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Slavery in Islamic Law: Difference between revisions
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{{Quote|{{Quran|24|32}}|And marry the unmarried among you and the righteous among your male slaves and female slaves. If they should be poor, Allah will enrich them from His bounty, and Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing.}} | {{Quote|{{Quran|24|32}}|And marry the unmarried among you and the righteous among your male slaves and female slaves. If they should be poor, Allah will enrich them from His bounty, and Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing.}} | ||
One verse allows believers to marry captives who already have husbands. Traditionally, this was revealed after a battle following which Muhammad's men were uncertain whether or not they could have sexual relations with the female captives who had mushrik husbands (see {{Muslim|8|3432}}). | One verse allows believers to marry captives who already have husbands. Traditionally, this was revealed after a battle following which Muhammad's men were uncertain whether or not they could have sexual relations with the female captives who had mushrik husbands (see {{Muslim|8|3432}}). The mushrikun were those who associated partners with Allah (often translated as "pagans" or "polytheists"). | ||
{{Quote|{{Quran-range|4|22|24}}|And do not marry those [women] whom your fathers married, except what has already occurred. Indeed, it was an immorality and hateful [to Allah] and was evil as a way. Prohibited to you (For marriage) are:- Your mothers, daughters, sisters; father's sisters, Mother's sisters; brother's daughters, sister's daughters; foster-mothers (Who gave you suck), foster-sisters; your wives' mothers; your step-daughters under your guardianship, born of your wives to whom ye have gone in,- no prohibition if ye have not gone in;- (Those who have been) wives of your sons proceeding from your loins; and two sisters in wedlock at one and the same time, except for what is past; for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful;-'''Also (prohibited are) women already married, except those whom your right hands possess''': Thus hath Allah ordained (Prohibitions) against you: Except for these, all others are lawful, provided ye seek (them in marriage) with gifts from your property,- desiring chastity, not lust, seeing that ye derive benefit from them, give them their dowers (at least) as prescribed; but if, after a dower is prescribed, agree Mutually (to vary it), there is no blame on you, and Allah is All-knowing, All-wise.}} | {{Quote|{{Quran-range|4|22|24}}|And do not marry those [women] whom your fathers married, except what has already occurred. Indeed, it was an immorality and hateful [to Allah] and was evil as a way. Prohibited to you (For marriage) are:- Your mothers, daughters, sisters; father's sisters, Mother's sisters; brother's daughters, sister's daughters; foster-mothers (Who gave you suck), foster-sisters; your wives' mothers; your step-daughters under your guardianship, born of your wives to whom ye have gone in,- no prohibition if ye have not gone in;- (Those who have been) wives of your sons proceeding from your loins; and two sisters in wedlock at one and the same time, except for what is past; for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful;-'''Also (prohibited are) women already married, except those whom your right hands possess''': Thus hath Allah ordained (Prohibitions) against you: Except for these, all others are lawful, provided ye seek (them in marriage) with gifts from your property,- desiring chastity, not lust, seeing that ye derive benefit from them, give them their dowers (at least) as prescribed; but if, after a dower is prescribed, agree Mutually (to vary it), there is no blame on you, and Allah is All-knowing, All-wise.}} | ||
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Although Muhammad's men seem to have had intercourse with captive mushrik women whom they had captured during the expedition to Awtas/Autas ({{Muslim|8|3432}}), most jurists later ruled that this was later forbidden by {{Quran|2|221}} (the verse only forbids marriage to mushrik women, but scholars inferred that this also applied to intercourse with slaves). Intercourse with Muslim, Christian, or Jewish slaves was not affected by this restriction.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/272452/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201227215257/https://www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/272452/|title=Ruling on sexual intercourse with one's polytheistic slave-woman|date=November 14, 2014|publisher=Islamweb.net}}</ref> | Although Muhammad's men seem to have had intercourse with captive mushrik women whom they had captured during the expedition to Awtas/Autas ({{Muslim|8|3432}}), most jurists later ruled that this was later forbidden by {{Quran|2|221}} (the verse only forbids marriage to mushrik women, but scholars inferred that this also applied to intercourse with slaves). Intercourse with Muslim, Christian, or Jewish slaves was not affected by this restriction.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/272452/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201227215257/https://www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/272452/|title=Ruling on sexual intercourse with one's polytheistic slave-woman|date=November 14, 2014|publisher=Islamweb.net}}</ref> | ||
