On Thursday morning, 20/1/2022, at the History Department at the College of Arts / University of Basrah, a PhD thesis entitled (Slavery among Arabs before Islam, a historical study), was discussed.
The thesis presented by the student Wissam Khalil Ibrahim Al-Waeli included four chapters. The first chapter discussed the concept of slavery and its historical dimensions in ancient civilizations, the second chapter included the sources of slavery among Arabs before Islam, the third chapter discussed the slave trade among Arabs before Islam, and the fourth chapter dealt with the social life of slaves among Arabs before Islam.
The thesis aims to identify the phenomenon of slavery before Islam, when the Arabs depended mainly on slaves in the social and economic aspects, and this led to the spread of slaves of different races in the peninsula.
Slavery was not confined to Arabs before Islam. All civilizations and nations prior to Islam knew the phenomenon of enslavement of others on the widest possible scale. There were many markets in the Arabian Peninsula for slaves who were brought from outside, as well as for the slave from the Arabs.
The slave traders used different methods in buying and selling slaves. The ways of transporting slaves varied from land and sea. Among the social phenomena that spread among the Arabs before Islam is marrying female slaves. Before Islam, the Arabs knew manumission and divided it into several types, but all of them were under the condition that the master retains the social rights of the slave.
The thesis concluded that the phenomenon of slavery is a deeply rooted phenomenon and has its origins. Before Islam, the Arabs used slaves extensively in their social and economic life. This phenomenon had a significant impact on the mixing between Arabs and other civilizations, especially when transferring slaves from civilized nations such as the Romans and Persians.
