Islam’s Black Slaves: A History of Africa’s Other Black Diaspora

Reviews

Africa Today, 2003 (also see related papers section

Author context

1932 - 2008; South African, Jewish
Anti-apartheid activist, banned from South Africa in 1960 - moved to London
Wrote companion book, The Black Diaspora + founding editor of Penguin African Library

Notes

First and Second Migrations to Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
Muhammad obeyed, calling upon all to accept the one God, who would reward obedience to His commandments with the delights of paradise, but punish disobedience with the horrors of hell. It was a call-communicated first in secrecy and then, from 613, through public preaching-that increasingly attracted followers, especially from among the slaves and the poor, with its concern for their plight. The initial ridicule with which the Quraysh aristocracy had greeted his efforts turned to persecution. A number of converts, first in 615 and again in 617, fled to Ethiopia, where the Christian ruler, or negus, resisted all pressures to surrender them. (14)

Differences in Islamic/Eastern vs Christian/Western slavery

Slaves in Islam were directed mainly at the serve sector—concubines and cooks, porters and soldiers—with slavery itself primarily a form of consumption rather than a factor of production (4)
The comparative smallness of a black diaspora in Islam is evidence not of the small numbers carried by the trade, but of the degree to which large numbers were absorbed by the wider population. (9)
“Muhammad was a prophet with a political mission, not, as it is often asserted, a prophet who merely happened to become involved with politics.” (17, Segal) (from Patricia Crone, Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam)
“I do not worship that which you worship, and neither do you worship that which I worship. And I will not worship that which you have ever worshipped, and neither will you [ever] worship that which I worship. Unto you, your moral law, and unto me, mine” (sura 109, verses 1-6) (Segal 19)

(36)

INDEX

Wallace Fard (226)

African American “Moors” (225-226)

Nation of Islam (226-237)

Eunuchs (40)

Zanj / Zanj Rebellion (42-45)

Patrice Lumumba

Louis Farrakhan (231-237)
Malcolm X

Oliver Tambo
Penguin African Library

REFS

History of Slavery

Segal, Ronald - The Black Diaspora

Farrant, Leda - Tippu Tip and the East African Slave Trade

In the sixth century of the Christian Era, Arabia was prosperous, with a resurgence in the caravan trade from the south of the peninsula, itself rich in frankincense and having commercial links with Africa and even the East. Northward to Syria, there moved a variety of spices, perfumes, and silks, along with slaves (13)

571 — Birth of Muhammad

613 — Muhammad’s public preaching of the revelations from Gabriel

617 — First and Second Migrations to Abyssinia (Ethiopia) (14)

622 — Settlement in Medina

630 — Capture of Mecca

632 — Death of Muhammad

SITES, WORKS

“The Harem” - John Frederick Lewis
Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery