Customer Reviews

The African Diaspora in the Mediterranean Lands of Islam (Princeton Series on the Middle East)

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from -Journal of North African Studies
"[A] significant, welcome step forward, not only in the study of African slavery but also more broadly in the history of the African Diaspora. The book is a series of translated primary source documents . . . organised topically and includ[ing] over 80 representative texts addressing the process of enslavement, markets, everyday life, social roles, identity, education, gender issues, status and social mobility, and emancipation. . . . A short historical contextualisation accompanies each major topic, introducing related textual selections.
"Introductory articles by Hunwick and Troutt Powell are among the best available on slavery in Islam and do a good job of orienting readers new to the subject. . . . [This is] the first collection of its kind in any language, and brings together texts from diverse origins. In this, the editors' selective approach matches well with the overarching purposes of the book. . . . Those interested in the origins of slavery in the Sahara and Maghrib will not only find useful primary materials to draw on, but also a broader framework for understanding the nature of the institution and some of its comparative dynamics over time. . . . [The authors] have offered an effective way of enticing the next generation of researchers." -Journal of North African Studies

The frequently over looked subject of Islamic slavery is fianlly brought to light in this important new work on the subject. The focus here is on the Africans sent to North Africa via the slave routes stretching acorss the Sahara and those beggining in Zanzibar. Between the 7th century and the present it is estimated that 11 million Africans were taken as Slaves to the muslim world. This book explains how they were captured, transported and most important their new lives in the Muslim world. Usual accounts paint a picture of a paradise where a slave lived as an equal and assimilated into the Muslim soceity. The reality was quite different then the western myth. This book tells of African women chosen only for their sexual attributes then used as sex slaves, any resulting children would be sold or 'pimped' off by the owner rather then living freely as Qu'ranic law sopposedly guaranteed. Here we have a wonderful new account of the Africans deported to North Africa, a story frequently overlooked in western history, which is all to often caught up in self flagulation of describing the Atlantic slave trade.

Seth J. Frantzman

For all true searchers and researches of the truth about Moslems and Islam and its hidden but still contemporary agenda of harassing, massacring and erasing other's cultures, the "inferior" culture of the infidels, this masterpiece is a must- simply imperative!

Its authors are heroes, no doubt about.