The Number of People Enslaved
The number of people enslaved by Muslims has been a hotly debated topic, especially when the millions of Africans forced from their homelands are considered.
Some historians estimate that between A.D. 650 and 1900, 10 million to 20 million people were enslaved by Arab slave traders. Others believe over 20 million enslaved Africans alone had been delivered through the trans-Saharan route alone to the Islamic world. Dr. John Alembellah Azumah estimates in his 2001 book “The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa” that over 80 million more Black people died over that route.
Arab Enslavers Practiced Genetic Warfare
The Arab slave trade typically dealt in the sale of castrated male slaves. Black boys between the age of 8 and 12 had their scrotums and penises completely amputated to prevent them from reproducing. About six of every 10 boys bled to death during the procedure, according to some sources, but the high price brought by eunuchs on the market made the practice profitable.
Some men were castrated to be eunuchs in domestic service, and the practice of neutering male slaves was not limited to only Black males. “The calipha in Baghdad at the beginning of the 10th Century had 7,000 black eunuchs and 4,000 white eunuchs in his palace,” writes author Ronald Segal in his 2002 book “Islam’s Black Slaves: The Other Black Diaspora.”
It is downplayed because it is over exaggerated. All numbers are estimations based off pure guesses and the number of black Arabs present today in Arab countries, not actual records of blacks brought into Arab lands as slaves. Arabs took much higher numbers of European, Persian and Turkish slaves and they documented that. The Ottomans continued this practice. The amount of slaves bought from Africans and exported to Africa was VERY minimal. This phenomena is exaggerated on purposes to fulfill the wishes of Ant-Islamic western goals, which is to keep blacks from becoming Muslims. A goal that Afro-centrists are also idiotically aligning themselves with. Human trafficking from east Africa had a slight uptick when the Portuguese and the British held territories in East Africa and controlled its coasts. There was NEVER any concerted effort to enslave black Africans by Arabs, nor was there any racialization of slavery by the Arabs. Also, note that early on (something you refuse to acknowledge) the Arabs were BLACK themselves and many still are today, but are being told that they are descendents of slaves. A nice trick by Eurocentrists to continue to usurp these Arabs of their rightful identity. A trick that you are cosigning on as well. It seems to never fail that Western blacks always join sides with Eurocentrist Western whites.
The Zanj rebellion as a slave rebellion is another orientalist lie. The Zanj were actually the wealthy traders and land owners in the area who joined forces with the rebels against the (I believe) Abbasids at the time. It was NOT a slave rebellion. As a point, Arabs (nor Muslims in general where they practiced slavery) never used slaves for hard labor. They used the local populations for that and just extracted taxes from them or they used a serfdom system, which again, employed locals. This attack on Arabs and Islam is really pathetic. You are just using Eurocentric orientalist information. The orientalists already did this job for you and you are plagiarizing them. It would be better for you to talk about the whitening of the Arab ethnicity AFTER the spread of Islam and the anti-black racism that it has brought. Not this nonsense tht you are preaching.
"Arab Enslavers Avoided Teaching Islam to Blacks to Justify Enslaving Them"
Yeah, right, yet West and East Africa were some of the earliest places Islam was spread. When you want to start discussing Arabs, Islam and slavery in truth, let me know. And I will educate you.
Oh, so you decide to dedicate the bulk of your article to make it sound like the Arabs particularly predated on non-Arab black African adding in copious orientalist lies only to tell the truth at the very end in the shortest way possible. That is truly disgusting on your part. Let's hope that youre next article is about the predation of non-Christian and non-Muslims black Africans on each other as sources of slaves. But I doubt that will happen. You really should be ashamed of yourself. It wasn't just in the eighth and ninth century that those ethnicities were taken as slaves. And you still have the audacity to make it sound like non-Arab black Africans formed a significant part of the number of slaves that were bought or taken as war captives by Arabs. How you can you write these things knowing that it is pure propaganda.
Research these terms:
'ilj, 'ulooj
mawlaa/mutawaali, mawaali
sabeey, sabaaya
This will get you on the right path.
I am curious as to how you know all of this sir. Just curious
enlightening….I just added you as a friend
I respectfully doubt the credibility of the author because there are serious flaws in this article. What does the Quran say on this topic? "O Mankind: We created you from a male and a female; and made you into tribes and nations that you may get to know each other. and verily, most honored before God is the most virtuous." (49:13). God is saying the best are those highest in faith, not color, language, wealth, status, etc. What example did the Prophet set regarding black slaves? See the account of Bilal, a black slave freed by the Prophet Muhammad and elevated to the highest honor (http://www.al-islam.org/gallery/kids/Books/bilal/1.htm). What was the Prophet Muhammad's explicit message to Muslims and mankind before passing away? "O people, Remember that your Lord is One. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a black has no superiority over white, nor a white has any superiority over black, except by piety and good action (Taqwa). Indeed the best among you is the one with the best character (Taqwa). Listen to me. Did I convey this to you properly?" People responded, Yes. O messenger of God, The Prophet then said, "then each one of you who is there must convey this to everyone not present." Those that participated in slavery where it denigrated the dignity of a person did it out of selfish motives, absolutely not because of Islam, because racism is forbidden for Muslims! Although a form of slavery was practiced back in the early years, slaves were treated with dignity, lived in the house, and were treated with kindness and honor. I also recommend reading up on Dr. Sulayman Nyang, a PhD who chronicled Muslim slaves in the Americas.
Who gives a damn about the Quran or any other religious text, they all justified the enslavement our people. So you can just stop quoting stuff from those garbage a%S religions!!!
I bet you didn't even know Jewish writers wrote the Quran, and the so-called prophet Muhammad never existed neither has Jesus. And if they did where are their tombs or temples?
Man that's not exaggerated they enslaved and murdered and still enslaving and murdering our people long before them crackas. You funky a%$ goat-herders know yall hate our people, I don't know if you're black or arab but you need to do your got damn research. Stupid a%$
Arabs trolling the shi*t out of this article, even though the author quotes their sources so it must be extra true.
the books he quoted in the article. quit playin dumb muthafucka
Just like Christianity, Islam is a slave religion.
You would say that being a muslim. Fuck you and and you phony so called logic. You're just as bad as the kkk types and so on in blaming the victim for muslim savagery with that you sold each other bullshit. Muslims gave europeans the blueprint for the chattel enslavement of Africans here in the americas and your shaming tactics make that clear to the unknowing. NEVER any concerted efforts by arab muslims to enslave Africans? Stfu you just went from no credibility ti negative credibility with that bullshit you just said.
Spread at the end of a sword. When YOU want to accept the truth about your savage faith and its bloody history of chattel enslavement you let ME know, and I'll educate your sorry ass.
It is arabs who were raiding african villages along the coast and selling them to european merchants.thats why slavery didnt take place in the interior of africa,they they go tell this lie that has stuck that it was africans who were selling fellow africans.the reason why for example in kenya slaves were not raided is beacause the arabs met a fierce tribe which i belong to called the maasai same case case as the zulus in the south.slavery was more prominent in west africa because they were living in dense forest villages isolated from each other henc lack of organised kingdoms and communities.Islam promotes slavery even to this day a good example is the abduction of 300 nigerian girls whom the terrorists have threatened to sell as slaves interestingly the muslim world is silent about the whole issue.
Well Muslims and Christians raped, exploited, enslaved and murdered black people. But I think Christians made it more industrial and racial. But I still dont like both religions. I would like to read more about the Jewish role in the African Holocaust.. like how most of the big plantations in America were owned by Jews, and how Jews were like 10X more likely to be slave owners than Christians or how the Spanish Jews financed the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
But why only us as black we were slave in mass es, couldn't we fight back?
i guess the same reason they were able to take over north africa and southern europe so fast. superior military forces, plus they were united. same as whites, slavery didnt peak until european countries were united.
My people are of West African Islamic heritage, yorubas. My grand-parents and great parents were Islamic scholars and Imans in Lagos, we had (have?) our own mosque. My own father told me that our ancestors as muslims were engaged in the Arabic slave trade of Africans, The Fulani Caliphat (arabised Africans) were the primary slave traders of Africans in the region before the Europeans and continued to trade Africans with Europeans once they arrived. I heartily reject this part of my heritage and it is principally one of the reasons I am not a muslim myself and never will be. Apart from the fact that it is not an African religion. For all of the muslim apologists here you are wrong, completely wrong. Arabs traded in Africans for centuaries, converted black peoples to Islam by force, profit or persuasion and played out the age-old divide and rule strategy. Do not presume to tell us about our history or reality with your religion, you were no different from the Europeans. And for all of you African muslims you should have the courage to put the truth of your people first before allegiance to outsider religions. NO more lies.
The point is this article inaccurately claims it is because of Islam slavery was justified but the two authoritative sources in Islam were completely against the brutal form of slavery practiced in the West. Slavery existed long before Islam so it's not a "Islamic" or "Muslim" concept. Not all Arabs are Muslim, this article does a poor job of making that distinction, and Africans weren't the only slaves, Europeans also enslaved Indians (see history of Trinidad, Guyana) and South Americans (conquistadors in Mexico and Latin America). In the US, 20% of Africans slaves were Muslim by faith but Christian slavemasters forced every slave to adopt Christianity, just like Christianity was enforced on Latin America! Slavery, as we know of it today was brutal and broke families and communities. No one can justify it and I'm personally disgusted by what it did to innocent people. But to argue, as this article unfortunately tries, that it happened because a religion allows for it is not only inaccurate but academically dishonest!
Slavery existed long before Islam or even Christianity ever came! Ever heard of Pharaoh? The bondage of Israelites in BC? That was slavery.
Ja'von, what's the largest Muslim majority country in the world? Answer: Indonesia! You won't find Islam was brought there by the sword, instead people came to Islam on their own after interacting with Muslim businessmen. So the saying Islam came by the sword is completely rebutted by the historical facts of Indonesia's interaction with Islam!
What they did had nothing to do with Islam. If they practiced it for greed and make money that was a personal choice. Where does it say in the religion go enslave people brutally??? You won't find it!
Patrick Freeman: Jews were definitely a part of the Trade, but you not only overestimate the numbers and influence of Jews in pre and post colonial Americas, there was one primary group involved, they came to New Amsterdam in the early 1700's, having been hijacked to North America after fleeing Guiana, and the Portugese Inquisition. However, the community's descendent's that went south to places like Charleston SC, were primarily the Lopez Family, that had been tossed out of the Community for "Black Birding" and excommunicated for allowing slaves in their ownership to be subjected to practices forbidden by Jewish Law. Slavery has always been part of the world scene, but how your faith allows for the treatment of the helpless is something that is considerable in it's differences. An interesting note, is the ethnicity of Judah ben Touro's descendants in New Orleans. As in all faiths-there are those who wiil twist or ignore the mandates of their faith in order to become wealthy, or gratify other twisted goals. And no, if you actually take a look at who owned Plantations, from Indigo, Tobacco and Cotton, to Cane, Pineapple and Breadfruit…the majority of Plantation owners were NOT Jewish. Anywhere.
Most intelligent "Western blacks", as you call us, aren't on anyone's side but our own. Our enemy is our enemy, regardless. If you do us harm, you will be called on it. Take it as you will.
the arabs that enslaved blacks were black themselves…looked nothing like the so called arabs we see today they look like that now due to years of race mixing.. Besides conquering goes hand in hand with slavery so does rape pillaging etc etc.. as slaves u had to submit to the captures culture n way of life that's why so many africans r still muslims….
Patrick Freeman You also forget that Jews were expulsed from Spain in 1492.
One more thing, this whole Arabized Islam vs Sub-saharian Islam. This is also more non-sense. What you are calling Arabized Islam is ethnocentric Islam. This is where the Indo-pakistani Muslim has his own form of Islam, the Arab has his own form of Islam, etc. etc and where they view their own ethnicity as the only true Muslims. And what you are describing as Arabism is probably more accurately described as Arab Supremacy, and in particular White Arab supremacy.
