Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry (29 page)

33. See David Ayalon, "The plague and its effects on the Mamluk Army," Journal
of the Royal Asiatic Society (1946), pp. 67-73; Michael W. Dols, The Black Death in
the Middle East (Princeton, NJ, 1977), pp. 178f., 185ff. For a nineteenth-century
description, see above, p. 84.

34. On eunuchs in the Islamic world, see E12, S.V. "Khasi" (by Ch. Pellat [classical], A. K. S. Lambton [Iran], and C. Orhonlu [Ottoman]); David Ayalon, "On the
eunuchs in Islam," Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 1 (1979), pp. 67-124; idem,
"The eunuchs in the Mamluk sultanate," in Studies in Memory of Gaston Wiet, ed. M.
Ayalon (Jerusalem, 1977), pp. 267-95. On the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, see
Ehud R. Toledano, "The Imperial eunuchs of Istanbul: From Africa to the heart of
Islam," Middle Eastern Studies 20 (1984), pp. 379-90; Gordon, Slavery, pp. 91-98. On
eunuchs in antiquity, see Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves, pp. 172-96.

35. On slavery and the slave trade in Europe, including Muslim Spain, see the
numerous studies of Charles Verlinden, especially L'Esclavage dans l'Europe tnedi-
evale, 2 vols. (Bruges, 1955). On the slave trade from black Africa to the Islamic
world, see UNESCO, The African Slave Trade from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth
Century: Reports and Papers of the Meeting of Experts Organized by UNESCO at Portau-Prince, Haiti, 31 January to 4 February 1978 (Paris, 1979), esp. the contributions by
Mbaye Guaye, Ibrahima Baba Kake, Bethwell A. Ogot, Herbert Gerbeau, and the
bibliography assembled by Y. A. Talib. On African slaves exported to India, see J. J. L.
Duyvendak, China's Discovery of Africa (London, 1949), pp. 13-24; Joseph E. Harris,
The African Presence in Asia: Consequences of the East African Slave Trade (Evanston, IL, 1971).

36. On the Sagaliba, see Ayalon, "On the eunuchs," pp. 92-124.

37. See Alan Fisher, "Chattel slavery in the Ottoman Empire." Slavery and Abolition 1 (1980), pp. 25-45; idem, "The sale of slaves in the Ottoman empire: Market and
state taxes on slave sales," Bogazici Universitesi Dergisi 6 (1978), pp. 149-71; idem,
"Muscovy and the Black Sea slave trade," Canadian-American Slavic Studies 6 (1972),
pp. 575-94; idem, "Studies in Ottoman slavery. II: Manumission," Journal of Turkish
Studies 4 (1980), pp. 49-56; Halil Inalcik, "Servile labor in the Ottoman Empire." in
Mutual Effects of Islamic and Judeo-Christian Worlds: The East European Pattern, ed.
Abraham Ascher, Tibor Halasi-Dun, and Bela K. Kiraly (New York, 1980), pp. 23-52;
Halil Sahillioglu, "Slaves in the social and economic life of Bursa in the late 15th and
early 16th centuries," Turcica 17 (1985). pp. 43-112: Ibrahim Metin Kunt, "Kullarin
Kullan," Bogaziei Universitesi Dergisi, Hi7maniter Bilimler 3 (1975), pp. 27-42 (on
slaves owned by the sultan's slaves). For an earlier study, see Cornelius Gurlitt, "Die
Sklaverei bei den Tiirken im 16 Jahrhundert nach europaischen Berichten," in Beitrdge
zur Kenntnis des Orients, ed. Hugo Grothe. vol. 10, Jahrbuch des Deutschen Vor-
derasienkomites (Halle, 1913), pp. 84-102. For a contemporary comment on slavery in
sixteenth-century Turkey, see The Turkish Letters of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, Imperial Ambassador at Constantinople, 1554-1562, trans. Edward Seymour Forster (Oxford, 1917), pp. 100-102.

