[Marxism] I was a “medieval Islamic slave” and all I got was this lousy chainmail vest!

[Y. K.]

I study medieval and early modern history and I can confirm Rakesh’s 
criticism:

“***Finding the roots of anti black racism in the Islamic slave trade
and early medieval Arabic thought is overdrawn, though as we come to 
understand the Eastern origins of Western cultural advances (see John 
Hobson) we should study the Eastern origins of Western forms of oppression. 
If Hobson argues that Western civilization is derivative
except in its innovation of a racist cultural identity, Davis argues
that even this was derived from Eastern practice. But I think Davis
is hasty here. He finds literate expressions of anti black prejudice
in the medieval Muslim world, but he does not study the different
nature of its slavery, the dissolving impact of the Koran on such
anti black prejudice, the often good life chances of manumitted, the
often free status of children born to slaves, etc. Anti black racism
was not formed as a doctrine even in the early years of the Atlantic
slave trade, much less in the medieval Muslim world.”

I wouldn’t formulate the problem in East / West terms but Rakesh gives a 
fair account of of “medieval” slavery and notes the problem with Davis, whom 
I haven’t read, but probably doesn’t say much of significance for the 
medieval period. Why? For one, does he know Arabic, Persian, or Turkish? If 
not, then he bases his article on the handful of studies in English which 
are not always reliable (see below).

Among other issues, the medieval Eurasian and north African slave trade was 
not just “Islamic”, but involved all religions and consisted heavily of 
Slavs, Turks and Caucasians, not just Africans, who actually formed a 
smaller proportion of “slave” labor. Ibn Khaldun, a north African himself, 
vilified black Africans in some passages but praised them in others. Other 
earlier medieval Arabic authors, for instance, the renowned al-Jahiz, were 
partially of African descent and they praised black beauty along with the 
necessity of social hierarchy on the basis of the moral qualities of 
religions, not race.

In medieval Central Asia, it was not unusual for people to offer themselves 
for “slavery” (re: military and administrative wage-labor) and move from 
court to court, traded and exchanged almost in the manner of a professional 
athlete in our time. There is also the famous example of the Ottoman empire, 
in which the “slave” was the master of the state, though the Ottomans were 
by no means the only ones to use “slave” troops. Rest assured, early modern 
European serfdom was more ferocious than “medieval Islamic slavery”.

In truth, there is no overarching and convincing explanation among 
specialists about “medieval Islamic slavery”, whatever that may be, though 
grandiose claims are often made about Muslims being equally oppressive as 
whites, in yet another attempt to racialize Islam in the same manner Judaism 
has been racialized in the last century.

Does that mean that there was no medieval exploitation of slave labor?  Of 
course there was, but not in the way that we can easily imagine post-chattel 
slavery. “Medieval Islamic” slaves were never animals or mere commodities, 
formally divorced of souls and entirely deprived of culture and education. 
Rakesh is on firm ground when he notes there is no medieval / theological 
equivalent to class society and scientific racism. As for the “curse of 
Ham”: I can’t remember if someone mentioned this previously, but it is 
encountered in Midrashic commentaries as well, even before the rise of 
Islam, and the presence of Jews among slave traders is pronounced and 
well-attested. Yet, we wouldn’t argue that this makes all Jews racist, nor 
would we claim that Jews are slavers. Political economy here is paramount!

This is not a “merely academic” question.  The loathsome Daniel Pipes, the 
US Zionist extremist who advocated concentration camps, got his academic 
start working on “medieval Islamic slavery”, wrote a bad book on it (Slave 
Soldiers and Islam: Genesis of a Military System), and predictably came out 
on the polemical and rightist side. I’ve always had the impression of Pipes 
that there was never enough glory in academia for him and that he realized 
that he wasn’t as good at debating arguments as he was shouting them as a 
propagandist. Of course, Pipes is just deriving his blather from other 
Orientalists like Bernard Lewis, who also wrote on “race” and “slavery” in 
Islam. Patricia Crone is another member of this group, less known to the 
general public, but with an equally pernicious effect on historians. This 
crowd will welcome the new claims by Davis and others with open arms.

So, the question of “Islamic slavery” is often comparable to 
“Islamofascism”, in my view.  In short, Muslims are racist oppressors who 
lack liberal freedom. The answer: more “freedom” with the help of 
“cruise-missile” liberals, among other rightists.

Y.K.

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