Encyclopedia of Islam

slavery

  

629  J

---

liberty that their masters grant them. For some 

infractions, the penalties for slaves are actually 

lighter than those for free individuals. The law 

prescribes freedom for certain slaves upon their 

master’s 

death

, such as the umm walad, who has 

borne her master’s child, or the mudabbar, to 

whom he has promised liberation.

Slavery in the Islamic world has historically 

been milder than the plantation slavery practiced 

in the Americas  in the 18th and 19th centuries. 

While forced labor in fields and mines is not 

unknown, Islamic slavery has tended to favor 

domestic servants, often treated as members of 

the family, or slave armies, preferred owing to 

their personal loyalty to the 

sUltan

. In fact, slaves 

sometimes rose to positions of extensive authority. 

In slave dynasties, such as the medieval Egyptian 

Mamluks, soldiers originally from the slave class 

actually oversaw governments. On the other hand, 

Islamic slavery was not without its brutal episodes. 

Muslim slave traders in Africa were notable for 

their harshness and for disregarding legal niceties 

by including free Muslims among their victims.

During the modern era, Muslim countries 

took steps to abolish slavery, largely in response 

to pressure from European nations. Modernist 

Muslim scholars reinterpreted the Quran to sup-

port the abolition of slavery. They argued that 

Muhammad (d. 632) tolerated a practice (slavery) 

that God intended to phase out over time as con-

trary to the basic quranic principles of liberty and 

equality. However, many Muslim elites resisted 

abandoning a privilege granted them in Islamic 

law, and slavery has been difficult to eliminate in 

the Islamic world. It continues to be practiced in 

rural areas and under repressive Islamist govern-

ments, such as in s

Udan

.

See also 

harem

; 

hUman

 

rights

; J

anissary

; 

mamluk

.

Stephen Cory