Slavery in the Islamic World

Mary Ann Fay is former Associate Professor of History in the Department of History and Geography at Morgan State University, USA and is the author of Unveiling the Harem: Elite Women and the Paradox of Seclusion in Eighteenth- Century Cairo.

This edited volume determines where slavery in the Islamic world fits within the global history of slavery and the various models that have been developed to analyze it. To that end, the authors focus on a question about Islamic slavery that has frequently been asked but not answered satisfactorily, namely, what is Islamic about slavery in the Islamic world. Through the fields of history, sociology, literature, women's studies, African studies, and comparative slavery studies, this book is an important contribution to the scholarly research on slavery in the Islamic lands, which continues to be understudied and under-represented in global slavery studies.

Determines where slavery in the Islamic world fits within the global history

1. Chapter 1/Introduction What is Islamic about Slavery in the Islamic World? by Mary Ann Fay.- 2. Chapter Two "What is Islamic about Slavery in Muslim Societies?" Cooper, Concubinage and Contemporary Legacies of 'Islamic Slavery' in North, West and East Africa by E. Ann McDougall.- 3. Chapter Three Reading the Hidden History of the Cape:  Islam and Slavery in the Making of Race and Sex in South Africa  by Gabeba Baderoon.- 4. Chapter Four French and English Orientalisms and the study of slavery and abolition in North Africa and the Middle East: what are the connections? by Diane Robinson Dunn.- 5. Chapter Five The Figure of the Eunuch in the Lettres persanes: Reevaluation and Resistance by Sarga Moussa.- 6. Chapter Six Gender, Race and Slavery in the Mamluk Households of Eighteenth-Century Egypt by Mary Ann Fay.- 7. Chapter Seven Africans in the Palace: The Testimony of Taj al-Saltana Qajar from the Royal Harem in Iran by Anthony Lee.- 8. Chapter Eight Encountering Domestic Slavery: A Narrative from the Arabian Gulf by Rima Sabban.- 9. Chapter Nine "Tyranical Masters is the Turks" : The Comparative Context of Barbary Slavery by Christine Sears.- 10. Chapter Ten The 'Slave-Wife' Between Private Household and Public Order in Colonial Algeria (1848-1906) by Sarah Ghabrial