Conversations with Coleman The Forgotten History of Slavery in the Islamic World
122 snips
Mar 16, 2026 
Justin Marozzi, historian and author of Captives and Companions, draws on travel and archives to map slavery across the Islamic world. He covers the scale and timelines of the trade, legal and religious frameworks, trans-Saharan horrors, Barbary corsairs, hereditary slavery in West Africa, and why some forms persist today.
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Mass Enslavement During Early Arab Conquests
- Early Arab conquests between 632–750 involved massive enslavement across North Africa, Central Asia, and Iberia.
- Marozzi cites tens of thousands, sometimes ~100,000 enslaved sent to Damascus in single years.
Eunuchs Were Rare But Privileged Commodities
- Castration existed but was relatively rare due to high mortality, making eunuchs an elite, costly category.
- Marozzi describes brutal 19th-century practices and how non-Muslim castrations were imported to evade Islamic prohibitions.
Explorer Accounts Of Saharan Caravans
- Western 19th-century explorers provide vivid eyewitness accounts of Saharan slave caravans, describing whip-driven marches and high mortality.
- James Richardson recounts a nine-year-old girl whipped during a caravan who later died.