Arab supremacy first reared its head with the original black Arab Muslims who decided that they wanted to charge even non-Arab Muslims the jizyah tax because they were non-Arabs, and they relegated all white non-Arabs who they saw as subservient as second class citizens. I say white, because this was the most clear mark of a non-Arab. Take the hadeeth about Umar greeting the Zanj boatman and being confused when he was not greeted back. He had to be told that the man was not Arab. Anyways, the Shu'ubiyyah movement, increased mixing with white non-Arabs and Abbasid rule broke up this initial Arab supremacist trend.
Arabicization is a process by which a non-Arab group becomes Arab through cultural and linguistic assimilation. Arabicization became very popular because of the common cultural background it gave for anyone Muslim to join a larger network and have greater international and financial mobility. Think Westernization today and why everyone wears Western dress and emulates everything Western!
It's not good to try to tack all things negative in Islam on 'The Arabs." This is oversimplistic and discriminatory. It is also a very convenient deflection. What is wrong with the trends in the Islamic world today has nothing to do with Arabicization. It has to do with Extremism surging because of the lack of justice that pro-Western secularlism has provided, mainly because it has encouraged corruption, power vacuums, injustice and moral breakdown on a great many levels and only benefits the patron Western countries economically and militarily. Another cultural issue, which of course impacts Black people more than White people is Arab White Supremacy, where black Arabs are marginalized, propagandized and defamed. This really got going in all Arab territories with European colonization of those territories. This also accounts for why the lineages of black Arabs (within and outside of Arab speaking territories) are denied and why Muslims who consider themselves White (despite black African or black Indian heritage) and close to Europeans only pay lipservice when it comes to their alliance with black Muslims and refuse to identify with or ally themselves with black Muslims in any significant way.
Shammua Mekonnen Hunh?
Degrees of servitude IS NOT THE SAME AS THE SLAVERY WE ARE DISCUSSING HERE! Just stop it right now with that Black enslaving Black nonsense. There is no way there would have been as many Africans left to be enslaved by 'other' people if Black on Black degrees of servitude was anything even remotely close to the brutality inflicted upon them from Arabs and Europeans. They try to say the same thing about American Indians, yet there were zillions of them here in the Americas when the Black man came before Columbus. There were the same zillion left when the Black man stopped coming here before Columbus. But after Columbus, what happened? We all know what happened don't we? So don't try and act like just because I have a quarrel with my black neighbor that you can come from nowhere and quarrel with him too. You can't! Those are the rules of OUR hemispere, that we set for OURSELVES. Other people can do whatever they pleas in their homelands, but don't bring your ilk where we live and make the rules. You will be met with resistance.
Who was cultivating all the spices in zanzibar pemba and all east africa islands inhabited by Arabs?
Maat-Have you ever actually been to Egypt, and heard from Egyptians about their own histories? They most definitely had slaves. Slavery was never based on skin color, it tended to be based on economics and fortunes of war. Only as justifications for slavery, and rationalization of inhuman behaviors toward other Human Beings was the device of "Racism" created for the Americas, and to build a social structure based on a "nearness" to some European Ideal. The Arabs were Invading Conquerors in Africa. And where there was a "Market", there were bound to be Arab Traders. The Barbary Pirates also raided the South Coast of Europe for slaves.
Ricardo C Jordan look at Sudan today? Is albashir an arab or a black? do you know slavery only ended in sudan when the south became independent? dont mistake arabs whose colour is sun burnt by the african sun for blacks.
Thats a lie. Furthermore, the Jews walked into Egypt unfuckinginvited. They could have walked their asses out. No one needed them, didn't ask their greedy asses to come to the land of plenty. They should have been glad they were allowed to stay. They came 70 in number, broke as hell, left 700+ in number materially richer than when they came in. If the Egyptians were chasing their asses it was probably because they had stolen the Egyptians shit on their way out. The Jews are nothing buta bunch of selfish religious hijackers, liars, users and thieves.
Why is a religious book even mentioning race? Phoney ass baloney brainwashing bullshit.
Still trying to save those brutal ass Arabs from their eventual fate? When the bottom line is, that when ask upon judgement, "How did you treat my people?" those sorry ass murderes and theives and slavers of men, won't have the right answer. Period.
Michael Olouasa You mean inhabited by Arabs or with Arabs living their alongside non-Arabs both of whom owned spice farms? How about anyone poor enough or with a low enough status to have to work on a spice farm.
Michael Olouasa They have done it before and they will do it again. Don't trust them, not even their gas.
Ibrahimi Qurani Ibrahimi Qurani It seems to me that you've contradicted yourself…."if their ancestors were afforded the basic rights of human beings to know their ancestry, to not be marginalized, abused, dehumanized and to not have their descendants dehumanized, marginalized and abused" and "The only exception to that is the creation of eunuchs which is a gross infraction upon the rights of any human being." In your research, was this an extensive practice or not? by Arabs? and then were these practices found in Non-Arab Afrikans slave trading? Are you basing your statements and information on being the basis of being an Arab and practicing that culture or being Muslim and the practice of that religion, as plenty of Arabs at that time and now saw no objection to either of what you've mentioned and the effects of this can be seen to this day. Also do you see any difference in the indigenous cultures of Afrika and being Afrikan, albeit there are several thousands of variations of this, there is a an ethos that is shared among Afrikans past and present and being an Arab and practicing this culture? There are many who see and recognize these differences. Lastly, The Qua'ran is not a factual account of history anymore than the Bible is.
Maurice Solovitz It doesn't matter how few Jews were involved. What matters is that they sure got a hell of a nerve being involved at all with the way they whined about being treated so unfairly by others. Bottom line is they hijacked the Hebrew culture, which was really an amalgamation of many loosely shared cultures from peoples from various regions close in proximity. The Hebrews were a nomadic, motely crew of exiled, defected, and rebellious group of mostly Blacks living in the region. They had no common religion, language or culture to speak of but were hospitable to outsiders, including the western Asians driven from drought toward the east, who joined them. These western Asians are the Jews and they later sided with the Hyksos invaders to try and overthrow the Black seat of power in Egypt, of course they lost The Black Hebrews and Black Egyptians fed the Jews starving asses. The Jews betrayed both groups. They ain't nothing but turncoats. And, till this day in Israel, they are still denying the Black Hebrew his rights and heritage.
Rupa Chaudry. What did the Arabs donate to the Blacks on their way to enslaving them? Rupa Mansa Musa as a show off. So what he had riches, he was an African King wasn't he? He was SUPPOSE to have riches! What has that have to do with the world brutally enslaving African people?
Ricardo C Jordan At one time, there were NO ARABS, NO ISLAM. But there were always BLACK PEOPLE.
Yes we fought back, but who is more likely to have a predominantly warlike religion, culture, and disposition? A have or a have not? Who do you think is more likely to have a superior weapon? A have, or a have not? Who will fight harder? A have or a have not? Who is hungrier? A have or a have not? Who is more desparate? A have or a have not? Who is spiritually broken? A have or have not? Who is greedier? A have or a have not? Who is more grateful to the Almighty? A have or a have not. Who is more like to want to take, rather than earn? A have or a have not?
Rupa Chaudry Than where was the outcry of the TRUE Muslims? Why didn't they stop it? There must have been more slave mongers amongst all Muslims than there were true Muslims amongst all Muslims? There is power in numbers.
The people in Egypt now are not Afrikan but pale arabs! They are invaders! And I know the History of Kemet and don't need no stinking arab to tell me it! And Chattel Slavery was based on race! And so was the Arab Slave trade too!
Ibrahimi who ever you are stfu.
Wellette Seyon Most male slaves were not eunuchs. My exception is not a contradiction, it is an admission of a clear exception. Also it IS eurocentric and orientalist propaganda. Europeans have had about 500 years to spread it world wide and they have worked even harder in the past 150 years. It is a rule of thumb that when things are bad you blame the most despised person. Hence we find the world constantly disparaging blacks and Muslims as in the system of Eurocentrism and White supremacy these are the two most despised groups. So why would it surprise you that even the non-Muslim blacks now want to blame the Muslims? and that Muslims are now trying to to point the fingers just like blacks do. When the pressure is put on, we all fall apart. That's the name of the game, kiss up to the Master. The one who can find a little more rank than the other steps on the one below him to see if he can climb higher. I am all about black Unity, especially black unity that extends beyond religion because of the injustice that white supremacy has done to us. But this will not be achieved by buying into the Eurocentric narrative. And all this is done on purpose, because the most powerful movement that the pre-Modern world saw before the rise of the West was Black Islam.
Sixty's Chick No, I'm not trying to save anyone. I'm just telling the truth. Whether you like that or not.
Mara Cohen slavery is slavery whether its based on color,economics or whatever,whether its blacks or europeans being enslaved it doesnt make it less evil,the fact remains arabs were enslaving people,whether it was cause of their religion or whatever,it remains they practiced slavery and its still very prevalent to this day..One thing is for sure no one has said arabs have ever been enslaved themselves so it means they were the earliest to practice it.and dont give me this bullshit original arabs were blacks,arabic is not spoken anywhere in africa as an indigenous language,so arabs have always been arabs and they remain arabs,white yellow or watever you call them but not Blacks.
Arabs are trolling the hell out of his article. I have had conversation with Black Muslims about the slave trade and all they can say is that it's not true Islam. Well that's a cop out answers to me. These Arabs are slavers Period! If this was not part of their culture why has the Arab and Islamic world been do quite about the abuse of Africans both Muslim and non Muslim? Because it's part of their culture period! I have no problem with Black people practicing Islam. However, I do have a problem with the parasitic nature of the Arab, whether in African exploiting black people or in any ghetto in the US /UK! The Black doesn't need their permission to practice Islam so they should move away from these "people"! These people lack the temperament to practice this religion anyway. They only use it when it convenient to them. It stops when they leave the Mosque. That's why their the only ones owning stores in our communities. Bottom line is that these Arabs and Asians benefits from White Supremacy. They are not our friends! The African doesn't have any friends only people who want what we have! This article is spot on! I don't care how much trolling these Arabs do!
Ibrahimi Qurani every time you answer a post you make me sad,black africans didnt inhabit those islands,they were raided from mozambique and tanzania and forced to work,castrated,and raped and forced to change their african names to arabic names.Do you know the meaning of such towns like Bagamoyo,daresalaam,zanzibari?
I know MY history and no the twisted, fabricated I see him coming 10 blocks away bullshit you're ripping off to me. If its one thing I've learned as an African manis this world and that is to NEVER EVER allow others to tell YOUR story, especially your oppressors. Guess what? I practice that lesson every dam day so you can give it up cause you got a better chance of surviving a shark attack after a lightning strike than to make me believe your lies about my people. Haul ass!
We fought back my brother thats why we are still around otherwise we would only be in history books like the mayans or egyptians.Kindgoms in south africa resisted slave trade,so is in east africa,the ethiopians resisted too.after slavery was abolished they still came to colonise us and we successfully resisted and chased them away like in my own country kenya only a few whites and arabs are around.the saddest effect though is that they brainwashed majority of people and it will take alot of effort to reverse the effects
Ibrahimi Qurani Fulani are arabs????? thats the craziest thing i ever heard
If that was meant for me. I'll make this clear. I am not an Arab (as far as I know) and I am not a troll. I am doing my best to educate people here which is quite in contrast to what Mr. A. Moore was trying to do when he wrote this article. Secondly, you are only speaking about White Arabs. You are not speaking about black Arab or Africans of Arab descent it seems. There is a lot of over-simplistic thinking about what an Arab is, mainly to due Western, Eurocentrist and Orientalist propaganda, which forms much of the informational sphere of all Westerners and has worked hard to over take the informational sphere of Africa and the Middle East as well since Western culture is the dominant world culture, and has been for quite some time.
Rupa Chaudry When the hell did I say anything about Indonesia?! I said Africa. And I know it was spread there under pain of death. Islam made Africa flourish?! What you on huh? Dope or dog food? My Motherland flourished plenty on its own and didn't need the help of any dam savages from the north. Furthermore I don't care worth a rat's ass what you CLAIM your hadith says because your people didn't get that memo. Fuck intentions it's about reality for me. Hitler and the Nazis can, will and have argued they had good intentions. I KNOW your Quran says all infidels (non muslims) should be murdered so you can haul ass with that bullshit too.
