Arab draft

The Traite indicates the trade of the human beings considered as Esclave S. It relates to all the periods of the Histoire like all kinds of Population S, but its most important source is in Africa. In general, it is about the Traite Blacks, but, according to the time and from the geographical surface considered, one distinguishes several types of drafts.

The Arab draft related to a territory which overflows of the Arab surface ; the Négrier S were neither exclusively Moslem, nor Arab S: Persan S, Berber S, Indian S, Javanese, Malayan, Chinese and Noir S took part in these companies, with more or less large degrees. Thus, an inscription found in Java East and gone back to 860 after J. - C., mentions, in a list of servants, the presence of " Jenggi" , i.e. of " Zenj ". A later Javanese inscription speaks black slaves offered by a Javanese king to the imperial court about Chine.
From a point of view centered on the Occident, the subject is assimilated to the Arab draft. This one followed two types of routes to the Moyen-âge:

terrestrial roads through the Deserted S of the the Maghreb and the Machrek on the one hand (Trans-Saharan route);
sea routes in the east of the Africa (Red Sea and Indian Ocean) in addition (Eastern route).

It did not have the same destinations as the treats transatlantic: it fed in Esclave S blacks the world Musulman which, to its Apogée, extends on three Continent S, of the Atlantic Ocean (Morocco, Spain) with the India and is China. It was spread out in time: it starts as of the Middle Ages and stops at the beginning of the XXe century: the last market with the slaves is closed in Morocco in 1920; approximately 1/3 of Ethiopian announces 8 million Esclave S African S off-set between 8th and the 19th century by the Arab and Trans-Saharan draft. Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau has advanced the figure of 17 million Noir S reduced to the Esclavage (for the same period and the same surface) on the basis of work of Ralph Austen - this last evaluating the margin of error of its estimates with 25%. Other sources. Paul Bairoch advances the figure of 25 million Noir S having undergone the Arab draft against 11 million having undergone that of the Westerners.

The second obstacle with the history of the Arab draft is that of the source S. Of the Document S foreigners with the African cultures are at our disposal: they are written by Lettré S which are expressed in Arab and propose a partial glance to us and often condescending on the studied phenomenon. It is true that for a few years, the historical research on the Africa has made formidable great strides, thanks to the use of new methods and with new questionings. The Historien crosses the contributions of the Archéologie, of the Numismatique, the Anthropologie, the Linguistique and the Démographie to mitigate the deficiencies of written documentation.

Moslem medieval sources

They are classified in the chronological order; the first Lettré S of the Arab world never went in Black Africa before the 14th century. They thus take again often the Légende S and the prejudices on the African S and perpetuate the Géographe S of the Antiquité (Hérodote, Pline Old the or Ptolémée).

Al Masudi (death in 957), Muruj adh-dhahab or gold meadows, which are the handbook of reference of the Géographe S and the Historien S of the Muslim world. He travelled much through the Arab Monde like in the Far East.
Ya' qubi (9th century), Book of the countries
Al-Bekri, author of the Road of the White Africa and black of the North-West , written with Cordoue towards 1068, informs us about the Berbère S and their activities; it collected testimonys on the caravan roads of the the Sahara.
Al Idrissi (death towards 1165), Description of the Africa and the Spain
Ibn Battûta (death in 1377), the first Geographer of Moslem culture to go in sub-Saharan Africa, with Gao and Tombouctou; its principal work is entitled Présent at those which like to reflect on curiosities of the cities and the wonders of the voyages .
Ibn Khaldoun (death in 1406), Historian and Philosopher of North Africa. Some regard it as the Historien companies Arab, Berbère and Perse. He is the author of the Prolégomène S histories and of a Histoire of the Berbère S .
Ahmad Al-Maqrîzî (death in 1442), Egyptian Historian, one owes him in particular a description of the markets of the Cairo.
Leon the African (death in 1548), author of invaluable a Description of Africa

Rifa' has Al-Tahtawi (death in 1873), which translated medieval works of Géographie and Histoire. Its work especially carries on the Moslem Egypt.

