ePub Race and Slavery in the Middle East: Histories of Trans-Saharan Africans in 19th-Century Egypt; Sudan; and the Ottoman Mediterranean by From The American University in Cairo Press in History

Review

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. dry academic papers forced into one bookBy David GThis s a collection of writings by various researchers. It focuses almost entirely on Egypt and its Sudanese slaves. A couple writings touch on big picture with slight insights into slavery and how it impacted Egypt.. But many are very dry summaries of statistical facts gleaned from various references such as censuses and court records. These are likely only of interest to the academic researcher. Others are anecdotal stories of a few slaves which; while more slightly interesting; have no basis to extrapolate to the general population. A few hit on the classic defense of islamic slavery that it raised up savages and provided a better life than they would have enjoyed as free men and woman. This woudl have been more credible if there was a lot of documentation of free men and women voluntarily re-entering slavery; instead of being abducted.Although there was some educational value it did not feel like an indepth look at societal drivers; trends and only touched on customs. A big picture overview was lacking in almost all articles. Felt like a bunch of dry academic papers forced into one book