The taboo of the Arab Muslim slave trade

December 2: World Day for the Abolition of Slavery

While the West largely repents for its crimes of slavery, the topic is largely ignored in the Arab-Muslim world. A Senegalese author calls for a reckoning with this dark chapter in his book. Guest post by Volker Seitz.

Without title ©Gordon Johnson, GDJ / Pixabay

Arab Muslims invaded the black peoples of Africa from the 7th to the 20th century. For almost 1,000 years, they were the only foreign power engaged in this horrific trade, and they deported over ten million Africans before the Europeans appeared on the scene. A total of 17 million people were enslaved, most of whom left no descendants due to mass castrations.

While the West, Europe, and the US regret the crimes of slavery, atone for them, and never tire of apologizing, the subject remains taboo in the Arab-Muslim world. British orientalist Bernard Lewis called it “an obscure and sensitive topic,” which “is perceived as a sign of hostile intentions when mentioned,” wrote Wolfgang Koydl in the Swiss weekly Weltwoche (World Week). German historian Egon Flaig called it “the largest and longest-lasting slave system in world history.”

From the 8th century onwards, the Arabic word “Abid” meaning slave [pronounced “Abd,” often used with the definite article to mean “slave of,” note from the blog operator] became more or less synonymous with black people. The slave trade was not officially abolished in some Arab countries until the 20th century, such as in Saudi Arabia in 1962 or Mauritania in 1980, where slave-like conditions are said to still exist. In 2010, Ethiopian writer Hama Tuma wrote in an essay on Arab racism: “Arab racism towards Africans has been a taboo subject for too long, given that it is politically incorrect to state the obvious: that Arabs, most of whom are Muslims, are thoroughly racist and consider Africans, whether Muslim or Christian, to be inferior.”

“Stereotypical black-and-white portrayal”

Senegalese economist and anthropologist Tidiane N’Diaye describes this cruel trade in his excellently researched book “The Veiled Genocide: History of the Muslim Slave Trade” (original title: “Traite négrière arabo-musulmane – Le génocide voilé”). This courageous book is still freely available in France as a paperback (Folio) at the original price of €8.70. The German translation by Rowohlt from 2010 is out of print and is offered by antiquarian bookshops for up to €600.

Normally, this would prompt any publisher to release a new edition. But not in this case. Are we to be deprived of a book out of misguided consideration, so that we cannot form our own opinion? It is a symptom of our times. Criticism of the Muslim slave trade is sacrificed on the altar of possibly hurting the feelings of Muslims.

Perhaps the publisher was influenced by reviews such as the one in the German newspaper FAZ (Frankfurter General Newspaper) where African historian Andreas Eckert slammed the book as “stereotypical black-and-white painting,” and the Münster City Library criticized the “ambivalent, because grossly simplistic, portrayal of the history of the Arab-Muslim slave trade” in its catalog. If the work is “stereotypical black-and-white painting,” why did the reviewer not address N’Diaye’s statements and the numerous sources cited?¹

But above all, the author of the book cannot understand the peculiar solidarity of African researchers with the descendants of their tormentors, who have so far focused exclusively on the European slave trade. It is noteworthy that the author does not conceal Africa’s share in this bloodshed. N’Diaye cites numerous Arab, African, and European sources, but unfortunately without an index. Since the book has also disappeared from some libraries, it is worth taking a look at this book, which is apparently dangerous for German readers. The following quotations are taken from the French original.

What did the scandalously independent-minded author write?

(1) Présentation/Vorwort des Autors: „Des millions d’Africains furent razziés, massacrés ou capturés, castrés et déportés vers le monde arabe-muselman. Cela dans des conditions inhumaines, par caravanes à travers le Sahara ou par la mer, à partir des comptoirs à chair humaine de l’Afrique orientale.“

(“Millions of Africans were attacked, slaughtered, captured, or castrated and deported in caravans across the Sahara under inhumane conditions or, from the East African trading posts for human goods, by sea to the Arab-Islamic world.”)

(2) „Car avec eux ont pénétré et leur religion et leur mépris du Nègre…“

(“For they brought not only their religion, but also their contempt for Negroes.”)

(3) „Alors que la traite transatlantique a duré quatre siècles, c’est pendant treize siècles sans interruption que les Arabes ont razzié l’Afrique subsaharienne.“

(“While the transatlantic slave trade lasted four centuries, the Arabs plundered the African continent south of the Sahara continuously for thirteen centuries.”)

No hierarchy of victims

(4) „Loin de nous l’idée de vouloir communautariser l’histoire ou les Mémoires, ce qui serait la porte ouverte à une hiérarchisation victimaire. Mais force est de reconnaître que la dimension prise par la traite et l’esclavage qu’ont subis les peuples noirs dépasse en nombre de victimes, en durée et en horreurs tout ce qui avait précédé. Et dans la genèse de ces malheurs, historiquement, la traite négrière est une invention du monde arabe-musulman.“

(”It is not at all a matter of assigning history or cultures of remembrance to ethnic categories, because that would open the floodgates to a hierarchy of victims. But the slave trade and enslavement on the African continent surpassed anything that had ever existed before in terms of the number of victims, duration, and horror. And in the history of remembrance of this calamity, the slave trade is, historically speaking, an invention of the Arab-Muslim world.”)

