Ransom Slavery And Summary
Summary:
Matar begins with providing a bit of an overview of the Maltese slave trade at the time. He points out how between 1500 and 1800 many Muslims were slaves. Moreover, there was often no focus on Arabic captivity narratives. He believes that one of the reasons for this was that Arabic authors were not very elaborate in their descriptions of slavery. They didn't show emotions because Islam has no discourse which ties captivity to sin (as opposed the Christian discourse). European slaves became the figurehead of Christian suffering and ultimate success over Islam. This was not the case in Arabic narratives. Ransom slavery was not as institutionalised in Islam as in Christianity. For instance, there was no collecting of money for slaves
Matar begins with providing a bit of an overview of the Maltese slave trade at the time. He points out how between 1500 and 1800 many Muslims were slaves. Moreover, there was often no focus on Arabic captivity narratives. He believes that one of the reasons for this was that Arabic authors were not very elaborate in their descriptions of slavery. They didn't show emotions because Islam has no discourse which ties captivity to sin (as opposed the Christian discourse). European slaves became the figurehead of Christian suffering and ultimate success over Islam. This was not the case in Arabic narratives. Ransom slavery was not as institutionalised in Islam as in Christianity. For instance, there was no collecting of money for slaves