Islamic views on slavery

Part of a series on
Islam
Beliefs Oneness of God Angels Holy books Prophets Judgement Day Predestination
Practices Profession of faith Prayer Almsgiving Fasting Pilgrimage
Texts Foundations Quran Sunnah (Hadith, Sirah) Tafsir (exegesis) Ijtihad Aqidah (creed) Qisas al-Anbiya (Stories of the Prophets) Mathnawi (poems) Fiqh (jurisprudence) Sharia (law)
History Timeline Jahiliyyah Muhammad Ahl al-Bayt Sahabah Rashidun Caliphate Imamate Spread of Islam Succession to Muhammad Abbasid Caliphate Al-Andalus Golden Age Seljuk Empire Ilkhanate Timurid Renaissance Gunpowder empires Ottoman Empire Saudi Arabia
Culture and society Academics Animals Art Association football Calendar Children Circumcision Democracy Demographics Diaspora Denominations Sunni Shia Ibadi Economics Education Ethics Exorcism Feminism Festivals Finance Liberalism Madrasa Moral teachings Mosque Music Mysticism Philosophy Poetry Politics Proselytizing Science Sexuality LGBTQ Slavery Concubinage Social welfare Women
Related topics Arabic language Apostasy Criticism Muhammad Quran Hadith Freedom of speech Other religions Islamism Violence terrorism war Islamophobia Jihad Jihadism Salafi jihadism Deobandi jihadism Military laws Peace Pacifism Glossary
Islam portal
v t e

Part of a series on
Forced labour and slavery
Contemporary Child labour Child soldiers Conscription CSEC Debt bondage India Forced marriage Bride buying Child marriage Wife selling Forced prostitution Human trafficking Child China Cybersex Europe Fraud factory India United States Involuntary servitude ... in 21st-century jihadism ... in Africa Peonage Penal labour Sex trafficking China Europe United States Sexual slavery Wage slavery
Historical Antiquity Babylonia Egypt Greece Rome Medieval Europe Ancillae Black Sea slave trade Byzantine Empire Genoese slave trade Kholop Prague slave trade Serfs History In Russia Emancipation Thrall Venetian slave trade Balkan slave trade Muslim world Baqt Barbary Coast slave trade pirates Sack of Baltimore Slave raid of Suðuroy Turkish Abductions Bukhara slave trade Concubinage history Ma malakat aymanukum Avret Pazarları Harem Abbasid harem Ottoman Imperial Harem Safavid imperial harem Qajar harem Jarya/Cariye Odalisque Qiyan Umm al-walad Circassian slave trade Contract of manumission Crimean slave trade Kafala system Khazar slave trade Khivan slave trade Ottoman Empire Avret Pazarları Saqaliba Slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate Slavery in al-Andalus ‎ Slavery in the Rashidun Caliphate Slavery in the Umayyad Caliphate Slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate Volga Bulgarian slave trade 21st century Atlantic slave trade Brazil Bristol Database Dutch Middle Passage Nantes New France Panyarring Spanish Empire Slave Coast Thirteen colonies Topics and practice Blackbirding Child soldiers Conscription Devshirme Ghilman Mamluk Coolie Corvée labour Drapetomania Dysaesthesia aethiopica Field slaves in the United States Treatment Gladiator Gladiatrix House slaves Planter class Proslavery thought Saqaliba Seasoning Slave market Slave Power Slave raiding Slavocracy Voluntary slavery White slavery Naval Galley slave Impressment Pirates Shanghaiing Slave ship
By country or region Sub-Saharan Africa Contemporary Africa Trans-Saharan slave trade Red Sea slave trade Indian Ocean slave trade Zanzibar slave trade Angola Chad Comoros Ethiopia Mali Mauritania Niger Nigeria Seychelles Somalia Somali slave trade South Africa Sudan Zanzibar North and South America Pre-Columbian America Aztec Americas indigenous U.S. Natives United States field slaves female contemporary maps partus prison labour slave codes treatment interregional proslavery sexual slavery The Bahamas Canada Caribbean Barbados British Virgin Islands Trinidad Code Noir Latin America Brazil Lei Áurea Colombia Cuba Haiti revolt Restavek (Encomienda) Puerto Rico East, Southeast, and South Asia Haruwa-charuwa Human trafficking in Southeast Asia Bhutan Brunei China Booi Aha Eunuchs Laogai penal system India Debt bondage Chukri System Bawi system Indonesia Japan comfort women Karayuki-san Korea Kwalliso Nobi Malaysia Maldives Slavery in the Mongol Empire Thailand Yankee princess Vietnam Australia and Oceania Australia Human trafficking Blackbirding Slave raiding in Easter Island Human trafficking in Papua New Guinea Blackbirding in Polynesia Europe and North Asia Sex trafficking in Europe United Kingdom Penal Labour Slavery Denmark Dutch Republic Germany in World War II Malta Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia Spain Sweden North Africa and West Asia Afghanistan Bacha bazi Algeria Bahrain Egypt Human trafficking in the Middle East Iran Iraq Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Libya Morocco Oman Palestine Saudi Arabia Syria Tunisia Qatar Yemen United Arab Emirates
Religion Bible Christianity Catholicism Mormonism Islam Judaism Baháʼí Faith
Opposition and resistance Abolitionism U.K. U.S. Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference 1889–90 Temporary Slavery Commission 1926 Slavery Convention Committee of Experts on Slavery Advisory Committee of Experts on Slavery Ad Hoc Committee on Slavery Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery Abolitionists Anglo-Egyptian Slave Trade Convention Anti-Slavery International Blockade of Africa U.K. U.S. Colonization Liberia Sierra Leone Compensated emancipation Freedman Manumission Freedom suit Slave Power Underground Railroad songs Slave rebellion Slave Trade Acts International law Third Servile War 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution Timeline of abolition of slavery and serfdom Abolition of slave trade in Persian gulf [fa]
Related Common law Forced labour Fugitive slaves laws convention Great Dismal Swamp maroons Indentured servitude List of slaves owners last survivors of American slavery List of slavery-related memorials and museums Slave catcher Slave marriages in the United States Slave narrative films songs Slave name Slave patrol Slave Route Project breeding court cases Washington Jefferson J.Q. Adams Lincoln Emancipation Proclamation 40 acres Freedmen's Bureau Iron bit Emancipation Day
v t e

