DIFFICULTIES IN STOPPING ARAB SLAVE TRADE:

 Before the 1500s, the majority of slaves taken from Africa were moved from East Africa to the Arabian mainland. Arab slave traders as opposed to European traders preferred to carry out raiding sorties, often traveling far into Africa.

Their other distinction was that their markets back home preferred to buy female slaves as opposed to male. This was because there was a stronger demand for household maids as well as sexual slaves rather than slaves to work on farms. Zanzibar Slave became an important sea port for the trade.

Africa has lost over 17 million people, during the last thirteen hundred years through Arab slave traders, and there was the far greater number of those not counted, who were killed in the enslavement of whole villages.

A book by Bernard Lewis entitled Race and Slavery in the Middle East An Historical Enquiry, published in 1990 by Oxford University Press, features color plate illustrations dating back to 1237 and the 1500's with 80 pages of notes to back up its contents. These intriguing paintings were discovered in famous libraries in London, Paris, and Istanbul. They depict the variety of slaves and their livelihoods.

In his book, Lewis describes how the Muslim world reacted when cries for abolition of slavery resounded around the world in the 19th century

'The revulsion against slavery, which gave rise to a strong abolitionist movement in England, and later in other Western countries, began to affect the Islamic lands. What was involved was not, initially, the abolition of the institution of slavery but its alleviation, and in particular, the restriction and ultimately the elimination of the slave trade. Islamic law, in contrast to the ancient and colonial systems, accords the slave a certain legal status and assigns obligations as well as rights to the slave owner.

The freedom of slaves, though recommended as a meritorious act, is not required, and the institution of slavery not only is recognized but is elaborately regulated by Sharia law. Perhaps for this very reason the position of the domestic slave in Muslim society was in most respects better than in either classical antiquity or the nineteenth-century Americas.

While, however, the life of the slave in Muslim society was no worse, and in some ways was better, than that of the free poor, the processes of acquisition and transportation often imposed appalling hardships. It was these which drew the main attention of European opponents of slavery, and it was to the elimination of this traffic, particularly in Africa, that their main efforts were directed.

The abolition of slavery itself would hardly have been possible. From a Muslim point of view, to forbid what God permits is almost as great an offense as to permit what God forbids - and slavery was authorized and regulated by the holy law. More specifically, it formed part of the law of personal status, the central core of social usage, which remained intact and effective even when other sections of the holy law, dealing with civil, criminal, and similar matters, were tactically or even openly modified and replaced by modern codes.

It was from conservative religious quarters and notably from the holy cities of Mecca and Medina that the strongest resistance to the proposed reform came. The emergence of the holy men and the holy places as the last ditch defenders of slavery against reform is only an apparent paradox.

They were upholding an institution sanctified by scripture, law, and tradition and one which in their eyes was necessary to the maintenance of the social structure of Muslim life."

Later, Lewis mentions how the overwhelming majority of white slaves came from the Caucasian lands. This was in the days of the Ottoman empire and it was not until 1854 that orders against the traffic in white slaves from Georgia and Circassia were issued and put into effect.

Arabia was another major center for the slave trade. The flow of slaves from Africa into Arabia and through the Gulf into Iran continued for a long time. The extension of British, French, and Italian control around the Horn of Africa (the area of Somalia and Kenya today) deprived the slave traders of their main ports of embarkation.

As far as Islam was concerned, the horrors of the abduction and transportation of slaves were the worst part. But once the slaves were settled in Islamic culture they had genuine opportunities to realize their potential. Many of them became merchants in Mecca, Jedda, and elsewhere.

DIFFICULTIES IN STOPPING ARAB SLAVE TRADE: The anti-slavery campaign was too expensive for Britain alone to compensate slave owners after 1807. Stopping slave trade in the interior was difficult because Arabs were in control of large areas.

The East African coastline was long which delayed the anti-slavery group penetration in the interior. Due to the tropical climate, most British personnel were affected by malaria which hindered the stopping of Slave trade.

Thanks for reading leave your thoughts in the comments section below 

Read more on our Rare History Channel