Joseph Cuoq, Arab Collection of the sources S concerning the Western Africa of 8th at the 16th century , Paris, 1975.

European texts (16th-19th centuries)

Joao of Castro, Roteiro de Lisboa has Goa , 1538
Moreau de Charbonneau, administrator and French explorer of Senegal at the 17th century: Of the origin of the Negros of Africa
James Bruce, (1730-1794), Travels to Discover the Source off the Nile , 1790
Rene Caillié, (1799-1838), Newspaper of a voyage in Tombouctou
Henry Morton Stanley, (1841-1904), Through the mysterious continent , 1878
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, (1547-1616), El trato of Argel , Los baños of Argel

Other sources

African Oral tradition
Chronic of Kilwa (Eastern Africa), 16th Numismatic century
: analyzes treasures and diffusion of the currencies.
Archeology: structure of the counters and cities of the draft
Iconographie: Arab miniatures and Persians of the large libraries
Engravings of the European works of the modern and contemporary time
Photographs, as from the 19th century

Historical and geographical context of the Arab draft

It is advisable to briefly recall in which space and which time appears the Arab and Trans-Saharan draft. It is not question of detailing the history of the world arabo-Moslem, nor that of the Black Africa, but of posing some reference marks which facilitate the comprehension of the draft in this part of the world.

The world arabo-Moslem

The Islamic religion appears at the 7th century of the Christian era. In a hundred years, it quickly diffuses with the whole of the Mediterranean basin carried by the Arabs who conquer occupied North Africa of long time by the Berbères. Quickly converted, the latter extend the Moslem domination to the Iberian peninsula where they take the place of the kingdom Visigoth. The Arabs integrate the Occidental Asia and demolish the Byzantine and the Perse S Sassanides. These areas are thus varied by their settlement and knew already the slavery and the draft of the Africans since Antiquity. They are partly unified by the culture arabo-Moslem woman, whose bases are monks and urban; they use the Arab and the Dinar in the commercial transactions. Mecque in Arabia is the Holy City towards which all the Moslems, whatever their origin, leave in Pèlerinage. Coran, delivers holy Islam, seems to accept the slavery, whose practice is former for him, while limiting arbitrary Masters. --> the doctors and the wise Moslems often encouraged stampings.

After the fall of the dynasty of the Omeyyades (750), the Muslim world is parcelled out in several political entities (Califat S, emirate S, Sultanat S) often rival. At the 11th century, the irruption of the Turkish S from Central Asia upsets the geography of the the Middle East and North Africa, with the introduction of the Ottoman Empire (1299 - 1922).

Civilization arabo-Moslem woman rests on a network of cities and Oasis to the developed functions of trade whose heart is the market (Souk, Bazar). These cities are connected between them by a system of roads which cross semi-arid or desert areas. These tracks are traversed by convoys and the black slaves constitute part of the traffic caravaneer.

Africa (8th-19th centuries)

As from the 8th century, Africa is dominated by theBerber ones in its northern part: Islam progresses towards the south of the continent by the the Nile and the tracks of the desert.

The densities of the the Sahara are low. However, there exists since the Antiquity of the cities which live trade (salt, but, slaves, fabrics) and irrigated agriculture: Tahert, Oualata, Sijilmassa, Zaouila, etc They are directed by Berber chiefs (Touaregs) or Arabic. Their independence is relative and depends on the power of the states of the Maghreb and Egypt.

