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He did not set out to abolish slavery, but rather to improve the conditions of slaves by urging his followers to treat their slaves humanely and free them as a way of expiating one's sins. According to sahih (authentic) hadith Muhammad encouraged gifting of slaves to be a better alternative to setting them free. [70]
Sale of a child-slave (1872), painting by Vasily Vereshchagin, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. A rich Turkish man examines a naked boy, before buying him. The history of slavery in the Muslim world was throughout the history of Islam with slaves serving in various social and economic roles, from powerful emirs to harshly treated manual laborers.
Slave soldiers are known to have served in the first battle of Muhammad, [33] often called mawla-converts, and the African slave soldier Mihja has been referred to as the first Muslim who died in battle. [34] In the Battle of Badr, at least 24 mawla slave soldiers are said to have participated. [35]
The earliest documented Christian knowledge of Muhammad stems from Byzantine sources, written shortly after Muhammad's death in 632. In the Doctrina Jacobi nuper baptizati, a dialogue between a recent Christian convert and several Jews, one participant writes that his brother "wrote to [him] saying that a deceiving prophet has appeared amidst the Saracens". [17]
According to a BBC summary, "the Prophet Muhammad did not try to abolish slavery, and bought, sold, captured, and owned slaves himself. But he insisted that slave owners treat their slaves well and stressed the virtue of freeing slaves. Muhammad treated slaves as human beings and clearly held some in the highest esteem". [333]
The repercussions of the death of Abu Talib were in the political sphere. His successor as chief of the Banu Hashim appears to have been his brother, Abu Lahab. Although Abu Lahab had joined the 'grand alliance' against Hashim during the boycott, he is said at first to have promised to protect Muhammad in the same way as Abu Talib had done.
Slave labourers were kept in big work camps, and often had to be replaced by new slaves through the slave trade, since the marshlands in Mesopotamia caused slaves to die in large numbers from malaria, and slaves were not allowed to marry or have children. [1] Around 15,000 slaves were estimated to be kept in the Basra area at any given time ...
Islamic thinkers have applied a variety of methods to argue against concubinage and slavery. One argument is that Muhammad temporarily allowed slavery only because it was a major socio-economic force and could not be immediately abolished. [97] A similar argument was made by Christian abolitionists when asked why Jesus did not condemn slavery. [98]