Ibrahimi Qurani You can keep living in the Matrix if YOU want to but I know better. Apparently you missed my earlier comment about never believing the oppressor and allowing others to tell MY story. It aint ton happ'm Capp'm!
Michael Olouasa You know this is a lie. Well…you should know, but it seems you have succumbed to the lies. Just so you know, the black Arabs were not the ones who started enslaving other blacks, Arabs or non-Arabs. You will find that the earliest black civilizations had slaves. The Egyptians took not only the black Hebrews as slaves, but also other Egyptians, Nubians, Libyans and Persic types (the Asiatic types found on the walls are not Arabs, they are Persian types). What do you expect the winner of the war to do when he captures you? All prisoners are essentially slaves. All poor people or weak tribes who have to attach themselves to stronger people or strong tribes are slaves. I really wish my people would get some clear heading thinking on this. The enemy knows how to use these buzz words, to make big claims and then watch us eat each other alive. Looks like the Eurocentrist agents have penetrated Afro-centrism and pro-blackness in the worst way! But I blame my Muslim brethren for dropping the ball and not seeking and promoting the necessarily knowledge to give us true Islamic history and to show how Islam was always a friend to Black people, until the Europeans convinced the Arabs to read translations of European books and to listen to their lies instead of reading their own books. Even the Turks know that the true Arabs are black because they call black people Arapi, i.e. Arabs.
Michael Olouasa Not true. The Indian ocean trade pre-dates Islam. The Zanj (lower east Africans), the Habash (Abysinnians) and the Barabir (somalis) were active in this trade, sailing and settling islands since time immemorial. Those stories are colonialist lies. I am not denying that slavery existed in these places, as it did everywhere. But it WAS IN NO WAY the industrial slavery that you imply until the Portuguese and the British took over these territories. The Omanis had some control over these areas later on trying to defend them from the Portuguese and the British after they did their best to destroy much of it and monopolize and industrialize all Indian ocean trade for themselves. You know where most of those East African slaves you mentioned went? They went to South Africa to provide slave labor for the Dutch and the British there, and some were traded further on to Brazil and the Caribbean.
Wilfred Prxstxnke Alexander I don't think you have really understood what I am saying. The that jews and christians were involved in the slave trades of Africans is also undeniable, but that is notthe topic of debate here.
Very cogent replies Ibrahimi and I respect your observations about the distinction between Black Arabs and Caucasian Arabs. I also respect the spirit of African Unity (albeit from an Islamic perspective) that lies behind what you're saying. However we are, I think crossing lines and overcomplicating things a little. There is a clear dichotomy between the contemporary situation which sees muslims vilified, along with Blacks, ( although this is a relatively recent phenomenon-principally just prior to and post 9/11). And I sympathise with the injustice of that reality. Nevertheless I think the crux of the matter here is the historic, caucasian arab slave trade and how that affected Africa and Africans. The religion of Islam cannot be seperated from that trade as it was the legitimising factor in enslaving others. Non-muslims could be enslaved precisely because they were not muslims. That, as I said is sadly part of my own direct heritage. You are probably right when you talk about there not being a specifically racial element in this trade as was the case with the Europeans, the Arabs would enslave anyone, they were quite democratic in that respect. The African anger at the legacy of Arab slavery found clear expression in the Zanzibar revolution in 1964, and bear in mind the Zanzibarans were and are muslims yet the historic animosity towards caucasian arabs was far stronger than religious ties. Maybe because of the later more savage and barbaric european slave trade Africans are far more sensitive about ANY form of slavery, including Islamic arab slavery. And maybe there is an intolerance (unjust or not) towards anyone seemingly trying to minimise that reality on religious grounds, be they muslims or christians (who do just the same when they try to sanitise the role of the catholic and protestant churches in the European slave trades). Those of us who are loyal and self-respecting Africans have the right of unchallenged criticism and condemnation, as we put Africa and Africans before all other loyalties.
Rupa Chaudry Non-muslims were enslaved because they were not muslims. Muslims were not enslaved because they were muslims. Next question.
Ja'von Brown Well, you can believe that the sky is brown. I would be silly to argue with you. Peace.
Ibrahimi Qurani Well I have my own African muslim bloodline to testify about what I am talking about, and yes muslims, black African muslims like my family enslaved non-muslim Africans (never muslims!). That Africans were involved in selling other Africans is undeniably true and its what I am talking about. Yet there was no historically renowned Dinka Slave trade, Ibo Slave Trade, Tiv slave trade etc., Why? becasue these and others were the real incidental slavers, the opportunists, the individual criminals, the collaboraters. The systematic, organised trade in human beings in Africa is a legacy of the Christian Europeans and the mainly Arab Muslims. Both as exclusive, elitest, prosletysing faiths expanded through war and conquest and of course slavery. This occurred in Africa as well as other parts of the world were these two religions spread, leaving millions crushed in their wake. It makes no difference what may be said in the Bible or the Koran, this is not a theological issue. It is about the practise of these faiths not their truth. So there IS quite simply a religious element to that and until muslims (black or otherwise) begin to deal with that, the discourse with other Africans especially in the Diaspora will always be a difficult one. To say that we are simply buying into eurocentric perspectives is almost insulting it presupposes we do not have sufficient independent criteria to evaluate the effect of any slavery on our people. It also belies the difficulty African (and other) muslims have in admitting that they insicntively feel a greater loyalty to their faith than to their people. Just like African christians when they are faced with the nefarious role of the churches in slavery. Nevertheless I respect both my Islamic and Chrisitan African brothers and sisters and for me whatever theological differences we may have are far outweighed by my love for our common African heritage and blood.
The picture this man is using of the Moor who is holding a sword is the wrong picture for the article, I find it disrespectful..That man is not a slave, he is simply behind a gate wall, what slave holds a high sword?.;That picture is not a slave but a proud moor with his Sword.
Ricardo C Jordan there is no such thing as a Black arab.
There are two types of history: (1) true history; and (2) propaganda.
I'll share a funny story. I grew up in the 50s and 60s and at that time, the big fear was Communism. We had the air-raids when we had to get under our desks and we were told about the Russians and how they were our enemies. To make a long story short, in the 1980s, I met and became friendly with a guy who had been born in the Soviet Union and recently migrated to the United States. He carried with him, all of his negative attitudes about the United States and capitalism.
One night, he and I sat down with a bottle of rum and a bag of weed. By the time we were done, we were laughing hysterically because we realized that all of that stuff they were telling us about the Soviet Communist, the Soviets were telling their students about us.
That is propaganda.
It's important to remember in reference to the title of this article, Arab and Islamics are not the same. Islam did not exist until the 7th Century AD.
Rupa Chaudry The biggest problem with al-Islam is that it is like the Mormon Religion, it sprang full grown out of it's Founder's personal relationship, is a militant proselytizer, and in the Wars throughout the MENA Region, there was no amelioration of the Islamic "Choice" for Indigenous and Native Peoples. You became Muslim or you died. If you were "dhemmi" you paid "Jizya". And accepted that you were a second class citizen with strict aparthed laws. Some rulers were better than others, but you were still second class. I do think that Arab Culture absorbed racism from the europeans, and especially during colonialist days.
@Mara. She doesn't have to go to Egypt and hear nothing from the imposters there. Why is it that people always ask that? 'Have you ever been to so and so….? As if you have to go there to a place to know the truth about a place and its people. You or I don't know each , but we want each other to believe and understand each other, at the least. Actually meeting each other is not required so why is it that Maat has to go to Egypt in order to know the truth?
my faith is all that matters …allahuakbar….
deal with the rest @ judgement
Ibrahimi Qurani You are making excuses for the Arabs and trying to explain away their choice to brutalize Africans for their own gain. We Africans could care less what their logic or reasoning was. EVERYONE knows right from wrong, good from bad and love from hate and the behaviors that go along with them. Bottom line is Islam came out of a desperate situation just like Judeaism and Christianity. Those who were desparate subjugated those that had nothing to do with creating that desperation. It is not the African's fault that Arabs, Asians, and Europeans were not given a more abundant homeland by the Almighty. For them to try and take by force what they were lacking, even when the Africans were willing to share their abundance with them, was evil and there is no other way to see it but how it really was. All of these facts you write about regarding ethnic migrations and people subjugating other people all points to 'others' trying to take what the African had. Land, wealth, ingenuity, etc. When really all they had to do was diplomatically, acculturate themselves into those cultures developed by Africans that insured that abundance would continue. But noooooo, they had to enslave, declare war, denigrade Gods, and deny people their right to their own cultures. They are the ones who didn't like it that they had to go to the African for subsistence. Everything that they brought with them that may have been condisered good, was overshadowed by the damage they left in their wake. So, no I don't like it, and I'm telling you so.
Ibrahimi Qurani You've not really answered my questions though…the blame game that you speak of is not solely based on Eurocentric or orientalist propaganda, and so those who historians who are African-centered have also studied the same history and facts that you have and come to a different conclusion than you, a conclusion that is not solely based on facts and a timeline, as stated before, but on an understanding of a distinction between that which is an indigenously Afrikan ethos and Arab, culturally and fundamentally. What I am asking is have you done the same? Also, I am not so concerned with Islam as I am with the relationship between Islam and Arab peoples and culture, nor the terms Black Islam, etc. My question is what about Arab culture, then and now, specifically reflects the indigenous Afrikans before they were converted albeit willingly as you say or by the sword, which has not assisted in the loss of culture, marginalization and abuse of Afrikan people (no need to say black Afrikans b/c we know that this is an oxymoron really, as Afrikan is a reflection of much more than nativity of where a people are born). Also, was the practice of Eugenics, whether minimal in numbers or not, a practice of non-Arab Afrikans at the time when they were trading with each other? A people's suffering cannot be trivialized by philosophy or religious doctrine. it is a reality that Arabs and Islam played a hand in the enslavement of Afrikans and this must be taken into account whether you like it or not. It is not so much a demonization of Islam as it is an acknowledgment of historical fact, is it not? I understand you defending your faith, but it does not excuse the methods by which your fellow muslims and/or Arabs asserted themselves on those of darker-skinned races, black people, who at the time were classified as Afrikans and it's connection to the rise of White Supremacist Arabs leading the "culture" of Islamic nations and peoples, how we know it to be today. Why then have Muslims who know Qur-an not fought on the side of Afrikanized Arabs, as you refer to them and Arabized Afrikans? The culture and ideological (political and cultural) framework of these people, Arabs and their practice of Islam has yet to change after all of these years.
Wilfred Prxstxnke Alexander Yeah whatever.
Why is it so hard for some to separate Arabism and Islam? Who would say this about themselves in their own Holy Book….
"The Arabs of the desert are the worst in Unbelief and hypocrisy, and most fitted to be in ignorance of the command which Allah hath sent down to His Messenger: But Allah is All-knowing, All-Wise." – Surah 9 Ayat 97
"Certain of the desert Arabs round about you are hypocrites, as well as (desert Arabs) among the Medina folk: they are obstinate in hypocrisy: thou knowest them not: We know them: twice shall We punish them: and in addition shall they be sent to a grievous penalty."- Surah 9 Ayat 101
"And there were, among the desert Arabs (also), men who made excuses and came to claim exemption; and those who were false to Allah and His Messenger (merely) sat inactive. Soon will a grievous penalty seize the Unbelievers among them."-
Surah 9 Ayat 90
Why is it so hard for some to separate Arabism and Islam? Who would say this about themselves in their own Holy Book….