With the Middle Ages, the sub-Saharan Africa is called Sudan by the Arabs, which means “country of the Blacks”. It constitutes a tank of servile labor for North Africa and Saharan Africa. This area is marked by the domination of several States: Empire of Ghana, Empire of Mali, kingdom of the Bornou - Kanem. These States count prestigious cities which thrive thanks to their situation of crossroads: Tombouctou (Mali), Koumbi, Djenné, Gao, etc

In Eastern Africa, the littoral of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean is under the control of the Moslems, and the Arab merchants are numerous on the littoral. Nubie is already in Antiquity a zone of supply slaves. The Ethiopian coast, especially the door of Massaoua and the archipelago of Dahlac, were a long time a center for the export of the slaves of the interior, even under the era of Aksoum

The salomonic dynasty of Ethiopia often exports nilotic slaves of its provinces Western borders and also of the recently conquered Moslem provinces. Moslem sultanates, as that of Adal send also slaves. On the coast of the Indian Ocean also stations of draft rested by the Arabs and the Persan ones appear. The archipelago of Zanzibar, with broad of the current Tanzania, is undoubtedly the most notorious example of these counters. The East Africa and the Indian Ocean remain until the 19th century an important surface of the Arab draft. David Livingstone and Stanley is then the first Europeans to be penetrated inside the basin of the Congo and to discover the extent of slavery. The Arab Tippo Tip extends his domination and fact of many slaves. Since the establishment of Europeans in the Gulf of Guinea, the Trans-Saharan draft becomes less important. In Zanzibar, the Esclavage is abolished tardily in 1897 under the sultan Hamoud bin Mohammed.

The remainder of Africa does not have a direct contact with the Moslem slave traders.

Europe (7th at the 19th century)

In the first times of Islam, the warlike tribes of the Caucasus as well as the Venetian merchants sell to the Arabs prisoners coming from the Slavic countries, still pagan. The pagan Slavic ones, rather than to be converted of force, or carried out in the event of refusal were sold like slaves to cover the expenses of forwardings.

As from the 13th century, after the installation of Venetian counters génois and in Black Sea, the people of the Caucasus becomes themselves a source of slaves appreciated especially in Europe, at the same time as the Russian and the Circassiens.

At the end of the Middle Ages, as the Slavic fish pond becomes exhausted because of christianization of Eastern Europe, the Moslems turn to the corsairs who foam the Mediterranean. The latter carry out raids on the coastal villages of the European shores. The memory of the combat delivered by the inhabitants to these pirates perdure in the head of prisoner Moor who is used as emblem in Corsica. One evaluates to more than one million the number of inhabitants removed in Western Europe between 1500 and 1800, but these raids actually started as of the arrival of Islam in North Africa and in Spain at the 8th century and ceased only with the conquest of North Africa by Europeans in the middle of the 19th century. The proportion of men and women is very difficult to evaluate, because the methods of calculating are not reliable. However, the women were very little proposed with the repurchase and represented 5 people captured out of 8 on average at the time of the terrestrial raids (which brought back the most slaves), but were represented very little in the catches at sea (on the captured ships). In Eastern Europe and in Balkans, for the same period, the Othomans take approximately three million slaves. But the European expansion, starting from the end of the 18th century, gradually decreases the number and the importance of these raids.

In 1831, at the time of the catch of Algiers, the French troops release 220 Christian slaves.

At the 20th century and nowadays

In 1924, ad hoc committee on the slavery of the Company of the Nations written: “the draft of the slaves is openly practiced in several States Musulman S, in the Arabic peninsula in particular, and especially in the Hedjaz”.

The last caravan of black slaves announced passes through the the Sahara in 1929.

There was between 100 and: 250000 slaves in Saudi Arabia before the official abolition of slavery in 1962.

The real end of the draft of the slaves with Zanzibar took place only in 1964.

According to the Commission of the United Nations on the Human rights, in 2000, between 5 and: 14000 people are slaves with the Sudan; according to the organization Christian International Solidarity , approximately: 100000.

Actors of the Arab draft

The black slaves were captured, transported and bought by very different characters. The draft passed by a series of intermediaries and enriched a certain part of the Moslem aristocracy.

