Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry

by Bernard Lewis

Book Overview

From before the days of Moses up through the 1960s, slavery was a fact of life in the Middle East. Pagans, Jews, Christians, and Muslims bought and sold at the slave markets for millennia, trading the human plunder of wars and slave raids that reached from the Russian steppes to the African jungles. But if the Middle East was one of the last regions to renounce slavery, how do we account for its--and especially Islam's--image of racial harmony? How...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195053265
• ISBN13: 9780195053265
• Release Date: April 1992
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

It is all very complex and a very good book

I have my problem with some of the works of Bernard Lewis but this work is a rare exception for me because I think it is excellent. The author does his best to shatter the myth that Islam is color blind. In the pages of this book time and time again he proves that the Arab Muslims may have been in fear of and were at the very least suspicious of the intentions and work ethics of Black converts to Islam. The book is a work from a purely sociological standpoint and it also had great historical research to back it up. Also be sure to check out the several insightful examples of artwork provided to see how Black Muslims were portrayed in the art of the Arab world. Overall-Lewis really has all of his ducks in a row here a wonderful book

great history of slavery

Though we're all pretty familiar with the slave trade going to the western hemisphere, we're less familiar with the slave trade going from sub-sahara Africa to North Africa and the Middle East. Bernard Lewis covers this part of the slave trade well in Race and Slavery in the Middle East. He goes through time from pre-Islamic times to the 20th century. He discuses how slavery in that part of the world becomes more and more of racial concept that enslaves both whites, black and people from the caucasus montains and each group was perceived. Lewis also focuses on how other ethnic groups in the Middle East such as Persians were looked at. In addition, Lewis goes through how the growth of Europe slowed down slavery and eventually lead to its abolition in North Africa and the Middle East from initially cutting off supply from the Cacasuss Montains and Eastern Europe and then from Sub-Sahara Africa.

A unique look at the complex racial dynamics of the Mideast

I've read some of Prof. Lewis' other books and they all have a common theme, impartial academic analysis. This book tackles a difficult subject without prejudice, slavery and racism. Prof. Lewis knows his subject well. He ignores common "western" perceptions of the region, employs corroborating primary sources, and a very readable rendition of how race is perceived (and not perceived) in the Middle East, past and present. The pictures alone are an amazing collection from around the Islamic world and illustrate local perceptions. Even parallels that seemingly would never occur in most peoples' minds come up such as the fact that many stories in the Arabian Nights depict blacks as slaves, while the Arabs are often "white supremacists" (not to be taken as literally the same as the context in America). The perception of people in the region greatly varies from place to place and from time to time. At times, they struggle with their own racist ideas and the eloquence of some blacks (either former slaves or those born from such unions as well as the occasional martial slave) in the Mideast who became prominent poets, writers, and popular figures in-spite of the racial prejudice. This is an enlightening journey and you'll learn more from this small book then most huge volumes that cannot even grasp what Prof. Lewis has completely understood. Highly recommended.

a good historical view of arab slave practices

This book offers an historical perspective on slavery in the Middle East allowing a comparison between slavery in the America's with the rest of the world. Arab laws protecting slaves are available in the appendix. Also illustrations of mosaics depicting slavery in the Middle East are included.I recommend this book to anyone interesting in the history of the Middle East or of the US because shows how African's viewed the institution of slavery before the European and American slave trade.

A disturbing piece of the past

The realization that the enslavement of blacks (and others) by an expanding Islamic empire is both disturbing and something that is rarely addressed by historians in classrooms. Prof. Lewis presents the realities and the views of Muslim Arabs and others and explains their reasoning and practices in compact detail. The racist element is disturbing in that black African slaves were treated very badly, while white slaves were employed as soldiers or as part of harems. The dichotomy is disturbingly reminicent of European attitudes towards blacks in the more recent past. Slavery in the Middle East continued for decades after it ended in the Americas and in some countries in North Africa, blacks continue to be treated as second-class citizens and/or slaves (Tuaregs raiders and "white" Moors in Mauretania still practice slavery). Lewis covers an uncomfortable subject the best way possible, by presenting facts and remaining neutral as an observer and first-rate historian.