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Abd: De geschiedenis van slavernij en slavenhandel in de islamitische wereld
Justin Marozzi onthult in 'Abd' het menselijke drama van degenen die verstrikt raakten in de schrijnende maar vaak over het hoofd geziene geschiedenis van de slavernij in de islamitische wereld, en geeft hen een stem. Marozzi geeft een historische analyse en hedendaagse reportage en raakt daarmee grote thema's als religie, macht, ethiek en de grenzen van traditie.
Slavernij in de islamitische wereld kent een lange, complexe en omstreden geschiedenis. Vanaf de zevende eeuw, wanneer de Profeet Mohammed een aantal slaven verheft tot Metgezel, tot de nog steeds bestaande slavernij in Mali en Mauritanië; gedurende deze vijftien eeuwen heeft slavernij en slavenhandel in uiteenlopende vormen bestaan binnen islamitische samenlevingen. Afrika moest het grootste deel van de vraag naar slavenarbeid opvangen, miljoenen mensen werden te voet door de Sahara naar gevangenschap gevoerd, maar ook Europeanen, moslims, christenen en joden werden tot slaaf gemaakt. En anders dan bij de trans-Atlantische slavenhandel – waarbij de meeste slaven op een Amerikaanse plantage terechtkwamen – vervulden slaven in de islamitische wereld verschillende ze waren concubines, slaafsoldaten, piraten, paleiswachters en soms zelfs militair bevelhebbers.
'Een gedurfde, briljante en actuele geschiedenis die een van de meest verwaarloosde en ongemakkelijke onderwerpen uit de wereldgeschiedenis aan de orde stelt. […] Een ongekend belangrijk boek.' – Peter Frankopan
'Justin Marozzi heeft met Abd de diepe wortels van deze misstand op voorbeeldige wijze opgegraven.' ***** in NRC
Slavernij in de islamitische wereld kent een lange, complexe en omstreden geschiedenis. Vanaf de zevende eeuw, wanneer de Profeet Mohammed een aantal slaven verheft tot Metgezel, tot de nog steeds bestaande slavernij in Mali en Mauritanië; gedurende deze vijftien eeuwen heeft slavernij en slavenhandel in uiteenlopende vormen bestaan binnen islamitische samenlevingen. Afrika moest het grootste deel van de vraag naar slavenarbeid opvangen, miljoenen mensen werden te voet door de Sahara naar gevangenschap gevoerd, maar ook Europeanen, moslims, christenen en joden werden tot slaaf gemaakt. En anders dan bij de trans-Atlantische slavenhandel – waarbij de meeste slaven op een Amerikaanse plantage terechtkwamen – vervulden slaven in de islamitische wereld verschillende ze waren concubines, slaafsoldaten, piraten, paleiswachters en soms zelfs militair bevelhebbers.
'Een gedurfde, briljante en actuele geschiedenis die een van de meest verwaarloosde en ongemakkelijke onderwerpen uit de wereldgeschiedenis aan de orde stelt. […] Een ongekend belangrijk boek.' – Peter Frankopan
'Justin Marozzi heeft met Abd de diepe wortels van deze misstand op voorbeeldige wijze opgegraven.' ***** in NRC
780 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 1, 2025
1 person is currently reading
58 people want to read
About the author
Justin Marozzi
12 books73 followers[Excerpt from http://www.justinmarozzi.com/about/]
Justin is a travel writer, historian, journalist and political risk and security consultant. He has travelled extensively in the Middle East and Muslim world and in recent years has worked in conflict and post-conflict environments such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Darfur. He graduated from Cambridge with a Starred Double First in History in 1993, before studying Broadcast Journalism at Cardiff University and winning a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania to read a Masters in International Relations. After working in the BBC World Service on ‘News Hour’ and BBC Westminster on ‘Today in Parliament’, he joined the Financial Times as a foreign correspondent in Manila, where he also wrote for The Economist. During his time in the Far East, he shared a Winnebago with Imelda Marcos, a helicopter with the Philippine president and his mistress, and a curry with Aung San Suu Kyi whilst under house arrest in Rangoon.
