Slavery and Islam

Jonathan A.C. Brown is Professor and Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is the author of Slavery & Islam, Misquoting Muhammad and Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World, all of which are published by Oneworld. He lives in Virginia.

Preface



Acknowledgments



Notes on transliteration, dates and citation



 



Introduction: Can We Talk About Slavery?



What I Argue in this Book



Apology for Slavery?



Power and the Study of Slavery



Blackness, Whiteness and Slavery



 



1 Does ‘Slavery’ Exist? The Problem of Definition



The Main Argument



Definition: A Creative Process



Definition to Discourse: A Political Process



Defining /ˈslā-v(ə-)rē/: We Know It When We See It



Defining Slavery as Status or a Condition



Slavery as Unfreedom



Slavery as Human Property



   Patterson & Natal Alienation



Slavery as Distinction: The Lowest Rung & Marginality



Slavery as Coercion & Exploitation under the Threat of Violence



The Problem with Modern-Day Slavery



Slavery & Islam – A Very Political Question



Conclusion: Of Course, Slavery Exists



The Proper Terms for Speaking about ‘Slavery’



 



2 Slavery in the Shariah



What Islam Says about Slavery – Ideals and Reality



Slavery in the Quran & Sunna



Inheriting the Near East – Roman, Jewish and Near Eastern Laws versus Islam



Islam’s Reform of Slavery



Basic Principles of Riqq in the Shariah



The Ambiguities of Slavery in the Shariah



   Riqq & Rights in the Shariah



   Religious Practice



   Freedom of Movement



   Social and Political Roles



   Marriage and Family Life



   Right to Property



   Rights to Life and Physical Protection



Summary: Law and Ethics



 



3 Slavery in Islamic Civilization



What is Islamic Civilization?



Is there ‘Islamic Slavery’?



The Shariah & Islamic Slavery



   Muslims Enslaving Muslims



The Classic Slavery Zone



Consuming People & ‘Ascending Miscegenation’



Slave Populations



Routes of the Muslim Slave Trade



Blackness and Slavery in Islamic Civilization



The Roles and Experiences of Slaves in Islamic Civilization



The Slave as Uprooted Person and Commodity



The Slave as Domestic Labor . . . Even Trusted Member of a Household



Slave as Sexual Partner



Slave as Saint, Scholar or Poet



Slave as Elite Administrator & Courtesan



Slave as Soldier – When Soldiers often Ruled



Slave as Rebel



 



4 The Slavery Conundrum



No Squaring the Circle: The American/Islamic Slavery Conundrum



Slavery is Evil



   The Intrinsic Wrongs of Slavery



   Religions and Slavery



   Minimizing the Unminimizable or Historicizing the Unhistoricizable



Slavery is Slavery: The Problem of Labeling ‘Slavery’ with One Moral Judgment



   The Moral Wrongness of Slavery as Unfreedom



   The Moral Wrongness of Slavery as Owning Human Property



   The Moral Wrongness of Slavery as Inequality



   The Moral Wrongness of Slavery as the Threat of Violence



   The Bald Man Fallacy and the Wrongness of Slavery



   When Slavery is ‘Not that Bad’: The Problem with Conditions vs. Formal Categories



   Do Some People Deserve to be Enslaved?



   Or, Is Freedom a Human Right?



The Past as Moral Authority: Can We Part with the Past?



   The Natural Law Tradition and Slavery



   Critics of Slavery and the Call for Abolition



   The Consequences of Moral Progress



   Muslim Efforts to Salvage the Past



 



5 Abolishing Slavery in Islam



Is Abolition Indigenous to Islam or Not?



Islam as Emancipatory Force – An Alternative History



Abolishing Slavery . . . For Whom? Concentric Circles of Abolition



‘The Lawgiver Looks Expectantly Towards Freedom’ – Abolition as an Aim of the Shariah



Doubling Down – Progressive Islam & the Axiomatic Evil of Slavery



Prohibited by the Ruler but Not by God: The Crucial Matter of Taqyid al-Mubah



If You Can’t Do it Right, You Can’t Do it at All – Prohibiting Riqq Poorly Done



Same Shariah, Diff erent Conditions – The Obsolescence or Unfavorability of Slavery



Slavery: A Moot Point & Bad PR



Defending Slavery in Islam



 



6 The Prophet & ISIS: Evaluating Muslim Abolition



Do Muslim Approaches to Abolition Pass Moral Muster?



A Consensus on Abolition



Could Slavery in Islam ever be Unabolished?



Abolition vs. ISIS



This Author’s Opinion



 



7 Concubines and Consent: Can We Solve the Moral Problem of Slavery?



Species of Moral Change



Moral Disgust at Slavery Today



Conclusion & Crisis: Concubinage and Consent



   Consent and Concubines



Disbelief is Unproductive



 



Appendix 1 – A Slave Saint of Basra



Appendix 2 – Enlightenment Thinkers on Slavery



Appendix 3 – Did the 1926 Muslim World Congress Condemn Slavery?



Appendix 4 – Was Māriya the Wife or Concubine of the Prophet?



Appendix 5 – Was Freedom a Human Right in the Shariah?



Appendix 6 – Enslavement of Apostate Muslims or Muslims Declared to be Unbelievers



 



Select Bibliography



Notes



Index