Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam

by Chouki El Hamel

Overview

Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam chronicles the experiences, identity, and achievements of enslaved black people in Morocco from the sixteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century. Chouki El Hamel argues that we cannot rely solely on Islamic ideology as the key to explain social relations and particularly the history of black slavery in the Muslim world, for this viewpoint yields an inaccurate historical record of the people, institutions, and social practices of slavery in Northwest Africa. El Hamel focuses on black Moroccans' collective experience beginning with their enslavement to serve as the loyal army of the Sultan Isma'il. By the time the Sultan died in 1727, they had become a political force, making and unmaking rulers well into the nineteenth century. The emphasis on the political history of the black army is augmented by a close examination of the continuity of black Moroccan identity through the musical and cultural practices of the Gnawa.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107651777
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/27/2014
Series:	African Studies , #123
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	354
Sales rank:	936,202
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

Chouki El Hamel is Associate Professor in History at Arizona State University.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I. Race, Gender, and Slavery in the Islamic Discourse: 1. The notion of slavery and the justification of concubinage as an institution of slavery in Islam; 2. The interplay between slavery, race, and color prejudice; Part II. Black Morocco: The Internal African Diaspora: 3. The trans-Saharan diaspora; 4. 'Racializing slavery': the controversy of Mawlay Isma'il's project; 5. The Black Army functions and the role of women; 6. The political history of the Black Army: between privilege and marginality; 7. The abolition of slavery in Morocco; 8. The Gnawa and the memory of slavery; Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

"… a valuable contribution to North African historiography and the study of slavery … an important contribution not only to the study of slavery but also to the field of North African history. … Black Morocco offers us the most sustained and in-depth discussion of Mawlay Isma'il's army to date, and provides a solid overview of slavery in Morocco beyond this particular sultan's reign."
Jonathan Glasser, H-Atlantic

"Chouki El Hamel has given us a thorough, well-researched, engaging study of Islam, slavery, and race in Morocco. He weaves together Islamic jurisprudence, Moroccan court histories, European travel accounts, Sufi hagiography, diplomatic correspondence, and social history to explode long-standing cultural myths … El Hamel locates a window to the past in the black diasporic mystical culture of the present."
Ellen Amster, American Historical Review

From the Publisher