Muhammad's Views On Slavery - Themes in His Dealings With Slaves and His Approach To Slavery

Themes in His Dealings With Slaves and His Approach To Slavery

Shortly after he began preaching Islam in his initial period in Mecca, several slaves allied themselves to him. Of them, Yasar and a Christian named are mentioned as being accused by the Quraysh of influencing him to foment political and relgious tumult in the city. In the same period a freed slave named Ammar and his family are recorded as being among the very earliest converts to Islam. While Muhammad remained building his religious community in their city, Quraysh rulers especially targeted converted slave Muslims among those that they persecuted with imprisonment and physical torments; see Yasir ibn Amir, Bilal ibn Ribah, Khabbab ibn al-Aratt, Abu Fakih, Abu Fuhayra, and Ammar ibn Yasir. Writing about that period, Muir has described that "the slaves of Mecca were peculiarly accessible to the solicitations of . As foreigners they were generally familiar either with Judaism or Christianity. Isolated from the influences of hostile partisanship, persecution alienated them from the Quraysh, and misfortune made their hearts susceptible of spiritual impressions".

Once he gained the sponsorship of the clans of Medina and he began to accumulate political power through conquest and military and diplomatic successes his name became more often associated with instances of enslavement. Thus it is found that he voiced his approval of the enslavement of the captured women and children of the Bani Qurayza who had come under his authority after the military defeat of their menfolk. He expressed no qualms, either, about receiving slaves as gifts or seizing them as plunder and either holding them to the service of himself or distributing them amongst his followers. He presented three women from the conquered Banu Hawazin as slaves to his key supportive close marital relatives in early 630: Reeta, to Ali; Zeinab, to Uthman; and an unnamed third to Umar.; and several months later, the terms of Muhammad's treaty with the Jews of Mucna Adzruh and Jarba asserts his consequent personal ownership of "every slave amongst you ... excepting what the Apostle or his messenger shall remit".

In his personal example he did not emancipate all of his own slaves where he had the opportunity to do so during his lifetime, as the account of his final days and death mention the continuing attendance of his slaves as his servants beyond the time of his acknowledgment of the terminal character of his last illness. With his last instructions he addressed a number of subjects and took care to apportion his remaining gold but he did not emancipate or otherwise dispose of his remaining slaves who thus succeeded by inheritance to Fatimah.