(5) „Les Arabes, bien avant les Européens, allaient ainsi opérer une interminable guerre sainte avec ses razzias sanglantes, ruiner les populations, pour la grande gloire des harems d’Orient. Cette traite fournissait des enfants, des femmes et des hommes tirés de l’intérieur du continent noir.“

(“Long before Europeans entered the slave trade, Arabs waged an endless holy war with bloody raids that plunged entire populations, children, women, and men from the heart of the Dark Continent into misery for the sake of the splendor of oriental harems.”)

(6) „Par example, a la cour du roi Mtéza (Henry Morton) Stanley rapporte que, pour satisfaire un simple caprice le monarque faisait couper les tètes de quelques centaines de ses captifs. Quant aux femmes qui composaient sa maisonnée, il ne se passait pas de jour où une ou deux de ses malheureuses n’étaient conduites, une corde enroulée autour du poignet, traînées ou tirées par les gardes du corps, vers l’abattoir.“

(Stanley reports, for example, that the monarch at the court of Mteza had several hundred slaves beheaded on a mere whim. Not a day went by without women from his household staff being dragged or hauled away to their execution, their wrists bound.)

“Black people as synonymous with servitude”

(7) L’importation d’esclaves noirs sur une grande échelle modifiera l’attitude des arabo-musulmans envers les hommes à la peau sombre. Car, à partir du moment où l’Afrique subsaharienne devint la principale zone pourvoyeuse d’esclaves de la traite orientale, l’homme noir fut synonyme de servitude et, corrélativement, sa couleur de peau associée à un déni d’Islam.“

(“The large-scale importation of black slaves changed the attitude of Arabs and Muslims toward people with dark skin. From that point on, when sub-Saharan Africa became the main source of supply for the Arab slave market, black men became synonymous with servitude and their skin color became a symbol of rejection of Islam.”)

Arab conquest and African accomplices

(8) „En fait, ces négriers, berbères ou arabisants du Nord et autres Touaregs prenaient en otage les populations négro-africaines, tels des pirates. Du fonds de leur Sahara, ils se ruaient sur les villages sénégalais ou maliens, razziaient les femmes et les enfants avant de les transporter à travers le désert, au milieu d’indicibles souffrances, jusque dans les oasis qui bordaient leurs régions.“

(“The slave traders, Berbers or Arabs from the north and Tuaregs, treated the black African population like pirates. They came from the Sahara, raided villages in Senegal or Mali, and kidnapped women and children, who were then dragged through the desert to their oases, suffering unspeakable hardship.”)

(9) „Trop médiatisée par certains historiens, l’île de Gorée, au large de Dakar, est devenue le symbole de la traite européenne… Alors que l’île de Zanzibar – sans parler d’Ouidah au Bénin – fut pendant plus d’un siècle l’épicentre d’une traite plus importante que la ponction transatlantique.“

(“Overemphasized by certain historians, the island of Gore off the coast of Dakar became a symbol of the European slave trade ... Yet the island of Zanzibar, not to mention Ouidah in Benin, was the center of a much larger slave trade for over a century.”)

(10) „On inculqua au captif que son salut dépendait du maître et que son accès au paradis était lié à l’obéissance à son maître. La soumission fut ainsi érigée en devoir religieux.“

(“Slaves were taught that their salvation depended on their master and that their entry into paradise was linked to their obedience to him. Thus, submission was made a religious duty.”)

(11) „Dans tous les pays africains où les chefs s’étaient convertis à l’Islam, le servage traditionnel fut généralement remplacé par la traite et l’esclavage, pratiqués en vertu d’un principe religieux où tous les infidèles devenaient hors la loi.“

(“In all African countries where the chiefs had converted to Islam, traditional serfdom was replaced by slavery, which was subordinated to a religious principle that made all non-believers outlaws.”)

(12) „À l’interieur du continent, avec les monarques dahoméens, l’entreprise fur encore plus répugnante. Car ici l’islamisation n’explique pas la complicité: ils étaient pour la plupart animistes.“

(“In the interior of the continent, this crime was even more abhorrent due to the mostly animistic monarchs of Dahomey [now Benin], as complicity here cannot be explained by Islamization.”)

“King Huffon had everything at his disposal in abundance.”

EXCURSUS: In his book “The Slave Ship,” Robert Harms, professor of history at Yale University, reconstructed the daily life of the crew of slave ships and the mechanisms of the slave and commodity trade in the 18th century. His most important source was the logbook of the first lieutenant of the ship Durand from 1731/32, which describes the inhumanity in a shockingly matter-of-fact and emotionless manner.

This shows how the members of the black ruling houses regarded the European upper class as their equals. The divide did not run between different ethnic groups, but between the classes and strata within these groups. Africans had no qualms about enslaving or selling members of their own ethnic group:

“Although Whydah (the historical name for the city of Ouidah in present-day Benin, formerly Dahomey) was a tiny state with a total population of no more than 100,000, it is said to have exported 16,000 to 20,000 slaves annually in the early 18th century, and it was said that more slaves came from there than from all other West African countries involved in this trade combined. (...) If there was one place in Africa that epitomized the transatlantic slave trade in the 18th century, it was Whydah. (...)