"The Arabs of the desert are the worst in Unbelief and hypocrisy, and most fitted to be in ignorance of the command which Allah hath sent down to His Messenger: But Allah is All-knowing, All-Wise." – Surah 9 Ayat 97
"Certain of the desert Arabs round about you are hypocrites, as well as (desert Arabs) among the Medina folk: they are obstinate in hypocrisy: thou knowest them not: We know them: twice shall We punish them: and in addition shall they be sent to a grievous penalty."- Surah 9 Ayat 101
"And there were, among the desert Arabs (also), men who made excuses and came to claim exemption; and those who were false to Allah and His Messenger (merely) sat inactive. Soon will a grievous penalty seize the Unbelievers among them."-
1. I don't need a lesson about what white supremacy is and it's effects and you assume I disagree with this reality and I've not stated anything to this affect yet 2. Afrikan ethos is different from a "black ethos", as there is no established general consensus of what melanin-dominant peoples of the world think and feel as a whole, regardless of their shared experience of oppression by the white man or Caucasians or Europeans, regardless of what you feel and think should happen, it has not yet AND as black does not indicate what nation a people and their ancestors historically belong to or what their true identity is which is and has been historically tied to a land. There is, however, an established Pan-Afrikanist movement that has existed for sometime that expressly includes your desire to empower and unite all melanin-dominant or black peoples the world over due to these shared experiences. I can see that you are making several assumptions about my questions and statements and from this I can conclude that you have not taken the time to study what an Afrikan ethos actually is and how it differs from those of other races or perspectives, say an Eurocentric ethos or Western perspective. 3. I'm not sure HOW you can say WHAT all Afrikan-centered historians have studied when you do not seem to be that familiar with what their perspective is in the first place. You repeatedly speak of the brainwashing of these people and ALL others by Eurocentric and orientalist, however, you use the same info and facts to support your own perspective and/or conclusions 4.I've not put words in your mouth so much as I've asked you questions about what you've already stated several times over and have been waiting for you to give accurate and overwhelming evidence to support it in opposition to the African-centered view, which you've yet to do as your arguments are also largely based on the Qua'ran and an idealistic ideology of what Islam should be rather than what has been historically tied to the religion and the actions of the people who practiced it then and now. Again, the Qua'ran is NOT an accurate historical reference anymore than the Bible is, and I've not read yet one time where you have addressed this in any meaningful way, if at all (and several have brought up this argument throughout this thread) 5. I did not say that Arabs were not Black 6. I have yet to express any anti-Islamic sentiments 7. What I and many others on here have acknowledged and rightfully so, is that Arabs, the culture of Arabs and Islam and the culture of Islam have played a hand in the enslavement of Afrikans, full stop and how despite the tenants of Islam, as you and others have expressed, and what the Qur'an "says" does not support a system of chattel slavery or the marginalization of indigenous Afrikans that were converted willingly or not by black Arabs of that time, you've yet to answer my question as to what aspect of Arab culture has not contributed to the marginalization, abuse or loss of culture for Afrikans 8. Did other Afrikans participating in the slave trade practice eugenics? as this is an important question in establishing the kind of slavery that was practiced during this time, which you have also admitted is significant to distinguishing the difference between what was practiced by Arabs and Europeans; I am inquiring as to whether or not there was difference between what Arabs as a culture practiced, and the Islam they may have practiced which is historically more political than spiritual, and the practice of slavery and Islam by Arikans. Kindly answer that, if you will 9. and since you are referencing blogs, I will recommend one for you as well. but will stat off which just a quote from it. "Afrikans were never called Arabs. All Afrikans are identified by wither their tribe, state or nation. Arabs are a hybrid people made by breeding a small population of Afrikans with larger populations of Caucasians and Asians. In the distant past when Afrikans ruled what is now Arabia, the Afrikans were called Elamites, Moabites, Babylonians and dozens of ancient names. Never were they called Arabs……." https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203715037978486&set=a.10203719018638000.1073741936.1293977419&type=1&theater AND 10. as potent as Islam was in fighting against European invasion, it has somehow lost that fight as of today. So again, I am not so sure that Islam itself has benefitted Afrikans as much as you may think/feel it has in the long run. I've made this comparison with Christianity as well. How the Arabs and Arab culture has been implicit with Europeans in the enslavement of Afrikans is just as important as how the rise of White Supremacy within Arab culture has ultimately affected the fate of Afrikans to this day.
Ibrahimi Qurani Well I'll try to keep it short (if that's possible). 1. the religious rivalry that has existed between Islam and Christianity is a historic reality of competing religious imperialism born from the expansion of both from their middle eastern roots 8as popularly conceived). But that is not what I am talking about. Being of an age to comfortbly remember the decades before the Cold War ended I can testify that anti-Islamic feeling among the general population in the West was not the norm, in fact it was hardly heard of. Anti-arab feeling existed as part of the 'Good guy Bad guy dichotomy fostered by the West in it's struggle against communism. The arabs (except the Gulf sttes) being generally suported by the Communist bloc. Anti-semitism against Jews was far more of a prevelent prejudice at grassroots level. So this is what I refer to, not the imperialist rivalry of two expanding and competeing religions at the birth of the middle ages.
The Arab slave trade I refer to is always the caucasian one and yes it did exist and yes it did enslave Africans in a systematic and organised form, the religion of Islam was used to justify this enslavement. And regardless of the particular tenets of the religion itself, this trade is indelibly linked to the religion. Both Christianity and Islam in themselves preach the opposite of what their historcal followers practised, but that really is beside the point. Wether the British stoked the flames of the Zanzibar revolution is a moot point, the historical emnity existed as direct result of the slavery that first bought the (white arabs) to the island in the first place. They installed (imposed) Islam on the original population resulting in this African people so far down in Africa being subject to Islamic culture.
With regards to the origin of Black peoples of the world, not being restricted by religious timelines I tend to follow the lates scientific evidence and discoveries that show a global African presence, from the Americas with peoples like the Olmec to Asia and the Far East. DNA studies recently conducted in China to dispprove the African origin of all humanity, conlusively showed that the Chinese are descended from the Africans, and more so their tiny Black populations. Further DNa studies have also revealed that even the aborigines have majority African genes, so yes all Black peoples are African, wether ancient or contemporary, as African history is by far the oldest on the planet. Western and Abrahamic timelines are pitifully recent compared to Africa's milenial culture.
Ja'von Brown what u mean no such thing as a black arab… arab is not a race it has to do with geographics the term was used to refer to those from the Arabian peninsula..thats like saying no such thing as a black american.. american is a term used to refer to some one from america!!!! eg: if someone is from jamaica he is referred to as jamaican because of his geographical origin not because of his race!!! jamaican is not a race!!! get it just like arab is not a race!!!Don't be fooled
Mara, All of the Dynasties of ancient Egypt were black except the FEW that weren't. People just love to twist that fact around by saying THE 'Nubian' or 'Cushite' dynasty, as if most all of the other dynasties were not black dynasties. ANCIENT Egypt is but the culmination of Black, classic, culture at the helm of the Ancient world. The majority of it's common population and its rulers were born and bred from the belly of the African continent, and were a Nilotic and East African people. The first nations mentioned in the Bible are three, all Black nations…Ethiopian, Nubian, and Cushite. No European nations are mentioned, no Arab nations are mentioned, No Asian nations are mentioned, only African nations. Those others are' Johnny come latelies' AFTER Egypt was already established. Yes, their stories do tell of their wars and of battles with 'others' trying to take their shit. Never any wars where the Egyptians went into another's nation and try to conquer. Why? Because no one else was worth conquering, they had nothing Egypt wanted or needed. But Egypt had EVERYTHING 'others' wanted and needed, that's why they had to fight off everybody trying to take it. You would think this would give people a clue, but no, they like to remain in denial and even try to convince others to do the same. Black people are the original men and women, Mothers and Fathers of civilization, and Gods and Godesses of the universe. We kicked this life off and we know it. Anything worth anything developed in the minds of Black people first and that's a fact. We don't have to go to Egypt or anywhere else to know that, or to prove it to ourselves. We can watch and read and comprehend right from where we sit and stand, wherever that is. Africa is born in us, whether we were born there of have been there, doesn't matter. We know who we are.
Ibrahimi. Why can't you just see that if they cut just ONE Black dick off, that's a problem?
Sixty's Chick I must say, Egyptians did their bit of conquering….Ramses was involved in "foreign wars"….That Dynasty was always fighting with the Hittites…..And then there were the fights on the upper Cataracts. And they fought Bedu Raiders, and they fought Persians, got whupped, and a whole Persian Army disappeared in the Western Desert…many years, and folks do love to fight.
Glenis Holland , sorry but there's a lot of inaccuracies. Islam is over 1400 years old, not 600 years old. Let's not confuse Arab with Islam, not all Arabs are Muslim, a great many are Christian and Jewish- especially at the advent of Islam. You may choose to not believe in the last Prophet or like Islam, that's your perrogative. You have your beliefs and Muslims have theirs. Regarding the Nigerian situation, all major US Muslim organizations have clearly said Boko Haram does not represent Islam and they are not practicing the faith, because Islam does not allow forcing religion on anyone. Have you heard of The Lords Army? They are a Christian terrorist group in Africa. The evil acts they commit should I blame you for it? I didn't hear you denouncing them. Yet, you expect Muslims to speak out when a few crazy people commit a violent act. That's hypocritical don't you agree?
Glenis Holland , please enlighten me where it says to kill non-believers???
Rupa Chaudry I'm speaking to the choir here but Muslims didn't attack or take over by force Takrur, Mali or Songhai either. Nor with the Ethiopian Ifat kingdom, nor were the Swahili states initiated by war. These all became Muslim through trade and traveling proselytizing scholars. The Fulani themselves were formed through willing intermarriage with Arab Muslims. The conversion of the Nubians who are Muslim (some are still Christian) was also from willing intermarriage with Arab Muslims. And i can guarantee you that NO ONE forced the Moghuls to convert to Islam, seeing that they devastated the Muslims at first and then converted when they were in power. That's why all Islamic art is full of Eastern Asiatic looking people.
People also confuse the whole of Islamic history with Arab history which is a mistake, even in currently "Arab" territories. The Arabs quickly faded from real power in most places and were taken over by the Janissaries, Seljuqs, Mamluks and more. The Ottoman Turks were the last. The Ottomans were the most powerful and most widely spread out.
But we are unfortunately talking to people who want to hate Muslims. Hopefully we can reach the few with an open mind and a mind for truth.
Maurice Solovitz he is telling the truth….
Rupa Chaudry you know that Indonesia is the only country that didnt happen to…the others werent so lucky
Glenis Holland This is more confusion. We generally call all olive skinned people who are of a European type or close to it White as well. Do you say that a British person with a good tan is not white anymore? Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, Romanians and Russians are all white whether they get a good tan or not. I am not talking about the purity of their blood, but the general look of them. They are white. This goes for your stereotypical Arab and Persian types as well although it starts to border on mulatto-ish in some areas, and of course let's not forget the Arabs, and the few Persians who are outright black; some of them as black as night and not just dark brown.
Stop trying to impose the Western slavery narrative onto the Arab narrative. It is just not true. As I have said over and over again the Arabs were originally a black people. And they were a black people when they left Arabia as Muslims as well. If you did not know this, now you do. So you should appropriately change your position. For further proof see:
http://quranists.proboards.com/thread/2/ask-original-arabs-appearance
http://quranists.proboards.com/thread/3/mohamed-nafs-zakia-pureblooded-qurayshi
http://savethetruearabs.blogspot.com/2010/03/lets-take-look-at-what-arabs-who.html
Blacks who are descendents of Arabs (where they haven't mixed with non-Arabs) are more pure Arabs than White Arabs. Even where they have mixed with other non-Arab blacks, they still maintain the look that is closest to their original Arab ancestors. Or will you still continue to believe the lie that the White Man has told you, i.e. that the Arabs really are and have always really been White? They told you that about the Hebrews too. Islamic hadeeth has it that Moses (saas) was jet black…black like the Dinka.
Secondly, you obviously have NO CLUE about what is happening in Dharfur, Sudan or Somalia. And this is why fools try to draw blind conclusions between today's events and over a thousand years of history without any proof but estimations backed up by no records.
The Arabs of Sudan are black themselves. Some are just as black as the Dinka. The Zaghawa in Darfur have a longstanding rebellion against the government and that is why the government has turned a blind eye to other somewhat lawless BLACK Arabs like the Janjaweed coming in and fighting with them to take their land.
The Zaghawa are actually the main and ruling ethnicity in Chad, the neighboring country and harbor the rebels there. Sudan sees it as an attack via Chad. The Zaghawa are Muslims as well. What is happening in Somali has nothing to do with Arabs and did you know that the mainly Christian Eritrea is their main arms supplier? Sudan warred with and broke with the south over the control of oil and poor administration of the country. This poor administration is at the root of the strife in Darfur. Arabs are not evil. The culture of Arab White Supremacy IS EVIL however. As well as cultural trends such as excessive tribalism, ethnocentrism, greed, hypocrisy, corruption and demonization and dehumanization of other human beings.