Slavery nourished wars between African people and States, which gave place to an internal draft. Overcome owed a tribute made up men and women reduced in captivity. Sonni Ali Ber (1464-1492), emperor of the Songhaï, carried out many wars to extend its territory. Although it was Moslem, it did not hesitate to reduce in slavery other overcome Moslems. The dynasty of the Askia (Mali) had the same policy.

With 8th and 9th centuries, the Caliph S had tried to organize the colonization of the African shores of the Indian Ocean to business ends. But these establishments transitory, were often founded by exiled or adventurers. The sultan of Cairo sent traffickers of slaves to operate raids on the villages of the Darfur. Vis-a-vis its attacks, the populations formed militia, érigaient turns and enclosures in order to protect their villages.

Goals of the draft and slavery

The economic motives were most obvious. The draft caused great profits for those which controlled it. Several cities grew rich and thrived thanks to the traffic of the slaves, as well in Sudan as in Eastern Africa. In the desert of the Sahara, the chiefs launched forwardings against the plunderers of convoys. The sovereigns of medieval Morocco had made build fortresses in the desert areas which they dominated, in order to offer of the halts protected to the caravans. The sultan of Oman transferred his capital to Zanzibar ( Zanzibar means " gone with the slaves "), because it had seized the economic interest of the Arab draft well.

There existed moreover company names and cultural with the draft: in sub-Saharan Africa, the possession of slaves was the sign of membership of a social high ranking. In the surface arabo-Moslem woman, the Harem S required a “supply” women.

To finish, it is impossible to be unaware of racist religious dimension and draft. To punish the bad Moslems or the pagan ones held ideological place of justification with the slave system: the Moslem leaders of North Africa, the Sahara and the Sahel launched raids to persecute the infidels: with the Middle Ages, Islamization was indeed surface in the rural regions of Africa. The Moslem well-read men called upon the racial supremacy of the White, which was based on the account of the curse uttered by Noah in the Old Testament (Genèse 9:20 - 27). According to them, it applied to the Blacks, descendants of Cham, the father of Canaan, which had seen naked Noah (another interpretation attaches them to Koush, to see the article). The Blacks were thus regarded as “inferiors” and “were predestined” to be slaves. The Arab word abid which meant slave became starting from VIIIe century more or less synonymous with “Black”. These racist judgments were recurring in works of the historians and the Arab geographers: thus, Ibn Khaldoun could write at the 14th century: “The only people to really accept slavery without hope of return are the negros, because of a lower degree of humanity, their place being closer to the stage of the animal”. At the same period, Egyptian well-read man Al-Abshibi wrote “When it Black is hungry, it flies and when it is satisfied, it fornicates. ”. The Arabs present on the Eastern coast of Africa used the word “kaffir” to indicate the Blacks of the interior and the south. This word “ has just kāfir ” which means “inaccurate” or “non-believer”.

Geography of the Arab draft

Zones of “provisioning”

The merchants of Eastern slaves provided themselves in Europe (milked white). The Danish (Varègue S) were established in the area of the the Volga (in particular Volgograd) and negotiated Slaves captured with Arab and/or Moslem merchants, and even Jewish (see the article Radhanites) . The slaves circassiennes were noticed in the harems and many are the odalisques ones coming from this area on paintings Orientaliste S. For the composition of the Harem S, of the slaves of different confessions that of the Islam were appreciated, and this for all the roles (guard, servant, odalisque, houri, musician, dancer, dwarf of court). In IXe century in Baghdad, the caliph Al-Amin had approximately: 7000 eunuques blacks (which were completely émasculés) and: 4000 eunuques white (which were castrated). In the Ottoman Empire, the black eunuque last, the Abyssinian Hayrettin Effendi, in 1918 was freed.

The Esclavon S of origin Slavic in Al-Andalus came from the Varègues which had captured them. They were placed in the guard of the Caliph and gradually took important positions in the army (they became the Saqāliba S), and were even going to gain Taifa S after the civil war having led to the implosion of the Western caliphate. Columns of slaves feeding the large harems Cordovan, sévillan and Grenadian were consisted Mercadère S Radhanites starting from the Germanic grounds and of the remainder of the Northern Europe still not controlled by the Carolingian Empire. These columns crossed the Rhone-native Sillon to gain the grounds in the south of the Pyrenees.

