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Overview
What happens when authorities you venerate condone something you know is wrong?
Every major religion and philosophy once condoned or approved of slavery, but in modern times nothing is seen as more evil. Americans confront this crisis of authority when they erect statues of Founding Fathers who slept with their slaves. And Muslims faced it when ISIS revived sex slavery, justifying it with verses from the Quran and the practice of Muhammad.
Exploring the moral and ultimately theological problem of slavery, Jonathan A.C. Brown traces how the Christian, Jewish and Islamic traditions have tried to reconcile modern moral certainties with the infallibility of God’s message. He lays out how Islam viewed slavery in theory, and the reality of how it was practiced across Islamic civilization. Finally, Brown carefully examines arguments put forward by Muslims for the abolition of slavery.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781786078391 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Oneworld Publications |
| Publication date: | 11/29/2022 |
| Pages: | 448 |
| Sales rank: | 891,891 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.75(w) x 8.85(h) x 1.60(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Notes on Transliteration, Dates and Citation xv
Introduction: Can We Talk About Slavery? 1
What I Argue in this Book 4
Apology for Slavery? 7
Power and the Study of Slavery 10
Blackness, Whiteness and Slavery 11
1 Does 'Slavery' Exist? The Problem of Definition 15
The Main Argument 18
Definition: A Creative Process 18
Definition to Discourse: A Political Process 23
Defining \ 'sla-v(e-)re\: We Know It When We See It 27
Defining Slavery as Status or a Condition 32
Slavery as Unfreedom 34
Slavery as Human Property 38
Patterson & Natal Alienation 43
Slavery as Distinction: The Lowest Rung & Marginality 45
Slavery as Coercion & Exploitation under the Threat of Violence 51
The Problem with Modern-Day Slavery 54
Slavery & Islam - A Very Political Question 61
Conclusion: Of Course, Slavery Exists 64
The Proper Terms for Speaking about 'Slavery' 65
2 Slavery in the Shariah 66
What Islam Says about Slavery - Ideals and Reality 66
Slavery in the Quran & Sunna 70
Inheriting the Near East - Roman, Jewish and Near Eastern Laws versus Islam 76
Islam's Reform of Slavery 82
Basic Principles of Riqq in the Shariah 84
The Ambiguities of Slavery in the Shariah 91
Riqq & Rights in the Shariah 93
Religious Practice 94
Freedom of Movement 94
Social and Political Roles 94
Marriage and Family Life 95
Right to Property 95
Rights to Life and Physical Protection 97
Summary: Law and Ethics 98
3 Slavery in Islamic Civilization 101
What is Islamic Civilization? 101
Is there 'Islamic Slavery'? 102
The Shariah & Islamic Slavery 105
Muslims Enslaving Muslims 106
The Classic Slavery Zone 109
Consuming People & 'Ascending Miscegenation' 110
Slave Populations 113
Routes of the Muslim Slave Trade 113
Blackness and Slavery in Islamic Civilization 119
The Roles and Experiences of Slaves in Islamic Civilization 124
The Slave as Uprooted Person and Commodity 125
The Slave as Domestic Labor … Even Trusted Member of a Household 128
Slave as Sexual Partner 130
Slave as Saint, Scholar or Poet 134
Slave as Elite Administrator & Courtesan 136
Slave as Soldier - When Soldiers often Ruled 139
Slave as Rebel 144
4 The Slavery Conundrum 147
No Squaring the Circle: The American/Islamic Slavery Conundrum 150
Slavery is Evil 154
The Intrinsic Wrongs of Slavery 159
Religions and Slavery 161
Minimizing the Unminimizable or Historicizing the Unhistoricizable 163
Slavery is Slavery: The Problem of Labeling 'Slavery' with One Moral Judgment 164
The Moral Wrongness of Slavery as Unfreedom 166
The Moral Wrongness of Slavery as Owning Human Property 168
The Moral Wrongness of Slavery as Inequality 170
The Moral Wrongness of Slavery as the Threat of Violence 171
The Bald Man Fallacy and the Wrongness of Slavery 172
When Slavery is 'Not that Bad': The Problem with Conditions vs. Formal Categories 174
Do Some People Deserve to be Enslaved? Or, Is Freedom a Human Right? 177
The Past as Moral Authority: Can We Part with the Past? 182
Vie Natural Law Tradition and Slavery 183
Critics of Slavery and the Call for Abolition 185
The Consequences of Moral Progress 192
Muslim Efforts to Salvage the Past 195
5 Abolishing Slavery in Islam 201
Is Abolition Indigenous to Islam or Not? 203
Islam as Emancipatory Force - An Alternative History 205
Abolishing Slavery … For Whom? Concentric Circles of Abolition 212
'The Lawgiver Looks Expectantly Towards Freedom' - Abolition as an Aim of the Shariah 217
Doubling Down - Progressive Islam & the Axiomatic Evil of Slavery 218
Prohibited by the Ruler but Not by God: The Crucial Matter of Taqyid al-Mubah 223
If You Can't Do it Right, You Can't Do it at All - Prohibiting Riqq Poorly Done 227
Same Shariah, Different Conditions - The Obsolescence or Unfavorability of Slavery 232
Slavery: A Moot Point & Bad PR 238
Defending Slavery in Islam 240
6 The Prophet & ISIS: Evaluating Muslim Abolition 244
Do Muslim Approaches to Abolition Pass Moral Muster? 244
A Consensus on Abolition 252
Could Slavery in Islam ever be Unabolished? 255
Abolition vs. ISIS 256
This Author's Opinion 263
7 Concubines and Consent: Can We Solve the Moral Problem of Slavery? 265
Species of Moral Change 266
Moral Disgust at Slavery Today 270
Conclusion & Crisis: Concubinage and Consent 275
Consent and Concubines 276
Disbelief is Unproductive 285
Appendix 1 A Slave Saint of Basra 287
Appendix 2 Enlightenment Thinkers on Slavery 290
Appendix 3 Did the 1926 Muslim World Congress Condemn Slavery? 292
Appendix 4 Was Mariya the Wife or Concubine of the Prophet? 294
Appendix 5 Was Freedom a Human Right in the Shariah? 299
Appendix 6 Enslavement of Apostate Muslims or Muslims Declared to be Unbelievers 303
Select Bibliography 309
Notes 345
Index 403
What People are Saying About This
‘A prodigiously researched, provocatively argued, learned and multi-faceted treatment of a difficult and complex problem. One might not agree with all of Brown’s conclusions, but the book will be a must-read for students and scholars of historical and contemporary Islam, as well as for anyone interested in slavery and its relationship to religion.’
‘This insightful, courageous and comprehensively argued book is bound to constitute a new beginning. It is certain to be as widely debated as it is widely read. And we will all be all the better for it.’