Slavery in Nineteenth Century Egypt
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8976542 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gabriel Baer (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1967 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 417-441 |
| Publication date | 1967-11-01 |
| 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/s0021853700007945 |
| OpenAlex | W2099873734 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 23 |
| References cited | 14 |
In nineteenth-century Egypt Circassian females were mostly kept in the harems of wealthy Turks, the concubines of ‘middle class’ Egyptians generally were Abyssinians, while male and female Negro slaves were used for domestic service by almost all layers of Egyptian society. In addition to domestic service, black slaves were used as soldiers by Egypt's rulers and, contrary to the prevalent assumption, as agricultural workers on the farms of the Muḥammad Alī family and elsewhere in Upper Egypt and during periods of prosperity and shortage of labour also in Lower Egypt. Apparently there were at least 30,000 slaves in Egypt at different times of the nineteenth century, and probably many more. White slaves were brought to Egypt from the eastern coast of the Black Sea and from the Circassian settlements of Anatolia via Istanbul. Brown and black slaves were brought ( a ) from Darfur to Asyūṭ, directly or through Kordofan; ( b ) from Sennar to Isnā; ( c ) from the area of the White Nile; ( d ) from Bornu and Wadāy via Libya and the Western Desert; ( e ) from Abyssinia and the East African coast through the Red Sea. The slave dealers in Egypt were mainly people from Upper Egypt and the Oases, beduin and villagers of the Buḥayra province. They were divided into dealers in black and in white slaves and organized in a guild with a shaykh. Cairo was the great depot of slaves and the centre of the trade, but a very important occasion for trading in slaves was the annual mawlid of Ṭanṭā. Official measures taken against the slave-trade were among the important causes for the final disappearance of slavery in Egypt. These were, amongst others, the appointment of foreigners, mainly British, as governors of the Sudan and commanders of special missions to suppress the trade; two Anglo-Egyptian conventions, of 1877 and of 1895, for the suppression of slavery; and, from 1877 on, the establishment of offices and later a special service for the fight against the trade and for the manumission of slaves. However, were it not for the internal development of Egyptian society, these measures could never have succeeded; this is illustrated by the tremendous obstacles they encountered and their ineffectiveness for a long time. During the last two decades of the nineteenth century most of these impediments vanished. In addition to the Mahdist revolution and the reconquest of the Sudan, the most important change was the emergence of a free labour market as a result of accelerated urbanization and the collapse of the guild system. At the same time a small but important section of Egyptians had changed their attitudes towards slavery as a result of their cultural contact with Europe
Ancient history · Archaeology · Black sea · Desert (philosophy · Economic shortage · Geography · Government (linguistics · Middle East · Political science · White (mutation · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law
Togo Mizrahi and the Making of Egyptian Cinema
The Persistence of Slavery in the Southern Red Sea Region in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Zenneb and Saint-André’s Cruise Up the Nile to Dongola
Mutawalladeen and Malaria
Tanzimat Devri’nde Kıbrıs’ta Azat Edilmiş Kölelerin Hukukî Ve Sosyo-Ekonomik Durumları (1839- 1876)
The “Fused Horizon” of Abolitionism and Islam
Salty and Sweet
That ancient and modern wonder”
Revisiting Race and Slavery through ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti’s ‘Aja’ib al-athar
Egyptian Views of Ottoman Rule
Esclaves noirs en Méditerranée
The Wadai‐Benghazi slave route
Enslaved African Women in Nineteenth-Century Iran
Slavery and Decline of Slave-Ownership in Ottoman Bursa 1460–1880
Black slaves in the Mediterranean world
Historiography and Research Problems of Slavery and the Slave Trade in a Global-Historical Perspective
Slavery, the international labour market and the emancipation of slaves in the nineteenth century
Catholic missionary associations and the saving of African child slaves in nineteenth-century Germany
Despite the Fear’
Betraying Behita
Colonies and colonialism in the Horn of Africa
Trade, Slavery, and State Coercion of Labor
Breaking from the past? Environmental narratives, logics of power, and the (re)production of food insecurity in South Sudan
Mekka in the Latter Part of the 19th Century
Parliaments and Parties in Egypt
A Modern History of the Sudan
Egyptian Guilds in Modern Times
A History of Land Ownership in Modern Egypt, 1800-1950
A History of the Southern Sudan 1839-1889
Egyptian Guilds in Modern Times
Social Stratification and the Middle East
| Unique citing works | 23 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,68 |
| Citation span | 1992 - 2025 (34) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 23 |