Slavery in Iran
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The History of slavery in
Slavery in Pre-Achaemenid Iran
Slaves are attested
Classical Antiquity
Slavery in the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550–330 BC)
Slavery was an existing institution in
The most common word used to designate a slave in the Achaemenid was bandaka-, which was also used to express general dependence. In his writing,
Herodotus has mentioned enslavement with regards to rebels of the
Xenophon at his work Anabasis mention slaves in the Persian Empire. For example, he writes about the slaves of Asidates when he is describing a night raid .[6]
Persian aristocrats in Babylonia and other conquered states were major slave owners under the Achaemenid dynasty.[2] These defeated peoples supplied them with a sizable portion of their domestic slaves.[2] Every year, the Babylonians had to provide a tribute of five hundred boys.[2] Information on privately owned slaves is scarce, but there are surviving cuneiform documents from Babylonia and the Persepolis Administrative Archives which record slave sales and contracts.[2]
According to
On the whole, in the [[Achaemenid]] empire, there was only small number of slaves in relation to the number of free persons and slave labor was in no position to supplant free labor. The basis of agriculture was the labor of free farmers and tenants and in handicrafts the labor of free artisans, whose occupation was usually inherited within the family, likewise predominated. In these countries of the empire, slavery had already undergone important changes by the time of the emergence of the Persian state. Debt slavery was no longer common. The practice of pledging one's person for debt, not to mention self-sale, had totally disappeared by the Persian period. In the case of nonpayment of a debt by the appointed deadline, the creditor could turn the children of the debtor into slaves. A creditor could arrest an insolvent debtor and confine him to debtor's prison. However, the creditor could not sell a debtor into slavery to a third party. Usually the debtor paid off the loan by free work for the creditor, thereby retaining his freedom.
Slavery in Hellenistic Iran (c. 330–c. 150s BC)
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Slavery in Parthian Iran (c. 150s BC–224 AD)
According to Plutarch, there were many slaves in the army of the Parthian general Surena.[7] The meaning of the term "slaves" (doûloi, servi) mentioned in this context is disputed, as it may be pejorative rather than literal.[8]
Plutarch also mentions that after the Romans were defeated in the Battle of Carrhae all the surviving Roman legionnaires were enslaved by the Parthians.
Slavery in Sasanian Iran (c. 224–642 AD)
Under this period Roman prisoners of war were used in farming in Babylonia, Shush, and Persis.[9]
Sasanian Laws of Slavery
Some of the laws governing the ownership and treatment of slaves can be found in the legal compilation called the Matigan-i Hazar Datistan, a collection of rulings by Sasanian judges.[10] Principles that can be inferred from the laws include:
- Sources of slaves were both foreign (e.g., non-Zoroastrianscaptives from warfare or raiding or slaves imported from outside the Empire by traders) or domestic (e.g., hereditary slaves, children sold into slavery by their fathers, or criminals enslaved as punishment). Some cases suggest that a criminal's family might also be condemned to servitude. At the time of the manuscript's composition, Iranian slavery was hereditary on the mother's side (so that a child of a free man and a slave woman would be a slave), although the author reports that in earlier Persian history it may have been the opposite, being inherited from the father's side.
- Slave-owners had the right to the slaves' income.
- While slaves were formally chattel (property) and were liable to the same legal treatment as nonhuman property (for example, they could be sold at will, rented, owned jointly, inherited, given as security for a loan, etc.), Sasanian courts did not treat them completely as objects; for example, slaves were allowed to testify in court in cases concerning them, rather than only permitted to be represented by their owners.
- Slaves were often given to the Zoroastrian fire temples as a pious offering, in which case they and their descendants would become temple-slaves.
- Excessive cruelty towards slaves could result in the owners' being brought to court; a court case involving a slave whose owner tried to drown him in the Tigris Riveris recorded, though without stating the outcome of the case.
- If a non-Zoroastrian slave, such as a Christian slave, converted to Zoroastrianism, he or she could pay his or her price and attain freedom; i.e., as long as the owner was compensated, manumission was required.
- Owners could also voluntarily manumit their slaves, in which case the former slave became a subject of the Sasanian King of Kings and could not lawfully be re-enslaved later. Manumissions were recorded, which suggests that a freedman who was challenged would be able to document their free status.
