Domestic Slavery in Syria and Egypt, 1200-1500

✍ Scribed by Jan Hinrich Hagedorn

• Publisher: V&R Unipress
• Year: 2019
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 247
• Series: Mamluk Studies
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Slavery touched many aspects of Mamluk society. This volume focuses on the role of slaves within the family, from birth to purchase, liberation, and death. It investigates domestic slavery in Syrian and Egyptian society from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. Jan Hagedorn focuses on the agency of slaves in the context of master-slave relationships within households and in wider society. He argues that the ability of slaves to shape the world around them was underpinned by a constant process of negotiation within the master-slave relationship and that intermediaries such as the court system channelled the agency of slaves. The principal sources for this study are purchase contracts, listening certificates, marriage contracts, and estate inventories in combination with scribal, market inspection, and slave purchase manuals as well as chronicles.

✦ Table of Contents

Title Page
Copyright
Table of Contents
Body
Acknowledgements
Introduction
A Contribution to the Study of Slavery
The Semantics of Slavery
A Household-Centric Approach
The Master-Slave Relationship
Agency
Sources, Structure, and Methodology
1. The Urban Slave Market
1.1 The Mamluk Slave Market as the Endpoint of an Interregional Supply Chain
1.1.1 Slave Markets in Cairo
1.2 Regulations in the Marketplace: Inspection Manuals
1.2.1 How to Inspect a Slave Trader: A Translation from al-Shayzarī’s Manual
1.2.2 Actors on the Urban Slave Market
1.2.3 Miscellaneous Regulations
1.3 Demand for Slaves: Purchase Manuals
1.3.1 Reasons for Buying a Slave
1.3.2 Racial Stereotypes
1.3.3 Slave Women as Workers, Mothers, and Sex Objects
1.3.4 Physical Examinations and Physiognomy
2. The Practice of Selling Slaves
2.1 Notarial Practice in the Late Mamluk Empire
2.2 Case Study: A House-Born Slave in Upper Egypt
2.3 Case Study: Slave Trading in Jerusalem
2.4 Contrasting Literary and Documentary Evidence
3. Integration and Participation
3.1 Context and Methodology
3.1.1 The Urban Setting
3.1.2 Listening Certificates as Historical Sources
3.1.3 Certificate Collections and Methodology
3.2 Analysis
3.2.1 Ethnic Composition
3.2.2 Slave Procreation
3.2.3 Freed Slaves
3.2.4 Masters
3.3 Case Study: A Public Reading Circle
3.4 Case Study: A Private Reading Circle
4. Sexual Exploitation and Accommodation
4.1 Concubinage
4.2 Marriage
4.3 Enslavement at Birth
5. Manumission
5.1 Legal Principles
5.2 Practice
5.3 Societal Impact
6. Independence and Death
6.1 The Poor, the Rich, and the Soldier
6.2 Patterns
6.3 Socio-economic Status
Conclusions
Slave Markets
Households, Integration, Kinship
Manumission, Continuity and Independence
Reproduction, Rights, Enslavement at Birth
Conclusion
Bibliography
Unpublished Manuscript Sources
Published Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
Appendix 1: Key Documents
Carullah 290
3803/3/35A/12
Fe 259
Ḥaram 60
Ḥaram 495
Ḥaram 445
Ḥaram 646
Appendix 2: Tables
Freed Slaves as Testators in Jerusalem, 1384–1395
Slaves and Freed Slaves in Listening Certificates
Index