"Though slavery was maintained, the Islamic dispensation enormously improved the position of the Arabian slave, who was now no longer merely a chattel but was also a human being with a certain religious and hence a social status and with certain quasi-legal rights. The early caliphs who ruled the Islamic community after the death of the Prophet also introduced some further reforms of a humanitarian tendency. The enslavement of free Muslims was soon discouraged and eventually prohibited. It was made unlawful for a freeman to sell himself or his children into slavery, and it was no longer permitted for freemen to be enslaved for either debt or crime, as was usual in the Roman world and, despite attempts at reform, in parts of Christian Europe until at least the sixteenth century."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Bernard Lewis (1992), Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry. Oxford University Press. p. 6.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Islamic_views_on_slavery
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Islamic views on slavery
64 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Islamic views on slavery →
Related Quotes
"Islamic law was far from monolithic, with different schools providing competing accounts. Nevertheless, it was agreed…"
"Unenslavability extended to non-Muslims living under Muslim rule. There was agreement that these dhimmis could not be…"
"It was unnecessary to invite infidels in the abode of war to embrace Islam before seizing their persons, because they…"
"The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wi…"
"From the teaching of the Qur'an above quoted it will be seen that all male and female slaves taken as plunder in war …"
"Let those who find not the wherewithal for marriage keep themselves chaste, until God gives them means out of His gra…"
"Islam has clearly and categorically forbidden the primitive practice of capturing a free man, to make him a slave or …"
"Islam made it lawful for a master to have a number of slave-women captured in wars and enjoined that he alone may hav…"
"And concerning slavery, that was when slavery was a world-wide structure and which was conducted amongst Muslims and …"
"Everybody infers that Islam must be free from slavery and caste. Regarding slavery nothing needs to be said. It stand…"