On the seas, the Barbaresques operated on this traffic as soon as they could capture people by approaching the ships or making incursions on the coasts.

The Nubie, Ethiopia and the Abyssinie were also “exporting” areas: at the 15th century, slaves abyssins were present in India where they work on the ships or like soldiers. They ended even by revolting and seizing the power (dynasty of kings Habshi in the Bengal 1487 - 1493).

Sudan and Saharan Africa constituted another surface of “taking away”, but it is impossible to say the precise width of it, for lack of quantified sources.

Lastly, the traffic of slaves touched the East Africa, but the distance and the hostility of the local populations slowed down the rise of this Arab draft. At the XVIIe century, VOC Dutchwoman bought to the Moslem merchants Madagascar of the slaves, who were off-set towards the Colonie of the Cape or towards Indonesia. The Arabs and the Persan ones were present until Sofala, on the coast of the current Mozambique.

Roads

The caravan tracks, arranged as from the 9th century, passed by the Oasis of the Sahara: displacements were dangerous and painful because of the climatic constraints and the distances. The large convoys transported slaves since the Roman epoch but also all kinds of products which were used for the Troc. Against the attacks of the nomads of the desert, slaves were employed to form a good escort. The slaves who slowed down the progression of the caravan were killed. According to the historian Ralph Austen, death rate between the moment of the capture and the sale was included/understood between 6 and 20% according to the courses (the way towards Morocco being relatively not very fatal, whereas the crossing of the Sahara in direction of Libya could show a hecatomb).

The sea routes are less well-known historians. Thanks to the iconographic documents and the accounts of voyage, one imagines that the way was done on boutres and jalbas, Arab ships which were used as means of transport at sea Rouge. The crossing of the Indian Ocean was to require more means and an organization more thorough than the surface transport. The ships coming from Zanzibar made stopover on the islands of Socotra or Aden before moving towards the Persian Gulf or India. The slaves were sold as far as India and even in China: a colony of Arab merchants was installed with Canton. Chinese slave traders bought black slaves ( Hei-hsiao-known ) with Arab intermediaries or supplied themselves directly on the coasts of current Somalia. Serge Bilé quotes a text of the 12th century which teaches us that " the majority of the easy families of Canton had black slaves whom they held nevertheless for savages and demons because of their physical aspect ". The Chinese sovereigns launched at the 15th century of the maritime forwardings towards Eastern Africa, carried out by the admiral Zheng He. Their goal was to increase their commercial influence.

Barter

The slaves were often exchanged against objects of various nature: in Sudan, one échangait them against cotton fabrics, objects of shoddy goods, fabrics, etc In the Maghreb, they were obtained against horses. In the cities of the desert, bolts of canvas, crockery, Venetian shots glass , produced tinctorial and jewels were used as means of payment. The draft of the Blacks thus formed part of a network of diversified exchanges. Beside the gold coins, the Cauri, a shell coming from the Indian Ocean or the Atlantic Ocean (the Canaries, Luanda) was also used as Monnaie in all the Black Africa (one bought the goods out of bags of cauris).

Markets and fairs with the slaves

The black slaves were sold in the cities of the Muslim world. In 1416, Al-Maqrizi tells that pilgrims come from the Tekrour (close to the river Senegal) had carried with them 1700 slaves with Mecque. In North Africa, the Morocco, Algiers, Tripoli and Cairo were the main markets of slaves. The sales took place on the public places and in the Souk S. the potential buyers carried out an attentive examination of the “goods”: they checked the health condition of the person, introduced often naked and the hand tieds. In Cairo, the transaction of the Eunuque S and concubines are done in private houses. The price varied according to the quality of the slave. A white woman had more value than another.

Cities and ports implied in the Arab draft

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