Abstract: Slaves and Slavery -East Africa.
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Here a list of my webpages that are treating or mentioning at least one aspect of slavery.
Ja’far al Sadiq (d765)
About female circumcission.
Asmaee: Antar (800)
His mother was a Black slavewoman and his father a Bedouin who refused to acknowledge him. As an infant Antar tears the strongest swaddling clothes, at two years old pulls down the tent, at four slays a large dog, at nine a wolf and as a young shepherd a lion. Soon he comes to the rescue of his oppressed tribe, for which he is acknowledged by his father and adopted into the tribe. He seeks Abla, his uncle’s daughter, in marriage; the latter promises her to him in an hour of need; but after Antar has averted the danger, he imposes the most dangerous conditions to be carried out before the marriage. Antar fulfils them all ….. and much more. Soon he has many women and many black and white slaves and gold and cattle …..
Al-Jahiz: Kitab al-Hayawan (776-869)
Castration of a eunuch causes foulness of disposition to pervade the rest of his body, altering its members. In other passages he argues that castration tends to improve the capabilities of Slavs while harming those of Black Africans (perhaps by correcting the humoral imbalance of the former and exacerbating that of the latter) and that a eunuch’s character tends toward qualities associated with women and boys. But just as physical mutilation can alter the inborn constitution, it appears that beliefs and traits acquired through learning can change it as well.
Al-Jahiz : Al-Fakhar al-Sudan
In this book he gives examples of black slaves being very intelligent.
Al-Jahiz: Epistle of the Singing Girls
About the importance of correctly selecting slaves.
Ibn Qutayba (880) : Kitab al-ma'arif
He talks about the effects of castration.
Ahmed bin Yahya bin Jabir (Al-Baladhuri) (AD 893)
There was a Zanj slave insurrection in the neighbourhood of Basra in 689-690. This was not an organized rebellion and involved gangs of angry slaves who pillaged and ransacked whatever they could get their hands on. They were easily defeated by an army sent from Basra. Those Zanj not killed in the fighting were beheaded and their bodies were gibbetted as an example for others. The second revolt took place in 694 and seems to have been slightly more organized. It had a leader an African called Riyah also called Shir Zanj (the lion of the Zanj). This time the defiance was not put down until 4,000 troops, also black, were let loose in a campaign of extermination. Ten thousand slaves, including women and children, were massacred. This is the rebellion Baladhuri talks about.
Black slaves on the island of Java.
- Sri Bwuwanecwara Wishnu Sakalatmaka: Inscription of Kancana (860AD)Java
- Sri Tulodong: Inscription of Lintakan (919AD)
- Sri Mpu Sindok: Inscription of Waharu IV (931)
- Sri Airlangga: Inscription of Cane (1021AD)
- Sri Airlangga: Inscription of Baru (1030AD)
- Sri Airlangga: Inscription of Gandhakuti at Kambang (1042AD)
- Sri Airlangga : Inscription of Pandan (1042)
- Sri Bameswara Maharaja:Inscription at Ploembangan (1120)
- Sri Mapanji Jayabhaya Sriwarmeswara Madhusudana: Inscription at Ngantang (1135)
- Sri Kertajaya: Inscription of Kemulan (AD 1194)
- Sri Maharaja: Inscription of Wadihadi (12th)
- Mpu Monaguna: (Kakawin) Sumanasantaka (1205)
- Sri Kertarajasa: Inscription at Gunung Butak(1294)
- Mpu Triguna; Kresnayana (13th cent.)
- Inscription of Kertarajasa (1305)
- Inscription of Raja Wijaya Parakrama Wardana at Surodakan (1447)
The Zanj slaves in Mecca
Ahmad al-Azraqi 858; Al Fakihi 883; Al Iskandari 1165; Abu Bakr Al-Hazimi 1188; Yakut al Hamawi 1220; Muhammad al Fasi, Maliki 1430; Ibn Dhahirah 1457
Bundahishn; (Creation of the Origins) (additions till 9th century)
Where black people (and black slave) come from in Iran.
The curse of Ham
- Ibn Qutayba (880)
- Ibn Wadih al-Ya'qubi (d897)
- Al-Kisa'i (d904)
- Eutychius of Alexandria: (d. 940 A.D.)
