How Slaves Used Islam
The Letters of Enslaved Muslim Commercial Agents in the Nineteenth-Century Niger Bend and Central Sahara
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8976157 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Bert S Hall (0000-0003-0556-211X, Duke University, corresponding author), Bruce S Hall |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 279-297 |
| Publication date | 2011-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of African History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8537 • E-ISSN: 1469-5138 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0021853711000491 |
| OpenAlex | W1967344033 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 20 |
| References cited | 42 |
Historians of slavery in Africa have long struggled to recover the voices of enslaved people. In this article, an unusual set of sources found in Timbuktu (Mali) reveals the existence of a stratum of literate, Muslim slaves who wrote and received letters written in Arabic. These letters make it possible to probe the Islamic rhetoric used by Muslim slaves and ask how enslaved people who adopted Islam understood their faith. Did Muslim slaves arrive at different interpretations of Islam than those Muslims who were free? Using the correspondence of two slaves who worked as agents in their master's commercial activities in the Niger Bend and Central Sahara during the second half of the nineteenth century, this article demonstrates the extent to which Muslim slaves used appeals to their own piety in attempting to carve out a certain amount of social autonomy. For these Muslim slaves, Islam could be made to serve both spiritual and practical ends. And yet, this did not require slaves to interpret Islam in ways that rejected the legitimacy of slavery
Ancient history · Arabic · Archaeology · Faith · Islam · Legitimacy · Muslim world · Piety · Political science · Politics · Rhetoric · Sociology · Theology · African Studies and Geopolitics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · History · Law · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Philosophy · Religious studies
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Excavating Arabic sources for the history of slavery in Western Africa
Donner corps à la frontière algéro-tripolitaine
The Political Actions of the Saharan Oasis Dwellers Concerning Their Belonging
Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa, 800–1900
Introduction
Introduction
La pétition d’une domestique asservie à l’ère de l’abolition de la traite des humains dans l’Empire ottoman
The “Fused Horizon” of Abolitionism and Islam
Perception and ‘Salvation Government’ in 1940s Lagos Petitions
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Sultan, Caliph, and the Renewer of the Faith
Visions of the Sahara
Writing the History of Slavery
Enslaved Muslim Sufi Saints in the Nineteenth-Century Sahara
Écrire l'histoire de l'esclavage
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A Study in Evil
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Rebecca's Revival
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Les divisions statutaires des descendants d'esclaves au Fuuta Tooro mauritanien
A Nation upon the Ocean Sea
The Anthropology of Slavery
The Trans-Saharan Slave Trade
On Trans-Saharan Trails
Correspondence is equal to half a meeting
The Nineteenth-Century Gold ‘Mithqal’ in West and North Africa
The Bondsman's New Clothes
Dressing Up
Reflections on Slavery, Seclusion and Female Labor in the Maradi Region of Niger in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
The Holy War of Umar Tal
The Anthropology of Slavery
Race', slavery and Islam in Maghribi Mediterranean thought
Ending Slavery
Economic Change in Pre-Colonial Africa
The Concept of Honour and the Persistence of Servility in the Western Soudan
Serving the Master, Slavery and Society in Nineteenth-Century Morocco
| Unique citing works | 20 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2026 (11) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 19 |