Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, 2013 - Biography & Autobiography - 331 pages
Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam chronicles the experiences, identity, and achievements of enslaved black people in Morocco from the sixteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century. Chouki El Hamel argues that we cannot rely solely on Islamic ideology as the key to explain social relations and particularly the history of black slavery in the Muslim world, for this viewpoint yields an inaccurate historical record of the people, institutions, and social practices of slavery in Northwest Africa. El Hamel focuses on black Moroccans' collective experience beginning with their enslavement to serve as the loyal army of the Sultan Isma'il. By the time the Sultan died in 1727, they had become a political force, making and unmaking rulers well into the nineteenth century. The emphasis on the political history of the black army is augmented by a close examination of the continuity of black Moroccan identity through the musical and cultural practices of the Gnawa.
 

Contents

The Notion of Slavery and the Justification of Concubinage
17
The Interplay between Slavery and Race and Color Prejudice
60
The TransSaharan Diaspora
109
The Controversy
155
The Black Armys Functions and the Roles of Women
185
Between Privilege
209
The Abolition of Slavery in Morocco
241
The Gnawa and the Memory of Slavery
270
Conclusion
297
The complete translation of Mawlay Ismails Letter
312
Index
319
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2013)

Chouki El Hamel is Associate Professor in History at Arizona State University.

Bibliographic information