to serve as eunuchs in harems and palaces. The operation had an estimated mortality rate of 60-90%, and survivors could never have families.
"The practice of castration was so common in the Islamic world that specialized centers developed for this procedure, most notably in Egypt and Khartoum." (Murray Gordon, Slavery in the Arab World)
The Zanj Rebellion
The brutal treatment of African slaves led to one of the largest slave rebellions in history. From 869-883 CE, thousands of East African slaves (called Zanj) working in the salt marshes of southern Iraq rose in rebellion against the Abbasid Caliphate:
"The Zanj Rebellion lasted fourteen years and required massive military efforts to suppress. The rebellion was caused by the harsh treatment and backbreaking labor imposed on East African slaves." (Alexandre Popovic, The Revolt of African Slaves in Iraq)
The rebellion resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and nearly toppled the Abbasid Caliphate. Rather than ending slavery, however, the caliphate simply became more cautious about concentrating large numbers of slaves in one location.
Sexual Slavery and Harems
A distinctive feature of Islamic slavery was the massive demand for female slaves as concubines. Harems throughout the Islamic world were stocked with enslaved women from Africa, Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus:
"The importation of female slaves for sexual purposes was a major component of the Arab slave trade. Beauty and youth were the primary criteria, and women deemed attractive commanded extremely high prices." (Bernard Lewis)
Circassian, Georgian, and other Caucasian women were particularly prized and commanded premium prices in slave markets. Slave raids into Christian Europe (particularly from the Barbary Coast) specifically targeted women for the harem trade.
Unlike in the Americas, where slave populations grew through natural reproduction, the Islamic world required constant importation because:
- Concubines had few children (contraception and abortion were common)
- Male slaves were often castrated
- Children of mixed unions were often raised as free Muslims, not slaves
- High mortality rates among slaves
The Barbary Slave Trade
From the 16th to 19th centuries, North African Muslim states (the Barbary States: Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli) conducted systematic slave raids on European coastal towns and shipping:
"Between 1530 and 1780, it is estimated that 1 to 1.25 million Europeans were captured and enslaved by Barbary pirates." (Robert Davis, Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters)
Entire towns in Italy, Spain, and even as far as Ireland and Iceland were raided. Captives were forced to convert to Islam or remain as slaves. Men were used for hard labor; women were sold into harems.
The United States fought its first foreign war (the Barbary Wars, 1801-1815) to stop these raids on American shipping and the enslavement of American sailors.
Resistance to Abolition
While Christian nations abolished slavery in the 19th century based on Christian moral principles, Islamic nations resisted abolition:
Religious Opposition: Islamic scholars argued that abolition contradicted Sharia law and the example of Muhammad, who personally owned slaves:
"When the British pressured the Ottoman Empire and other Muslim states to abolish slavery in the 19th century, Islamic religious authorities strongly objected, arguing that slavery was sanctioned by the Quran and the Prophet." (William Gervase Clarence-Smith, Islam and the Abolition of Slavery)
Timeline of Abolition: Islamic nations abolished slavery only under Western pressure, often decades or even a century after Western nations:
- British Empire: 1833
- United States: 1865
- Tunisia: 1846 (under French pressure)
- Ottoman Empire: 1908 (officially, but continued in practice)
- Saudi Arabia: 1962
- Mauritania: 1981 (not criminalized until 2007; still practiced)
Even today, slavery persists in some Muslim-majority regions, particularly in Mauritania, where an estimated 1-4% of the population remains enslaved despite official abolition.
The Historical Silence
Several factors have contributed to the relative obscurity of the Arab slave trade:
- Fewer written records from the Islamic world compared to European colonial archives
- Castration and harsh conditions meant fewer descendants of African slaves in the Middle East
- Political sensitivities and accusations of Islamophobia when discussing this history
- Western focus on Atlantic slavery due to its proximity and continuing racial legacy
- Lack of emphasis in educational curricula
"The lack of a demographically significant African diaspora in the Middle East is often cited as evidence that the Arab slave trade was less harsh than the Atlantic trade. In reality, it may indicate the opposite: that mortality rates were so high and conditions so brutal that few survived to establish communities." (Murray Gordon)
Biblical Contrast
The Christian abolitionist movement emerged directly from Biblical principles:
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)
Christians like William Wilberforce, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and countless others fought slavery because of their Christian faith, not despite it. The moral argument that all humans bear God's image (Genesis 1:27) provided the foundation for universal human dignity and equality.
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27)
While the Bible regulated slavery in ancient contexts, the New Testament planted the seeds of abolition through its teaching of spiritual equality and human dignity. Christianity provided the moral framework that ultimately led to slavery's abolition in the West.
Questions to Consider
- Why is the Arab slave trade, which lasted three times longer than the Atlantic slave trade, so little known?
- If Islam improved conditions for slaves, why did Islamic nations resist abolition based on religious grounds?
- What does it say about a religion when slavery is explicitly sanctioned in its holy texts and legal traditions?
- Why did Christian-majority nations lead the global abolitionist movement while Islamic nations resisted it?
- How can modern Muslims reconcile their opposition to slavery with the fact that Muhammad owned slaves and the Quran permits it?
- Why does slavery still exist in some Muslim-majority countries today?