Islam and the Abolition of Slavery

318 Pages·2006·15.06 MB·English

by  W. G. Clarence-Smith

Dedicated to the memory of my father
Jack Clarence Smith
'Does man not have hard service on earth? Are not his
days like those of a hired man, or a slave longing for
the evening shadows?' (Job 7:1-2)
William Gervase Clarence-Smith
Islam and the
Abolition of
Slavery
HURST & COMPANY, LONDON
First published in the United Kingdom by
C. Hurst. & Co. (Publishers) Ltd,
41 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3PL
© William Gervase Clarence-Smith 2006
All rights reserved.
Printed in India
The right of William Gervase Clarence-Smith to be
identified as the author of this publication has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library.
ISBN 1-85065-708-4
CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgements Page ix
Abbreviations, dates, spelling, glossary, scriptural references xiv
Maps xvii-xxvi
Chapters
1. Introduction: The Embarrassing Institution 1
The nature of slavery in Islam 2
Rhythms of expansion and. contraction 6
Slave numbers 11
Orientalist contradictions 16
The logic of Islamic abolition 19
Part I. THE CONTRADICTIONS OF SLAVERY
2. A Fragile Sunni Consensus 22
Early uncertainties 23
Taking infidels in holy war 25
Slave raiding and kidnapping 27
Tribute, purchase, and adoption 31
'People of the book' 36
Conversion and freedom 39
Punishing 'bad Muslims' 42
Concubines and eunuchs 45
3. Dissenting Traditions 49
Ascetics and mystics 50
Theologians and philosopher's 53
Establishing a Shi'i consensus 55
Isma'ili divisions 56
Other sects 60
Slave revolts 63
4. Customary Law 66
Liberation after a fixed term or on conversion 67
v
vi Contents
The ambiguities of ethnicity and race 70
Slavery by birth 72
Self-enslavement and the sale of relatives 74
Debt, bondage and serfdom 76
Crime and taxes 78
Female and mutilated slaves 80
5. Sultan's Law 85
Military slavery 86
Administrative and harem slavery 88
Mughal reforms 90
The turning of the Ottoman tide 91
Iran, Morocco, and other gunpowder states 93
Part II. THE ROADS TO ABOLITION
6. Imperialism and Secularism 98
The Maghrib between colonialism and secularism 99
From reform to revolution in the Ottoman empire 104
Hesitation, on the Nile 110
Middle Eastern stragglers 114
Abolition from Inner to Southeast Asia 118
Conflicting experiences in Africa 123
7. The Ulama and QuasiAbolition 129
Dissenting reformers 130
South Asian Sunni pioneers and their opponents 134
Apotheosis in the Maghrib 136
Wider Arab reformism 138
Ottoman conservatism 140
Evolution in Southeast Asia 142
Mixed, responses in Africa 144
Muslims in Christendom 147
8. Mystics and Millenarians 151
Early Sufi reformism in West Africa 152
Sufi retrogression in Africa. 155
Varieties of African Mahdism 157
Maghribi holy warriors 160
Jihads from the Balkans to Yunnan 163
Risings in South and Southeast Asia 165
Sufi'jihads of the tongue' 167
Contents vii
Peaceful millenarianism 170
Integrating former slaves 173
9. Literalism 177
The first Wahhabi state and its wider impact 178
Saudi Arabia 181
The Muslim Brothers 184
Mawdudi and Hamidullah in South Asia 187
Other expressions of literalism 190
The West and the web 191
10. Rationalism 195
The South Asian shock-troops of abolition 196
South Asian gradualism 199
The great caution of Egypt 202
The radicalisation of the Arab world 207
Progress in the Turco-Iranian world 209
Southeast Asian metamorphosis 211
Africa and the 'second message' of the Quran 213
Developments in the West 215
11. Timing and Comparisons 219
The course of Islamic abolitionism 220
Judaic approaches to slavery 221
Catholicism and servitude 223
Orthodox and Protestant dispositions 227
From Hinduism to Confucianism 230
Envoi 233
:
References 234
Index 277
MAPS
The 'Abode of Islam' xix
The Western Mediterranean xx
West Africa and the Sahara xxi
Eastern and Southern Africa xxii
The Middle East and the Nile xxiii
From the Balkans to the Caucasus xxiv
Turkistan, Tatarstan and Northwest China xxv
South Asia and Southwest China xxvi
Maritime Southeast Asia xxvii
The Americas xxviii
viii
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Various streams of experience flowed together in the making of this
book. In personal terms, I often found myself close to the historical
frontiers of the abode of Islam, through my birth in Gujarat, as a
child in Eritrea, as a youth in Cameroun, in my first teaching job in
Zambia, and carrying out research in Sumatra and the Moluccas.
