Muslim Cleric Slavery Dbq Essay

Slavery had a key role in the cultures of Muslim and European people. The documents provided, after being analyzed, tell that the thoughts about slavery from each culture were different. The documents also state that the reasons for the differences in the opinions about slavery were because of religions and basic cultural ideals. Nevertheless, there were some similarities between their slavery. One of the most important is the social status of the slaves. Regardless of the social status, the treatment of the slaves was different. The Muslim slaves were treated much better than the slaves of the Americas. To get a better understanding of the similarities and differences, you should better understand the societies themselves.

In both societies,

Document 5 is a letter from a vizier to the governor of Libya. In this document, he talks about the transportation of slaves and the perishing of a significant portion of them because of the lack of water. He tells that this behavior is not acceptable and that, during the trade, if any of the slaves perish, the people responsible will be punished. This shows how the religious beliefs of Islam play a significant role in the Muslim slavery system. Another key analytic piece in showing the religious effect on slavery is document 2. Document 2 was written by a Muslim cleric. The Muslim cleric, who is strong in the Muslim faith, believes that Muslims are better than the pagan slaves because they are not Muslim. This belief is obviously very biased because of the fact that he is a Muslim-pious man. In this document, he states, “The origin of Muslim slavery is unbelief, and the black slaves are like Christians, except they are like majus, pagans.” This is also very similar to the point made in Document 7. Different than how in the Americas and how their slaves were treated as property, the slaves of the Muslim world were not even kept away from the family of their master. This is what Document 7 talks about. It was written by an Austrian scholar

Again, the slave owners of the American slave system saw their slaves as property and were known to discriminate against skin color, as mentioned in document 7. Also, they saw slaves less as people and more as “resources”. This “resource” was wanted by participants of the slave trade. This “resource” could be compared to gold during the Age of Exploration. Seeing the slaves were seen as nothing more than property, they were transported from place to place in horrible conditions and then, once they got to their destination, were put through the most strenuous work. The slave owners did not care about the slaves’ physical condition while they were doing their plantation work. Document 6 tells about this in detail. This document, a report of plantation illnesses, was written by a Brazilian doctor. He takes notice to the treatment of the slaves during this time. He especially takes notice to the strenuous work that the slaves did, no matter their physical condition. The owner does not show any remorse for his slaves’ death rate. When asked about how it affects his revenue, he responds saying that he does not care and he is going to work the slaves as long and hard as they can go and then the revenue will be recovered. The slaves were seen as temporary and replaceable. Document 4 is a chart concerning the usage of slaves for coffee and sugar plantations in Cuba