Slavery in Islamic Law: Difference between revisions

'''Islamic law''' or [[Sharia]] permits raiding, kidnapping and enslaving [[Kafir (Infidel)|non-Muslims]] from [[Dar al-Harb and Dar al-Islam (the Abodes of War and Peace)|Dar al Harb]].<ref>{{Citation|url=https://archive.org/details/islamabolitionof0000clar|title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery|p=27–28|publisher=Oxford University Press|ISBN=978-0-19-522151-0|author=William Gervase Clarence-Smith|year=2006}}</ref> South Asian scholars ruled that jihad was not needed to seize non-Muslims nor was it necessary to invite them to Islam before seizing them. Raiders were free to take and enslave any non-Muslim.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://archive.org/details/islamabolitionof0000clar|title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery|p=28|publisher=Oxford University Press|ISBN=978-0-19-522151-0|author=William Gervase Clarence-Smith|year=2006}}</ref> However, Islamic jurists held that non-Muslims who lived in areas which had formal pacts with Muslims were to be protected from enslavement.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://archive.org/details/islamabolitionof0000clar|title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery|p=27-28|publisher=Oxford University Press|ISBN=978-0-19-522151-0|author=William Gervase Clarence-Smith|year=2006}}</ref>

Non-Muslim residents of an Islamic state who fail to pay [[Jizyah|jizya]] or break their contract with the state can also be enslaved.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dyZ-DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA52|title=Slavery in the Ottoman Empire and its Demise 1800-1909|author=Y. Erdem (20 November 1996)|p=26|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|ISBN=978-0-230-37297-9}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z3VoBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA2|title=Muslim and Christian Contact in the Middle Ages: A Reader|author=Jarbel Rodriguez (2015)|p=2|publisher=University of Toronto Press|ISBN=978-1-4426-0066-9}}</ref>

Among other things (see [[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Muhammad and Booty]]), Booty included slaves who were originally free [[Kafir (Infidel)|non-Muslims]] who were captured in battle.<ref>{{Citation|url=http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/508/1/uk_bl_ethos_443314.pdf|title=The legal and social status of women in the Hadith literature (PDF)|author=Salma Saad|page=242|year=1990}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6MC0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA17|title=Islamic Jurisprudence on the Regulation of Armed Conflict: Text and Context|author=Nesrine Badawi (1 October 2019)|p=17|publisher=BRILL|ISBN=978-90-04-41062-6}}</ref> The entire population of a conquered territory can be enslaved, thus providing women who are otherwise rare on the battlefield. This paves the path for concubinage.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://archive.org/details/islamabolitionof0000clar|title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery|p=27|publisher=Oxford University Press|ISBN=978-0-19-522151-0|author=William Gervase Clarence-Smith|year=2006}}</ref> The Muslim military commander is allowed to choose between unconditionally releasing, ransoming or enslaving war captives.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l0SyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA5|title=The Art of Jihad: Realism in Islamic Political Thought|author=Malik Mufti (1 October 2019)|publisher=SUNY Press|p=5|ISBN=978-1-4384-7638-4}}</ref> If a person converted to Islam after being enslaved, their emancipation would be considered a pious act but not obligatory.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://archive.org/details/islamabolitionof0000clar|title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery|p=22|publisher=Oxford University Press|ISBN=978-0-19-522151-0|author=William Gervase Clarence-Smith|year=2006}}</ref> Islamic law does not allow enslavement of free-born Muslims.<ref>{{Citation|url=|title=Violence in Islamic Thought from the Qur'an to the Mongols|author=Robert Gleave (14 April 2015)|p=142|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|ISBN=978-0-7486-9424-2}}</ref>