page_title: Slavery in Malta
section_title: Slave origin
hierarchical_section_title: Slavery in Malta / Slave demographics / Slave origin
caption_attribution_description: English: The sculpture of Asian slave as a part of the monument of Grand Master Nicola Cottoner at the Chapel of Aragon. St. John's Co-CathedralУкраїнська: Скульптура азіатського раба в складі монумента Великого Магістра Оредена Госпітал'єрів в Соборі Святого Іоанна в м. Валлетта (Мальта)
context_page_description: Slavery in Malta existed and was recognised from classical antiquity until the early modern period, as was the case in many countries around the Mediterranean Sea. The system reached its apex under Hospitaller rule, when it took on unprecedented proportions, largely to provide galley slaves for the galleys of the Order, as well as other Christian countries. Commerce raids, which were the backbone of the Knights' economic military system helped to maintain this system, partly through creating the demand for slaves to maintain the military fleet, but also due to the influx of Muslim prisoners when battles were won. Thus Malta became the hub of slavery in Christian Europe. Slavery was abolished in Malta by Napoléon Bonaparte during his invasion of the Maltese archipelago on 16 June 1798.
context_section_description: Approximately 80% of slaves were Muslim or Jewish. They were often captured during military conflicts by the Order and later during pirate raids. Muslim slaves were largely Turks, Moors, or Barbary pirates - as well as limited numbers of sub-Saharan Africans. Jews came from the Levant, the Aegean Islands, Rhodes, Crete, or Venice.
  Around 20% were Christian, who came from Greece, the Middle East or Central Europe and may have already been slaves at the time of their capture. They would have to prove their religion before being freed from servitude, but they may have also remained slaves. Over time and according and dictated by need, Greeks were captured and held in slavery as schismatics, or on the pretext that they would trade with the Turks.
  This group also included new, former-Muslim converts (they were not liberated for converting), as well as renegades who had already changed their faith.
caption: Statue of an Ottoman slave on the funerary monument of Nicolas Cotoner in St. John's Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta
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