Early scholars of fiqh devised a workaround for this restriction, including the allowance of raping younger captives who were mushrik: | Early scholars of fiqh devised a workaround for this restriction, including the allowance of raping younger captives who were Zoroastrian or mushrik: | ||
{{Quote|{{citation| last=Friedmann | first=Yohanan| title=Tolerance and Coercion in Islam: Interfaith Relations in the Muslim Tradition|publisher=Cambridge University Press|ISBN=9780511497568|pages=107-108|date=August 2009|series=Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/tolerance-and-coercion-in-islam/603974A9EFEDC7FBD00B38D0845AECAA|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180614220208/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/tolerance-and-coercion-in-islam/603974A9EFEDC7FBD00B38D0845AECAA}}|According to a report included in the ''Jāmi‘'' of al-Khallāl (d. 311 A.H. / 923 A.D.), '''Ibn Hanbal maintained that | {{Quote|{{citation| last=Friedmann | first=Yohanan| title=Tolerance and Coercion in Islam: Interfaith Relations in the Muslim Tradition|publisher=Cambridge University Press|ISBN=9780511497568|pages=107-108|date=August 2009|series=Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/tolerance-and-coercion-in-islam/603974A9EFEDC7FBD00B38D0845AECAA|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180614220208/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/tolerance-and-coercion-in-islam/603974A9EFEDC7FBD00B38D0845AECAA}}|According to a report included in the ''Jāmi‘'' of al-Khallāl (d. 311 A.H. / 923 A.D.), '''Ibn Hanbal maintained that | ||
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==Treatment of slaves in practice== | ==Treatment of slaves in practice== | ||
A number of myths about the historical facts of slavery under Islamic rule are commonly propogated in Islamic apologetics discourse as well as by some credulous Western academic authors. These tend to be misplaced theoretical assumptions based on rules for the treatment of slaves in Islamic texts, or because various travellers observed that slaves serving as domestic servants were generally loyal and treated well. Others point to the potential for slaves to advance to positions of military, political and even economic power. However, Azumah points out that unlike the Mamluks (a dynasty established by slave-generals which ruled Egypt and Syria from 1250-1517 CE), being a eunuch was "virtually the only route by which a black could attain high office’ of any kind within the Muslim world outside black Africa." Moreover, while most slaves in Muslim lands were destined to be domestic servants, many female slaves were used as concubines ( | A number of myths about the historical facts of slavery under Islamic rule are commonly propogated in Islamic apologetics discourse as well as by some credulous Western academic authors. These tend to be misplaced theoretical assumptions based on rules for the treatment of slaves in Islamic texts, or because various travellers observed that slaves serving as domestic servants were generally loyal and treated well. Others point to the potential for slaves to advance to positions of military, political and even economic power. However, Azumah points out that unlike the Mamluks (a dynasty established by slave-generals which ruled Egypt and Syria from 1250-1517 CE), being a eunuch was "virtually the only route by which a black could attain high office’ of any kind within the Muslim world outside black Africa." Moreover, while most slaves in Muslim lands were destined to be domestic servants, many female slaves were used as concubines (in the harems of rulers as well as in private settings), and significant percentages of slaves were put to work on plantations, as infantry, or were castrated to serve as eunuchs.<ref>John Alembillah Azumah, ''The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa'', pp. 175-180</ref> Slaves put to work on plantations were treated with harshness and cruelty: | ||
{{Quote|John Alembillah Azumah, ''The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa'', pp. 181-182|As early as the ninth century, the Zanj, according to the great Arab historian al-Tabari, were employed in gangs of between 500 and 5000 in the salt marshes of southern Iraq. Al-Tabari observes that their condition was ‘extremely bad’ and that they were literally pinned down there, hopeless and homeless’. Their reward consisted of ‘a few handfuls of meal’. Their miserable condition led to several rebellions, the fiercest of which lasted for fifteen years from 868 to 883 CE. | {{Quote|John Alembillah Azumah, ''The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa'', pp. 181-182|As early as the ninth century, the Zanj, according to the great Arab historian al-Tabari, were employed in gangs of between 500 and 5000 in the salt marshes of southern Iraq. Al-Tabari observes that their condition was ‘extremely bad’ and that they were literally pinned down there, hopeless and homeless’. Their reward consisted of ‘a few handfuls of meal’. Their miserable condition led to several rebellions, the fiercest of which lasted for fifteen years from 868 to 883 CE. | ||