New Medieval Books: Africanism
A groundbreaking book that examines the history between Arab and African peoples in the Middle Ages, focusing on Arab depictions of Black people in literature.
Medieval letter about ‘Voluntary enslavement’ discovered by historian
Could ever a person want to become a slave? A remarkable letter written over a thousand years ago reveals how a group of ten men were seriously considering doing just that, as they hoped to escape terrible prison conditions.
From Slave to Traveler to Writer: The Story of Yaqut al-Hamawi
Yaqut al-Hamawi is a celebrated medieval scholar, geographer, and traveler who lived in the Abbasid caliphate during the late 12th and early 13th centuries. He is famous for the books he composed and his travels throughout the Muslim world.
Representing the trauma of captivity, enslavement, and degradation, with Adam Goldwyn
Can Byzantine literature speak powerfully to these transhistorical traumas? How can we activate it to do so?
The Vikings’ Slave Trade
From Woven Sails to Slavery: Viking lovers, this episode of the Medieval Grad Podcast is for you! Lucie Laumonier meets Sarah Christensen, who studies the slave trade in the Western Viking world and its intersections with gender. We learn that enslaved women often worked in textile production, weaving the sails Viking men used to propel their ships.
New Medieval Books: Vikings
Five new books that tell us about the Norse and the Viking Age.
A Very Peculiar Institution: Military Slavery in the Mamluk Sultanate
I will suggest that the prism of slavery as a legal, social and economic institution is an effective way to study the ruling elite and army of the Cairo-based Sultanate that ruled from 1250 to 1517.
Raiders, marauders, ravagers, and pirates: their impact on Byzantine life, with Alexander Sarantis
Who were these raiders? What did they want? How did provincials and the empire as a whole respond to them? A fear of marauders probably doesn’t keep you up at night today, but this was a major anxiety in Byzantine life.
Slavery in Late Antiquity and Byzantium, with Noel Lenski
A conversation with Noel Lenski on “slave societies” and how the institution of slavery changed in Late Antiquity and Byzantium. Were tasks performed by slaves in antiquity carried out by free people in Late Antiquity? What were the experiences of Byzantines who were themselves captured in raids and taken outside the empire?
The Borderlands of Slavery in Medieval Mediterranean France
Daniel Lord Smail examines slavery in medieval France.
Slave, Soldier, Lord, and Sovereign: The Story of Baybars
Baybars’ story is exemplary of the careers of many slave soldiers of the medieval and early modern Muslim world. He rose from being a refugee and slave to become a soldier, officer, and then a ruler.
Human Trafficking 1000 years ago
Human trafficking was taking place in the Mediterranean a thousand years ago. A recent article takes a look at how and why this business was taking place.
The Assassination of Ahmad Ibn Ismail: Power Struggles in the Samanid Empire
The emir Ahmad ibn Ismail was assassinated in the year 914. This is the story of why he was killed and the power struggle that took place in the aftermath of his death.
Mothers Who Weren’t: Wet Nurses in the Medieval Mediterranean
By Cait Stevenson The mother’s traditional role as first teacher of virtue and religion began with suckling. It’s no wonder, then, that later…
The slave markets of the Viking world: comparative perspectives on an ‘invisible archaeology’
This study explores the comparative archaeologies and histories of slave markets in order to examine the potential form and function of these sites, and how they might have operated as part of the wider, interconnected Viking world.
Slaves, Wealth and Fear: An Episode from Late Mamluk-Era Egypt
Slaves, Wealth and Fear: An Episode from Late Mamluk-Era Egypt By Nur Sobers Khan Oriens, Vol. 37 (2009) Introduction: In the spring of 1446 a…
The Zanj Revolt: A Slave War in Medieval Iraq
After generations of oppression, an army of slaves rose up to challenge the Abbasid Caliphate.
New book examines the medieval slave trade in Russia
While the slave trade collapsed in medieval Western Europe following the emergence of sovereign monarchies, territorial states and their rule of law, the situation in Russia was very different.
Slave Trading in the British Isles and the Czech Lands, 7th-11th Centuries
This thesis examines slave trading from a regional, comparative perspective for the British Isles and the Czech lands, from the seventh through eleventh centuries.
Slavery, Violence and the Origin of Serfdom in Late Medieval Galicia
This presentation discusses the interrelation between slavery and serfdom in fifteenth-century Galicia (Red Ruthenia).
The Cultural-Psychological Aspects of the Presence of African Slaves in Portugal in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries
Slavery and the presence of African slaves – black and white
(Berbers and Arabs) – in Portugal in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries had a significant impact on the history of the country, on many aspects of Portuguese social life, and on Portuguese customs and culture.
Raiders from the North: Irish Enslavement during the Viking Age
Both the interactions with the Irish as well as the enslavement of the Irish influenced Norse culture.
Dirhams for slaves: Investigating the Slavic slave trade in the tenth century
The idea that a massive trade in Slavic slaves underpinned the economic growth of Europe in the 9th and 10th centuries is not new. It is, however, most often only implicit; and at any rate, it is very rarely discussed.
Penal enslavement in the early middle ages
In the specific form it took during the medieval period, penal enslavement therefore amounts to a strikingly new phenomenon. How did such a system come about, and what functions did it serve?
The Scale of Slave Raiding and the Slave Trade in Northumbria and Ireland, 7th-11th Centuries
Slave raiding and the slave trade in early medieval Northumbria and Ireland were transcultural and inter-regional processes, involving the enslavement and transportation of people across permeable borders.