Book contents
- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade
- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Foreword Beyond the Printed Word
- Introduction Finding the African Voice
- Part One Remembering Slavery and the Slave Trade
- Part Two The Verbal Arts and Everyday Objects
- Part Three Documenting Our Own Histories and Cultural Practices
- Part Four Slavery Observed: European Travelers’ Accounts
- Part Five Administrative Records
- Part Six Legal Records
- Part Seven Recorded Encounters with the Enslaved: Christian Workers in Africa
- Part Eight Documents from Muslim Africa
- 41 Introduction:
- 42 The Arabic Letters of Ghadames Slaves in the Niger Bend, 1860–1900
- 43 The “Hidden Transcripts” and Legal Rights of Slaves in the Muslim World
- 44 Slave Wills along the Swahili Coast
- Part Nine Living with the Past
- Index
41 - Introduction:
Islamic Sources
from Part Eight - Documents from Muslim Africa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2013
Book contents
- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade
- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Foreword Beyond the Printed Word
- Introduction Finding the African Voice
- Part One Remembering Slavery and the Slave Trade
- Part Two The Verbal Arts and Everyday Objects
- Part Three Documenting Our Own Histories and Cultural Practices
- Part Four Slavery Observed: European Travelers’ Accounts
- Part Five Administrative Records
- Part Six Legal Records
- Part Seven Recorded Encounters with the Enslaved: Christian Workers in Africa
- Part Eight Documents from Muslim Africa
- 41 Introduction:
- 42 The Arabic Letters of Ghadames Slaves in the Niger Bend, 1860–1900
- 43 The “Hidden Transcripts” and Legal Rights of Slaves in the Muslim World
- 44 Slave Wills along the Swahili Coast
- Part Nine Living with the Past
- Index
Summary
Islam arrived in Africa soon after its establishment in seventh-century Arabia. For more than a thousand years, it has been slowly expanding, bringing with it Islamic law and Arabic literacy. Consequently, there is a rich variety of sources in Arabic or in African languages written in Arabic script. Some of these sources have long been used by historians of Africa, for example, the writings of Arabic travelers and geographers, and chronicles collected by explorers and colonial officials. Muslim scholars and state-builders also left large numbers of documents. There is a lot of Arabic documentation in colonial archives, such as legal judgments of Muslim judges and correspondence between European and Muslim authorities. According to the 1897 Zanzibar Abolition of Slavery decree, masters no longer had rights to the possessions of slaves, but some continued to claim such rights.
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- Information
- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade , pp. 483 - 484Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013