38. On the devjirme, see E/2, s.v. (by V. L. Menage), where further sources and
studies are cited. Paul Wittek ("Devshirme and Shari'a," Bulletin of the School of
Oriental and African Studies 17 [19551, pp. 271-78) argued that the Ottomans were
following a Shafi'i rule of law, according to which the status of dhimmi was available
only to those who had become Christians before the advent of Islam. Greeks were
considered as such, and therefore exempt from enslavement. Balkan Christians, converted later, were enslavable. One weakness of this argument is the lack of evidence
that it was ever adduced by the Ottomans themselves. See, further, Claude Cahen,
"Notes sur I'esclavage musulman et le devshirme ottoman, a propos de travaux recents," Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient 13 (1970), pp. 211-18.

39. On galley slaves in Turkey, see Michel Fontenay, "Chiourmes Turques au
XVIIe siecle," in Le genii del mare Mediterraneo, ed. Rosalba Ragosta (Naples, 1981),
pp. 877, 903.

40. See Alan Fisher, The Crimean Tatars (Stanford, 1978), pp. 15-16, 26-29, 42;
idem, The Russian Annexation of the Crimea, 1772-1783 (Cambridge, 1970), pp. 19-21.

41. C. N. Pischon, "Das Sklavenwesen in der Turkei. Eine Skizze, entworfen im
Jahre 1858," Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft 14 (1860), p.
248.

42. For some brief descriptions of the slave markets of Cairo by European visitors
from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, see A. Raymond and G. Wiet, Les
Marches du Caire: Traduction annotee du texte de Magrizi (Cairo, 1979), pp. 223-29.
For detailed descriptions of the slave markets in Cairo and Istanbul, see Louis Frank,
Memoire sur le commerce des Negres au Kaire (Paris, 1802), pp. 32-35; Charles White,
Three Years in Constantinople, vol. 2 (London, 1845), pp. 281-83. See, further, Ehud
R. Toledano, The Ottoman Slave Trade and Its Suppression (Princeton, NJ, 1982), pp.
48-54.

43. See Goitein, Mediterranean Society, vol. 1, pp. 130ff.; E. Ashtor, Histoire des
prix et des salaires dans !'Orient medieval (Paris, 1969), pp. 57ff., 208ff., 360ff., 499ff.;
Mez, The Renaissance, p. 156.

44. Pischon, "Das Sklavenwesen," p. 254.

45. Oluf Eigilssen, En Kort Beretning om de Tyrkiske S4roveres onde Medfart og
Omgang (Copenhagen, 1641), p. 34. This is a Danish version from the Icelandic
original.

46. See Mohamed Talbi, "Law and economy in Ifriqiya (Tunisia) in the third
Islamic century: Agriculture and the role of slaves in the country's economy," in The
Islamic Middle East 700-1900: Studies in Economic and Social Historv, ed. A. L.
Udovitch (Princeton, NJ, 1981), pp. 209-49; also in French in idem, Etudes d'Histoire
Ifrigiyenne et de civilisation musulmane medievale (Tunis, 1982), pp. 185-229; Talbi,
L'Emirat Aghlabide (Paris, 1966), passim; Inalcik, "Servile Labor in the Ottoman
Empire," pp. 25-52, esp. 30ff.; EI2 s.v. "Filaha," 4 (by H. Inalcik): idem. "Rice
cultivation and the celt6kci re`aya system in the Ottoman Empire," Turcica 1 (1982),
pp. 69-141.

47. See E12 suppl., S.V. "Bigha'."

Chapter 2

1. When I joined the British Army in 1940, one of the items on the form which I
had to complete was "race." This was the first time I had seen the word "race" in an
official document, and, given the circumstances at the time, I was at a loss what to write.
Nowadays, asked the same question, I would unhesitatingly write "white" or "Cauca sian." It would not have occurred to me to do so then. For me at that time, white was a
color, not a race; Caucasian-except among anthropologists-meant natives of the
region of the Caucasus Mountains. The only people who were currently using the term
"race" in official documents were our enemies, and I was sure that the British Army did
not want to know whether I was or was not Aryan. I therefore sought the guidance of the
sergeant, who explained to me that as far as the British Army was concerned, there are
four and only four races-English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish. Even a black recruit-and
there were some already-was obliged to choose one of these four. The choice was of
course entirely voluntary. You put down what you felt yourself to be.

