The history of slavery in the Muslim world was throughout the history of Islam with slaves serving in various social and economic roles, from powerful emirs to harshly treated manual laborers. Slaves
Sale of a child-slave (1872), painting by Vasily Vereshchagin in Turkestan, Russian Empire, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. A rich Turkish man examines a naked boy, before buying him.
Bilal ibn Ribah (pictured, atop the Kaaba) was an Ethiopian slave, emancipated on Muhammad's instruction, and appointed by him to be the first official muezzin.
13th-century slave market in Yemen.
Dhows were used to transport goods and slaves to Oman.
Trans-Saharan slave trade
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The trans-Saharan slave trade was a Muslim slave trade across the Sahara, from the 7th century until the early-to-mid-20th century. Slaves, primarily from sub-Saharan Africa, were sold throughout the
History of slavery in the Muslim world
…a racial foundation in principle, although this was not always the case in practice. The Arab slave trade was most active in West Asia, North Africa (Trans-Saharan slave trade), and Southeast Africa (Red Sea slave trade and Indian Ocean slave trade), and rough estimates place the number of Africans enslaved in the twelve…
19th-century engraving depicting an Arab or Berber slave trading caravan transporting sub-Saharan African slaves across the Sahara to North Africa.
A slave market in Cairo. Drawing by David Roberts, circa 1848.
The slave market of Marrakesh as depicted on the cover of Le Petit Parisien of June 2, 1907.
Slavery