Islam and Slavery — Page 67
67. Fourthly, the marriage of a female slave with her own master. . Now in the first three out of these four cases, the performance of the formal ceremony of marriage is unanimously admitted to be indispensable, but in the fourth case most of the Muslim theologians do not think it to be essential. The sum and substance of their argument is that as the master has the right of ownership over his female slave, that right is legally a substitute for marriage, and, therefore, in the case of the master desiring to enter into conjugal relations with his female slave, the formal ceremony of marriage is considered unnecessary, because the moral and social protection of the parties as well as the protection of the line of progeny that are meant to be secured by a formal marriage are equally secured by the legal relationship that exists between the owner and the . owned.