Customer Reviews

Slavery in the Arab World

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book had some very helpful information, and very surprising information, which I was delighted to learn. Unfortunately, I didn't learn as much as I would have liked because of the writing style.

This is honestly in part due to translation, which Gordon can't be blamed for. There were parts of the book where one could tell that there was an obvious translation error from the French, where the word or phrase wasn't used quite the correct way it is supposed to be used in English. However, numerous times Gordon also contradicts his own thoughts, making for confusing reading. As he himself admits, much of the research itself is contradictory, but he could have done a better job of weeding through the research, and his editor a better job of clearing up contradictions before publication.

I still recommend this, because it is such important information, and there is so little out there. This book should be seen as important first broadside in understanding an important part of our history. There was so much information here that I had never before known. I had no idea the slave trade continued across Sahara until 1920's, and slavery still allowed in the Middle East until 1970's. Gordon gives amazing details on the horrible atrocities committed under this institution, like emasculation of children. His scholarship is quite good- he rightly faults past researchers who were so against slavery that they made the problem bigger than it was. So, for instance, Gordon shows how the emasculation death rate of 99% is exaggerated by far, it being closer to only a 90% death rate.

It is interesting that most of the slavery under Islamic rule was household help and concubines, leading to very few field workers in the history of Arab Islamic slavery, the opposite of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. This also made women more expensive than all men, except for eunuchs. Gordon rightfully shows that though Islamic slavery lasted far longer than the Atlantic slave trade, some 1000 years, it was generally kinder, with slaves usually treated more as family members- although certainly not always. It is after all an evil institution. And though whites were often enslaved as well, there was definite racism with blacks being considered inferior slaves, doing harder work, and in the end, the only slaves.

And I had no idea that there were benefits to colonialism. For, since slavery is approved in Qur'an and by Mohammed (pbuh), it was a long-established practice that no Islamic country was willing to remove on it's own. There was no indigenous anti-slavery movement that grew up as did in the West, such as the Anti-Slavery Society or among the Quakers. It was only through the pressure of the European countries, through colonialism and then subsequently economic pressure, that finally convinced every Islamic country in the world (with the exception of Mauritania) to finally officially give up slavery.

Gordon murray has produced a great pioneeing scholarly work into a known but least talked about aspect in history. And that is the arab slave trade in africa. he shows how in africa like other places throughout the world there was already a established slave system, that was similar to european serfdom and other forms of servitude practice throughout the world. he also shows how slavery was embedded in the arab world before islam. and how islam became the rationale for slavery and the basic attitudes of arabs towards africans. some good but most negative. the eastern slave trade was mainly dominated by arabs and other asians (persians, turks, east indians) but the africans from the interior as well as the swahillis along the coast played very signifigant roles in this trade. he also shows how there was diaspora of africans throughout the arab world. this book is excellent for anybody who is interested in the eastern slave trade. i highly recommend it.

Murray Gordon's expressed purpose in writing Slavery in the Arab World was to raise awareness about an issue which has been neglected in academia in recent years: the vast arab slave trade, which for millenia dwarfed any other slave operations in the world. the book contrasts arab slavery, which granted some minimal rights to its slaves, to european slavery, which, although it lasted briefly compared to arab slavery, was arguably harsher in its treatment of slaves. the book traces the history of slavery from the dawn of islam, to the 1960's, when it was abolished in the gulf states, noting that slavery still persists in some african nations. it is fairly easy to read, and contians a great deal of information on the topic.

This is an excellent work that explores an area of African slavery that has been for too long ignored. Gordon presents a lucid, credible thesis in a very readable format. This work helps round out the corpus of work on the full extent of African slavery.

It's fascinating when one comes across history that is not often told, or is ignored. This thouroughly depressing book manages to cover the scope, immense timespan and breadth of the arab slave trade around the world in antiquity. It also doesn't shirk from dealing with the uncomfortable truths of the involvement of Africans in trading each other, or the religious basis for the slave trade as conducted by the arabs. The opening chapter adequately tackles the reasons the world doesn't seem to want to tackle the injustice of more than a thousand years of arabs trading black slaves.

As someone who has family from the slave catchment areas in East Africa, it was interesting to read the accounts and reports of the events my grandfather would describe in his tales.

A thoroughly good read... and a much needed education for all those who thought the european trans-atlantic slave trade was the worst there ever was.

The Arab enslavement of African people predates the European African slave trade by a millennium and it is still going on today in the Sudan. The institution of slavery is as old as time, but Europe alone gets blamed for it.

Murray Gordon deserves credit for this exhaustive, well-researched investigation of a shamefully neglected subject. For those who are interested in reading further about the 1200-year-old Arab African slave trade, the bibliography and footnote citations alone are worth the price of the book.

That said, the book could have been much better organized. Gordon, a UN specialist who concentrated on Africa for two decades, is not a professional writer, and it shows in the poor organization and repetitiveness of the prose.

The book starts out well enough with some theorizing by Gordon on why the Arab slave trade -- which lasted three times as long as the European slave trade -- is not well known, and then establishes the theological basis for slavery under early Islamic law. After that, the book loses its chronological thread, and begins to jump around somewhat confusingly. (For example, a chapter entitled "Early Muslim Slave Traffic" appears in the middle of the book!)

This book also would have been helped tremendously by maps depicting the slave routes taken by Arab/Muslim traders. Gordon refers to many places in Africa and elsewhere that no longer exist; it would have been very helpful to be able to place them in a modern context with the help of maps.

I rate this book only three stars because of the organization problems, but Gordon deserves five stars for being the first to rescue this subject from the graveyard of "political correctness."

The author uncovers a nugget of information (infanticide) then quickly pulls it back from view (kinder and gentler, household servants, etc.) for pages and pages. These contradictions happen again and again.

Another frustration with this work is that the quotes from the Koran (of which I only saw one) are not in the notes and other Koranic references are paraphrased. A very big oversight in my mind since he mentions that justification for slavery can be found in the Koran. He may be right but he doesn't present any evidence. Need chapter and verse.

I agree that this is an important work because it is one of the first. The contradictions are frustrating, though.

this book is of monumental importance because it deal with the neglected aspects of the legacy of slavery in arab countries which go back far into history. as early as the 6th century, the author deals with how islam was used to racialize slavery, racism, forced religous conversion and imperialism. just like christianity, islam has a legacy of these immoral acts. the arabs were traditional slave traders. they have a legacy of enslaving eastern europeans, turks, persians, east indians, but mostly africans. africa like in the transatlantic slave tade became the hunting grounds for slaves in which made arab countries very prosperous. this book is well informed and should be read by anyone who is interested on the subjects.