- Uniquely in comparison to Western slave systems, Sasanian slavery recognized partial manumission (relevant in the case of a jointly owned slave, only some of whose owners were willing to manumit). In case of a slave who was, e.g., one-half manumitted, the slave would serve in alternating years.
To free a slave (irrespective of his or her faith) was considered a good deed.[11] Slaves had some rights including keeping gifts from the owner and at least three days of rest in the month.[11]
Medieval Iran
Slavery under the Umayyads, Abbasids, and Persianate Muslim dynasties (c. 642–1220 AD)
After the Islamic conquest of Iran, slavery and slave trade came to be similar to those conducted in other Muslim regions, and were directed toward non-Muslims. The slaves were provided to Iran and from Iran to
According to Islamic practice of slavery and slave trade, non-Muslims were free to be enslaved, and since many parts of Iran remained Zoroastrian the first centuries after conquest, some non-Muslim "infidel territory" were exposed to Muslim slave raids, particularly Daylam in northwestern Iran and the Pagan mountainous region of Ḡūr in central Afghanistan.[8] Persian-Zoroastrian slaves became common in the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphate, and many of the mothers, concubines, and slave qiyan musicians are identified as originally Persian Zoroastrians.[8]
The slave trade of the
A third slave route through northwestern via Azerbaijan and Caucasus a came via the Kazars consisting of Turkish slaves, as well as non-Turkish peoples of the Caucasus and eastern Europeans such as the Alans, the Rūs, and the saqaliba (Europeans), in turn including Slavs and Finno-Ugrian peoples like the Burṭās or Mordvins;[12] the slave trade from Caucasus (and the Black Sea slave trade) would also have included Greeks, Armenians and Georgians.[8] The Muslim invasion of northern India also resulted in a slave route of Hindu Indians through warfare and slave raids.[8] [13][8]
The slaves were used in Iran itself, particular in the households of the Muslim governors, but Iran was also a great transfer area of the slave trade to the Abbasid Caliphate.[8] The use of domestic slaves was of the kind common in Islamic regions. Enslaved women were used as concubines of the harems or female slaves to serve them, and male slaves were castrated to become eunuchs who guarded them, and black men were preferred as eunuchs because they were regarded to be unattractive.[8] Slaves were also employed as entertainers and for secretarial and financial duties, as musicians, as soldiers, as tenders of farm animals and horses, and as domestics and cooks. There would also have been agricultural slave workers in Iran, but the information about them are insufficient.[8]
Slavery under Mongol and Turkoman rule (c. 1220–1502 AD)
This section needs expansion with: sourced information on slavery in Iran in the Mongol and Turkoman periods. You can help by adding to it. (October 2020) |
Slaves were procured through warfare, slave raids, by purchase or as gifts.
Both male and female slaves were used for domestic service and sexual objects. The use of slaves for military service,
Early Modern Iran
Slavery in Safavid Iran (c. 1502–1736 AD)
This section needs expansion with: sourced information on slavery in Safavid Iran. You can help by adding to it. (October 2020) |
Slavery was a common institution in Safavid Iran, with slaves employed in many levels of society. African slaves were imported by the East African slave trade across the Indian Ocean, and white slaves were mainly provided from the Caucasus area or the Caspian Sea through warfare and slave trade.[14]
Slave trade
Slaves were procured through warfare, slave raids, by purchase or as gifts. Prisoners of war (asīr) could be ransomed but were otherwise enslaved, and rebellions and upheavals such as the Afghan occupation (1722–1730) resulted in the enslavement of thousands; in these cases, the usual custom of only enslaving people of a different religion were overlooked.
Slave market
Male slaves were referred to as ḡolām (in Arabic lit. a youth) or zar-ḵarīd (lit. bought by gold) or if they were black as kākā sīāh, while female slaves were referred to as kanīz(ak).[14] Male slaves were used for military services as ghilman, or castrated and used as eunuch servants, while female slaves were used as domestics or as concubines for sexual service.[14] Both male and female slaves were employed by their masters as entertainers, dancing, playing music, serving [15] and by giving sexual services by prostitution at private parties.[16]
Safavid harem
One of the biggest slavery institutions in Safavid Iran was the royal
Slavery under Nader Shah and his successors (c. 1736–1796 AD)
This section needs expansion with: sourced information on slavery in Iran under Nader Shah & co.. You can help by adding to it. (October 2020) |
Slavery in Qajar Iran (c. 1796–1925 AD)
Slave trade and supply
At the beginning of the 19th century both white and black, as well as indigenous, slaves were traded in Iran. Slaves were mainly obtained either through sale or warfare. Children were sometimes sold into slavery by their poor families, often in Armenia, Southern Iran and Kurdistan.
