Serving the Master [Hardcover]

Mohammed Ennaji (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 22, 1999

This work uses a wealth of sources to paint a practical picture of the experiences of slaves in 19th-century Morocco. Mohammed Ennaji brings to life a panoply of figures, with court cases, travel accounts, and archival documents, demonstrating the cruelty of an institution whose benign features some writers have overemphasized. In contrast to slavery in the Americas, he argues that only a fine line separated the fluid categories of slave and free, and he reveals how slaves' dependence on their masters paralleled free Moroccans' dependence on patrons for survival and social mobility. "Muslim Slavery" offers a clear, readable history that tells the devastating story of slavery in this region, and uses slavery's gradual disappearance in this century as a metaphor for Morocco's move into modernity.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The book is a solid study of a whole people forced into abject living and eventual oblivion, and is written with passion, understanding, and relentless respect for the truth. The result is compelling reading." --Choice

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (March 22, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0333754778
• ISBN-13: 978-0333754771
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A most interesting work, December 21, 2004

By 

Seth J. Frantzman (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Serving the Master: Slavery and Society in 19th Century Morocco (Hardcover)

THis wonderful short work delves deep inside the use of Slaves in Morrocco during the 19th century. using many texts and personal insights the author weaves a convincing web of the many factes of slavery. From chapters on family life to sexuality, including chapters on the eslavement and kidnapping of the slaves and explaining the differences between practices in rural areas and urban this is a fascinating work. The author is encumbered by a concern not to offend so he slices through the subject with zeal, revealing how pregnant female slaves were beaten, explaining that abortion was more common then thought and startling the reader with his descriptions of the African women with 'bodies seemingly designed for pleasure'.
Making use of a veriety of sources from palace records to individual letters, common accounts and colonial writings, this scholarship far surpases most work on the subject.
By far the most illuminating account of slavery in Muslim soceities, although a narrow work it serves a smirror not only for other scholarship on the subject but also for the apologists who regard slavery in Muslim societies as a noble ideal. A must read.

Seth J. Frantzman