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Slavery in Al-Andalus refers to the slavery in the Islamic states in Al-Andalus in the Iberian Peninsula in present day Spain and Portugal between the 8th-century and the 15th-century. This includes the Emirate of Córdoba (756-929), the Caliphate of Córdoba (929-1031), the Almoravid rule (1085–1145), Almohad rule (1147–1238) and the smaller Taifa principalities, notably the Emirate of Granada (1232-1492).
Slavery existed in Muslim al-Andalus as well as in the Christian kingdoms, and both sides of the religious border followed the custom of not enslaving people of their own religion. Consequently, Muslims were enslaved in Christian lands, while Christians and other non-Muslims were enslaved in al-Andalus.[1]
The Moors imported white Christian slaves from the 8th century until the end of the Reconquista in the late 15th century. European slaves were exported from the Christian section of Spain as well as Eastern Europe and referred to as Saqaliba. Saqaliba slavery in al-Andalus was especially prominent in the Caliphate of Córdoba where white female slaves constituted a big part of the slave concubines of the royal harem, and white male slaves constituted most of the administrative personnel in the courts and palaces.[2]
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See also: Bukhara slave trade |
Al-Andalus, the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula, (711–1492) imported a large number of slaves to its own domestic market, as well as served as a staging point for Muslim and Jewish merchants to market slaves to the rest of the Islamic world.[3]
An early economic pillar of the Islamic empire in Iberia (Al-Andalus) during the eighth century was the slave trade. Due to manumission being a form of piety under Islamic law, slavery in Muslim Spain couldn't maintain the same level of auto-reproduction as societies with older slave populations. Therefore, Al-Andalus relied on trade systems as an external means of replenishing the supply of enslaved people.[4][5]
Islamic law prohibited Muslims from enslaving other Muslims, and there was thus a big market for non-Muslim slaves in Islamic territory. The Vikings sold both Christian and Pagan European captives to the Muslims, who referred to them as saqaliba; these slaves were likely both Pagan Slavic, Finnic and Baltic Eastern Europeans [6] as well as Christian Western Europeans.[7] Forming relations between the Umayyads, Khārijites and 'Abbāsids, the flow of trafficked people from the main routes of the Sahara towards Al-Andalus[8] served as a highly lucrative trade configuration.
The archaeological evidence of human trafficking and proliferation of early trade in this case follows numismatics and materiality of text.[9] This monetary structure of consistent gold influx proved to be a tenet in the development of Islamic commerce.[10] In this regard, the slave trade outperformed and was the most commercially successful venture for maximizing capital.[11] This major change in the form of numismatics serves as a paradigm shift from the previous Visigothic economic arrangement. Additionally, it demonstrates profound change from one regional entity to another, the direct transfer of people and pure coinage from one religiously similar semi-autonomous province to another.
The medieval Iberian Peninsula was the scene of episodic warfare among Muslims and Christians. Periodic raiding expeditions were sent from Al-Andalus to ravage the Christian Iberian kingdoms, bringing back booty and people. For example, in a raid on Lisbon in 1189 the Almohad caliph Yaqub al-Mansur took 3,000 female and child captives, and his governor of Córdoba took 3,000 Christian slaves in a subsequent attack upon Silves in 1191.[12]
These raiding expeditions also included the Sa’ifa (summer) incursions, a tradition produced during the Amir reign of Cordoba. In addition to acquiring wealth, some of these Sa’ifa raids sought to bring mostly male captives, often eunuchs, back to Al-Andalus. They were generically referred to as Saqaliba, the Arab word for Slavs.[13] Slavs’ status as the most common group in the slave trade by the tenth century led to the development of the word “slave.”[14]
Along with Christians and Slavs, Sub-Saharan Africans were also held as slaves, brought back from the caravan trade in the Sahara.
Forming relations between the Umayyads, Khārijites and 'Abbāsids, the flow of trafficked people from the main routes of the Sahara towards Al-Andalus[15] served as a highly lucrative trade configuration. The Ancient Trans-Saharan slave trade trafficked slaves to Al-Andalus from non-Muslim Pagan Sub-Saharan Africa.
