The main slave routes in Africa during the Middle Ages
The **Arab slave trade**, was a slave trade in which slaves were mainly transported across the Sahara. Most were moved from sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa to be sold to Mediterranean and Middle Eastern civilizations; a small percentage went the other direction. Estimates of the total number of black slaves moved from sub-Saharan Africa to the Arab world range from 6-10 million, and the trans-Saharan trade routes conveyed a significant number of this total, with one estimate tallying around 7.2 million slaves crossing the Sahara from the mid-7th century until the 20th century when it was abolished. The Arabs managed and operated the trans-Saharan slave trade, although Berbers were also actively involved and also traded. Alongside Black Africans, Turks, Iranians, Europeans and Berbers were among the people traded by the Arabs, with the trade being practised throughout the Arab world, primarily in Western Asia, North Africa, East Africa, and Europe.

History
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19th-century engraving depicting an Arab slave trading caravan transporting black African slaves across the Sahara to North Africa.
One of the oldest slave trades in history was the Arab trade of Zanj (Bantu) slaves in Southeast Africa. This trade began 700 years before the European Atlantic slave trade. Men taken as slaves were often used as servants, soldiers, or workers. Women and children were mainly used as servants and concubines. 

Most male slaves were castrated. It is estimated that as many as 6 out of every 10 boys bled to death during this process. Even so, castrating slaves was worthwhile because eunuchs sold for high prices. Over time, the Arab slave trade shifted to concentrate more on women and young girls for sexual purposes. This was different than the later Atlantic slave trade, which concentrated on enslaving men for labor.

During the Arab slave trade, 
Europeans were among those traded by the Arabs. The term *Saqaliba* (Arabic: صقالبة) was often used in medieval Arabic sources to refer specifically to Slavic slaves traded by the Arab traders, but it could also refer more broadly to Central, Southern, and Eastern Europeans who were also traded by the Arabs, as well as all European slaves in some Muslim regions like Spain including those abducted from military raids on Christian kingdoms of Spain. During the era of the Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171), the majority of slaves were Europeans taken along European beaches and during conflicts.

Modern slavery in Africa
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In Mauritania slavery was abolished legally in 1980. But Muslim Berbers still own an estimated 90,000 African slaves. This is despite the fact that African Mauritanians converted to Islam over a hundred years ago and the Qur’an does not allow Muslims to enslave other Muslims. Slaves are used for farm labor, concubines and domestic servants. The children remain the property of their masters. They can be bought, sold, or exchanged for trucks, camels or guns.

Slavery in Sudan is active again with the Muslim north waging war against Animists and Christians in the south. In these raids almost all slaves are taken from the tribes in the Nuba Mountains. Government sponsored Arab militias often kill the men and enslave women and children. Those taken slaves are forced to convert to Islam. Those that refuse are put to death. The trafficking in women and children in Western and Southern Africa violates the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Other websites
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* Two Views of The History of Islamic Slavery in Africa
* The East African Slave Trade
* Slavery still haunts Africa, where millions remain captive


Wikimedia Commons has media related to ***Arab slave trade***.