I also think you are also confusing being Arab with being Muslim. Many Arabs are also Christians, especially in countries like Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine. And almost 90% of the Africans in the regions you imply Sudan, Chad, Niger, Mali, Northern Nigeria, Gambia, Guinea, Senegal, Burkina Faso etc. are MUSLIMS and have been for about 800 years.
I don't see why any sane Afrikan can proclaim to be a Muslim despite all the atrocities those barbaric Arabs committed against humanity, especially Afirikans.
Kelvin Okuns As far as I know in Islamic law Free people cannot be enslaved. So Muslims could not enslave free people unless they were captives of a declared war. This even goes for non-Muslims. Non-Muslim traditionalist Africans also practiced this form of slavery. Any slaves sold were either captives of war or people who were already slaves in their native kingdoms/lands. Again, non-Arab black Africans did not factor significantly into the numbers of slaves that Arab Muslims bought according to any documented source not based on estimations and conjecture. And again, when dealing with both traditional African slavery and slavery in Islamic territiories we are not talking about an industrial (plantation or chain gang) system by which slaves were stripped of their human rights and even their identity as full human beings. In both the Islamic and traditional African world slaves were used as domestics, for military and for elite administration and government positions giving their owners who were usually kings, sultans or powerful businessmen complete control over said positions.
http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/10246/
Of course thugs and bandits must be considered when dealing with this phenomenon.
Rupa Chaudry – How about we discuss the Syrian Jihadists that are beheading Christians and selling their blood by the vial. The blood is then used in a cleansing ritual by Muslims. We can go back and forth but that still won't change the fact that up to 80% of the slaves didn't survive the trip during the Trans Saharan Slave Trade. It also won't change the fact that most of the male slaves were castrated and a high percentage of them died from blood loss. Brutality is widely accepted and endorsed by your faith. Once again Mohamed himself was a racist slave owner. This is historical fact.
Kelvin Okuns Ameer Ali writes in Mohammedan Law:
The possession of a slave by the Koranic laws was conditional on a bona-fide war, waged in self-defence, against idolatrous enemies; and it was permitted in order to serve as a guarantee for the preservation of the lives of the captives.. Mohammad found the custom existing among the pagan Arabs; he minimised the evil, and at the same time laid down such strict rules that but for the perversity of his followers, slavery as a social institution would have ceased to exist with the discontinuance of the wars in which the Moslem [sic] nation were at first involved.
The mutilation of the human body was also explicitly forbidden by Mohammad, and the institution which flourished both in the Persian and the Byzantine empires was denounced in severe terms. Slavery by purchase was unknown during the reigns of the first four Caliphs, the khulafai-rashidin, 'the legitimate Caliphs' as they are called by the Sunnis. There is, at least, no authentic record of any slave having been acquired by purchase during their tenure of office. But with the accession of the usurping house of Ommeyya [sic] a change came over the spirit of Islam.
Mu'awiyah was the first Muslim sovereign who introduced into the Mohammedan world the practice of acquiring slaves by purchase. He was also the first to adopt the Byzantine custom of guarding his women by eunuchs. During the reign of the early Abbasides the Shi'a Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq preached against slavery, and his views were adopted by the Mu'tazila. Karmath, who flourished in the ninth century of the Christian era ..seems to have held slavery to be unlawful.
How can a Muslim preach against slavery when the prophet himself was a proud slave owner? Doesn't your entire response contradict Islam? If Mohamed was the perfect man to emulate,then his racist views and his possession of slaves were also perfect and should be emulated…correct?
Islam and slavery:
Napoleon Bonaparte is recorded as saying about the condition of slaves in Muslim countries:
“The slave inherits his master's property and marries his daughter. The majority of the Pashas had been slaves. Many of the grand viziers, all the Mamelukes, Ali Ben Mourad Beg, had been slaves. They began their lives by performing the most menial services in the houses of their masters and were subsequently raised in status for their merit or by favour. In the West, on the contrary, the slave has always been below the position of the domestic servants; he occupies the lowest rug. The Romans emancipated their slaves, but the emancipated were never considered as equal to the free-born. The ideas of the East and West are so different that it took a long time to make the Egyptians understand that all the army was not composed of slaves belonging to the Sultan al-Kabir.”
On the attitude of Muslim master with his slaves, Will Durant says, “…he handled them with a genial humanity that made their lot no worse – perhaps better, as more secure – than that of a factory worker in nineteenth-century Europe.” (Hurgronje C., Mohammedanism, (N.Y., 1916), p. 128 as quoted by W. Durant, The Story of Civilization, vol. IV (N.Y., 1950), p. 209.)
At the end of the 18th century, Mouradgea d'Ohsson (a main source of information for the Western writers on the Ottoman Empire) declared:
“There is perhaps no nation where the captives, the slaves, the very toilers in the galleys are better provided for or treated with more kindness than among the Muhammedans.” (As quoted in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol.I, p. 35.)
This is before prophet muhammad
Glenis Holland Nonsense. The Quran says fight those who fight you. Period. Case closed.
Andrew Paul Yeah right. It wouldn't have been able to read all those lost manuscripts that Muslims translated into Arabic and then brought to Western Europe. That's for sure. No renaissance without that Classical Greek thought lost to them forever, if it were not for the Muslims.
Evelyn Cierria Asia Baker I agree with that sentiment. But none of it played out the way the author of this article and many who have commented think it did.
Ricardo C Jordan As a matter of fact you will find in Lisanul-Arab that to be a pure Arab one can only be black as the dark blackish brown colors are the colors of the pure Arabs, also known as Al-'Arab Al-'aaribah, khulasul-'arab and al-'arab al-qu77ah. Al-mandhur states that the Arabs consider their colors to be black and the colors of the persians to be white. You will find that when Arabs children come out light skinned and not blackish brown like their fathers they are considered hajeen, which is particularly used for light skinned mixed Arabs. Ibn Sayyidah says that the colors of the Arabs are brown, very dark brown and jet black.
You are also correct in that their name comes from the Arabian peninsula, but in particular one part of it, which is the Western central coastal part known as Tihaamah which includes Jeddah, Mecca, Yathrib and that general area. It was known as 'arabat or 'arabaat and that is where the term 'arab and the arab peple originally derive from. From that area they spread throughout the peninsula. This is what we find in Lisanul-Arab.
http://quranists.proboards.com/thread/2/ask-original-arabs-appearance
Note that if the area's climate has been similar for a very long time, being that coastal Arabia is the sunniest, hottest and most humid place probably on the face of the planet, any people native to this area would have to be shades brown which we call black or they would have died off in primitive times. Without access to extensive clothing and shade, fair skinned people cannot survive in this climate. I have been to coast Arabia and I have been to Africa and other tropical areas and coastal Arabia is by far the hottest, most humid and sunniest of all of these places.
Ibrahimi Qurani Exactly..and people forget that the African Moors Built the mali, Ghana, Songhai and other muslim empires..Kingdom of Futa jallon and Mali Empire was at its highest peak because of African Muslims who turned the universities a place for learning of the religion, sciences and arts. NorthWest African Flourished because of islam. Nobody wants to acknowledge that..this is what true islam is bout.
حقهىؤث بشهسشم حقهىؤث بشهسشم go tell that to your big brother Al Bashir in sudan to stop genocide in Darfur if truly Islam is a good religion.Tell those terrorists mad men in Nigeria to return our girls if truly islam is a good religion.tell arabs in the middle east to stop enslaving thousands of girls who go to work there as domestic workers only for their passports to be confiscated and forced to work with no pay without an option of ever seeing their family again only because they are black if truly islam is a good religion.etc etc .
Wellette Seyon That was a lot but i cannot answer all of your concerns and questions because I don't know what the following things are or how they can exist:
1. Afrikan ethos (especially given the diversity on the continent)
2. Afrikans who do not have any reasonable origin in Africa (not talking about origins of all human beings)
3. Pure, original black Arabs as a hybrid between Afrikans and Caucasians.
4. Arab ethos
5. Practicing Eugenics on blacks (I thought eugenics was something one practiced in one's family to preserve the purity of one's lineage)
6. An African-centered view
As for what about Islamic culture has been positive for non-Arab black people (which is what i understand from what you have said above). See the real legacy of Islam in West and East Africa. The Takruri, Songhai, Mali and the independent Swahili trading states. The numerous sufi movements that fought colonialism and galvanized black Africans. Also, I have to reiterate I am not just stating that the Quran is against chattel slavery, I am stating that the Arabs NEVER engaged in chattel slavery. And that NO slave in Islam, black or white, was dehumanized or marginalized by the traditional Islamic legal or cultural systems because of his/her color or ethnicity. Muslims practiced slavery much like indigenous Africans did and Muslims did not mate or breed slaves. Also you will find that Islam is both equally spiritual and political, as it is a legal and spiritual system in that it is a displine that deals with rights, the rights of God, the rights of neighbors, spouses, slaves, rulers, muslims, non-muslims, etc. etc. The Quran calls our religion deenul-haqq which also means the religion of rights.
White supremacy proves to be more potent of a weapon and a uniter of whites on a whole against Islam as force for racial good because of the racial and ideological diversity within Islam. The weakness of Muslims in general is in their intolerance of ideologically differing Muslims and the weakness of White Muslims is in the racial cultural baggage that they brought into the religion from their pre-islamic cultures that were essentially defeated by blacks. Every white group that assimilated into Islam and the Arab ethnicity was at one point an enemy to Islam. Europe was the only cultural victor against Islam and part of that victory was demonizing the blackness of the original Arabs and Berbers who brought Islam to their southern lands.
Lastly, I do not find any great atrocity in that Arab or Islamic culture played a hand in the enslavement of other black people. 1. Because I know it was not an enslavement based on race nor was it one of chattel animal conditions. Legally, at best it was a better option for a prisoner of war. At worse it was a better situation for someone who had been a slave in non-Islamic lands buy being sold into Islamic lands 2. Because I know that for every non-Arab or even an Arab black slave that ended up the slave of a Muslim (black or not, Arab or not) many more Europeans, Greco-Romans and Persians were also slaves to similar Masters. So I do not feel that blacks were being predated upon in a racial manner. 3. I know that that black person as a slave in Islamic territories had a very likely chance of being educated to a very high level, given a position of importance, marrying and even being freed and accepted with honor into his master's family as an heir.
This is the culture of the Muslim Arabs and Islam in general as it concerns slaves. And I do not see that as marginalization. In the case of indigenous Africans who accepted islam…well look them up…they ran empires, libraries and universities.
Islamic movements are what fought off European invasion from Sudan to Senegal. But as religion is often given to corruption by con-men, infiltrated easily by the enemy and followed by simpletons it is a political tool that often ends up much too disorganized when in front of the organized efforts of ambitious kingdoms. The Islamic rebellion in Somalia and Sudan against the colonialists would have won out if it were not for the new air power of the time. And colonialism fought the Sufis tooth and nail throughout Africa and pitted them against the more hardline Sunnis, as the Sufis were more of an enemy to European invasion than the Sunnis. And now look…hardline Sunnis are the brand of Islam of the day and they are terrorizing everyone, Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Anyway, I take your point, but I feel that Islam has much more to offer black people than you think it does and the Eurocentrists know that, they remember the black Moors who conquered Spain and they are deathly afraid of that. But Muslims are not cultivating intelligence, the sharpening of the intellect or the interest in natural science and math in the mosques anymore. And in many ways the medium of knowledge is now dominated by a culture whose marginalization we constantly feel. I hate to hear Muslims talk about geometry or trigonometry as Kuffar knowledge. That does us no good. But I know why they say it. Do you not see how at every turn the mathematicians and scientists have to insert athiesm where it doesn't even belong and is not relevant at all. Do you know see how they skip over the black Arabs and the Khemetians when they teach math and act like only the Greeks brought mathematical knowledge. When you learned math, why was there no reason behind it, no really useful application, no skill attached. Anyways, after all these centuries we black Muslims in the west are dusting through books and discovering just how relevant Islam was and has been to all black people, and how it fought white supremacy.