According to Roger Collins, although the role of the Vikings in the slave trade in Iberia remains largely hypothetical, their depredations are clearly recorded. Raids on Al-Andalus by Vikings are reported in the years 844, 859, 966 and 971, conforming to the general pattern of such activity concentrating in the mid ninth and late tenth centuries.[16]
The vikings performed slave raids toward the Christian parts of Iberia as well. It is known that the vikings sold people they captured in their raids in Christian Europe to the Islamic world via Arab merchants in Russia along the Volga trade route, slaves who were trafficked to the Middle East via Central Asia and was an important slave supply source to the Bukhara slave trade. However, it is not confirmed if the vikings sold the captives from their raids in Christian Iberia directly to Muslim Iberia.
The slave market in the Muslim world prioritized women for the use of domestic servants and concubines (sex slaves) and men as eunuchs, laborers and slave soldiers.
The slaves of the Caliph were often European saqaliba slaves trafficked from Northern or Eastern Europe. The Saqaliba were mostly assigned to palaces as guards, concubines, and eunuchs, although they were sometimes privately owned.[17] While male saqaliba could be given work in a number of tasks, such as offices in the kitchen, falconry, mint, textile workshops, the administration or the royal guard (in the case of harem guards, they were castrated), female saqaliba were placed in the harem.[18] The Sub-Saharan African Pagans were often given more laborous chores than the saqaliba-slaves
In the Islamic world, female slaves were targeted for either use as domestic house slave maidservants, or for sexual slavery as concubines; in certain Islamic periods such as Al-Andalus, female slaves could also be slected for training as slave artists known as qiyan.
The harem system that developed in the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates was reproduced by the Islamic realms developing from them, such as in the Emirates and Caliphates in Muslim Spain, Al-Andalus, which attracted a lot of attention in Europe during the Middle Ages until the Emirate of Granada was conquered in 1492.
The most famous of the Andalusian harems was perhaps the harem of the Caliph of Cordoba. Except for the female relatives of the Caliph, the harem women consisted of his slave concubines. The slaves of the Caliph were often European saqaliba slaves trafficked from Northern or Eastern Europe. While male saqaliba could be given work in a number offices such as: in the kitchen, falconry, mint, textile workshops, the administration or the royal guard (in the case of harem guards, they were castrated), but female saqaliba were placed in the harem.[19]
The harem could contain thousands of slave concubines; the harem of Abd al-Rahman I consisted of 6,300 women.[20] The saqaliba concubines were appreciated for their light skin.[21] The concubines (jawaris) were educated in accomplishments to make them attractive and useful for their master, and many became known and respected for their knowledge in a variety of subjects from music to medicine.[21] A jawaris concubine who gave birth to a child attained the status of an umm walad, and a favorite concubine was given great luxury and honorary titles such as in the case of Marjan, who gave birth to al-Hakam II, the heir of Abd al-Rahman III; he called her al-sayyida al-kubra (great lady).[22] However, concubines were always slaves subjected the will of their master. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III is known to have executed two concubines for reciting what he saw as inappropriate verses and tortured another concubine with a burning candle when she refused sexual intercourse;[22] The concubines of Caliph Abu Marwan al-Tubni (d. 1065) were reportedly so badly treated that they conspired to murder him; women of the harem were also known to have been subjected to rape when rivaling factions conquered different palaces.[22] Several concubines were known to have had great influence through their masters or their sons, notably Subh during the Caliphate of Cordoba, and Isabel de Solís during the Emirate of Granada.
In the Islamic world, male slaves could be used for a number of chores, but the main tasks were two. Either they were targeted for military slavery as slave soldiers; or they were subjected to castration and selected to serve in administration in our outside of the harem, tasks for which they were expected to be eunuchs.
A ready market, especially for men of fighting age, could be found in Umayyad Spain, with its need for supplies of new mamelukes.
Al-Hakam was the first monarch of this family who surrounded his throne with a certain splendour and magnificence. He increased the number of mamelukes (slave soldiers) until they amounted to 5,000 horse and 1,000 foot. ... he increased the number of his slaves, eunuchs and servants; had a bodyguard of cavalry always stationed at the gate of his palace and surrounded his person with a guard of mamelukes .... these mamelukes were called Al-haras (the Guard) owing to their all being Christians or foreigners. They occupied two large barracks, with stables for their horses.[16]
During the reign of Abd-ar-Rahman III (912–961), there were at first 3,750, then 6,087, and finally 13,750 Saqaliba, or Slavic slaves, at Córdoba, capital of the Umayyad Caliphate. Ibn Hawqal, Ibrahim al-Qarawi, and Bishop Liutprand of Cremona note that the Jewish merchants of Verdun specialized in castrating slaves, to be sold as eunuch saqaliba, which were enormously popular in Muslim Spain.[23][24][25]