Slavery in the Ottoman Empire
Slavery in the Ottoman Empire was a major institution and a significant part of the Ottoman Empire's economy and traditional society. The main sources of slaves were wars and politically organized enslavement expeditions in the Caucasus, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, Southeast Europe, and Africa. It has been reported that the selling price of slaves decreased after large military operations. In Constantinople, the administrative and political center of the Ottoman Empire, about a fifth of the 16th- and 17th-century population consisted of slaves. Statistics of these centuries suggest that Istanbul's additional slave imports from the Black Sea slave trade have totaled around 2.5 million from 1453 to 1700.
Ottomans with European slaves depicted in a 1608 engraving in Salomon Schweigger's account of his 1578 journey in the Ottoman Empire.
An Ottoman painting of Balkan children taken as soldier-slaves, or janissaries.
Ottoman torture of slaves, 1684
Slave market with Europeans being sold in Algiers, Ottoman Algeria, 1684
The Black Sea slave trade trafficked people across the Black Sea from Europe and Caucasus to slavery in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. The Black Sea slave trade was a center of the slave trade between Europe and the rest of the world from antiquity until the 19th century.
One of the major and most significant slave trades of the Black Sea region was the trade of the Crimean Khanate, known as the Crimean slave trade.
Mine workers in Greece were often slaves.
Genoese Castle in Caffa, when Caffa was a major port of the Genoese slave trade.
The battle of Wadi al-Khazandar, 1299, depicting Mongol archers and Mamluk cavalry. During that time many mamluk soldiers originated from the Balkan slave trade and the Black Sea slave trade.
Crimean Tatar archer