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Can People Sell their Children into Slavery? Cultural Relativism vs. Universality in Islamic Jurisprudence

Can People Sell their Children into Slavery? Cultural Relativism vs. Universality in Islamic Jurisprudence

Questions Raised in South Asia: Selling One’s Children and the Shariah For millennia, one of the ways people entered slavery was as children sold by their families. This seems unthinkable to many today. As the sociologist Georg Simmel (d. 1336/1918) observed, however, our valuation of goods like freedom only makes sense in a context of minimum safety and subsistence. Parents who lacked such basic needs might sell their children if they were threatened, if their family were starving, or if…

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The Blurred Boundaries of Slavery and Freedom in the Early Modern Crimean Khanate

The Blurred Boundaries of Slavery and Freedom in the Early Modern Crimean Khanate

Introduction The Crimean Khanate was a semi-autonomous polity situated in the Crimean Peninsula, the last surviving successor state of the Mongol Golden Horde. It flourished from the mid-15th century to the late 18th century as a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, but occasionally enjoyed brief periods of independence, projecting its power and influence over neighbouring territories. The Crimean Khanate organised slaving expeditions against the non-Muslim populations to the north, leading to the enslavement and sale of thousands of men,…

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From Muslim Slave to Catholic Surgeon: A Case of Manumission in the Galleys of Spain

From Muslim Slave to Catholic Surgeon: A Case of Manumission in the Galleys of Spain

Introduction In the Early Modern period, the Mediterranean was a frontier zone between mutually hostile Christian and Muslim powers. This frontier witnessed trade and diplomatic exchange as well as conflict and violence. In this conflict, capturing and enslaving the “infidel” enemy was regarded as entirely legitimate,[1] and provided the Hispanic Monarchy with the opportunity to replenish its rowing galley benches with newly enslaved enemies. Galley squadrons relied on coerced labour. In the galleys of Spain, in particular, rowing crews were…

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Unfortunately, it Ended: Slavery in Islamic Law and Muslim Societies Conference in Murtensee

Unfortunately, it Ended: Slavery in Islamic Law and Muslim Societies Conference in Murtensee

The TraSIS team organised its first project conference last week, in collaboration with the BCDSS (Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies). We were honoured to welcome scholars from more than ten countries to discuss questions related to slavery in Islamic law and Muslim societies. The conference, which took place on the shores of Lake Murten, featured a keynote lecture by Prof. Christian Müller (CNRS, Paris) on ‘New Sources for Muslim Social History? Premodern Legal Documents from a Comparative Perspective’. Over…

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