Islam's Black Slaves: The Other Black Diaspora

A comprehensive study of the Eastern slave trade by an eminent British scholarA companion volume to The Black Diaspora this groundbreaking work tells the fascinating and horrifying story of the Islamic slave trade. Islams Black Slaves documents a centuries-old institution that still survives and traces the business of slavery and its repercussions from Islams inception in the seventh century through its history in China India Iran Turkey Egypt Libya and Spain and on to Sudan and Mauritania where even today slaves continue to be sold. Ronald Segal reveals for the first time the numbers involved in this trade--as many millions as were transported to the Americas--and explores the differences between the traffic in the East and the West.Islams Black Slaves also examines the continued denial of the very existence of this sector of the black diaspora although it survives today in significant numbers; and in an illuminating conclusion Segal addresses the appeal of Islam to African-American communities and the perplexing refusal of Black Muslim leaders to acknowledge black slavery and oppression in present-day Mauritania and Sudan.A fitting companion to Segals previous work Islams Black Slaves is a fascinating account of an often unacknowledged tradition and a riveting cross-cultural commentary.