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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]
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 Forough Jahanbaksh, Muhammad never preached the abolition of slavery as a doctrine, although he did moderate the age-old institution of slavery, which was also accepted and endorsed by the other monotheistic religions, Christianity and Judaism, and was a well-established custom of the pre-Islamic world.
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]
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 ...
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 ...
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]
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. [8] A similar argument was made by Christian abolitionists when asked why Jesus did not condemn slavery. [101]