In Islamic society, it has long been customary to sell girls into slavery and exploit them for everything from domestic work to satisfying sexual urges. There are numerous tales about how girls who are born into slavery are upgraded to a master who can pay a higher price for them in the folklore of the Ottoman Empire. The long-term involvement of slave girls in society caused irreparable harm to how males perceived women in general. Men grew accustomed to the types of relationships with women in which they, by definition, attained mastery.

Not only did the availability of slave concubines alter how men viewed women, but it also had a detrimental effect on the morals of women. Since people generally engaged in the practice of having sex with slave women, the system of concubinage pervaded both the elites and the middle class.

How did Muslim empires treat non-Muslim societies, countries, and citizens who became their subjects is depicted in the painting posted below. The painting titled “The Slave Dealer” – was created in the year 1919 – by Otto Pilny, a Swiss artist. A slave trader undresses a non-Muslim slave woman showing her ‘goods’ to a wealthy prince.

Image credit: Pankaj Saxena on Twitter

The above painting shows the scene of a slave market where non-Muslim slave women are sold like cattle in the open market, completely naked.
A non-Muslim slave woman is made to stand naked at the same price as cattle. The buyer has to see whether he should buy a means of transport or increase the dazzle of the harem. (Most slave women were from the Caucasus, Russia, or other European countries.)

White non-Muslim woman is being sold in a slave markets, and potential customers used to check them thoroughly before buying like whether she has full teeth, or she’s handicapped. The sex slaves who always used to be white women in Europe. And black Africans were used as lowly slaves.

Muslim pirates often capture these non-Muslim ‘goods’ captured in a typical raid and presented them to the customers that even included Sultans of Ottomans.

Imagine being naked in a market where everyone else, including men, is fully clothed.

At that time, Turkey and other Muslim countries used to raid so much for white women all over Europe that the word ‘slave’ in English itself came from ‘Slav’, Russian and related countries were called ‘Slavs’ where these women raids happened the most.

At the height of their power, Muslim countries used to get these women from the slave markets sold to them their pirates. These raids became so frequent that Europe developed its own piracy tradition as a counter-balance to Islamic slave raids. Pirates came from North Africa and the Ottoman Empire, as far as Greece, the Balkans, Russia, the Caucasus, Italy, Sicily, southern France, England, Scotland, and Iceland.

While women in Europe were raided for sexual slavery, men in Africa were brought in for manual labor. They were called ‘Habshi’. The Turks and Arabs were so racist that they had black slaves castrated so they couldn’t even breed.

The Holy Quran refers to slavery: (Chapter 33: Ayat 50) “O Prophet! We have made lawful for you those wives for whom you have given dowries, and also those women who came into your possession, whom Allah gave you as bounty.”

The saga of Muslim slavery is one of the most horrific chapters in the history of the slave trade. When Europeans set out to colonize America and India, they learned a lot from Muslim slavery. Even Muslim rulers in India accumulated hundreds of women in their harem.

 

Source: Pankaj Saxena @twitter

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