Slavery and the Historiography of Non-Muslims in the Medieval Middle East

Slavery and the Historiography of Non-Muslims in the Medieval Middle EastInternational Journal of Middle East StudiesSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/D7SMQRDI/tei

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2024-08-15-04:00

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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.Lev E.WeitzSlavery and the Historiography of Non-Muslims in the Medieval Middle Easthttp://syriaca.org/cbss/D7SMQRDIhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/D7SMQRDIhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/D7SMQRDIInternational Journal of Middle East Studies49:12017139-142The study of non-Muslims in Islamic societies has long been a robust subfield in the historiography of the medieval Middle East. But its literature has blind spots, a significant example of which concerns slavery as a constitutive institution of non-Muslim communities. Much recent scholarship on medieval non-Muslims has tended to privilege religious affiliation as an explanatory category of social experience, leaving other legal statuses and modes of identification—especially slavery—underanalyzed. This piece will survey this historiographical hole. It will then offer a brief analysis of some Abbasid-era Syriac Christian material in which slavery figures prominently, concubines and concubinage in particular. My goal is to provide an example of how attending to the place of slavery in non-Muslim communities facilitates a much-needed historiographical shift of focus from reified religious identities to the social practices, institutions, and hierarchies upon which those communities were built. Weitz, Lev E. “Slavery and the Historiography of Non-Muslims in the Medieval Middle East.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 49:1 (2017): 139–42. Lev E. Weitz, Slavery and the Historiography of Non-Muslims in the Medieval Middle East, International Journal of Middle East Studies 49:1 (2017): 139–42.Muslim-Christian relationsVII-XVIII CEslavery