Holy War and Human Bondage

Slavery in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries was not based solely on race or practiced only in the Americas. Faith slaves, both Christian and Muslim, were everywhere in the Mediterranean, held in bondage by the thousands in places as diverse as Algiers, Tunis, Constantinople, Seville, Malta, and Naples.

Presents the story of institutionalized bondage on both sides of the Mediterranean from 1500 to 1800, as it involved, connected, and divided men and women, Christians and Muslims, Jews and sub-Saharan Africans.Holy War and Human Bondage: Tales of Christian-Muslim Slavery in the Early-Modern Mediterranean tells a story unfamiliar to most modern readers—how this pervasive servitude involved, connected, and divided those on both sides of the Mediterranean. The work explores how men and women, Christians and Muslims, Jews and sub-Saharan Africans experienced their capture and bondage, while comparing what they went through with what black Africans endured in the Americas. Drawing heavily on archival sources not previously available in English, Holy War and Human Bondage teems with personal and highly felt stories of Muslims and Christians who personally fell into captivity and slavery, or who struggled to free relatives and co-religionists in bondage. In these pages, readers will discover how much race slavery and faith slavery once resembled one other and how much they overlapped in the Early-Modern mind. Each produced its share of personal suffering and social devastation—yet the whims of history have made the one virtually synonymous with human bondage while confining the other to almost complete oblivion.