Captives and Companions: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World
Captives and Companions: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World
Captives and Companions: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World
Description
Description
**SHORTLISTED FOR 2025 THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION**
A startling exploration of slavery in the Islamic world from the 7th century to the present
Slavery in the Islamic world has a long, diverse and controversial history. Captives and Companions is a brilliant synthesis of history and contemporary reportage that brings to life the voices of the enslaved in stories of eighth-century concubines and ninth-century revolts, thirteenth-century slave soldiers who established dynastic rule over Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, eighteenth-century corsairs and twentieth-century pearl divers in the Gulf. It also has first-hand accounts of this legacy in the twenty-first century, including the depredations of Daesh and continuing hereditary slavery in Mali and Mauritania. Justin Marozzi traces the extraordinary variety of enslavement in the Islamic world, which ranged from agricultural labour and domestic toil to elite concubinage, guardianship of sacred spaces, political leadership and even military command. He shows how Africa bore the brunt of the demand for slave labour, fuelled throughout the nineteenth century by expanding global markets and commodity chains. Slavers plied African coasts, traders raided inland for human cargo, and millions were marched across the Sahara into captivity. Meanwhile, North African corsairs turned the Mediterranean into a slave-raiding 'free-for-all' between Muslims, Christians and Jews. Taking the reader on an extraordinary historical journey from Baghdad to Bamako, Tripoli to Timbuktu, Istanbul to the Black Sea, this is the riveting human drama of those caught up in one of history's most remarkable overlooked stories.
A startling exploration of slavery in the Islamic world from the 7th century to the present
Slavery in the Islamic world has a long, diverse and controversial history. Captives and Companions is a brilliant synthesis of history and contemporary reportage that brings to life the voices of the enslaved in stories of eighth-century concubines and ninth-century revolts, thirteenth-century slave soldiers who established dynastic rule over Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, eighteenth-century corsairs and twentieth-century pearl divers in the Gulf. It also has first-hand accounts of this legacy in the twenty-first century, including the depredations of Daesh and continuing hereditary slavery in Mali and Mauritania. Justin Marozzi traces the extraordinary variety of enslavement in the Islamic world, which ranged from agricultural labour and domestic toil to elite concubinage, guardianship of sacred spaces, political leadership and even military command. He shows how Africa bore the brunt of the demand for slave labour, fuelled throughout the nineteenth century by expanding global markets and commodity chains. Slavers plied African coasts, traders raided inland for human cargo, and millions were marched across the Sahara into captivity. Meanwhile, North African corsairs turned the Mediterranean into a slave-raiding 'free-for-all' between Muslims, Christians and Jews. Taking the reader on an extraordinary historical journey from Baghdad to Bamako, Tripoli to Timbuktu, Istanbul to the Black Sea, this is the riveting human drama of those caught up in one of history's most remarkable overlooked stories.
About the Author
About the Author
Justin Marozzi is a former Financial Times and Economist foreign correspondent. He is the author of several books, including Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood won the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize, and Islamic Empires: The Cities that Shaped the Modern World, also available from Pegasus Books.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"The long history of slavery--far from America's shores. Journalist Marozzi regrets that Islamic scholars have largely ignored the subject of slavery. In his detailed history, he emphasizes that neither the Bible nor the Koran objects to the institution. [An] expert history."--Kirkus Reviews
"An unsentimental unveiling of a subject that has long been shrouded in scholarly purdah...An elegant and ambitious synthesis, serving up a scintillating compendium of lives. Gliding through the ages, Marozzi's prose recalls an older tradition of history writing - the effortless fluidity of a John Julius Norwich of Jan Morris. Reading him one thinks of Tintoretto: vast canvases, mannered style, high drama, narrative drive."--Pratinav Anil, Lecturer in History at the University of Oxford
"A powerful and important book. A masterly and thoughtful study of human cruelty and endurance."--Gerard Russell "Financial Times"
"A scrupulously fair, fearless and detailed history."--Christopher Hart "The Daily Mail"
"Superb. A remarkably humane work, written in urbane and polished prose."--Bartle Bull "Literary Review"
"Parts of Justin Marozzi's Captives and Companions are hard to read and that's as it should be. We are obsessed with the Atlantic traffic but the mass trade carried on in the Islamic world, sanctioned by the faith, gets far less attention. This book is a necessary corrective."--Evening Standard, a "Book of the Week"
"Mr. Marozzi tells the story in all its richness, variety and horror. The result is a monumental revisionist work that will alter views on slavery inside and outside the Islamic world. An absorbing book."--The Wall Street Journal
"In Captives and Companions, Justin Marozzi traces the stories of the eunuchs, harem women, and forced laborers who underwrote empires in Asia and North Africa. Captives and Companions is an engrossing read, and Marozzi deserves credit for lighting up a vast subject with vivid tales that throw Atlantic slavery sharply into relief."--Thomas Meaney, The New York Times Book Review
"An elegant and ambitious synthesis, serving up a scintillating compendium. Marozzi's prose recalls an older tradition of history writing--the effortless fluidity of a John Julius Norwich or Jan Morris. Reading him, one thinks of Tintoretto: vast canvases, mannered style, high drama, narrative drive."--The Times (London), a Book of the Week
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Pegasus Books
Pub date:
2025-10-07
Length:
560 pages
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