Exercises on Slavery in the Muslim World

Among the famous Europeans who came under the yoke of Muslim slavery was Miguel de Cervantes, author of “Don Quixote de La Mancha”. Under what circumstances did this occur?

a) After the publication of the second part of his novel, “Don Quixote”, in 1615.

b) After the wars against the Moors for the unification of Spain in 1480.

c) Before the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453.

d) After the Battle of Lepanto against the Turks in 1571.

e) During the conquest of Ceuta in 1415.

Read the text:

“By converting half of Africa, Islam did much to encourage slavery even more, as it practiced it from an early age:even before Mohammed, in the 6th century, Arab merchants frequented all the ports on the coast eastern Africa, trading grain, meat and dried fish with Bantu tribes for slaves. Black non-Muslim populations also considered slavery an absolutely normal fact.” (COSTA, Ricardo da. Arab expansion in Africa and the Black Empires of Ghana, Male and Songhay [7th-16th centuries] . In:NISHIKAWA, Taise Ferreira da Conceição. Medieval History:History II . São Paulo:Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009, p. 34-53).

We can conclude that the text above states:

a) that slavery did not exist in Africa before Islam.

b) that slavery did not exist in the Middle East before Islam.

c) that, after the expansion of Islam in Africa, the slave trade, which already existed (including among blacks), was significantly expanded.

d) that there is no connection between Islamic slavery and African slavery.

e) that when Europeans arrived in Africa, there was no more slavery.

On the temporal extension of the practice of slavery in Muslim Africa, as well as in some countries of black Africa, it is possible to say that:

a) lasted until the mid-19th century, when European neocolonialism abolished slavery throughout Africa.

b) only blacks from Sub-Saharan Africa, during the entire period in which slavery lasted, were enslaved, since slavery happened because of their color.

c) only Muslims practiced slavery, but they abandoned this practice from the 16th century onwards.

d) Slavery in Africa ended in the 15th century, with the arrival of the Portuguese on the Atlantic coast.

e) lasts to this day, albeit on a very small scale, especially in regions controlled by radical terrorist groups such as Boko Haram.

With regard to Muslim slavery, is it correct to state that:

a) during the period of the Turkish-Ottoman Empire, slavery was abolished.

b) Muhammad, founder of Islam, had no slaves.

c) After Muhammad's death, the practice of slavery became much less viable.

d) Slavery in the Muslim world only began with the founding of the Turkish-Ottoman Empire.

e) Islam expanded the practice of slavery, which existed in Arabia before it.

Letter D

Miguel de Cervantes participated in the Battle of Lepanto, that is, a naval battle fought in the Mediterranean Sea between Catholic forces, gathered by Pope Pius V, and the (Islamized) Turks, led by Pasha. He was wounded in that battle in the chest and hand. After the battle, Cervantes was captured by a Greek privateer linked to the Turks and turned into a slave by them.

Letter C

The practice of slavery already existed, both among Arab tribes and among African kingdoms, before Islam. However, with the rise of Islam and the conversion of Arabs, who expanded towards Africa, the practice of slavery became much more intense. This is because trafficking, before the Islamic expansion, did not have the complex organization that Muslims gave it.

Letter E

The practice of slavery on the African continent had an ostensible presence until the beginning of the 20th century, that is, until that period, slavery was still practiced in an institutionalized way in some Muslim countries. But since then, despite slavery being abolished in Islamic Africa, some places controlled by radical Islamists, such as Boko Haram, still follow it, kidnapping and turning into sex slaves Christian girls and adolescents from other regions.

Letter E

Mohammed, the founder of Islam, had slaves, as this was a common practice among Arabs long before Islam developed.