2. When I called my first article on this topic-published in England in 1970
"Race and Colour in Islam," these two words, at that time and in that place, meant
different things. Today, such a title would be tautologous.

3. According to Sabatino Moscati, Historical Art in the Ancient Near East (Rome,
1963), pp. 48-50:

The characterization of peoples is very clearly defined in constant schemata in
the art of the ancient Near East. Egyptian examples are well known: Asiatics
with full heads of hair bound with ribbons, and pointed beards; Libyans with
long curls along their ears; beardless Hittites with broad, protruding noses;
Negros [sic] with flat noses and thick, kinky hair; the "Peoples from the Sea"
with feathered head coverings, etc. And Mesopotamian examples, albeit little
studied, are also noteworthy: for example, in Neo-Assyrian reliefs, the Hebrews deported from Lachish are depicted with straight, protruding noses,
kinky hair joining rounded, tightly curled beards, and wearing long, unbelted
tunics; Arabs in short belted skirts are represented with smooth straight hair
contrasting with their curled beards; and Persians, with broad, ornate bands on
their hair, the thin nose that forms a single line with the forehead, the short flat
beard and the elegant armour.

4. Juvenal, Satires III, 62; Ammianus Marcellinus, History XIV, 4. Glen W.
Bowersock (Rome and Arabia [Cambridge, 1983], p. 124, n. 4) has dismissed as absurd
the notion that "the Roman Empire knew cultural but not racial prejudice." The
examples of prejudice which he quotes, directed against Syrians, Arabs, and Jews, can
only be defined as racial if one defines Syrians, Arabs, and Jews as races.

5. The "Southern boundary, made in the year 8, under the Majesty of the King of
Upper and Lower Egypt, Khekure (Sesostris III) who is given life forever and ever; in
order to prevent that any Negro should cross it, by water or by land, with a ship. (or)
any herds of the Negroes, except a Negro, who shall come to do trading in Iken, or
with a commission. Every good thing shall be done with them, but without allowing a
ship of the Negroes to pass by Heh, going downstream, for ever" (J. H. Breasted, ed.,
Ancient Records of Egypt, vol. 1 [Chicago, 1906-07], pp. 293, 652).

6. In the Roman Empire, the number of Ethiopian and other dark-skinned
slaves, even in Egypt, was small (William L. Westermann. The Slave Systems of Greek
and Roman Antiquity [Philadelphia, 1955]. p. 97).

7. Thus Cicero, in De provinciis consularibus, speaks of the Syrians and the Jews
as "nations born for slavery." This occurs in a letter in which he is commiserating with
certain tax farmers who had been handed over as slaves to the Syrians and the Jews.

8. A. J. Toynbee, A Study of History, vol. 1 (London 1939), p. 266. For the
historical record of Muslim racial attitudes, the reader must look elsewhere. The
problem of relations between Arab and non-Arab Muslims in early Islamic society was
first examined, with a wealth of documentation, in Ignaz Goldziher's classic Muhammedanische Studien, vol. 1 (Halle, 1888) (Muslim Studies, vol. 1 [London, 1967]); that of color in K. Vollers, "Ober Rassenfarben in der arabischen Literatur," in Centenario
delta nascita di Michele Amari, vol. 1 (Palermo, 1910), pp. 84-95. Briefer and more
general accounts are given in R. Levy, The Social Structure of /slam (Cambridge, 1957)
(rev. ed. of Sociology of Islam [London, 1931-33]), chap. 1; G. E. von Grunebaum.
Medieval Islam, 2d ed. (Chicago, 1953). p. 199ff. (The German version, Der Islam im
Mittelalter [Zurich-Stuttgart, 1963], pp. 256ff., has fuller documentation.)

