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.
Harem
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A harem or harim is a domestic space that is reserved for the women of the house, especially in a Muslim family. A harem may house a man's wife or wives, their pre-pubescent male sons, unmarried daugh
History of slavery in the Muslim world
…worker slaves. A fair proportion of male slaves were also imported as eunuchs. The custom of using eunuchs as servants for women inside the Islamic harems had a preceding example in the life of Muhammad, who used the eunuch Mabur as a servant in the house of his own slave concubine Maria al-Qibtiyya; both…
Ladies of Kabul (1848 lithograph, by James Rattray) showing unveiling in zenana areas.
New entrant to a prince's harem. Jaipur, late 18 century, National Museum, New Delhi
Khosrow and Shirin (Bukhara, 1648)
Jahangi seer and Prince Khurram with Nur Jahan, c. 1624. This scene is probably set in the Aram Bagh garden, which the empress Nur Jahan, a great patron of gardens, had re-modeled in 1621.