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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. [69]
The majority of the slaves were women and children, [22] many of whom had been dependents or harem-members of the defeated Sassanian upper classes. [23] In the wake of the conquests an elite man could potentially own a thousand slaves, and ordinary soldiers could have ten people serving them. [22]
Many rulers also used slaves in the military and administration to such an extent that slaves could seize power, as did the Mamluks. [1] Most slaves were imported from outside the Muslim world. [4] Slavery in Islamic law does have a religious and not racial foundation in principle, although this was not always the case in practise. [5]
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". [336]
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". [16]
Slaves Sumayyah bint Khabbab, and her husband Yasir, were tortured to death by their master Abu Jahl. [8] [9]Muhammad was protected somewhat by the influence of his family. . Abu Lahab's wife, Umm Jamil, would regularly dump filth outside his door.
Muhammad then took refuge in an orchard outside the city. The owners, Shayba and Utba ibn Rabi'a from the Meccan tribe of Shams, were in the garden at the time and took pity on him. They sent their slave Addas, a Christian, to give him a plate of grapes. [14] Muhammad accepted the gift and ate it, reciting "Bismillah" (In the name of Allah). [15]
Lewis states that in Muslim lands slaves had a certain legal status and had obligations as well as rights to the slave owner, an improvement over slavery in the ancient world. [ 21 ] [ 22 ] Due to these reforms the practice of slavery in the Islamic Empire represented a "vast improvement on that inherited from antiquity, from Rome , and from ...