His first book, South from Barbary, was an account of a 1,200-mile expedition by camel along the slave routes of the Libyan Sahara, described by the desert explorer and SAS veteran Michael Asher as “the first significant journey across the Libyan interior for a generation”. His second, Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World, launched in Baghdad in 2004, was the best-selling biography of the world’s greatest Islamic conqueror and a Sunday Telegraph Book of the Year: “Outstanding… Justin Marozzi is the most brilliant of the new generation of travelwriter-historians.”
In 2006, he wrote Faces of Exploration, a collection of profiles of the world’s leading explorers. He has contributed to Meetings with Remarkable Muslims (an interview with the Afghan mujahid hero Ahmed Shah Massoud), The Seventy Greatest Journeys, and most recently The Art of War (essays on Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan and Tamerlane).
His latest book, published in October 2008, is The Man Who Invented History: Travels with Herodotus, based on extensive research in Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and Greece. Apart from a year working for a British security company in Iraq, an encounter with the Grand Mufti of Egypt and an investigation into outwardly religious girls performing oral sex in car-parks in Cairo, one of the many highlights of the Herodotean trail was a retsina-fuelled lunch with the nonagenarian war hero and writer Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor.
Justin is a regular contributor to a wide range of national and international publications, including the Financial Times, Spectator, Times, Sunday Telegraph, Guardian, Evening Standard, Standpoint and Prospect, where he writes on international affairs, the Muslim world and defence and security issues, and has broadcast for the BBC World Service and Radio Four.
Justin is a former member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, where he has also lectured, and an Honorary Travel Member of the Travellers Club.
Justin is a travel writer, historian, journalist and political risk and security consultant. He has travelled extensively in the Middle East and Muslim world and in recent years has worked in conflict and post-conflict environments such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Darfur. He graduated from Cambridge with a Starred Double First in History in 1993, before studying Broadcast Journalism at Cardiff University and winning a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania to read a Masters in International Relations. After working in the BBC World Service on ‘News Hour’ and BBC Westminster on ‘Today in Parliament’, he joined the Financial Times as a foreign correspondent in Manila, where he also wrote for The Economist. During his time in the Far East, he shared a Winnebago with Imelda Marcos, a helicopter with the Philippine president and his mistress, and a curry with Aung San Suu Kyi whilst under house arrest in Rangoon.
His first book, South from Barbary, was an account of a 1,200-mile expedition by camel along the slave routes of the Libyan Sahara, described by the desert explorer and SAS veteran Michael Asher as “the first significant journey across the Libyan interior for a generation”. His second, Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World, launched in Baghdad in 2004, was the best-selling biography of the world’s greatest Islamic conqueror and a Sunday Telegraph Book of the Year: “Outstanding… Justin Marozzi is the most brilliant of the new generation of travelwriter-historians.”
In 2006, he wrote Faces of Exploration, a collection of profiles of the world’s leading explorers. He has contributed to Meetings with Remarkable Muslims (an interview with the Afghan mujahid hero Ahmed Shah Massoud), The Seventy Greatest Journeys, and most recently The Art of War (essays on Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan and Tamerlane).
His latest book, published in October 2008, is The Man Who Invented History: Travels with Herodotus, based on extensive research in Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and Greece. Apart from a year working for a British security company in Iraq, an encounter with the Grand Mufti of Egypt and an investigation into outwardly religious girls performing oral sex in car-parks in Cairo, one of the many highlights of the Herodotean trail was a retsina-fuelled lunch with the nonagenarian war hero and writer Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor.
Justin is a regular contributor to a wide range of national and international publications, including the Financial Times, Spectator, Times, Sunday Telegraph, Guardian, Evening Standard, Standpoint and Prospect, where he writes on international affairs, the Muslim world and defence and security issues, and has broadcast for the BBC World Service and Radio Four.
Justin is a former member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, where he has also lectured, and an Honorary Travel Member of the Travellers Club.
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