Islamic views on slavery represent a complex and multifaceted body of Islamic thought,^[1][2] with various Islamic groups and thinkers espousing views on the matter which have been radically different throughout history.^[3] Slavery existed in pre-Islamic Arabia, and Muhammad himself was a slave owner who never expressed any intention of abolishing the practice.^[4][5][6] However, his teachings emphasized improving the condition of slaves, and he exhorted his followers to treat them more humanely. In consequence, slavery was recognised as a valid institution in traditional Islamic jurisprudence, subject to certain conditions and rules.^[1][7][8]

Early Islamic dogma allowed enslavement of other human beings with the exception free members of Islamic society, including non-Muslims (dhimmis), and set out to regulate and improve the conditions of human bondage. The sharīʿah (divine law) regarded as legal slaves only those non-Muslims who were imprisoned or bought beyond the borders of Islamic rule, or the sons and daughters of slaves already in captivity.^[8] It also allowed men to have sexual relationships with slave women without the requirement of "nikah".^[9] In later classical Islamic law, the topic of slavery is covered at great length.^[3] Slaves, be they Muslim or those of any other religion, were equal to their fellow practitioners in religious issues.^[10] However, the consent of a slave for sex, for withdrawal before ejaculation (azl) or to marry her off to someone else, was historically not considered necessary.^[11] In theory, slavery in Islamic law does not have a racial or color component, although this has not always been the case in practice.^[12] Slaves played various social and economic roles, from domestic worker to high-ranking positions in the government. Moreover, slaves were widely employed in irrigation, mining, pastoralism, and the army.^[13] In some cases, the treatment of slaves was so harsh that it led to uprisings, such as the Zanj Rebellion.^[14][15][16] Slaves and concubines are considered as possessions in Sharia;^[17] masters may sell, bequeath, give away, pledge, share, hire out or compel them to earn money.^[18][19][20]

The Muslim slave trade was most active in West Asia, Eastern Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa.^[22] After the Trans-Atlantic slave trade had been suppressed, the ancient Trans-Saharan slave trade, the Indian Ocean slave trade and the Red Sea slave trade continued to traffic slaves from the African continent to the Middle East.^[22] Estimates vary widely, with some suggesting up to 17 million slaves to the coast of the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, and North Africa.^[23] Abolitionist movements began to grow during the 19th century, prompted by both Muslim reformers and diplomatic pressure from Britain. The first Muslim country to prohibit slavery was Tunisia, in 1846.^[24] During the 19th and early 20th centuries all large Muslim countries, whether independent or under colonial rule, banned the slave trade and/or slavery. The Dutch East Indies abolished slavery in 1860 but effectively ended in 1910, while British India abolished slavery in 1862.^[25] The Ottoman Empire banned the African slave trade in 1857 and the Circassian slave trade in 1908,^[26] while Egypt abolished slavery in 1895, Afghanistan in 1921 and Persia in 1929.^[27] In some Muslim countries in the Arabian peninsula and Africa, slavery was abolished in the second half of the 20th century: 1962 in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Oman in 1970, Mauritania in 1981.^[28] However, slavery has been documented in recent years, despite its illegality, in Muslim-majority countries in Africa including Chad, Mauritania, Niger, Mali, and Sudan.^[29][30]

Some early converts to Islam were former slaves. One notable example is Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi, who is noted for being the first Muezzin.^[31] In modern times, various Muslim organizations reject the permissibility of slavery and it has since been abolished by all Muslim majority countries due to social and economic pressure from the western world.^[32][33] Although, many modern Muslims see slavery as contrary to Islamic principles of justice and equality,^[34][35] there have been many Islamic extremist groups and terrorist organizations who have periodically revived the practice of slavery.^[36]