Why does the Ottoman Empire have no guilt about slavery?
Before the reforms of Tanzimat (1839-1876), the Ottoman Empire flourished under slavery.
Due to the declining strength of the empire itself and the increasing strength and influence of the British Empire, in the face of the moral pressure of the latter and the pressure of the empire’s border security, slavery began to gradually collapse in the Ottoman Empire’s Middle East and Gulf territories And was eventually abolished.
The source of Ottoman slaves
1) Prisoner of war slaves
Obtaining slaves through war is the strategy of the Ottoman Empire And to a large extent it was successful or shocking. For example, the Ottomans defeated the Austrian army in 1788 and looted 50,000 women and children into slavery.
2) Slave Trade
In the slave trade with African countries, the Ottoman Empire imported hundreds of thousands of slaves. It should be pointed out that due to the negative prospects of slaves giving birth, for example, offspring born to slave owners and female slaves have the chance to eventually become free men, because their offspring cannot inherit the slave status of their mothers and become slaves to their fathers. And Islam prohibits the slavery of Muslims if the slave converts to Islam. The continuous import of slaves is necessary for the continued existence of Ottoman slavery. Given this reality, the slave trade was a huge industry for the Empire.
Ehud Toledano, Professor of Middle Eastern History at Tel Aviv University and Dean of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Institute in his works "Slavery and Abolition in the Ottoman Middle East" estimates that "During most of the first 70 years of the 19th century (the peak period of trade), the average number of slaves imported into the empire ranged from 16,000 to 18000."
The enslavement of women
Female slaves from Africa, a large part of them are from Tripoli, Libya, North Africa , Benghazi and Darfur, Sudan. Tunisia also began to hold slavery in the 19th century.
Some rich people living in the city place these blacks on their farms and let them reproduce. When selling cattle and sheep, the descendants of the slaves are sold together, even though Islamic rules do not allow the separation of children from their mothers.
Among the women who were enslaved in the Ottoman Empire, most were women born in Africa. However, a small number of white women were also welcomed. Women from the Caucasus are not only engaged in manual labor, but are often selected as concubines.
The decline of the Ottoman Empire and the final abolition of slavery
After the transatlantic slave trade was banned in the early 19th century, European countries, especially Britain and France, put pressure on the Ottoman Empire and demanded the abolition of the slave trade. While Tanzimat carried out a comprehensive reform of the empire, the issue of slavery also received more and more attention.
has received increasing international condemnation, especially the relatively declining empire itself and the rise in the strength of the British Empire. In 1830, the Ottoman Empire promulgated an imperial decree, or the "Roman Act", which would Christian slaves who have retained their faith since enslavement are free.
For thousands of years, slavery has been the day of Ottoman nobilityAs part of normal life, slavery was not only recognized under Islamic law, but most of the slave market in the Ottoman Empire was regulated by prohibiting human rights violations.
In a great eastern country, parents will be honored by their daughter being elected to the harem.
The underground slave market is still rampant
Although slavery is intertwined with the culture and economy within the Ottoman Empire, however, The Ottoman Empire needs increasingly powerful allies to help it defend its strong neighbor Russia on the back. In order to show sincerity to Britain, in December 1846, according to the order of the Sultan, the slave market in Istanbul was officially closed. Although some people secretly questioned it, this is a humanitarian gesture taken by the Sudan to alleviate its plight, because the private slave trade has not been controlled, not only increased in number, but also lacked supervision. Ironically, after the ban on the Istanbul slave market, violations of human rights increased, because slave traders were secretly operating, as a result slaves were transferred from state-approved restricted slavery to black market exploitation.
Pressure and choice of interests
At this time, the United Kingdom is also pushing to end the slave trade in the Gulf region, and again to the Ottoman government. Pressure and demand the abolition of the slave trade. Since 1841, Britain has been negotiating with the leaders of the Gulf countries on its slave trade, but finally realized that without the participation of Sudan, the abolition movement could not be realized by negotiation alone.
However, the Ottoman court had almost no vested interest in the Gulf region, so it chose to cooperate with the United Kingdom. In January 1847, "The Sultan sent people to Baghdad with an edict and ordered Wali to ban the slave trade in the Gulf under the Ottoman banner.
Britain also proved to be a priceless ally against Russian invasion. It was in Crimea. The aid to the Ottoman Empire during the war (1853-1856) was also priceless.
A fatal blow to the criminal system
The Brussels Act was the deadliest blow to slavery in the Ottoman Empire. After a long hesitation, the Sultan approved the Act in 1891. As stated in Article 62, the purpose of the Act One is "through the organization of the strictest supervision, prohibiting the import, transit and exit of African slaves, and prohibiting the trade of African slaves." This is one of the last blows to the black slave trade in the Ottoman Empire, despite further reforms.
Conclusion
From the perspective of modern values, slavery in the Ottoman Empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is shameful and Sinful. It is easy to condemn this practice as barbaric and primitive, but Ottoman slavery is a complex structure, governed by Islamic law, and accepted by all who are willing or forced to participate.
Today, condemning the act of selling as a slave against one's will as immorality, and the condemnation of this shameful act will not cause controversy. However, more than a century ago, an empire was under this immoral system It was once prosperous, and its rulers believed that this was not only an available natural resource, but also the result of God’s gift.
