The Standard Unified Contract for Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon — Recognition of Rights and Responsibilities or Facilitation of ‘Modern Slavery’?

The Standard Unified Contract for Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon — Recognition of Rights and Responsibilities or Facilitation of ‘Modern Slavery’?

In 2020, a new Standard Unified Contract for domestic workers was adopted by the Ministry of Labour in Lebanon. The new contract aimed at granting migrant domestic workers a number of rights which had been afforded to other kinds of workers under the Labour Code many years ago, including a 48-hour work week, a weekly rest day, overtime pay, sick pay, annual leave, and the national minimum wage, with some deductions permitted for housing and food.[1] Most importantly, as Human Rights Watch state, “The…

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The TraSIS Team in Toronto

The TraSIS Team in Toronto

Four members of the TraSIS team went to the University of Toronto to present on methodological aspects of the project, as well as sharing some of their early research findings.  At the end of April 2023, four members of the TraSIS team went to Toronto to introduce the project in a workshop immediately preceding a major conference on Re-evaluating Methodological Trajectories in the Academic Study of Islam. Jointly hosted by the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto and the Centre…

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Research Colloquium and Workshop: “Contested Concepts of Labour: Slavery and Informality”

Research Colloquium and Workshop: “Contested Concepts of Labour: Slavery and Informality”

On 29–30 March 2023, TraSIS PI Serena Tolino and postdoc Omar Anchassi presented at a workshop hosted by the Institute of History (Chair of Modern History) and the Center for Global Studies, University of Bern, organised by Sibylle Marti (University of Bern, SNSF Ambizione Fellow).  The workshop was launched on 29 March by Seth Rockman, a leading historian at Brown University working on the nexus of the fields of slavery studies, labour history, material culture studies and the history of capitalism in the United States. In his presentation, “Field…

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TraSIS Team Wins the Award for Best Scientific Poster at Faculty of Humanities Research Day

TraSIS Team Wins the Award for Best Scientific Poster at Faculty of Humanities Research Day

TraSIS won this year’s award for Best Scientific Poster at the Research Day of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Bern, organised by the Walter Benjamin Kolleg, an inter- and transdisciplinary research centre. Bringing together researchers from diverse fields, the event cultivates an atmosphere of creative exchange and networking within the Faculty. This year’s Research Day took place on 27 March 2023 at the Unitobler and was opened by Dean Prof. Dr Gabriele Rippl and the President of…

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The Case of Najma Saʿīd Ismāʿīl: A ‘Proof of Ownership’ Document Issued by the Islamic State (2016)

The Case of Najma Saʿīd Ismāʿīl: A ‘Proof of Ownership’ Document Issued by the Islamic State (2016)

Introduction Among scholars working in the field of Slavery Studies and related areas, one of the most pressing questions in recent years concerns the difficulty of labelling the diverse phenomena we see: when is it appropriate to speak of slavery? When do we refer to bondage? What role does labour coercion play? To mention only two important approaches discussed in the last couple of years: is it more useful to focus in our analyses on social relations shaped by ‘strong…

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On Eunuchs: An Italian Medical Doctor’s View (Cairo, 1902)

On Eunuchs: An Italian Medical Doctor’s View (Cairo, 1902)

Introduction The subject of this month’s blog post is not a “typical” source for our project, as it is not properly legal. It is a paper presented by an Italian medical doctor on eunuchs in Cairo in 1902 containing a denunciation of the practice of castration. By featuring sources of this kind on the TraSIS project blog, we aim to highlight the importance of Islamic law beyond the boundaries of Muslim jurists’ discourse. But why would an Italian medical doctor…

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Legal and Theological Dimensions of Slavery in an Early Ibāḍī Text

Legal and Theological Dimensions of Slavery in an Early Ibāḍī Text

Introduction The text translated below, edited by the prolific Abdulrahman al-Salimi, is excerpted from an epistle authored by the Ibāḍī qāḍī Abū ʿAlī Mūsā b. ʿAlī (d. 237/851) on behalf of the Omani Imam al-Muhannā b. Jayfar (r. 226/841-237/851) addressed to Muʿādh b. Ḥarb (d.?).[1] According to al-Salimi, the text “discusses a number of theological and legal questions that were currently preoccupying the people of Oman.”[2] His edition is based on four manuscripts of the text found in various public and private libraries in…

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Welcome to the TraSIS Project

Welcome to the TraSIS Project

This blog aims to acquaint readers with the research and activities of the Swiss National Science Foundation-funded project (grant number 208124) TraSIS: Trajectories of Slavery in Islamicate Societies, based at the University of Bern. As part of our project output, we aim to publish one blog post every month that explores a primary source related to the theme of slavery and coerced labour in Islamic law, broadly conceived. The sources discussed will vary in terms of temporal, geographic, linguistic and sectarian…

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CfP WorkshopTraSIS (Trajectories of Slavery in Islamicate Societies) and the BCDSS (Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies)

CfP WorkshopTraSIS (Trajectories of Slavery in Islamicate Societies) and the BCDSS (Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies)

Recent scholarship on various forms of dependency has demonstrated that a straightforward freedom/slavery binary does not help to account for how slavery operates in different historical and social contexts. In this workshop, we aim to contribute to discussions on the necessity of transcending this binary, focusing in particular on legal sources from Islamicate contexts.  We invite scholars working on any aspect of slavery and law (both normative texts and legal practices) to join us for a workshop convened jointly by the TraSIS project…

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TraSIS: Trajectories of Slavery in Islamicate Societies. Three Concepts from Islamic Legal Sources

TraSIS: Trajectories of Slavery in Islamicate Societies. Three Concepts from Islamic Legal Sources

For centuries, slavery in various forms was an integral part of Islamicate societies. Different manifestations of unfreedom are rooted in different legal concepts and have produced varying social realities for the individuals concerned. For the purposes of this project, slavery is an analytical category that includes various forms of dependency, even if the connections between them are not explicitly reflected in their Arabic terms.  Content and aim of the research project Muslim jurists have conceptualised freedom and unfreedom in a range of…

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