The place of the black in Arab-Islamic society was extensively studied in an excellent German doctoral thesis by G. Rotter (Die Stellung des Negers in der islamisch-
arabischen Gesellschaft bis zum XVI Jahrhundert [Bonn, 1967]) and, in a brief but
illuminating survey, by J. O. Hunwick, "Black Africans in the Islamic world: An
understudied dimension of the Black Diaspora," Tarikh 5, no. 4 (1978), pp. 20-40.
Mention may be made of three studies in Arabic: an article by 'Awn al-Sharif Oasim.
on the blacks in Arabic life and literature, "Al-Sudan fi hayat al-'Arab wa-adabihim,"
Bulletin of Sudanese Studies (Khartoum) 1 (1968), pp. 76-92, and two books by
'Abduh Badawi, Al-Sud wa 'l-Hadara al Arabiyya (Cairo, 1976) on the blacks and
Arab civilization and Al-Shu ark' al-SW wa-khasa'isuhum fi'l-Shir al-Arabi (Cairo,
1973) on black poets in Arabic literature. For a pioneer study on some racial attitudes
in classical Persian literature, see Minoo Southgate, "The negative images of blacks in
some medieval Iranian writings," Iranian Studies 17, no. 1 (1984), pp. 3-36. Some
Turkish images of blacks have been studied in two articles by Pertev Naili Boratav:
"The Negro in Turkish folklore," Journal of American Folklore 64 (1951), pp. 83-88,
and "Les Noirs dans le folklore turc et le folklore des Noirs de Turquic," Journal de la
Societe des Africanistes 28 (1958), pp. 7-23. For two studies dealing specifically with
North Africa, see Leon Carl Brown, "Color in Northern Africa," Daedalus 96 (1967),
pp. 464-82, and Lucette Valensi, "Esclaves chretiens et esciaves noirs a Tunis au
XVIIIe siecle," Annales 6 (1967), pp. 1267-88. For translations of relevant texts, see
B. Lewis, Islam from the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople, vol. 2,
Religion and Society (New York, 1974), esp. chaps. 5-12; Graham W. Irwin, Africans
Abroad (New York, 1977), pp. 57-119. A number of relevant articles dealing with
aspects of the problem may be found in J. R. Willis, ed., Slaves and Slavery in Muslim
Africa, vol. 1, Islam and the Ideology of Slavery, and vol. 2, The Service Estate (London, 1985), and in UNESCO, African Slave Trade (Paris, 1979).

9. The Thousand and One Nights, trans. E. W. Lane, rev. ed., vol. 1 (London,
1859), pp. 4-5. I have preferred Lane's sometimes rather coy translation to that of Sir
Richard Burton, who not only preserves but also greatly augments the indecencies of
the original. His is the more serious misrepresentation.

10. 467th and 468th nights, R. F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a
Night, vol. 4 (London, 1894). pp. 212-14. This story is omitted by Lane. The theme of
whiteness as a reward is a common one. Cf. Rotter, Stellung des Negers, pp. 179-80.
Another rather humorous story in the Thousand and One Nights tells of a Yemenite
who arrived in Baghdad with six slave women, one black, one white, one fat, one thin.
one yellow, one brown (Burton, Thousand Nights and a Night, vol. 3 [London. 18941,
pp. 360-81.) In a kind of literary competition organized by their owner, the slave girls
are divided into three pairs, and each girl is invited to sing the praises of her own
qualities and decry those of her paired opponent in poetry and prose. The fat and the
thin discuss the merits and defects of fatness and thinness; the others deal with colorblack against white, and yellow against brown. The narrator adopts a position of
apparent neutrality, but the narrative reveals a number of underlying assumptions. For
an excellent analysis, see Andre Miquel, Sept conies des mille et one nuits, ou it n'v a
pas de conies innocents (Paris, 1981), pp. 165-89.