- Muhammad Bal'ami (10th)
- Al Rabghuzi; Qisas al Anbiya (1300)
-Al Dimashqi (1325)
- Ibn Khaldun (1406)
- Suyuti (1505)
Selling/ prices and qualities of black slaves
- Ja’far al Sadiq (765)
- Sahnun ibn Sa’id ibn Habib at-Tanukhi:(d 854)
- Al Jahiz's Kitab al-Hayawan; on castration (869)
- Al Jahiz , other works (d869)
- Ibn abi l Ash’ath (970)
- Abu’l-Faraj al-Isfahani: (d971)
- Ibn Abi al-Qasim al-Qayrawani (983)
- Constantine Porphyrogenitus: (10th cent)
- R. Hai Gaon (d1038)
- Ibn Butlan: (d1066)
- Abu al-Walid al-Baji; (d1081) (Spain)
- Kai Ka’us b. Iskander (1083)
- Samawal ibn Yahya al-Maghribi al-Israili; (1175)
- Al-Saqati (1210)
- At Tahqiq fi sira ar raqiq (1250)
- Nasir Al Din Al Tousi (1274)
- Amir Khusrau : I'jaz-i-Khusravi (1283)
- Written for Sultan al-Muzaffar: Nur al-ma'arif (1295)
- Al-Dimashqi (1325)
- Ibn al-Akfani, (1348)
- Khalil ibn Ishaq al-Jundi: (d1365)
- al Hasan ibn Ali al-Sharif al-Husayni (1412)
- al-Abshihi (1450)
- Al Amsati al Hanafi (1478)
- Abd-el-Mo'al (15th?)
Black/Kunlun Slaves in China
- Zhang Ji (8th century Tang poet)
- Liu Xu : (940)
- Wang Pu (961)
- Li Fang: Taiping Guangji (980)
Al-Mas'udi (916)
The Zanj Rebellion was a major revolt against the Abbasid Caliphate, which took place from 869 until 883. Masudi describes the whole war in the 8th part of his book.
Al-Tabari;(838-922)
The Zanj revolt in Basra: The revolt of the black slaves in lower Iraq has no direct connection with the history of East-Africa. Indirectly however it was more then important. Because of that I add one chapter of Al-Tabari. (The events that led to the entry of al-Basrah (by the Zanj) and what transpired thereafter.) Al-Tabari himself has consecrated several books to the revolt, way to much to print.
Abu Zakariyya al Azdi (d945)
there were 4,000 Zanj slaves headed by a qa'id in the army of the provincial governor of Mawsil (Mosul) during the Caliphate of Abu Ja'far al-Mansur (754-775 A.D.).
Buzurg ibn Shahriyar (955)
In Sailors tale 31 the best known of his tales he talks about a merchant ship being thrown on the coast of Zanj; welcomed by the local king; making big profits by trading there; and then kidnapping the king and selling him as a slave; when they are for a second time thrown on that coast they find the escaped from slavery king being back; he pardons them because through them he has had the chance to become Muslim. Here the explanation why Islam was promoting slavery, because it would bring them in contact with Islam.
In Sailors tale 117; the historically most important one; it talks of the people of Waqwaq (the Austronesian immigrants to Madagascar) who after a one year trip start raiding the East African coasts for slaves.
Istakhri (957)
Mentions the general slave trade from Africa.
Abu Nasr Mutahhar al-Maqdisi (966)
Mentions the general slave trade from East Africa.
Abu’l-Faraj al-Isfahani: (d971)
He gives prices for black slaves. About training of slaves.
The poet Nusaib and his struggle to free his mother from slavery.
Ibn Abi al-Qasim al-Qayrawani: (983)
About selling pregnant Zanj women.
Constantine Porphyrogenitus : (10th cent)
The Daily tribute paid to the Byzantine Emperor by the Caliph' Abd al-Malik included as well as money one purebred horse and one black slave.
Ibn Miskawayh (d1030)
It concerns the people of the most remote corners of the inhabited earth, at its extremities, from North to South, like the Turks and Zanj. There is hardly any difference between such people and the last grade of animals we just mentioned. These people are incapable of discernment that would lead to many utilities. No wisdom has ever been transmitted from them, nor do they learn anything from the people around them. That's why they are in a bad situation, and have little luxury. They are acquired without envy, and they are only good to be slaves and servants, like animals.
Also about big problems between black and white soldiers.
