Some slaves earned respectable incomes and achieved considerable power, although even such elite slaves still remained in the power of their owners. Slaves in Muslim societies had a greater range of work, and took on a wider range of responsibilities, than those enslaved in the Atlantic trade. Slaves in the Islamic world were not always at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Muhammad's teaching that slaves were to be regarded as human beings with dignity and rights and not just as property, and that freeing slaves was a virtuous thing to do, may have helped to create a culture in which slaves became much more assimilated into the community than they were in the West. Slaves could be assimilated into Muslim society Other sources included the Balkans, Central Asia and Mediterranean Europe. Unlike the Atlantic slave traders, Muslims enslaved people from many cultures as well as Africa. The impetus for the abolition of slavery came largely from colonial powers, although some Muslim thinkers argued strongly for abolition. The legality of slavery in Islam, together with the example of the Prophet Muhammad, who himself bought, sold, captured, and owned slaves, may explain why slavery persisted until the 19th century in many places (and later still in some countries). The paradoxĪ poignant paradox of Islamic slavery is that the humanity of the various rules and customs that led to the freeing of slaves created a demand for new slaves that could only be supplied by war, forcing people into slavery or trading slaves.

It involved serious breaches of human rights and however well they were treated, the slaves still had restricted freedom and, when the law was not obeyed, their lives could be very unpleasant.

Islam barred Muslims from enslaving other Muslimsīut the essential nature of slavery remained the same under Islam, as elsewhere.

Islam allowed slaves to achieve their freedom and made freeing slaves a virtuous act.

Islam banned the mistreatment of slaves - indeed the tradition repeatedly stresses the importance of treating slaves with kindness and compassion.

Islam treated slaves as human beings as well as property.

Islam greatly limited those who could be enslaved and under what circumstances (although these restrictions were often evaded).

Islam's approach to slavery added the idea that freedom was the natural state of affairs for human beings and in line with this it limited the opportunities to enslave people, commended the freeing of slaves and regulated the way slaves were treated:

The people vs muhammad pdf free