Slavery in Islamic Law: Difference between revisions

'''Islamic law''' or [[Sharia]] permits raiding, kidnapping and enslaving [[Kafir (Infidel)|non-Muslims]] from [[Dar al-Harb and Dar al-Islam (the Abodes of War and Peace)|Dar al Harb]].<ref>{{Citation|url=https://archive.org/details/islamabolitionof0000clar|title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery|publisher=p=27–28. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-522151-0|author=William Gervase Clarence-Smith|year=2006}}</ref> South Asian scholars ruled that jihad was not needed to seize non-Muslims nor was it necessary to invite them to Islam before seizing them. Raiders were free to take and enslave any non-Muslim.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://archive.org/details/islamabolitionof0000clar|title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery|publisher=p=28. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-522151-0|author=William Gervase Clarence-Smith|year=2006}}</ref> However, Islamic jurists held that non-Muslims who lived in areas which had formal pacts with Muslims were to be protected from enslavement.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://archive.org/details/islamabolitionof0000clar|title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery|publisher=p=27-28. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-522151-0|author=William Gervase Clarence-Smith|year=2006}}</ref>

Non-Muslim residents of an Islamic state who fail to pay [[Jizyah|jizya]] or break their contract with the state can also be enslaved.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dyZ-DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA52|title=Slavery in the Ottoman Empire and its Demise 1800-1909|author=Y. Erdem (20 November 1996)|publisher=p=26. Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 978-0-230-37297-9}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z3VoBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA2|title=Muslim and Christian Contact in the Middle Ages: A Reader|author=Jarbel Rodriguez (2015)|publisher=p=2. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4426-0066-9}}</ref>

Among other things (see [[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Muhammad and Booty]]), Booty included slaves who were originally free [[Kafir (Infidel)|non-Muslims]] who were captured in battle.<ref>{{Citation|url=http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/508/1/uk_bl_ethos_443314.pdf|title=The legal and social status of women in the Hadith literature (PDF)|author=Salma Saad|page=242|year=1990}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6MC0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA17|title=Islamic Jurisprudence on the Regulation of Armed Conflict: Text and Context|author=Nesrine Badawi (1 October 2019). p.17. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-41062-6}}</ref> The entire population of a conquered territory can be enslaved, thus providing women who are otherwise rare on the battlefield. This paves the path for concubinage.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://archive.org/details/islamabolitionof0000clar|title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery|publisher=p. 27. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-522151-0|author=William Gervase Clarence-Smith|year=2006}}</ref> The Muslim military commander is allowed to choose between unconditionally releasing, ransoming or enslaving war captives.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l0SyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA5|title=The Art of Jihad: Realism in Islamic Political Thought|author=Malik Mufti (1 October 2019)|publisher=SUNY Press. p.5. ISBN 978-1-4384-7638-4}}</ref> If a person converted to Islam after being enslaved, their emancipation would be considered a pious act but not obligatory.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://archive.org/details/islamabolitionof0000clar|title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery|publisher=p. 22. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-522151-0|author=William Gervase Clarence-Smith|year=2006}}</ref> Islamic law does not allow enslavement of free-born Muslims.<ref>{{Citation|url=|title=Violence in Islamic Thought from the Qur'an to the Mongols|author=Robert Gleave (14 April 2015)|publisher=p.142. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-9424-2}}</ref>

 

 

 

=== Consent ===

The consent of a slave girl for sex, for withdrawal before ejaculation ([[azl]]) or to marry her off to someone else was not considered necessary, historically.<ref>{{Cite web|first=Kecia |last=Ali  | publication-date=January 20, 2017 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-middle-east-studies/article/concubinage-and-consent/F8E807073C33F403A91C1ACA0CFA47FD | title=Concubinage and Consent|publisher=Cambridge University Press|access-date=October 20, 2021}}</ref>

{{Quote|{{Bukhari|5|59|637}}|Narrated Buraida:The Prophet (ﷺ) sent `Ali to Khalid to bring the Khumus (of the booty) and I hated `Ali, and '''`Ali had taken a bath (after a sexual act with a slave-girl from the Khumus)'''. I said to Khalid, "Don't you see this (i.e. `Ali)?" When we reached the Prophet (ﷺ) I mentioned that to him. He said, "O Buraida! Do you hate `Ali?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Do you hate him, for he deserves more than that from the Khumus."}}Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 1449), one of the most famous Hadith scholars of all time, points out in his seminal ''Fath al-Bari'' (the still-standard commentary on Sahih Bukhari) what several scholars before him noted: that in accounts of this event, Ali does not observe the required ''iddah'' (waiting) period to determine whether or not the girl was pregnant. Al-Asqalani quotes al-Khattabi who summarizes the possibilities: "she was either a virgin [strongly implying a young age in a culture where women married young], had not yet reached maturity, or Ali's ''[[ijtihad]]'' [independent reasoning] led him to not adhere to the waiting period in her case."<ref>{{Quote||لِاحْتِمَالِ أَنْ تَكُونَ عَذْرَاءَ أَوْ دُونَ الْبُلُوغِ أَوْ أَدَّاهُ اجْتِهَادُهُ أَنْ لَا اسْتِبْرَاءَ فِيهَا}}