[BLOG-LIKE POSTING] Islam and Slavery
Dec. 11th, 2005 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldIn comments, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ajnovak brings up an interesting question. What impact did the Atlantic slave trade have upon African Muslims?
Responding, Peter notes that Islamic patterns of slavery, in North Africa and the Middle East, were quite different from those in the Western plantation economy. Leaving aside the origins of most slaves in the Islamic world in eastern Africa, following the 9th century CE Zanj revolt in what is now southern Iraq slavery in the Islamic world seems to have been focused somewhat less on large-scale economic projects and more on relatively prestigious household and bureaucratic positions.
As it is practiced, Islam is a religion that can lend its followers a decided amount of strength in contested with established authorities. Since the West African interior had been Islamized, at least in part, as early as the 9th century, it doesn't seem too much of a stretch to assume that many of the slaves taken from Africa would have been familiar with the Islamic model of slavery and--to put it very mildly--disappointed to find out about the nature of the Atlantic slave trade. Should anyone be surprised that, in Brazil, Islam inspired by many African slaves with at least a nodding acquaintance of Islam and Islamicate mores to revolt? No. We shouldn't be surprised that it survived, or that it inspired slave revolts even in the First Empire.
But what else did it do? I'm curious.
ajnovak brings up an interesting question. What impact did the Atlantic slave trade have upon African Muslims?During the slave trade, the Portuguese in West Africa inevitably took slaves that were Muslim (although not all that many) in addition to the many Africans that were not. It was due to the slave trade that there are in Brazil communities of Muslims who have survived for hundreds of years, and it was these enslaved Muslims who led slave revolts against the Portuguese and Brazilians in the nineteenth century.
I have read nothing on it, but I wonder: how DID the Atlantic slave trade affect Islam and Muslims?
Responding, Peter notes that Islamic patterns of slavery, in North Africa and the Middle East, were quite different from those in the Western plantation economy. Leaving aside the origins of most slaves in the Islamic world in eastern Africa, following the 9th century CE Zanj revolt in what is now southern Iraq slavery in the Islamic world seems to have been focused somewhat less on large-scale economic projects and more on relatively prestigious household and bureaucratic positions.
As it is practiced, Islam is a religion that can lend its followers a decided amount of strength in contested with established authorities. Since the West African interior had been Islamized, at least in part, as early as the 9th century, it doesn't seem too much of a stretch to assume that many of the slaves taken from Africa would have been familiar with the Islamic model of slavery and--to put it very mildly--disappointed to find out about the nature of the Atlantic slave trade. Should anyone be surprised that, in Brazil, Islam inspired by many African slaves with at least a nodding acquaintance of Islam and Islamicate mores to revolt? No. We shouldn't be surprised that it survived, or that it inspired slave revolts even in the First Empire.
But what else did it do? I'm curious.