In the end I will also be clear that the Quran is not just a message for protecting ourselves from harm in this world but also in the next. This is the true Classical Arabic meaning of Taqwa. And I know that for those of you who are only interested in the here and now that is just may not appealing enough.
Lex Primeone Muhammad (saas) had no racist attitudes and he freed anyone that was given to him as a slave. This is a Quranic commandment repeated over and over again. You are no hadeeth scholar, nor do you know what denomination accepts or rejects what hadeeths and why. Nor do you know how to compare various hadeeth to arrive at what should be emulated or not. You are no faqeeh either. You are no better than those ad hoc extremists reading a few hadeeth and thinking that they've got it. The hadeeth are not what they appear. And they cannot be read or understood in an isolated fashion. Not to mention that they cannot be taken over the Qur'an's clear injunctions.
Michael Olouasa you dont seek the religion of islam by observing the people who call themselves muslims because some muslims do not practice true islam and they practice hatred and not peace..there are barbarians in ever religion and ethnic group on this planet earth.. if a muslim is evil does this make the religion of islam evil? no it does not. what happen back then and what happening today is not because of islam the religion but because of he evils of men who cloak them selves as muslims. this is with any religion, or system and ethnic group. i can pin point millions of muslims who are good muslims and i can show you many times where quran speaks of peace and many times where the good muslims have flourished society all over the world. especially in africa by the african muslims.. yes there were some who not good muslims, that is life, but that is not islam.
Rupa Chaudry You are correct Rupa. The Pan Africanists love to equate "Arab" slave trade with their mentors, the European. The is no real proof that is why it wasn't taught in schools. If there were, believe me they would be teaching it from way but to free themselves of their guilt. Secondly, why is it that we American blacks have European names if the Arabs enslaved us in great numbers. Most American blacks are eaters of swine/pig, churchgoers and have European names they proudly wear. Lastly, these "Arabs", do they look like Osama bin Ladin? Saudi Prince Bandar? or Sudanese "Arabs"? These are ALL BLACK MEN!!. See how the details show the truth. My people are emotional like in their church service and sometime get caught up in the "hype". In the 90s the group PUBLIC ENEMY had a song called "DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE". They should listen to it.
nasleroy6th The "Garbage" freed your slavers minds and freed the minds of the world. If it weren't for it, the Europe would still be seaching for dragons and sacrificing virgins for a good crop harvest. Africans world still be worshipping golden stools and other idols.
Michael, please don't confuse a religion with a group of people. The Arabs of the Middle East today are racist but not because of religion. There are thousands of Muslims from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan in the Middle East that are mistreated by "muslim" Arabs. Also, not all Arabs are Muslim, as many are Christian and Jewish! So the racism is not just against women and blacks as you claim but also against Muslims of other races! Clearly, it's culture, ignorance and personal agenda that drives someone to be a racist.
Michael Olouasa The Sultan of Oman and the rest that look like him who are arabs do not look right..no the real history of who the real arabs look like…
Shawanda Marie Bonner are you serious?..qurans teaches against slavery..you should study islam..theres a difference between arab culture and islamic culture. . just because some muslims have gone astray does not make the religion wrong..you dont seek the the religion of islam in a muslim, they are not the source, the quran is. theres a saying muslims are not perfect but islam is. this goes for any spirtuality system even african ones. if different people of different faiths attacked you in an evil way, you would say all there religions are evil although there book says the opposite of there actions.
if a book of a religion prohibts slavery and yet the person of that religion does the opposite and goes and enslaves people, another person would say 'oh that religion is evil just look how that slave master treats other in an evil way''…people you dont seek a religion through people because they might not follow the good tenets of that religion because you will think the religion is evil…this goes for any faith/spiritality that is being practice…..africans enslaved other africans does that make there spiratual system evil?…
What!!! There are well recorded accounts of slaves taken from Africa. The East African coast specifically has records of chiefs from different tribes, accounting for the sale of slaves that Africans already owned. Slavery wasn't a new thing that was invented, the Arabs were just pretty damn strict about the "hard-hairs'' becoming prominent members of the society thus many of them were castrated,sold or returned to Africa upon being granted freedom. These slaves became the first black Islam converts.
Many people forget that before the 18th century slavery was so common that almost all sovereign nations had rules specifically regarding slaves and how they would be treated. Arabs were the most lenient (if you dont consider the Greeks), being born into slavery was not a bad thing, it just meant that you got all the shitty jobs that the rich people didnt want to do. Because it was all about being born or married into the right family. The old empires of Kilwa, Sofala, Mogadishu, Mombasa and Zanzibar literally made slaves equal to minimum wage workers.
religion is just a spiritual enslavement
Arabs are known slavers and still do it to this day. I can't tell from your pic what racial or ethnic group you fall under but if you Black and are defending these Arabs shame on you. Why is it the Muslim world is always so silent on this issue? I don't have a problem with Islam I really don't. But I do have a problem with Arabist being apologists for Arab crime against African People and then hiding behind the Quran and Islam's a cover!
If there is such a difference which I don't see. Why is the Muslim world so silent about how these desert Arabs behave? They get no pass from me. These people are only Muslim when it serves their purpose of lying, stealing, raping and killing. Why with there being so many Muslims you can't counter act this nonsense?
If there is such a difference which I don't see. Why is the Muslim world so silent about how these desert Arabs behave? They get no pass from me. These people are only Muslim when it serves their purpose of lying, stealing, raping and killing. Why with there being so many Muslims you can't counter act this nonsense?
Mara Cohen You were right in the initial part of your reply but wrong in the last part. The Arabs WERE NOT invaders similar to Ghangis Khan. If so, who were the General? What type of soldiers? Mounted Calvary or Infantry? How did Arabs "invade" the powerful West Africans?? It was through trade that Islam entered into Africa. In addition, the "Arabs" looked closer to African in terms of skin color and hair texture than the European and therefore more trusting initally. It is also well known that freeing slaves as encouraged by God in the Quran was a well known practice. Many rose from slavery to prominent positions.
Michael Olouasa The Maya are still there, the fights against the central government in part of there ancient Region "Chiapas" goes on. Since the recapture of the Mayan spoken language, and a trove of Maya Codex being found, and now translated, at least some of those folks are rebuilding there own Traditions, and the Priests are no longer allowed to burn their Books (Codex), as happened when the Spanish came conquering…
Ibrahimi Qurani its hard to do menial labor with no balls and penis, was that also the difference between European and Muslim slavery
@ Shawanda Marie Bonner. You statement was made out of ignorance. You can see as plain as day what i am. You have used this comment to respond to every Muslim's comment on this link. First luv the Arabs of this time in history were African people they were of brown skin like me and you and even darker. Do the research luv In'Sha Allah.
P.s so yes we were enslaving our selves in ancient times in Africa.
P.s so yes we were enslaving our selves in ancient times in Africa.
Chris Biggie Wachira What the heck are YOU talking about? I was responding to a conversation I was having with Mara regarding a specific topic. All of that you just written has nothing to do with that topic, so why do you think its appropriate for you to jump in, and offer a rebuttal based on what you assume that converstion was about in general, and my stance on the topic in particular? Bottom line is, if you have something you want to get across on the topic of Arab Enslavement of Black people, feel free to do so. But don't think it's cool to use me as a target to do so, especially when it's YOU who don't even know what I"M talking about. Furthermore, I don't use wikipedia as a reliable source, a primary source, a peer-reviewed source or any other kind of reliable reference when seeking knowledge. Obviously the historians I learn from, is not the only thing that you are ignorant of about me. But, let me tell you one thing about me in particular, so you'll KNOW, and that is that, I am not a Kumbaya Negro. Or a collaborator like you.
Bismillah for it is not their eyes that are blind but it is their hearts that are blind (sealed)
This might of been because Arabs were always looked down upon. Because of their illiteracy. Tell me do you see the melaninated people of ancient Kemet (Egypt), an the melainated people of ancient Nubia (Sudan) as African peoples. ;0)
Ok you dealing with 180 degrees. So it's safe to say all melainated people are of African decent. If not tell me the difference between a melainated African and being black. ;0)
If adopting a Pro-African stance makes one a fraud, count me among the fraudulent. As one who grew up as an Afrikan American Christian, I have always appreciated progressive Black theologians, especially Cone and Felder, who struggled and developed an Afrocentric apologetic that denounced the oppression of white Christianity and refashioned the Biblical narrative for the sake of justice and black liberation. Sadly, this movement has almost died within Christianity – exchanged for a consumerist theology call prosperity gospel. My challenge to Afrikan and Afrikan American Muslims is to work within their faith to form an Afrocentric apologetic that moves Black Muslims beyond the domination of Arab imperialism and allows them to embrace their Afrikan heritage.
Rupa Chaudry
I know you're a Muslim and I'm a Muslim too. However, Muslims, not Islam have been as oppressive as Western, white, Christian colonizers.
The reality is, slavery wasn't abolished in Saudi Arabia till 1964. Many of those slaves were sub-Saharan Black Africans. This is something we need to recognize.
The Qur'an does talk about possession of a slave woman for sexual enjoyment. This ayat can't be ignored either.
Rupa Chaudry
Female infanticide is an issue in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. There is a gender imbalance in Punjab. That's odd don't you think?!
Rupa,
Islamic Societies following Sharia are very oppressive on women. I wish you could see how women are treated in Afghanistan.
Suraj Sunny Dave
Oppression of women is endemic throughout South Asia. Far too many Indian politicians dismiss the real seriousness of rape in that country.
I do find it funny that Rupa's profile picture is of Katy Perry.
I don't follow. I have been to Afghanistan and India multiple times. There is a very clear difference between how women live in India and how they live in Afghanistan. In India women get education and work just as men do. I honestly do not think rape is any more significant in India then it is in the U.S. or Europe.
Suraj Sunny Dave
And I'm part Afghan. Both India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan have "arranged marriages." Women, in upper class Muslim families, are encouraged to get an education but the primary reason to make them more "marketable" to suitors.
India has real issues with poverty, skin colorism, caste prejudice, homophobia, anti-Muslim bigotry, Hindu nationalism, etc.
India might be a rising economic giant in Asia, but there are social issues there as dire as those in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Just the thoughts of a US veteran.
Suraj Sunny Dave
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2652696/Teenage-girls-hanging-mango-tree-India-victims-honour-killings-families-say-police.html
Suraj Sunny Dave
Furthermore, the handling of the case in Uttar Pradesh may been slow because of their Dhalit caste status.
Andrew Paul 'Age of ignorance' was meant for the Arab world, where islam originated, not the other parts of the world. There is a reason why there was such a need for a new religion there, to educate people of their ignorance. Islam discouraged the slavery and encouraged freeing the slaves that the Arab elites 'owned' at that time.
Gustavo, Its not a "sweeping generalization" , it's a part of normal life in those areas. I am no expert, but I went there twice, and saw many different areas. I am sure the Hazara women do not live the same as Pashtun women. I invite you to one day walk along those areas, go to the markets and the neighborhood. Observe who is outside, who is wearing what, who is walking with who etc…. Are you trying to argue with me that Sharia is as fair as democracy? Because that is all I have been trying to say.
As for Indian women, is sexism an issue? Maybe, but its no where near the caliber that it is in Afghanistan. Women congregate, get an education, have jobs etc… and no one threatens to kill them for it. About the caste system, I would compare it to racism in America. In certain remote areas (i.e. some areas of the south) you will have discrimination. As for marriages, SOME people like to marry within their caste (because marrying within caste means both families have the same level of wealth, also that they follow the same or similar traditions, i.e. certain castes don't eat meat or drink alcohol etc…) Both of my sisters are married to indian men who aren't of the same caste as my family. In todays day and age its a non-issue.
Suraj Sunny Dave
Shariah, based on tenets of the Qur'an and Hadith is problematic in my opinion.
Secular laws are preferable to laws which are more suitable to a different era.
Yes, Pashtuns tend to be more conservative. However, Pashtuns in Pakistan do attend schools, do go to Pakistani cities for college degrees, many wear the dupatta (not burqa) in open spaces, etc.