Ibn Sina (1037) Kitab Al-Qanon
some people are naturally far from acquiring virtues; for they are slaves (abid) by nature like the Turks and the Negro (az-Zanj) and those who generally speaking have not grown up in noble climates (al-aqalim al-sharifah) where conditions are for the most part such that the peoples growing up in them are balanced of temperament and sound of disposition and intellect.
R. Hai Gaon (d1038)
Document No. VII, contains a formulary for the acquisition of a slave
Al Biruni (1050) Astrology
The equator passes from the east into the Chinese and Indian Oceans and through several of the Islands there. After having traversed the boundaries of the Zanjian arrives at the deserts of the Sudanese, who are engaged in the slave-trade, and thence passes into the Western Ocean.
Al Biruni (1050) India
The continent protrudes far into the sea in the western half of the earth, and extends its shores far into the south. On the plains of this continent live the western negroes, whence the slaves are brought ; and there are the Mountains of the Moon, and on them are the sources of the Nile.
Nasir-I Khusraw: (1052)
(about the army in Egypt) Another group are called Zanj. They all fight with saber and are said to number 30,000 men.
The nearest Muslim city to Lahsa that has a ruler is Basra..... At the time I was there they had thirty thousand Zanzibari and Abyssinian slaves working in the fields and gardens.
Nizam al-Mulk (1091)
The army-commander of Abharbaygan owned (amid much other wealth) 1,700 Turkish, Rumi and Abyssinian slaves and 400 moon-faced slave-girls.
Al-Awhadi (compiler form an earlier version of 11th century)
In his book on Book of gifts and rarities he mentions:
Two thousand black servants were placed to the right and left
He owned 24,000 military slave boys and 45,000 black ones
together with 20,000 of their black slave soldiers.
He left 11,000 eunuchs (khadam) and slave girls (jawari), 6,000 of these being eunuchs (khadam)
Among them where a hundred twenty slave boys
Li Kung-Lin (d1106)
The K'un lun Ts'eng K'i country (Madagascar) ………… Moreover they are black bodied wild men, if you entice them with food you barter as many as you like to do work (as slaves) for the foreign trader.
Al Hariri (1122)
His work is most famous for his painting that shows the slave market in Zabid, in the Yemen.
Grandson of Muhallib bin Muhammad bin Shadi (1126)
A horror story; a slave trader captures an African King and keeps him chained up in his house so that he can beat him up when he feels like.
Al Zuhri : (1137)
The country of Sudan and the land of Abyssinia and Zandj and Nuba ……… And one enters this country and come out to bring from the desert slaves and servants.
Letter from Khalaf b. Isaac to Halfon ha-Levi b. Nethanel (1140)
During Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles) a qintir (unknown kind of ship) arrived from the land of the Zanj, which had in it new (raqiq or wild) slaves. I tried to purchase a (menial) servant for you, my lord, but was not successful.
Mahruz b.Ya’qub (1147)
A black slave is send from Aden to Alexandria.
Al Idrisi (1150)
The ruler from the island of Qais (or Keish) in the sea of Oman (opposite Muscat, the port that became important after the decline of Siraf) had 505 ships with which he used to raid the Zanj coast for slaves and he makes many captives.
Al Garnati (1169)
The story of Affan who sets his young black slave free; and when later in problems in East Africa is saved by him. Here the explanation why Islam was promoting slavery, because it would bring them in contact with Islam.
Chou Ch'u-fei (1178)
The state K'un-lun ts 'eng-ch' I (Madagascar) …….. In addition, here on [large] islands in the sea on which live many savages, whose body is as black as paint and they have frizzy hair. They are attracted to food and captured and then sold by the thousands as slaves.
Ch'en Yuan-Ching (late12th)
K’un-lun-ts’eng-chi (Madagascar) …….. The wild people are as black as ink, they catch and sell slaves which is a flourishing business.
Sadr al-Din al Husayni (end 12th)
Black slaves continued being imported into Persian lands.
Afdal al-Din Kirmani (1200)
(About Tiz): Inhabitants of Hind, Sind, Abyssinia, Zanzibar, Egypt, and the country of the Arabs from Oman and Bahrein trade there. Every kind of musk, ambergris, indigo, and logwood, and aromatic roots of Hind and slaves of Hind and Abyssinia and Zanzibar, and also fine velvets, shawls, shushes, and the like rare products have their market at this post.
Ibn al Jawzi (1200)
Many stories about black slaves who were pious or marvellous people.