These were areas where countless multitudes passed into servitude
over the centuries. In the course of my academic career, I gradually
taught more about Islam, initially focusing on Africa and the Near
East, and later exploring Southeast, East and Inner Asia. Research
on the Hadhrami diaspora brought Arabia and South Asia into the
frame.
Attending a landmark conference in Nantes, organised by the
late Serge Daget in 1985, stimulated a shift in my existing interest in
slavery, from Christendom to Islamdom. Scholars are increasingly
integrating Islam into the immense body of writings on world slav
ery, throwing up intriguing problems of comparison. Controversies
rage regarding the place of women in Islam, raising the issue of the
distinctiveness of servile experiences. Fierce polemics between faiths
seize repeatedly upon the emotive issue of slavery, in a context of
competition for converts, bloody communal clashes, and the spec
tre of global religious conflict.
All this gelled when Gwyn Campbell invited me to comment on
papers treating the Islamic factor in Indian Ocean and Asian slav
ery, at an Avignon conference in 2000. I was studying Muslim
reformers in Southeast Asia for a new undergraduate course at the
time, and the potential connections with abolition struck me force
fully. My focus widened to the entire Islamic world for an inaugural
lecture in January 2002, to mark my promotion to a personal chair
in the economic history of Asia and Africa. Revising that lecture for
publication, I collected so much material that I decided to attempt
a more substantial publication.
Primary research on this topic would require a knowledge of a
forbidding multitude of tongues, not to mention several lifetimes
IX
Preface and Acknowledgements
X
of study. Fortunately, scholars have made their detailed regional
findings increasingly accessible over the years. Many of them,
including the readers of my first draft, have generously provided
me with further information. I crave pardon from anybody whom I
have inadvertently failed to mention below, and stress my responsi
bility for all remaining errors and omissions. These are bound to be
numerous, for I am acutely aware of my temerity in trying to cover
14 centuries of global history.
Among general historians of servitude, Sue Miers presented me
with a copy of her book, and discussed aspects of twentieth-century
slavery. Olivier Petre-Grenouilleau let me see the draft of his forth
coming book in electronic format, and commented on a summary
of my inaugural lecture. David Eltis and Stan Engerman sent me
their draft introduction for a forthcoming volume of the Cambridge
History of Slavery series. Joe Miller commented on my attempts at
quantification.
In attempting to understand slavery in Islam, I benefited from
discussions with Michael Brett, Ulrike Freitag, and Peter Riddell.
Amal Ghazal allowed me to cite an unpublished paper, commented
on one of mine, summarised fatwas, and helped me to clarify my
ideas. Laila Moustafa provided me with documents. Ehud Tole-
dano warned me against attempting so ambitious a project, and
pointed out a daunting number of pitfalls. Further help came from
Ben Braude, Faisal Deyji, Dahlia Gubara, Muhammad Masud,
Ruud Peters, Olivier Roy, and Elizabeth Sirriyeh.
