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Slavery in Islamic Law: Difference between revisions
→Slave markets, harems, and eunuchs: Added an academic source on continued sex slavery into medieval Islam.
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m (→External Links: Added a great article series from atheism Vs islam.com on this topic - which covers a lot of original Islamic sources not mentioned on Wikiislam, as well as responding to counter-claims. Would recommend reading!) |
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Shafi‘i's treatment of the issue is slightly different. Speaking of grown-up Zoroastrian or polytheist women taken into captivity, he maintains that no sexual relations with them are allowed before they embrace Islam without bringing up the question of converting them forcibly. If the female captives are minor but were taken captive with at least one of their parents, the ruling is the same. '''If, however, the girl was captured without her parents, or one of her parents embraced Islam, she is considered a Muslim and is coerced into embracing it''' (''nahkumu lahā bihukm al-Islām wa nujbiruhā ‘alayhi''). '''Once this happens, sexual relations with her are lawful.'''}} | Shafi‘i's treatment of the issue is slightly different. Speaking of grown-up Zoroastrian or polytheist women taken into captivity, he maintains that no sexual relations with them are allowed before they embrace Islam without bringing up the question of converting them forcibly. If the female captives are minor but were taken captive with at least one of their parents, the ruling is the same. '''If, however, the girl was captured without her parents, or one of her parents embraced Islam, she is considered a Muslim and is coerced into embracing it''' (''nahkumu lahā bihukm al-Islām wa nujbiruhā ‘alayhi''). '''Once this happens, sexual relations with her are lawful.'''}} | ||
=== Slaves for pleasure (muṭʿa, ladhdha) / sex ( jawārī al-waṭʾ) and domestic domestic service (khidma) === | |||
As Myrne, P. (2019) notes in her 2019 article ‘''Slaves for Pleasure in Arabic Sex and Slave Purchase Manuals from the Tenth to the Twelfth Centuries''’,<ref>Myrne, P. (2019) ‘[https://www.academia.edu/45040376/Slaves_for_Pleasure_in_Arabic_Sex_and_Slave_Purchase_Manuals_from_the_Tenth_to_the_Twelfth_Centuries?sm=a Slaves for Pleasure in Arabic Sex and Slave Purchase Manuals from the Tenth to the Twelfth Centuries]’, ''Journal of Global Slavery'', 4(2), pp. 196–225. DOI: <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1163/2405836x-00402004</nowiki> </ref> based on the evidence, women probably made up the majority of the slave population in the medieval Islamic world and their main occupation was domestic service. As men were legally permitted to have sexual relations with their female slaves (in direct contrast with Byzantium law),<ref>Bruning, J., & Huseini, S. R. (2023). Slavery in Byzantium and the Medieval Islamicate World: Texts and Contexts. ''Slavery & Abolition'', ''44''(4), 583–592. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1080/0144039X.2023.2264110</nowiki> </ref> erotic compendia and sex manuals were popular literature in the premodern Islamic world, and are potentially rich sources for the history of sex slavery, especially when juxtaposed with legal writings. She writes: | |||
{{Quote|Myrne, P. (2019) ‘Slaves for Pleasure in Arabic Sex and Slave Purchase Manuals from the Tenth to the Twelfth Centuries’, Journal of Global Slavery, 4(2), pp. 196–225. PP. 196-197|As men were permitted to have sexual relations with their female slaves, enslaved women owned by men could also be used for sexual service. Evidence from legal and literary sources indicates that slaves intended primarily for sexual service were singled out from those intended primarily for domestic service (khidma) at slave markets. The first group was referred to as slaves for pleasure (muṭʿa, ladhdha or another word for pleasure) or, bluntly, “slave-girls for sexual intercourse” ( jawārī al-waṭʾ ). Some of these slaves became their masters’ concubines and gave birth to their children, but others were probably used sexually for a period of time before being transferred to fulltime domestic service, which was facilitated by the permission to use contraceptive methods with slave women.}} | |||
We see that sexual intercourse was continued to be seen as a right for male owners far after the founding of the Islamic law schools, and that wives and slaves were not treated as equals: | |||
{{Quote|Myrne, P. (2019) ‘Slaves for Pleasure in Arabic Sex and Slave Purchase Manuals from the Tenth to the Twelfth Centuries’, <i>Journal of Global Slavery, 4(2),</i> pp. 196–225. PP. 203|According to contemporaneous Islamic legal writings, men had a number of privileges over women; sexual pleasure was one of them. They were allowed to have an unlimited number of slave concubines, as long as they could afford it. The warriors who took part in the early conquests were allotted captive women as reward; other men had to pay for female slaves. Prices and supply shifted, but slaves for pleasure were more expensive, and were probably always seen as a privilege for comparatively affluent men. The ideas expressed by ʿAlī ibn Naṣr and his sources are paradoxical; while harmony and reciprocity between sexual partners is the ideal, the legal access for men to a variety of women is applauded. [...] He also attempts to justify experimental sex with female slaves without alienating free wives. Arguing that enslaved women are more robust and prefer physically demanding positions, whereas free wives are more delicate and worthy of respect, he recommends men to use their female slaves when trying the many sex positions enumerated and described in the book. These positions could make free women feel humiliated, as they indicate low esteem, boredom and lack of love on the part of the man. Thus Ibn Naṣr addresses the concerns of free women and ensures them that both God and husbands give preference to free wives. [...] ..he addresses elite men’s desires and devotes considerable space to methods for enhancing their potency. Men are masters over their own private lives and they are free to choose their sexual practice within legal bounds. They can live with one single wife if they want to, or they can buy as many slave concubines as they wish, provided they can afford to, which is taken for granted here. Al-Samawʾal compares man’s life to the world of animals, concluding that it is a natural characteristic of man and animal alike to want a new partner. Consequently, even if a man has a beautiful woman in his house, he may wish to buy a new slave woman from time to time, only to experience the freshness of novelty, a phenomenon al-Samawʾal calls “renewal of the bed” (tajdīd al-firāsh).}} | |||
And aspects relating to a woman's desirability affected the value of the female slave: | |||
{{Quote|Myrne, P. (2019) ‘Slaves for Pleasure in Arabic Sex and Slave Purchase Manuals from the Tenth to the Twelfth Centuries’, <i>Journal of Global Slavery, 4(2),</i> pp. 196–225. PP. 215-216|Pregnancy was indeed one of the defects (ʿuyūb, s. ʿayb) that nullified the sale of a slave. Jurists discussed at length what should be considered a defect, the grounds for revoking a sale, and compensation for decreased value. Firstly, a defect was anything that reduced the value of the merchandise—in this case, a slave. As this varied locally, jurists recommended asking local slave merchants whether the defect reduced the price. Female slaves bought for sexual intercourse, jawārī al-waṭʾ (“girls for sexual intercourse”), had specific conditions. | |||
Defects that reduced their beauty and pleasurability were grounds for revocation or compensation in proportion to the reduction in value. Such defects could be bad breath, loss of virginity, hair that turned out to be dyed, inclination to fornicate, and, most strikingly, defects in the sexual organ. It is important to remember, however, that even when a slave was not bought for pleasure (li-ghayr al-mutʿa) but for domestic or other work, she could be used for sexual purposes by her male owner.}} | |||
==Slave markets, harems, and eunuchs== | ==Slave markets, harems, and eunuchs== | ||