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The Arab slave trade involved some of the most horrendous atrocities known against Africans. While slavery in the United States (before 1865) is better known and perhaps more discussed, the Arab slave trade in Africa was just as brutal and dehumanizing.
Slavery has likely existed since the early days of human civilization, but in this lesson we will discuss the Arab slave trade in Africa, beginning in the 7th century on the African continent. Because the people enslaved came from a large number of different tribes, we will refer to them here simply as 'Africans', and 'Arabs' (though also African) as those doing the enslaving.
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Around the year 633, a year after the death of Muhammad, Muslim armies took much of what today is Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, the North African coast, and parts of Iran and Turkey. In 650, under Caliph Uthman, the religious holy book Qur'an (also written as Koran), was codified. Muslims then and now believe it to contain the direct revelations from God through the prophet Muhammad. While Islam eventually forbid taking fellow Muslims as slaves, it did not forbid the taking of non-believers or those who opposed Islam.
Slavery as an organized venture in Africa began in Darfur in 652. To keep to the terms of a peace agreement, the Sudanese leader at the time was obliged to make a payment of several hundred African slaves per year to the Arab invaders. This continued for centuries, reaching up to 6000 slaves sent along the Red Sea route near the end of 18th century, the peak of the Arab slave trade.
African slaves were used for agriculture, labor, household help, or to be concubines or soldiers. It was only later (1870s-1960s) that the white European demand for cash crops (grain, cotton, coffee, sugar and tobacco) and ivory became major contributors to the demand for slaves.
Around the 9th century, Arab traders began to settle along the East Africa coastline. These people became known as the Swahili, which is now also a language used in parts of Eastern Africa. The Arabs began to develop large agricultural plantations in this area for things like growing spices. Slave labor greatly expedited production and profit to the Muslim states.
The Arab slave trade moved into Ethiopia as well. Eventually, the Arab slave trade expanded to not only Muslim strongholds like Egypt, Arabia and the Persian Gulf, but also to India, the Far East and the Indian Ocean islands. The slaves began to include Europeans and Asians, caught by North African pirates or on Arab raids of Europe. Arab traders were now involved in enslaving and selling slaves in Africa, Asia, and Europe.
The Arab slave trade exploded in the late 9th century as the demand for agricultural to reclaim fertile farmland in Iraq grew. The Arab slave trade grew to African slaves from west Africa as well. In the late 18th century, Europeans began to colonize Africa and establish plantations, furthering demand for slaves.
By the 19th century, the Arab slave trade in Africa was firmly established politically, socially and culturally, and an important part of the economy for much of West Africa to the Indian Ocean.
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North African countries like Egypt and Tunisia began to dismantle the slave trade in the late 19th century. On the Arabian Peninsula, slavery only ended in the 1960s and 70s. Mauritania was the last country to abolish slavery in 1981, but didn't criminalize it until 2007. The practice of slavery is rumored to still be very common there, though denied by the government.
Even in the developed world, migrant labor, adult and child 'trafficking' for work, sex, and forced marriages amount to modern slavery. It is estimated that there are over 20 million slaves in the modern world. Today, millions of African, South American, Mexican and Asian migrant workers work in often low-paid, difficult and substandard working conditions in not only Arabic countries but countries around the world.
The Arab slave trade in Africa began with a peace deal between Sudanese and Arabs in 652. The establishment of the Swahilis in East Africa helped spread African slavery, which also included Northern and Western Africa. Millions of Africans were brutally enslaved and sold throughout Africa, Europe and Asia. Slavery in much of the Arabic world was not abolished until the mid-20th century. Even today, millions of people are enslaved or in slave-like conditions.
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History of Islam: Help & Review5 chapters | 30 lessons
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