Islam and Slavery — Page 1
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. . ISLAM AND SLAVERY. . Introduction. . SLAVERY has been defined as the system in which a 1 human being is held to be the legal property of another and is bound to absolute obedience and submission. A slave is thus a human chattel who may be retained or sold or otherwise dealt with as his master pleases. The system had its origin in war. In the beginning of human society, whenever there was a war between two tribes or nations, the combatants of the vanquished army-and very often, even the non-combatant male members of the vanquished nation-were put to the sword, while the children and women were taken into slavery and made to do all sorts of work for their masters. • Gradually, however, as civil life and industries developed and there was greater demand in the world for servants · and labourers, it was felt that the best and easiest way of securing labour was to enslave the conquered people. . Conquering nations then began to enslave rather than slay the prisoners of war, who were forced to do manual work both for the conquering nation and its individuals. By degrees, the system became so wide-spread, that in some countries the slaves even outnumbered the free inhabitants, and slavery became an integral part of civil life. (¹) These slaves were looked upon as the sole property of their (1) 'Chambers' Encyclopaedia under Slavery. . I