Slavery and the Shaping of the Premodern Muslim Family

Slavery and the Shaping of the Muslim Family delves into the wide-ranging and complex subject of slavery within the familial sphere of Islamic societies. For too long, secondary literature has treated the family and slavery as separate domains, overlooking the ways in which enslaved individuals were deeply embedded in domestic life. Contemporary research increasingly recognises that the presence and participation of slaves within households were crucial to the formation of both family structures and broader social frameworks in the Islamic world.

Bringing together the work of distinguished historian-philologists specialising in diverse regions of the Islamic world, the book examines this theme through a variety of genres – including Islamic jurisprudence, literature, and mysticism. What unites these contributions is a shared commitment to primary sources and a rigorous approach to historical inquiry. While the majority of the chapters address the premodern era, the volume also includes work that extends into the eighteenth century, enriching the discussion with a wider chronological perspective.

This volume underscores the value of approaching social history from an intersectional perspective – one that resists viewing the individual as a monolithic whole, and instead attends to the multiple dimensions of identity that inform and mediate social relations across varied contexts, both spatial and temporal.