Malala Yousufzai is Pashtun.
I will admit, there is a certain level of "backward" thinking in some Afghan Pashtun circles.
My family came from Kabul, the capital, they speak Dari and are Shia Muslims. They are more "urban" and coming to America wasn't as much of a "culture shock." Most have intermarried or date (yes, some Muslims do date) outside their faith including the women in my family.
I hope Afghanistan can sustain its progress in the wake of what we are seeing in Iraq.
I'm not an Arab and yes, I will admit as a Muslim, slavery has existed and predates the European slave trade. Preference for pale/light skin is an obsession in the Middle East. Even African American Muslims largely worship separate from immigrant Muslim mosques. It's no different from white churches versus Black churches.
Gustavo, I want to share a photo with you. It has nothing to do with what we were debating earlier but I think you would like seeing it. Its a photo my combat camera man took while we were on patrol. It is a school, its a real cool photo. At the moment I don't have time to find a place to host images, but in a couple hours I will upload it. It goes to show you that the children do want to be educated.
Saiffeldeen Muhammad
Slavery wasn't abolished in Saudi Arabia till 1964. Many Saudis are of African desent and the music from that part of the Arab world is infused with the rhythm of Africa.
We Muslims should also realize, slavery wasn't abolished by Muhammad or His Companions, though emancipation was an option for the enslaved.
Shawanda Marie Bonner
Africans today, like Ethiopian domestic female workers, are subjected to maltreatment, abuse, and sexual violence by their Arab employers who withhold their passports.
In Yemen, native Black women will wear niqab because "white skin" is a premium. Among Afro-Omani women, it is not uncommon for them to paint their faces white.
Islam might be based on social justice issues, but Muslims, like other people fail to live up to these ideas sometimes.
Muslims need to be HONEST about the past atrocities committed by people who claimed Islam as their faith. We can debate the "scale" of destruction, cultural genocide, etc.
Slavery is horrific period, regardless who is enslaved and who the slave master is.
Saiffeldeen Muhammad
Umar conquered Jerusalem, allowing Jews to reenter their holy city after several centuries of being banned from entering the gates.
The early expansion of Islam and toppling of the Byzantine and Sassanid empires was achieved through the battlefield. Mass conversion of these areas didn't occur immediately, it occurred over time. In fact, Central Asia remained Buddhist majority for some centuries after Muslim conquest. There was no immediate pressure to convert non-Muslims, since the jizya was a source of income to the new adherents of Islam.
In 711, the Umayyid caliphate in Iraq sent an exhibition to conquer Sindh (in what is now Pakistan). Early Indo-Arab kingdoms did exist briefly. An expedition led by Muhammad bin Qasim defeated Raja Dahir at what is now Hyderabad in Sindh, and established the Umayyad domination in the area by 712.
Arabs also conquered the native kingdoms of Kabul and Zabul in Afghanistan. In Central Asia, Muslim control over the region was consolidated with the defeat of the armies of Tang China in the Battle of Talas in 751.
I'm part Afghan, and even in Iranian school textbooks, the Arab conquest of Persia is seen as a "century of humiliation."
After a decade, the Arabs eventually triumphed in 642 when the Persian army was defeated at the Battle of Nahāvand.
Yes, trade did follow the spread of Islam after the initial military conquest in the early Muslim period.
Arabs, are not immune from imperialism like anyone else. The spectacular rise of Arabs on the world stage is phenomenal. So there are some names of generals, soldiers, infantry, and battlefields for you to look up.
Enjoy! Khoda Hafiz!
Suraj Sunny Dave
Sure man . . .
Afghanistan and India share a common heritage along with Pakistan.
Kabul was the base from where Babur of the Mughal empire conquered the Delhi sultanate. Pashtuns or Pathans can be found in India as well.
One of India's most legendary Bollywood actresses is Madhubala, she was Pathan.
One of India's most legendary classical Hindustani singers is Parveen Sultana, she's Assamese but part Pathan.
Alright, here they are
http://postimg.org/image/co186xa5h/
http://postimg.org/image/hcrvqlutn/
I was on this patrol, but our CC (Combat Camera) took these photos. 1st BCT, 101s Airborne. 12 February 2013, on the outskirts of Jalalabad, Nangarhar Province. Their school is an abandoned half finished building. Its mostly boys, you have a few little girls sitting in the very back. (not sure if the teacher makes the girls sit in the back or they do it themselves) The teachers are volunteers, and this is "free". There is no public education system. Their only subjects are on the Quran, and Pashtun/afghan history. Really makes you appreciate all we got over here, don't it?
He tries to tell the truth and at the same time 'whitewashes' it. I.E Arabs had African slaves but they were nicer masters than the Europeans and other Africans who also had slaves. That's pretty much in a nutshell what he is saying. He fails to realize that ANY form of slavery by people over another people is the antithesis of the enslaved peoples self determination and self realization.
Sixty's Chick yes but it defines us who come from the race of sub Saharan Africans who dont have neanderthal dna .
Shawn mc you have yat to understand the matrix beloved. If you research enough you will find that most of what you believe is coming from those that want to keep us separated. Through lineage to tribal decent. I'm all about making things simple to understand. I'm not about trying to sound intellectual to confuse others, or to make people dependent. To make ones self seem superior or to make others seem inferior to ones self. The term'syou are using is for pure separation of the people. We are trying to move forward not backwards. You must learn to think deep and outside the box for yourself. Would you rather i replace the word black since some claim that it's a social status and not a race or tribe of people,. With the word Muur but even then this doesn't make us one people for there were different tribes of Muur's. Even if you use the word African it doesn't make us one people. Basically I'm saying that we as melainated people's must get pass the Masonic hack's of this matrix, an learn equality & unity amongst our selves. And the rest of humanity will follow. Don't tell me your one of those that believe the fabricated story of Yacub the big headed scientist. And feel that the Caucasian's were created. If SMH not only did they come from Albino's. They also came from those with more melanin. The process just went faster for the albino's because they were less melainated. It's really common sense beloved do the math. Peace ;0))
This will be my last comment. It's getting to hard to find people's reply's. Plus I've notice that people commenting to just to reply, an not to reach a broader understanding through common sense. It is not their eyes that are blind, but it is their hearts that are blind. Salam Alaikum to you all. Fi-Sabi-Lillah Fi-Amaan-Allah ;0)
Basically it's saying,' the Africans who LOOK like this.' It has nothing to do with DNA. But more importantly, whose definition is it? Which scientists coined the term?
Tim Merrill Who among AA are more "proBlack" than Muslims??!!
Let's talk about American slavery……
Muslim records of the slave traders indicate that they delivered 11 million slaves to market in East Africa, Their records show that they lost nine of every ten slaves along the long and difficult trek across the Sahara desert. Nigerian Yoruba scholars believe 100.000.000 black African people lost their lives due to the Arab slave trade. Arab depictions show women having their breasts cut off by the sword so as not to feed their children on the journey and the desert littered with the bodies of black children discarded on the forced march.
Making a linkage between Islam and slavery is a dangerous shortcut and a historical and intellectual inaccuracy. Islam, as a religion, which advocates faith in God as the sole and unique factor ti differentiate between individuals cannot at the same time advocate supremacy of a race over another. Human greed knows no boundaries.
The white man strikes agin trying to divert Attention from them by making Some one look worse than Theme never in the history of man kind will there be a more racist people well to start of Every one sold and bought slaves Europeans pre Islamic Arabs Islamic Arabs AFRICANS also sold slaves plus there is clear scripture about racial discrimination and slavory in Islam the dilemma at hand is not 1000 years ago it's the now Egypt had a black president back in the 50s he was one of the most popular presidents in Egypt's history what were YOU doing to black people in the 50s what are YOU doing to black people now # prayfor erguson
How do they know all this happened?
What is deeply saddening is what we see happening in the Sudan today….and my Amazigh Students tell me stories of the "glass ceilings" in their own Lands in the Maghreb that they cannot make it thru without an Arab "connection", and that has been the way there ever since the Arab Conquest and the colonizing Arabization…..and the Sunni Extremism that has been exported from the Arabian Peninsula and has resulted in such entities as Boko Haram, and those puritanical Muslim Extremists from Al Qaeda who were determined to destroy the Great Libraries of Timbuktu, and the peaceful African Native Muslims there. The Slavery? That is and has been part and parcel of Sunni Muslim Culture since inception, as it was with Roman Christianity. But there hasn't been an evolutionary reformist "jump" that makes slaving and slavery abhorrent to formal Sunni Islam. The term "Abeed" in Arabic is not a term of honoring….but of contempt.
I can tell right away that this was written by panAfricanists or Black Hebrew Jews or Afrocentrists. They all feel they have to equate the horrors of the European Slave Trade with "Arabs enslaving blacks" yet none of them have Islamic names, customs or faith. They are all from Christians slaves and people right up until today.. The pictures show "blacks" enslaved by "Arabs" who are "black". The writer twists the truth and contradicts himself to say "Arab "enslavement' had "upward mobility!" LOL. Then he mentions the west African Al Tariq who conquered Spain as a "General". Well was he a slave or a commander? You see
This is straight propaganda,too obvious….Islam started out as a culture it wasn't a religion until the prophet Muhammad was taught Islam by the BLACKMAN,but their deities say by the angel Gabriel lol….We taught Islam to The prophet for him to lead the devil back to Islam ,the grafted race that brought wickedness on our planet,I know because I'm Allah…
But yes,the religion of Islam is devilishment,but again we all must remember,the Arabs their talking about in this post was yet again,only white men practicing the Blackman way of life,deceiving them in freindship(same thing they did in Christianity ) and then enslaving them,the devil is devil regardless of his practice,these are the same people….the devil is always known by the atrocious deeds he present,,,,stop letting them continue to deceive you…smh
The difference of Islam and Christianity is it was a religion made by the white race,and Islam was the Blackman culture they stole and made it a religion to exploit the Original people of the planet Earth…Peace
There isn't a race on earth that hasn't been slaves at some time or another. During the 8th and 9th centuries of the Fatimid Caliphate, most of the slaves were Europeans (called Saqaliba) captured along European coasts and during wars. Historians estimate that between 650 and 1900, 10 to 18 million people were enslaved by Arab slave traders.
it is really an interesting topic. For me, a social system that carries the seeking of forgiveness of a sin as an act of freeing slaves is a system that aims to slowly form a society which is free from slaves. and for the term arabs, I really can't generalize because this term can be substituted with the term christians or europeans for example and one will say that not all are slave owners. I am not defending any one I am just saying that islamic regulations have an aim as I stated in the beginning of this post but the term arabs and islam will overlap in the mind of some one who is not familiar with this region.
Muslims enslaved 10-20 million people?? Wow I didn't realize a religion, a faith enslaves people! *sarcasm* smh if it's Arabs then stick with Arabs, not all Arabians are Muslim and not all Muslims are Arabian.
Peter the Great did make Pushkin's grandfather a general and a nobleman but as far as I know he was the exception.
I have to agree with everything Ibrahimi Qurani has commented on.
This write-up is shabby of indepth analysis of history, crooked and an indirect attack on principles of islam.I wont grace you with contra-Evidences.However, this writer needs education on the differences between the principles of faiths, in this case islam, and the societal norms of people professing such faith.Islam is against slavery.Its history involved many instances were faithfuls were enjoined to buy and free slaves!
So what exactly is the point of this article? If it's purely a historical accounting, then fine. Most, if not all, of what was said is true. Again, what's the point. I am an African American, and an orthodox Muslim, a fundamentalist if you will. Is this suppose to be an indictment against Islam? If so, then no judgement against Islam can be rendered, unless you have full knowledge of the Islam, and it's history. I can safely say that no one on the thread has that qualification.
Arabs were trading in slavery long before the advent of Islam. And although Islam didn't forbid slavery, it changed the conditions of servitude such that Muslims are instructed to treat their slaves as well as they would their own family. More importantly, the freeing of one's slave is considered an act of worship, which is most pleasing to Allah.
The fact that Arabs continued to deal in slavery even after receiving Islam, isn't a reflection upon Islam, so much as it is a reflection on the Arab slave traders as failed Muslims.