One reason why King Huffon allowed his empire to become an important terminus for the trade routes along which slaves were driven to the coast was, of course, that the slave trade was an important source of income for him and his state. He received 1,000 cowrie shells for every slave that changed hands in Whydah. He also collected the customs duty that every European slave ship had to pay; in 1725, it amounted to 1,080 cowrie shells and the equivalent of three slaves. (...)

The rooms there [in King Huffon’s palace, note V. S.] were lavishly furnished with magnificent beds, upholstered armchairs, sofas, and mirrors – just like any seat of power in Europe. The royal pantries overflowed with imported coffee, tea, chocolate, and delicious jellies, and the royal chefs were as skilled in preparing traditional Whydah dishes as they were in cooking the most exquisite European fare. The royal wine cellar stored wines from France, Spain, Madeira, and the Canary Islands, as well as cognac and other exquisite spirits from France. Above all, however, the palace housed the king’s wives – more than 1,000 in number. Everything his heart could desire was available to King Huffon in abundance.”

Abolition of slavery as a social revolution

(13) „Malgré cela, dans le journal français Le Soleil de mai 1891, on pouvait lire: ‘L’esclavage officiellement proscrit en Tunisie, y fleurit en secret. Pourvu que les conducteurs de caravanes d’esclaves dissimulent adroitement, en les enfermant dans les sacs en alfa, les femmes et les enfants qu’ils ont à vendre. Pourvu surtout que pourboire donné aux employés indigènes de la douane tunisienne soit suffisant, on entre librement à Tunis et on déballe la marchandise dans quelque maisons connue des amateurs.’“

(Nevertheless, the French newspaper Le Soleil reported in May 1891: “Slavery, although officially banned in Tunisia, flourishes in secret. This is because the leaders of the slave caravans hide the women and children intended for sale in half-sacks. As long as the tips given to the local Tunisian customs officers are sufficient, the goods can be unloaded in a few well-known houses.”)

(14) „Y mettre fin aurait abouti à une révolution sociale, en obligeant les Arabes à accomplir eux-mêmes une multitude de tâches domestiques et de travaux agricoles qu’ils méprisaient traditionnellement. Les Anglais et les Turcs l’ont bien compris, qui longtemps encore ont toléré que les côtes restent largement ouvertes au commerce des captifs africains.“

(“Abandoning slavery would have been tantamount to a social revolution for the Arabs, forcing them to take on tasks that they traditionally considered menial in the home and on the farm. Aware of this, the British and Turks tolerated the trade in African slaves along the African coast for a long time.”)

(15) „L’esclavage étant validé et institutionnalisé par l’Islam, il eût été impie chez les Arabes de le remettre en cause. ‘L’esclavage en terre d’Islam reste un sujet à la fois obscur et hypersensible, dont la seule mention est souvent ressentie comme le signe d’une intention hostile’, notait ainsi l’historien Bernhard Lewis.“

(Since slavery was justified and institutionalized by Islam, it could not be questioned. Slavery on Islamic soil remains an obscure and sensitive topic, the mere mention of which is perceived as a sign of hostile intentions,” writes historian Bernhard Lewis, as mentioned at the beginning.)

(16) „Par conséquent, s’il est difficile de trancher ce débat passionnel, on ne saurait ignorer, pour ce qui nous intéresse ici, que c’est la colonisation européenne qui mit entièrement fin à la traite arabo-musulmane.“

(“Despite this emotionally charged debate, it should not be forgotten that the Arab-Muslim slave trade was ended by European colonization.”)

“Time to look at this dark side of our shared history”

EXCURSUS: In his standard work “Weltgeschichte der Sklaverei” (World History of Slavery), ancient historian Egon Flaig writes that the world owes the “abolition of slavery to European culture.” Not only in the US, but also in Africa, abolition had to be forcibly imposed on the elites. “Not only because the local elites profited from enslavement and the slave trade and slavery, but because some state structures were based on permanent enslavement.”

Tidiane N’Diaye writes: “This selective silence about crimes against Black people and its relativization in order to focus solely on the transatlantic slave trade reinforces the narrative of supposed ‘Arab-African solidarity among victims’ of Western colonialism. It is time for scholars and historians in these countries to look at this dark side of our shared history. Without honest and official recognition of these facts, no lessons can be learned from them.”

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This text was first published in German on Achgut and translated by me. I have added a few links and a footnote.

Volker Seitz is a former ambassador with 17 years of service in Africa alone and author of the bestseller “Afrika wird armregiert oder Wie man Afrika wirklich helfen kann” (Africa is being governed into poverty, or How to really help Africa), dtv, 2025 (reprint), one of the most important books in the development aid debate.

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Guest posts do not automatically reflect the opinion of the blog operator.

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1. In 2010, the book received a positive review on German public radio, Deutschlandfunk Kultur (note from the blog owner).