Yakut al Hamawi (1220)
Chouqar (or Suqar)….;Chouqar is also a locality that belongs to the Zandj and from which a big amount of slaves is exported these are those, whose lower brows consist of two or three lines.
Chao Ju-Kua (1226)
MADAGASCAR (K'UN LUN-TS'ONG-K'I) (or K'un-lun-ts'eng-ch'i)
…… In the west there is an island in the sea on which there are many savages, with bodies as black as lacquer and with frizzled hair. They are enticed by food, then caught and carried off for slaves to the Ta'shi countries where they fetch a high price. They are used as gate keepers. It is said that they do not long for their kinfolk.
Ibn-al Mujawir(1232)
The women of Zanzibar, black slave girls, ……….
……….. Only Abu al Hassan Ali b. al Dahhak al-Kufi revealed the stone quarry to the inhabitants of Aden. When he had settled in Aden, he bought black slaves (Zanj according to other translators) to cut the stone from the mountains of Aden and slave girls to carry them on their backs. ……..
…… (Taxes) Slave (raqiq= wild) per head 2 dinar entering the port and half a dinar on his leaving. ….
… a detailed description, with complete revealing of the slave of the auction sale of slave woman, (rarely mentioned in the Arab medieval literature) …
Ibn Said al Maghribi (1250)
People, says Macoudi, who live little beyond the equator and have seen the merchants and travelers who have penetrated until then, are blacker, more ugly and with shorter hair than any other; they are also more wicked than their peers who live in the south (sic) of the Ecuador. Most wear no clothes and all, men and women, go naked; they are cannibals, and when they take their enemies prisoner they sell them to the merchants who export them.
Sa’di of Shiraz (1258)
A Chinese slave-girl having been brought to a king, he desired to have connection with her whilst in a state of intoxication but, as she repelled him he became angry and presented her to one of his negro-slaves whose upper lip was higher than his nostrils whilst the lower one hung down to his neck. His stature was such that the demon Sakhrah would have been put to flight and a fountain of pitch emitted stench from his armpits.
……….. Resolved to bestow Egypt upon the meanest of his slaves, Harun al-Rashid gave it to a stupid negro…
Ibn Khallikan: Wafayat al-A'yan (1282)
The story of Kafur Al-Ikhshidi the black slave who became ruler of Egypt.
Abd Ibn Al Zahir (1293)
From Egypt are send slaves as presents and also received as presents.
Ibn al-Ukhuwwa; Ma'dlim al-Qurba fi Ahkam al-Hisba (d1329) Egypt
The cubit of the Sawad is longer and was introduced by al-Rashid who determined it from the forearm of a negro slave. It is used for cloths, merchandise and buildings and for the Nilometer.
Ibn Battuta visits Kilwa (1331)
His son and successor-designate (of the Sultan of Kilwa) took back the clothes from the fakir and gave him ten slaves in exchange. When the sultan learned how much his subjects praised his son's action, he ordered that the beggar should be given ten more slaves and two loads of ivory.
Ibn Battuta in the Maldives (1331)
The trial of an African slave accused of conducting an "adulterous intrigue" with a lady.
Prince Abu al-Fida (or Abulfida) (1273-1331) Taqwim al-Buldan
The land of Berbera belongs to the Zendjs but is ruled by the Habacha, who have put commercial ports there. Since the 13th century the town of Berbera is completely Muslim; that is why Ibn Said says this place offers so few slaves to the Muslim places.
Chou Chih-Chung : I-Yu-chih (1366)
Kun-lun-ceng-qi guo; selling slaves from Kun-lun-ceng-qi guo (Madagascar)
Bahktyar Nama Persia (end14th cent)
A way nicer version of the story found in Buzurg (955) to explain why Islam was promoting slavery, because it would bring slaves in contact with Islam.
Ibn al-Furat: Tarih ad Duwal wal Muluk (d1405)
Slaves as gifts to rulers.
al Hasan ibn Ali al-Sharif al-Husayni: Mulakhkhas al-Fitan (d1412)
Taxes on slaves.
