The 4 Freedoms Library

It takes a nation to protect the nation

Arabs and Slave Trade

By Shirley Madany


Slavery in Early Islamic History




Growth of the Slave Trade


Muslim merchants traveled to India, Ceylon, the East Indies, and China, over sea and land, bringing back silks, spices, aromatics, woods, tin, and many other items. Records mention ‘slave girls’ from the Byzantine Empire along with gold and silver, marble workers, and eunuchs. Surprisingly, Muslim traders went as far away as Scandinavia, and especially Sweden, where scores of Muslim coins have been found with inscriptions from the seventh and eleventh centuries. On the long lists of goods which Muslim traders imported from Scandinavia, are found ‘Slavonic slaves, sheep, and cattle’ (cited by Lewis in The Arabs in History). An early ninth century geographer, Ibn Kurradadhbeh, describes Jewish merchants from the south of France ‘who speak Arabic, Persian, Greek, Frankish, Spanish, and Slavonic. They travel from west to east and east to west, by land and sea. From the west they bring eunuchs, slave girls and boys, brocade, beaver skins, sable and other furs, and swords’.


A Recent Study

Another book by Bernard Lewis entitled Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry, published in 1990 by Oxford University Press, features color plate illustrations dating back to 1237 and the 1500′s with 80 pages of notes to back up its contents. These intriguing paintings were discovered in famous libraries in London, Paris, and Istanbul. They depict the variety of slaves and their livelihoods.






Slaves of all colors and creeds – in accordance with Sharia




A Puzzling Question


The Abolition of Slavery


The way in which slavery was practiced in Islamic countries had both bright and dark sides. What is regretable now is that this practice among Muslims is seldom openly discussed — as if slavery was exclusively a Western phenomenon. This deliberate silence enables Islamic propagandists in America to represent Muslims as liberators of the people of African origin, contrary to historical fact.

Tags: zslavery

Views: 383

Replies to This Discussion

from Sultan Tabendeh "A Muslim commentory on the universal declaration of human rights", 1967

That's confusing as well as disturbing.

What does it mean by "... then this slavery is not a genuine legal condition" ?

It seems to be saying that if someone isn't a true 1300 year descendent of one of the slaves taken in the original Islamic wars of conquest (where it was authorised), then even if they are 'enslaved', Sultan Tabendeh does not recognise that condition.  That is, you can enslave Philippino maids in Saudi Arabia, because that's something else going on, not formal Islamic slavery.

It cannot be construed as you think.  He says nothing about any current slavery only being valid if the slave is a descendant of someone enslaved by the Profit of 20%.

He is saying that if someone is taken as a slave in a religious war at any point, then their descendants will always be slaves (unless some descendant is freed by their current owner).

Tabandeh's entire book is dedicated to rubbishing the UNDHR, "proving" that islam always offered superior human rights and earlier (obviously, Tabandeh's work is laughable propaganda).

If this had been a work by Alan Lake justifying the legalisation of slavery and the rubbishing of the UNDHR it would have been summarised widely in the news media.  But because it is by a reknowned muslim jurist, it is ignored.  

I have seen other "liberal" muslims say that slavery is not illegal under islam, because there is no Caliph.  This is why I keep screaming about the true importance of the re-establishment of the Caliphate. 

Alan Lake said:

That's confusing as well as disturbing.



Here's an interesting turn of events.

There is a three volume Cambridge Univ Press book on the history of slavery.

Vol. 1 - ancient mediterranean world (greeks & romans?)

Vol 2. - ?  [islam] ??

Vol 3 - 1420 to 1840 (i.e. Atlantic slave trade, mostly)

Vol 2 is not available to buy (see attached image). I cannot find it being sold 2nd hand either.

Surely this is enough to convince people that there's a high-level plan to whitewash islam?

Searching through a few university library catalogues, and the only volume they stock is volume 3.

Even the British Library does not admit to having Vol.2

You are right.  I can't find it anywhere either.  It is noted in Google Books though but with no electronic copy.

Perhaps all copies were bought up by some rich Saudi, then destroyed.

Here's a screenshot from 

So, we have an author's name, and a publication date of 2012, and that the book covers 500AD to 1420AD.  

But the book can't be found on the CUP website or on amazon or the British Library (nor any other university library catalogue I've searched).

Is Keith Bradley still alive? Maybe we could ask him what happened to it?

check your email

Alan Lake said:


In particular, Bradley aimed to explode the myth, born of the nineteenth-century abolitionist era, that held up Stoic philosophy and (especially) ancient Christianity as the two main agents of changethat ameliorated, and eventually ended, Roman slavery.

So, this guy's legacy is to have rejected the idea that the advent of christianity ended Roman slavery.  He must have run aground when he had to deal with the rise of islam, and the endemic slavery that followed this rise.

Stoic philosophy is very much like buddhism (and was probably an off-shoot of buddhism).  So, Bradley gets to denigrate the contributions of buddhism and christianity to ending slavery.  Then he fails to deliver the goods when it come to analysing islam. 

Maybe that's why the book has disappeared, because he's an Ansar/apologist/Leftist type, just trying to be on the side of Islam because its got brown people in it (that's why its a race, right? :-q)

So when it became obvious that this book would not just say nasty things about the Islam, but also put his life in jeopardy, he thought its just not worth it, and backed down.


Does this volume exist, why I ask this is because there is no ISBN #

Also the image of the cover is a blank

Why I ask this is because there is also a volume 4, this does have a ISBN #, but like volume 2 the cover is a blank


Monitor this Page


Privacy & Unsubscribe respected

Muslim Terrorism Count

Thousands of Deadly Islamic Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Mission Overview






The 4 Freedoms

1. SP Freedom of Speech
2. SP Freedom of Election
3. SP Freedom from Voter Importation
4. SP Freedom from Debt



© 2018   Created by Netcon.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service