White slaves were mainly provided from the Caucasus area or the Caspian Sea through warfare and slave trade (mainly the
Inside Iran, non-Muslims, often Jewish women, were kidnapped from their homes, and Muslim tribespeople were kidnapped or taken as war prisoners during tribal warfare, often by Turkoman slave traders.[21] Normally, white and light skinned slaves were used for concubinage, while black slaves were used domestics (maids, nannies and eunuchs).[21] In southeast Iran, slave raids were conducted by slavers, often local chieftains, as late as around 1900.[14] Muslim Iranian slaves were mainly sold to Arabia and Afghanistan, and it was said; "most of the slave girls employed as domestics in the houses of the gentry at Kandahar were brought from the outlying districts of Ghayn."[14]
African slaves were provided from East Africa via the Indian Ocean slave trade, but also increasingly through the Persian Gulf by Arab and Persian traders, or by land by pilgrims returning from Mecca (Red Sea slave trade), which caused Iranian to call the slaves haji.[14] Three categories of black slaves existed: "Bambassees, Nubees, and Habeshees." The origin of the term "Bambassee" being mispronunciation of "Mombassa," the port from which many of these slaves originated. The Nubees, or Nubians, were slaves from Nubia and were known for their darker complexion compared to Ethiopian slaves.[22][23] The Habeshees were sourced from the southern Abyssinian kingdom of Shoa engaged in conflicts with the
Employment of slaves
As in previous times, slaves were used as eunuchs, domestic servants and concubines in the harems; as military men, administrative staff, or field laborers; it was considered a matter of status to have slaves in the household.[14] Visiting Europeans could also have slaves in their household during their stay, however their slaves could leave any moment they wished with the claim that as Muslims, they were not compelled to serve Christians.[14] Slaves owned by the Turkmen tribes were used to herd their flocks and till their land, and in southeast Iran slaves were almost exclusively held for agricultural labor.[14] The British consul reported that "in Beluchistan there are several hamlets inhabited by slaves, who till the Government's property around Bampūr", and in Sīstān "the cultivators of the soil are, for the most part, Slaves both black and white."[14]
The domestic slave pattern was similar in regard to the royal Qajar harem. The wives and slave concubines of shah Fath-Ali Shah Qajar came from the harems of the vanquished houses of Zand and Afšār; from the Georgian and Armenian campaigns; as well as from the slave markets, and presented as gifts to the shah from the provinces.[25][8] The slave concubines of the harem were mainly white, dominantly Turkmen and Kurdish captives under the supervision of female chief called aqal (aḡūl).[14] Young slave boys below puberty (ḡolām-bačča) served as servants and playmates in the harem.[14] Eunuchs were mainly African slaves.[14] During the Qajar dynasty, slave soldiers, ghilman, were used for the royal guard, and they were mainly white slaves from Caucasus.[14] Female slaves had in some aspects more freedom than free Muslim women, as they were allowed to move about alone outside of the harem without veils and mingle with men, and were less harshly punished for voluntarily extramarital sexual relationships.[26] Slaves were well-integrated into Iranian society. They intermarried with Persians, spoke Persian and adopted Islam. British traveler Ella Sykes wrote that Iran was the "Paradise" for slaves.[27]
Decline
The
Although the diplomatic efforts of the Russians and the British did result in a decline in the trade, slavery was still common in Iran under the Qajar dynasty, and it was not until the first half of twentieth century that slavery would be officially abolished in Iran under
Modern Period
Abolition of slavery (1929 AD)
What ultimately led to the abolition of the slave trade and the emancipation of slaves in Iran were internal pressures for reform.
Original text of Iranian Slavery Abolition Act of 1929 is as follows:[30]
"Single Article" – In Iran, no one shall be recognized as slave and every slave will be emancipated upon arrival at Iran's territorial soil or waters. Every person who purchases or vends a human as slave or treats with a human in another ownership manner or acts as an intermediary in trading or transit of slaves, shall be sentenced to one to three years of correctional imprisonment. Indication – Having been informed about or referring of someone who has been subjected to trading or treatment as a slave, every official is obligated to provide him with means of liberation, immediately, and to inform the district court for guilt's prosecution.
