Black Morocco
Subtitle: a history of slavery, race, and Islam
By: Chouki El Hamel
Series: African studies -- 123
Publisher: Cambridge University Press; Brand: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 348
ISBN-13: 9781107025776
Subjects: Concubinage; Blacks; Gnawa (Brotherhood); Black Soldiers; Slavery; Slavery and Islam; History
Description: "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."--Publisher's website.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The notion of slavery and the justification of concubinage as an institution of slavery in Islam; title: The interplay between slavery, race and color prejudice; title: The trans-Saharan diaspora; title: Racializing slavery : the controversy of Mawlay Ismail's project; title: The black army's functions and the role of women; title: The political history of the black army : between privilege and marginality; title: The abolition of slavery in Morocco; title: The Gnawa and the memory of slavery.