Islam and the Abolition of SlaveryContemporay debates about Muslim slavery occur in a context of fierce polemics between Islam and other belief systems. While Islamic groups had an ambivalent and generally muted impact on the legal repudiation of slavery, a growing religious commitment to abolition was essential if legislation was to be enforced in the twentieth century. Drawing on examples from the whole 'abode' of Islam, from the Philipines to Senegal and from the Caucasus to South Africa, Gervase Clarence-Smith ranges across the history of Islam, paying particular attention to the period from the late 18th century to the present. He shows that "sharia-minded" attempts to achieve closer adherence to the holy law restricted slavery, even if they did not end it. However, the sharia itself was not as clear about the legality of servitude as is usually assumed, and progressive scholars within the schools of law might even have achieved full emancipation over the long term. The impact of mystical and millenarian Islam was contradictory, in some cases providing a supportive agenda of freedom, but in other cases causing great surges of enslavement. The revisionist Islam that emerged from the 18th century was divided. "Fundamentalists" stressed the literal truth of the founding texts of Islam, and thus found it difficult to abandon slavery completely. "Modernists, ' appealing to the spirit rather than to the letter of scripture, spawned the most radical opponents of slavery, notably Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, the Islamic William Wilberforce. Once slavery had disappeared, it was the Sufi mystics who did most to integrate former slaves socially and religiously, avoiding the deep social divisions that have plagued Western societies in the aftermath of abolition. In this important new book, Clarence-Smith provides the first general survey of the Islamic debate on slavery. Sweeping away entrenched myths, he hopes to stimulate more research on this neglected topic, thereby contributing to healing the religious rifts that threaten to tear our world apart in the 21st century. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 22 | |
| 54 | |
Customary | 78 |
Sultans Law | 85 |
THE ROADS TO ABOLITION | 98 |
22 | 101 |
The Ulama and QuasiAbolition | 129 |
Mystics and Millenarians | 151 |
Literalism | 177 |
Rationalism | 195 |
Timing and Comparisons | 219 |
Envoi | 233 |
Index | 277 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abdallah abolish abolition abolitionist Ahmad Animists Arab Beachey became bondage British Brunschvig 1960 Cairo caliph captives Caucasus century Chapter Christian Circassian cited concubinage concubines declared devshirme East Egypt Egyptian élite emancipation enslavement Erdem eunuchs faith fatwa Fisher free Muslims freed freedom French Futa gradualist Hadith harem Heers Hindu Hodgson holy law Hourani Hunwick Hunwick and Powell Ibadi Imam Inalcik India infidels institution Islam Isma'il issue jihad Khan Khariji Levi liberation literalist Lovejoy Maghribi Mahdi Maliki mamluk manumission Miers military slaves millenarian Moroccan Muhammad Muslim mystics nineteenth-century notably officials Ottoman owners Persian personal communication prohibited Prophet qadi Qadiri Quran raiding reform refused religious Renault and Daget rulers Ruthven Sayyid scholars scriptuaries secular seized servile servitude Shah sharia sharia-minded Shaykh Shi'i slav slave trade slavery Snouck Hurgronje social South Asian Southeast Asia Sudan Sufi sultan tion Toledano tradition Turkistan ulama Wahhabi West Africa Western women wrote
Popular passages
Page 40 - Then, when the sacred months are drawn away, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush.
Page 199 - The time is now arrived when humanity at large, should raise its voice against the practice of servitude, in whatever shape or under whatever denomination it may be disguised. The Moslems especially, for the honour of their noble Prophet, should try to efface that dark page from their history — a page which would never have been written but for their contravention of the spirit of his laws...
Page 229 - I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.
Page 122 - Dutch liked to be attended by slaves when they visited the palace ; but as that is not the case with the British, they shall cease to be slaves ; for long have I felt shame, and my blood has run cold when I reflected on what I once saw at Batavia and Samarang, where human beings were exposed for public sale, placed on a table, and examined like sheep and oxen.
Page 25 - When you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks, then, when you have made wide slaughter among them, tie fast the bonds; then set them free, either by grace or ransom, till the war lays down its loads.
Page 16 - ... which remained intact and effective even when other sections of the holy law, dealing with civil, criminal, and similar matters...
Page 42 - This is the recompense of those who fight against God and His Messenger, and hasten about the earth, to do corruption there: they shall be slaughtered, or crucified, or their hands and feet shall alternately be struck off, or they shall be banished from the land.
Page 10 - Gambia in 1869, where groundnut exports were expanding, 'as soon as each has been able to purchase a horse and a gun, [he] considers himself a warrior, lives by plunder and works his fields by the slaves he captures in his expeditions, and thinks it beneath his dignity to perform any work whatsoever, which is left to women and...