Slavery & Islam

A thorough exploration of slavery from the perspective of Islam’s authoritative texts as well as moral and philosophical debates on the subject

What happens when authorities you venerate condone something you know is wrong?

Every major religion and philosophy once condoned or approved of slavery, but in modern times nothing is seen as more evil. Americans confront this crisis of authority when they erect statues of Founding Fathers who slept with their slaves. And Muslims faced it when ISIS revived sex slavery, justifying it with verses from the Quran and the practice of Muhammad.

Exploring the moral and ultimately theological problem of slavery, Jonathan A.C. Brown traces how the Christian, Jewish and Islamic traditions have tried to reconcile modern moral certainties with the infallibility of God’s message. He lays out how Islam viewed slavery in theory, and the reality of how it was practiced across Islamic civilization. Finally, Brown carefully examines arguments put forward by Muslims for the abolition of slavery.

Jonathan A.C. Brown is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and the Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. His previous books include Misquoting Muhammad and Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World, both 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