Slavery and Islam

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Islam has been in the news. And slavery has been in the news. And 'Islam & slavery' has been in the news. These are some major understatements. When ISIS achieved prominence in 2014, Western audiences were stunned by the movement's revival of enslaving prisoners of war. Many, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, were shocked at ISIS' justification of slavery with reference to Islam's scriptures and laws. But the debate over Islam & slavery is much older, going back centuries. It forms part of the global history of the phenomenon called slavery, a phenomenon that is as controversial at the level of academic study as it has been in its real-world manifestations. This course will examine efforts of philosophers and scholars to describe, justify or criticize a spectrum of phenomena we call slavery. It will place the Islamic tradition within this setting, charting the history, laws and practices of slavery in Islamic civilization, following it all the way up to debates over abolition and the efforts of some to revive and defend slavery today.