For the Arab world, Gerald Hawting made suggestions on the
early Islamic phase. Martin Kramer sent me some crucial docu
ments, and pointed me to a web site. Ismael Musah Montana let me
quote his unpublished paper on Tunisia, and Kristina Richardson
did likewise for Iraq. Mona Abaza provided an issue of al-Manar,
translated for me by Ashraf ul-Hoque. Riad Nourallah summarised
passages from Abduh's commentary on the Quran. Youssef Chou-
eiri gave me the gist of a passage from Sayyid Qutb, and Bernard
Haykel expounded on aspects of Zaydi law. I gleaned further ele
ments from Sebastian Balfour, Jamila Bargach, Michael Cook, Paul
Dresch, Daniel Duran, Mike Feener, Hala Fattah, Bernard Frea-
mon, David Gutelius, Jane Hathaway, Shamil Jeppie, Albertine Jwai-
deh, John King, Keiko Kiyotaki, Joshua Teitelbaum, Bob Tignor,
and Mahmoud Yazbak.
Marie Miran made many suggestions for Sub-Saharan Africa, and
Roger Botte plied me with materials. Zekeria Ould Ahmed Salem
allowed me to cite his forthcoming article on Mauritania, and Mark
Preface and Acknowledgements XI
Smith sent a transcript of Northern Nigerian assembly debates. Taj
Hargey allowed me to quote from his thesis on the Sudan, and
Jonathan Miran sent me a copy of his thesis on Massawa, together
with Italian materials. Richard Gray supplied a chapter from a
forthcoming edited collection, and David Robinson did likewise for
a recent book. Succour also came from Anne Bang, Cedric Barnes,
Ismael Barry, Odile Goerg, Abdulrazak Gumah, Christine Har-
dung, Constance Hilliard, Jan Hogendorn, Martin Klein, Roman
Loimeier, Xavier Luffin, Ghislaine Lydon, Abdullahi an-Na'im,
Beatrice Nicolini, Arye Oded, Lamin Sanneh, Shobana Shankar,
and Farouk Topan.
My forays into the Caucasus and the Turkic world were steered by
conversations with Ben Fortna. Adeeb Khalid gave me the gist of an
Uzbek text, Ahmet Kanlidere translated selections from Tatar origi
nals, and Scott Levi provided me with his article on West Turkistan.
For Turkey, Deniz Kandiyoti and Ferhunde Ozbay sent me their
articles, Yucel Yanikdag photocopied a document for me, and
Gulay Yarikkaya allowed me to cite an unpublished paper. Anna
Zelkina and Michael Kemper instructed me on the Caucasus, while
Nathalie Clayer suggested materials for the Balkans. I also obtained
advice from Virginia Aksan, Ali Akyildiz, Palmira Brummett, Hakan
Erdem, Caroline Finkel, Alan Fisher, Allen Frank, Colin Imber,
Hasan Kayali, Leslie Peirce, Kevin Reinhart, Florian Riedler, Stan
ford Shaw, Vahram Shemmassian, Derin Terzioglu, Brian Williams,
and Galina Yemelianova.
For Iran, Ina Baghdiantz McCabe sent me the typescript of a
forthcoming major study on Safavid elite slavery, with the permis
sion of her co-authors, Susan Babaie, Kathryn Babayan, and Massu-
meh Farhad. Behnaz Mirzai permitted me to cite her unpublished
paper, and scrutinised a draft chapter. Vanessa Martin passed on
some archival materials, and discussed the issue at length. More
assistance came from Willem Floor.
I consulted Avril Powell on South Asian matters from an early
date, and borrowed readings from her. She allowed me to refer to a
chapter in her forthcoming book, so that I profited from the work
°f S.J. Qadri, her collaborator in translating Urdu texts. Claudia
Preckel filled me in on matters South Asian and literalist, and
provided me with a fatwa. Alan Guenther, Shireen Moosvi, and
Jan-Peter Hartung sent me various materials. I was further aided by
Jamal Elias, Marc Gaborieau, Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, Jamal Malik,
Barbara Metcalf, Margrit Pernau, Francis Robinson, and Shabnum
Tejani.