Slavery, Islam and Diaspora (review)

This book consists of fourteen studies of Muslim slavery in areas ranging from the Crimea to the Caribbean, from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century. It is a very welcome addition to slavery studies because it opens up a hitherto little explored field. Paul Lovejoy stresses the need to inquire into how slaves in the Islamic world responded to their enslavement, and how Islam was used to justify slavery. Ehud Toledano attributes the paucity of research into Muslim slavery to lack of interest among the descendants of slaves who have not been 'sensitized' to their slave heritage – the reasons for this are clearly worth further exploration.

Maryna Kravetls discusses the role of black eunuchs in the Crimean Khanate in the 'Golden Horde'. They were used in mosques and the harems of the rulers and the rich. The khanate supplied white slaves from eastern Europe to the Ottoman empire, while the Ottomans sent black slaves in the opposite direction to the khanate. By the seventeenth century eunuchs were in charge of harem routine there and were not 'voiceless and helpless victims'.

Thomas Venet discusses slaving on the eastern African coast and islands between 1500 and 1750, focusing on the French and Omani roles rather than the Swahili traffic. Bernaz A. Mirzai describes harem life in Iran from the only two sources – biographies of Persian courtiers and European accounts. These harems were not secluded. Eunuchs held government positions and protected the women and children in the harem. The shah's wives were paid and could become financially independent; they could also play a role in politics and the arts.

Mohammed Bashir Salau discusses slaves in nineteenth-century Kano, where they made up half the population. They were kept in line by the use of charms and amulets. Some nevertheless ran away. Others refused to work or worked slowly. The form of slavery in Kano was typical of that in the rest of the Sokoto Caliphate. Olatunji Ojo deals with West Africa in the same period but the discussion concerns Hausa 'Mamluks' in Yorubaland who became increasingly associated with crime after 1850. As a result many were expelled, while those who stayed had to carry passports and show they were legitimately employed – a surprisingly modern touch.

Jennifer Loftkrantz discusses the ransoming of captives in the Sokoto Caliphate. This was limited to the elite who could afford to pay. Although Islam sanctioned the ransoming of captives, the captors made their own rules. In late nineteenth-century Kano Muslim captives were usually ransomed or freed, while non-Muslims were killed. Alternatively, if labour was needed in the Caliphate, they were put to work.

Amal N. Ghazal in a very interesting chapter discusses the debate in the Arab Middle East in the early twentieth century on the rival merits of slavery and abolition. Reformist ulama favoured abolition but for conservative ulama questioning an institution recognized in the Qur'an was unthinkable.

Ismael Musah Montana describes the Bori cult in nineteenth-century Tunis. The Bori were Kanuri and Hausa slaves imported from 1738. They formed separate West African communities. They governed themselves, practised their own religion, and incorporated newcomers from West Africa. Montana describes their social organization. Benjamin Claude Brower writes on the 'servile' peoples of the Algerian Sahara between 1850 and 1900 under French rule. The French, fearful of arousing hostility, downplayed slavery in order not to arouse the opposition of slave owners, or upset existing trade and production. Since only the 'negroes' did manual work, emancipating them would lead to 'the ruin' of the country – an argument accepted by most French authorities. As the sources show, slaves were in fact better off than the unfortunate Haratin sharecroppers, who worked the oases and supplied labour for collective projects.

There follows a chapter on Bellah highwaymen in colonial northern Mali by Bruce Hall. Raiding and banditry were entrenched in the area and to some extent continue today. Banditry was originally practised...