Saraf-ad-din Ali Yazdi; Zafar Namah Emir Timur (1424)
….. (In Transoxiane) The emperor distributed to the princes …………… richness and specialties that he had brought from India. There were precious stones, gold, beautiful Negro slave girls, young Negros ….. (the capture of the castle of Damascus by Timur) The garrison were made slaves, and divided among the Mirzas and the Emirs; they consisted chiefly of Circassians, Mamelukes, Ethiopian slaves, and Zanghebars: all the women, children, and old men experienced the same fate. ………
…….They went to see the Emperor, letting him know that the Lady was pregnant of the prince; this news made the order to be changed and that the Lady was put in the hands of the Empress Bpuyan Aga, so that after giving birth she could take care of the kid, and to give the lady to one of his black slaves.
Ning Xian Wang: I Yu Thu Chih (1430)
Kunlun ceng qi country (Madagascar); they sell slaves.
From the Court of Al-Zahir; Ta’rikh al-Yaman (1439)
Muhammad al-Husayni al-Din al Maqrizi (1441)
Fighting between White and Black slave soldiers in Mamluk Egypt.
Abu al-Mahasin (1441)
He reports that during the plague in 1428 and 1438 many black slaves died in Egypt.
Slaves as gifts to rulers. Black slaves in Egypt elect their own Sultan.
Muhammad al-Husayni al-Din al Maqrizi (1441)
THE RUIN OF AL FOUSTAT (Under Al Mustansir Reign: 427-487)
Violent engagements took place between them (the Turks and the Black slaves) in the neighbourhood of Kom Charik (64), where many slaves died and the survivors fled. That affected a lot the mother of al Moustansir because it was through her that the black slaves were that numerous in Misr. That is because being a black slave, she like multiplying the people of her race by buying them from all places. People knew her being predisposed in favour of them and brought those people to Misr to the point that there were in Misr more then 50.000 black slaves. When the battle of Kom Charik (64) took place she reinforced the slaves with money and weapons. ….This was the beginning of the end for Egypt….The Turks (in the end) beat them and had them fled to the Sa’id (Upper Egypt)
….. The whole year (459AH) passed with war against the slaves.
HISTORY OF THE FATIMIDS (In 415AH) Nearly a thousand black slaves gathered, driven by hunger, to plunder the country, and it was shouted that anyone who was being attacked by a black slave should kill him. The people organized for the defence of the country and the people took up arms. In the Sahil region (Syria coast) there were looting and battles with black slaves, where the population was forced to protect themselves by ditches and barricades in the streets and highways.
In Makrizi’s Suluk:
(in 1174AD) In Alexandria a large number of Negroes were arrested; they were blinded by passing them before the eyes of the swords red with fire.
(in 1304AD) complains about the numerous abuses done by the Negroes, with regard to the men who were staying in Mecca.
(in 1309AD) Emir Nougai had attacked the Negroes in Mecca. In fact, these men frequently took away the goods of the merchants, and extorted by force all that was at their convenience.
(in 1353AD) from Yemen were given 60 slaves who survived the passage to Egypt from a total of 300 slaves (together with many other presents).
(in 1392) from Dahlak (together with many other presents) a large number of male and female slaves.
Ibn Arabshah: Timur-Nahmeh (before 1450)
And (Timur) ordered slaves of Zinj to be collected, of whom he sought to possess more and preferred them to others.
al-Abshihi (1450)
The worst use of money is bringing up slaves, and mulattos are even worse and wickeder than Zanj (east Africans), for the mulatto does not know his father, while the Zanji often knows both parents. It is said of the mulatto that he is like a mule, because he is a mongrel.............Do not trust the mulatto, for there is rarely any good in him. Is there anything more vile than black slaves, of less good and more evil than they?.....When the black slave is sated, he fornicates. When he is hungry, he steals.
Ibn Madjid: As-Sufaliyya (1470)
He puts the slavetraders in Sofala; the rest of the coast is already Muslim.
Copy of Amir Khusrau's Khamsah (1470)
Miniature painting representing the black slaves that build Mandu in India.
Ibn al-Dayba (1496)
Sultan of Yemen receives slaves from Dahlak.
In Berbera harbour many ships sunk after a big fire and many slaves died.
Al-Sakhawi (1497)
The black slaves in Egypt elect their own Sultan.
Alf layla wa Layla (15th)
-Stories about ugly black slaves and pretty young married white ladies.
-Black and white slave girls tell their stories why their color is superior.
-Story of a white young lady who changes her black lover for an ape.
-Sindbad getting rich with black-slave trade.
Suyuti (1505)
the fear of Abandoning (i.e., not marrying) virtuous slaves.
Abu Makhrama (1521)
Mogadishu the harbour for the slavers of India.