Slavery after abolition
See also
- History of slavery in the Muslim world
- Slavery in 21st-century Islamism
- Slavery in modern Africa
- Slavery in antiquity
References
- JSTOR 4299904. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
- ^ Encyclopedia Iranica
- ISBN 978-1-57506-120-7, p.37
- ISBN 978-0-521-21592-3(see page 112)
- ISBN 978-0-631-23236-0(see page 85)
- ^ Xenophon, Anabasis, 7.8
- ISBN 978-0-521-24693-4(see p.635)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Foundation, Encyclopaedia Iranica. "Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica". iranicaonline.org.
- Praeger Publishers, 1969 (see p.13)
- ISBN 978-0-313-29144-9(see p.87)
- ^ ISBN 978-0-313-29144-9(see p.87)
- ^ A. Z. V. Togan, “Die Schwerter der Germanen, nach arabischen Berichten des 9-11. Jts.,” ZDMG 90, 1936, p. 22
- ^ Levi, Scott C. “Hindus beyond the Hindu Kush: Indians in the Central Asian Slave Trade.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 12, no. 3, 2002, pp. 277–88. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25188289. Accessed 15 Apr. 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x BARDA and BARDA-DĀRI iv. From the Mongols to the abolition of slavery
- ^ Figueroa, Don Garcia. 1984. Travelogue of Don Garcia De Sila Figueroa. Translated by Gholamreza Samii. Tehran: Nashre No. (In Farsi
- ^ Sherley, Anthony, Robert Sherley, and Thomas Sherley. 1983. The Travelogue of the Sherley Brothers. Translated by Avans. Tehran: Negah. (In Farsi)
- ^ Ricks, Thomas. 2001. Slaves and slave trading in Shi’i Iran, AD 1500–1900. Journal of Asian and African Studies 36: 407–18
- ^ a b c Sussan Babaie, Kathryn Babayan, Ina Baghdiantz-MacCabe, Mussumeh Farhad: Slaves of the Shah: New Elites of Safavid Iran, Bloomsbury Academic, 2004
- ^ Foran, John. “"The Long Fall of the Safavid Dynasty: Moving beyond the Standard Views." International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 24, no. 2, 1992, pp. 281–304. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/164299. Accessed 28 Mar. 2021.
- ^ Taheri, Abolghasem. 1970. Political and Social History of Iran from Teymur’s Death until the Death of Shah Abbas II. Tehran: Habibi. (In Farsi)
- ^ a b Janet Afary: Sexual Politics in Modern Iran
- ^ Sheil, Lady (1856). Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia. London: J Murray. p. 243.
- ^ Polak, J. E. (1865). Persien, das Land und seine Bewohner (in German). Vol. 2. Leipzig: Brockhaus. p. 248.
- ISBN 9780198213604.
- ^ Solṭān-Aḥmad Mirzā ʿĀżod-al-Dawla, Tāriḵ-e ʿażodi, ed. ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Navāʾi, Tehran, 1376 Š./1997.p 336
- ISBN 9781107394353– via Google Books.
- ^ Floor, Willem (2000). "BARDA and BARDA-DĀRI iv. From the Mongols to the abolition of slavery". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. III. pp. 768–774.
- ^ Mirzai, Behnaz A. (2017), A history of slavery and emancipation in Iran, 1800-1929, Austin: University of Texas Press. page 145
- ^ OCLC 66890745.
- ^ a b Law for prohibition of slave trade and liberation of slaves at the point of entry, 1 Iranian National Parliament 7, Page 156 (1929).
Further reading
Last number(s) indicate pages:
- A. Perikhanian (1983). "Iranian Society and Law". In Ehsan Yar-Shater; William Bayne Fisher; Ilya Gershevitch (eds.). The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 5: Institutions. Cambridge University Press. pp. 634–640. ISBN 9780521246934.
- Anthony A. Lee, "Enslaved African Women in Nineteenth-Century Iran: The Life of Fezzeh Khanom of Shiraz," Iranian Studies (May 2012).
- Mehryar, Amir H; Mostafavi, F; Agha, Homa (2001-07-05). "Men and Family Planning in Iran" (PDF). The IUSSP XXIVth General Population Conference in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, August 18–24, 2001. p. 4.