Possessed by the Right Hand – The Problem of Slavery in Islamic Law and Muslim Cultures

Bernard K. Freamon

Volume: 8, Studies in Global Slavery

Brill, 2019, 516 p. ISBN: 978-90-04-36481-3

Siraj Khan

 

‘Possessed by the Right Hand’ does the phenomenal task of surveying the history of slavery geographically in the Middle East, Asia, Persia, Eurasia, across time periods in the pre-Islamic era, early Islamic communities, during Islamic conquests and subsequent dynasties, during and post-abolitionism, and in the modern era in one volume. It intersperses geographical analysis with a layering of legal analysis of the development, use and abuse of Islamic law to perpetuate slavery. While ensuring that it is accessible to specialists and non-specialists alike, the author expressly targets a Muslim audience, inviting them to critically examine the history of the practice of slavery in Islamic communities in order to “confront issues raised by those legacies in the contemporary world” (p. 19).