If this article is an attempt to dissuade African Americans from embracing Islam, then the loss is to those who are swayed by this article without investigating the truth of Islam from impartial sources. If it is an attempt to get African American Muslims to leave Islam, then, to the authors, I say don't waste the ink. Anyone, who knows the truth of Islam, to the point that it has enter their heart, will never leave it.
Fire the editor. Immediately.
It's sad that the African Americans don't know their TRUE history. Dear God why we all just get along‼️
BLACK PEOPLE, WE ARE VERY, VERY VALUABLE, MUCH TO OUR DESTRUCTION!
No mention of the European American enslavement (and castration) in ~1800. We even went to war over it. The Ottomans used typical Muslim justification for these acts as well. It was pretty much the first time the US raised a major army. Kinda a big deal.
Andrew Paul Like pedophilia, necrophilia is allowed in their fascist ideology of 1400 years. Please Google it.
Don't put any of this slavery in the past. Slavery is building Dubai as I type. It is allowed in their unholy book and therefore they still do it as mandated by the psychopath who wrote that book.
THIS IS GOING TO MAKE YOU VERY ANGRY!
I'm sorry but I found freedom in Christ. I was a slave to sin. Jesus set me free. Amen
All Arabs are not Muslims. Religion did not enslave anyone people enslaved people. Europeans enslaved Europeans, Africans, Arabs, every ethnic group enslaved another. Denial is the real damage . All Europeans don't know their history either and they are the biggest denials of them all.
Islam prohibited freeborn Muslims from being enslaved, so it was not in the interest for Arab slavers to convert enslaved Africans to the religion. Since converting enslaved Africans to Muslim would grant them more rights and reduce the potential reservoir of people to enslave.
as you have mention in several point on your article you said arab they are two different thing.Islam is a religion for all humans and firstly is the religion that came to banned slavery and the horrible attitudes of the arabs.arabs were in slavery before Islam and with the name abid as a slave name no.the holy prophet of Islam father is having the same name abdullah which he wasnt a slave and from one of the strong tribes of arabs of Mekka.So Islam came to librarte slaves and any oppressd person immigration to Ethopia wasnt mentions to a christian kingdom and blacks.it was the wsie thought and message of almighty toward the holy prophet on how to engage them to change their ways and acts.even the uncle of the holy prophet once ask if he becomes a muslim which means he is equal to slaves in any law issues.so please check the history of Islam with slavery but Islam wasnt supportin slavery in any way but was there to help those who want to know what human is and humanity.Example we have of egpyt and all those areas it wasnt Islam that slave those jews then which were blacks till sudan and if they don't distort history then they will know that blacks were the once that were then the teachers in sayyidan lugman(saw) Musa (saw) and many that came to free them from captive oppressors.they can change history but the truth is there.
religion free humans and if a true history of arabs is made then it will show that yes they slave and did things that Islam and religion try to change their attitudes.so try to read their history and then read Islam to arabs.its not the same arabs are not meant islam.Islam is for all that gets to understand and believe in that faith of One God which has no example and any comparison alike on earth.
Shrimp slaves in Thailand. Do you buy shrimp from Sams? Costco? Walmart?
I beg to differ to the opinion that Islam is a slave religion.Though Arabs did enslave Africans, it was never officially endorsed like the church and Islam is filled with great historic Africans like Bilal , Mansa Musa, Suni Ali and Askia Muhammad, all great Africans. There's nothing in the annals of history to compare to the European enslavement of blacks.
Carlos Abreu Black Power! Ok brother, most blacks in the west are descendants of slaves and never lived in Africa. Aren't we taking attention off the European treatment of Africans and the horrors of the trans-Atlantic slave trade to focus on Arabs who are on the othe side of the globe?
Mara Cohen, there were people living in the land that is presently claimed by the Israelis for thousands of years before the Bani Israel invaded. So let's not get it twisted with your talk of "homeland". That's so much like the European invaders who "discovered" the Americas, which just so happened to be inhabited by millions of Native Americans. Even if you buy into to the Promised Land narrative, this land wasn't promised unconditionally. When the Jews broke their covenant with God, they lost their claim to the land. They only hold it now by force of arms, and , as we all know, the balance of power always shifts. What the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. The Zionist can't force God's Hand. Their apparent "success" will be short lived. I truly think that the main reason that the Americans feel so tied to the rogue nation of Israel is because they share the common sins of hypocrisy, and tyranny over others. They both made promises to God to be His servants in leading the nations of the world to righteous, and justice. They both have traded this honored role for wealth and power in this world. They both have been cursed for this betrayal, and will be Judged, and Punished by God, accordingly.
Well, Mara Cohen, it has always been thus that the victors get to write the rules, and and interpret history in their favor. Your comment is proof of this. The balance of power presently favors Israel, and it's ilk, but it won't always be this way. Presently the historical narrative belongs to the ascendant West, patrons of Israel, just as it once belonged to others, such as the Ottomans. However, beyond your say so, or mine the is a Truth, Absolute. A Truth, All powerful, that only those that stand with will be left standing in the end. Israel does not stand with this Truth, nor does the U.S. Time proves all things. I suggest you look to what it is that you "swallow", and let me worry about my own intellectual, and spiritual diet, of which you have not a clue. Might does not make The Right. It never has, and never will. All who think so will fall, just as those before them have fallen. And know this, that regardless of how the innocent and powerless are made to suffer now, that Right will prevail. When Israel has fallen, remember you heard it here first.
However the rules for this shindig were written in the aftermath of WW1. And do remember that many of those people who had inhabited the land for thousands of years were Jews. Google "Mizrahi".
Suffice it to say that the Earth is million of years in existence, and mankind is much older than the 5,000 years of Biblical history. There were people living in the Middle East long before the tribe of Israel existed. This makes their claim to the land specious by any measure. As I said, The Lord giveth, and The Lord taketh away. God kept his promise to Jacob (Israel), and his descendants were faithless to that Trust. Whatever divine claim they had to the land has been abrogated by their own doing. Their humanly might may sustain them for awhile, but in time they will be made to account. They harm their own souls.
Well, certainly as specious as any group that is ethnically founded in the North Semitic Tribal groups of the Bronze Age. Given that the first Homo Neanderthalis remains found in that land are carbon dated at around 40, 000 years, the oldest Levantine Archeological remains are at Gobekli Tepe in Anatolia, and are Neolithic (11,000 plus years ago), and then of course, the remainders of the City States of the Sumerians 5-6 Thousand Years ago….for the Fertile Crescent, the North Semitic Tribals from the Akkadians who came from the Arabian Peninsula, or the East Amorites (Babylonians) from the North Semitic Tribal Groups, and the West Amorites who were known as Hyksos. And the Hebrew were one of the smallest, and last setttled to full mixed agriculture as those. So when you say "specious" can you please share with me precisely what you mean by the term, because given the History of the Region, "specious" doesn't seem to fit the descendants of the Hebrews who are now called Jews. And if you would, perhaps give me the name of another such "specious" People?
The Bani Israel (Children of Israel, descendants of Jacob) only came into existence some 4,000 years ago. Abraham had two sons, Ismail, and Isaac. It is these two persons that sired what are rightly called "Semitic" people. Isaac sired Jacob, and it was from Jacob that the "Hebrew" tribes came into existence. The people who inhabited the land prior to Abraham were not Hebrew, nor Jewish. For that matter, Abraham, himself was pre-Hebrew in the Biblical sense, in that, although Jacob, Israel, was a fulfillment of God's Promise to Abraham, Jacob and the twelve tribes he sired were under a separate Covenant particular to them. It is this Covenant that defines "Hebrew", and Jewish, as it is known today. Yes, the Semitic people sprang from the genetic stock that was common to all the peoples who reside in the Middle East of their time, but when the Hebrews fled Eqypt, and invaded the people occupying the "Promised Land", the people they conquered weren't Semitic by today's definition. So, most definitely, any claim to the land they invaded, and now claim on the basis of that invasion is, by the very definition of the word, specious.
All these comments are interesting. I don't know who to believe. but I know one thing, I'm learning things they never taught in school. The main thing I know is that I have been brainwashed by the schools and society.
What Arabs is author referring to? The original Arab is Black. This is well documented and I encourage all to read ""Black Arabia & The African Origin of Islam", by Dr. Wesley Muhammad. Rather than pointing fingers, lets look @ what the research reveals.
Sandy, most people don't their history; this becomes very evident when the American Education system continues to propagate the notion that Christopher Columbus discovered America! So please… The effect means of controlling people is to erase – from their memory – all traces of their history, then invent a narrative – like the Columbus story, and tell them that they have no history. What a criminal act!
BLACK people are from the true tribes of Israel and because of our disobedience we have been led from captivity to captivity, mocked, called names, made into a proverb and striped from our identity. from slave ships, scattered in every corner of the world. WE ARE THE ORIGINAL HEBREW ISRAELITES as told in scripture. No other race of people can claim this but BLACK people. What you read in scripture is about BLACK people. Don't let the devil fool you. Return to God.
Whites and blacks both don't know their history. American schools taught a faux history with misleading truths. As a New York City tour guide , I know this as a fact. I will ask questions to tourists mostly Europeans , Canadians, or Australians , usually a non American would get the right answer about American history. Australians know more about American history than the average white America. I know this as a fact. American had covered up history to preserve it's so-called greatness. The average French person knows more about jazz than the average American. Australians know more about American history than the average American
Debbie A Ferris I think all of South East Asia is slaves to everybody.
Ricardo C Jordan some were, not all. Many of them were actually mixed or non-Black.
Well, the fact that you dismiss this article means you felt the pinch of facts being shared because Islam thrives on lies. I find supposedly educated people like you who embrace such a wicked ideology of Islam despicable.
I agree with you, Ann Inquirer completely. Those people are heartless.
Wesley Daughtrey the cursed ones are the Muslims.
Thomas Takan, and just what fact might that bke? Would it be the fact that man's inhumanity to man predates Islam, and that every nation that ever was is quilty of atrocities. Do you find the human race despicable? Perhaps you should, because since there was man, there has been cruelty. Or maybe you just find the ones that don't agree with your particular ideology despicable? It is wiser to remain silent about things of which you're ignorant, than to speak foolishly. But then if you were wise, you wouldnt be a a fool. Facts, assuming that they are true and accurate, have little valve in and of themselves. It's the meaning and conclusions that we draw from them that is all important. You can settle for your own personal truth, as most do, or you can strive the Greatest Truth. But I doubt you even have a clue about what I've just said.
Columbus was a pirate! History is always rewritten by the conquerors of the day!
Bobby Mitchell I was told Columbus thought he made it to America……but he never did. I went to school in Conn. Maybe it was different in NY.
LMAO as an African Muslim I'm shocked and quite amused with all this 'muslim' talk.
Are people this stupid? You people do know that Arab civilization, history and slavery existed before Islam right? And Islam isn't the only belief system in the Middle-East?
People make shit sound like Arab-History started with Islam. How dumb Reyan Mohamed.
The arab slave trade was the longest and yet the least taught in schools , of the two major slave trades. It began in the 7th century, so they have over 700 or more years on the Europeans.There were 80 million lost on their way to the new world. To me the arab people were the worst people on earth back then, more so than the Europeans.We have the arab people to thank, for the disrespect we get from the world today.
Right on Ann, it is way past time for Black folks to get off the "evil White supremacist"narrative and start to understand the context of Human history and its ugly legacy. The only difference between the Western world and the Islamic world is that they have YET to have a reformation or enlightenment, they continue to use religious ideology to justify their continued brutality. It is the West who leads in Human Rights and it's time for that story to be told and put in check the ignorant bigots who spout their hatred of "white supremacy" with no knowledge whatsoever of the WORLDS history of tribalism, slavery, war and aggressive land theft.
“The Arabs have always propagated and instigated enslavement of Black people, using their religion of Islam to justify it. The Arabs institutionalized Black slavery. The Europeans internationalized it.” Dr. John Henrik Clarke, A Great and Mighty Walk
See also Dr. John Henrik Clarke, How Islam came to Africa: another thought, Letter to the Editor, NY Amsterdam News, September 23, 1995, p. 13