Slavery in the Ottoman Empire
1 Early Ottoman slavery
Ottomans with Christian slaves, 1639 drawing.
Slavery in the Ottoman Empire was a legal and sig-
nicant part of the Ottoman Empire's economy and
society.[1] The main sources of slaves were war captives
and organized enslavement expeditions in North and East
Africa, Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Circassia in the
Caucasus. It has been reported that the selling price
of slaves fell after large military operations.[2] Enslave-
ment of Caucasians was banned in the early 19th cen-
tury, while slaves from other groups were allowed.[3] In
Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), the administrative
and political center of the Empire, about a fth of the
population consisted of slaves in 1609.[4]
Even after several measures to ban slavery in the late 19th
century, the practice continued largely unabated into the
early 20th century. As late as 1908, female slaves were
still sold in the Ottoman Empire.[5] Sexual slavery was a
central part of the Ottoman slave system throughout the
history of the institution.[6][7]
A member of the Ottoman slave class, called a kul in
Turkish, could achieve high status. Harem guards and
janissaries are some of the better known positions a slave
could hold, but slaves were actually often at the forefront
of Ottoman politics. The majority of ocials in the Ot-
toman government were bought slaves, raised free, and
integral to the success of the Ottoman Empire from the
14th century into the 19th. Many ocials themselves
owned a large number of slaves, although the Sultan him-
self owned by far the largest amount.[5] By raising and
specially training slaves as ocials in palace schools such
as Enderun, the Ottomans created administrators with in-
tricate knowledge of government and fanatic loyalty.
1
Further information: Slavery in the Byzantine Empire
and History of slavery in the Muslim world
In the mid-14th century, Murad I built an army of slaves,
referred to as the Kapkulu. The new force was based on
the Sultans right to a fth of the war booty, which he in-
terpreted to include captives taken in battle. The captive
slaves converted to Islam and trained in the sultans per-
sonal service. The devirme system could be considered
a form of slavery because the Sultans had absolute power
over them. However, as the 'servant' or 'kul' of the Sultan
had high status within Ottoman society, they could be-
come the highest ocers of state and the military elite,
and all taken children (but not their parents) were well
remunerated.
Slaves were traded in special marketplaces called Esir
or Yesir that were located in most towns and cities. It is
said that Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror established
the rst Ottoman slave market in Constantinople in the
1460s, probably where the former Byzantine slave mar-
ket had stood. According to Nicolas de Nicolay, there
were slaves of all ages and both sexes, they were displayed
naked to be thoroughly checked especially children and
young women by possible buyers.[8]
2 Ottoman slavery in Central and
Eastern Europe
In the devirme, which connotes draft, blood tax or
child collection, young Christian boys from the Balkans
and Anatolia were taken from their homes and families,
converted to Islam, and enlisted into the most famous
branch of the Kapkulu, the Janissaries, a special soldier
class of the Ottoman army that became a decisive fac-
tion in the Ottoman invasions of Europe.[9] Most of the
military commanders of the Ottoman forces, imperial
administrators, and de facto rulers of the Empire, such
as Pargal Ibrahim Pasha and Sokollu Mehmed Pasha,
were recruited in this way.[10][11] By 1609, the Sultans
Kapkulu forces increased to about 100,000.[12]
Domestic slavery was not as common as military
slavery.[12] On the basis of a list of estates belonging to
members of the ruling class kept in Edirne between 1545
and 1659, the following data was collected: out of 93 es-
tates, 41 had slaves.[12]
2 3 BARBARY SLAVE RAIDS

of age, with the highest prices for European virgin girls

1325 years of age and teenaged boys. The cheaper slaves
were those with disabilities and sub-Saharan Africans.
Prices in Crete ranged between 65 and 150 "esedi guru"
(see Kuru). But even the lowest prices were aordable
to only high income persons. For example, in 1717 a 12-
year-old boy with mental disabilities was sold for 27 gu-
ru, an amount that could buy in the same year 462 kilo-
grams (1,019 lb) of lamb meat, 933 kilograms (2,057 lb)
of bread or 1,385 litres (366 US gal) of milk. In 1671
a female slave was sold in Crete for 350 guru, while at
the same time the value of a large two-oor house with
a garden in Chania cost 300 guru. There were various
taxes to be paid on the importation and selling of slaves.
One of them was the "penik" or "pen-yek" tax, literally
meaning one fth. This taxation was based on verses
of the Quran, according to which one fth of the spoils
of war belonged to God, to the Prophet and his family,
to orphans, to those in need and to travelers. The Ot-
tomans probably started collecting penik at the time of
Sultan Murad I (13621389). Penik was collected both
in money and in kind, the latter including slaves as well.
An Ottoman painting of Balkan children taken as soldier-slaves.
Tax was not collected in some cases of war captives. With
war captives, slaves were given to soldiers and ocers as
The total number of slaves in the estates was 140; 54 fe- a motive to participate in war.
male and 86 male. 134 of them bore Muslim names, 5 The recapture of runaway slaves was a job for private in-
were not dened, and 1 was a Christian woman. Some of dividuals called "yavacis". Whoever managed to nd a
these slaves appear to have been employed on farms.[12] runaway slave would collect a fee of good news from the
In conclusion, the ruling class, because of extensive use "yavaci" and the latter took this fee plus other expenses
of warrior slaves and because of its own high purchasing from the slaves owner. Slaves could also be rented, in-
capacity, was undoubtedly the single major group keep- herited, pawned, exchanged or given as gifts.[2][17]
ing the slave market alive in Ottoman Empire.[12]
Rural slavery was largely a phenomenon endemic to the
Caucasus region, which was carried to Anatolia and
Rumelia after the Circassian migration in 1864.[13] Con-
icts frequently emerged within the immigrant commu-
nity and the Ottoman Establishment intervened on the
side of the slaves at selective times.[14] 3 Barbary slave raids
The Crimean Khanate maintained a massive slave trade
with the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East until the
early eighteenth century. In a process called harvesting Further information: Barbary corsairs and Barbary slave
of the steppe, Crimean Tatars enslaved Slavic peasants. trade
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia suf-
fered a series of Tatar invasions, the goal of which was For centuries, large vessels on the Mediterranean re-
to loot, pillage, and capture slaves into "jasyr".[15] The lied on European galley slaves supplied by Ottoman and
borderland area to the south-east was in a state of semi- Barbary slave traders. Hundreds of thousands of Euro-
permanent warfare until the 18th century. It is estimated peans were captured by Barbary pirates and sold as slaves
that up to 75% of the Crimean population consisted of in North Africa and the Ottoman Empire between the
slaves or freed slaves.[16] 16th and 19th centuries.[18][19] These slave raids were
conducted largely by the Berbers rather than Ottoman
Turks. However, during the height of the Barbary slave
2.1 Prices and taxes trade in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Barbary states
were subject to Ottoman jurisdiction and were ruled by
A study of the slave market of Ottoman Crete produces Ottoman pashas. Furthermore, many slaves captured by
details about the prices of slaves. Factors such as age, skin the Barbary corsairs were sold eastward into Ottoman ter-
color, virginity etc. signicantly inuenced prices. The ritories before, during, and after Barbarys period of Ot-
most expensive slaves were those between 10 and 35 years toman rule.
 3

1815 illustration of a British Captain horried by seeing Chris-

tians worked as slaves in Algiers.

4 Zanj slaves
Main articles: Zanj and Arab slave trade
An 18th-century painting of the harem of Sultan Ahmed III, by
As there were restrictions on the enslavement of Muslims Jean Baptiste Vanmour.
and People of the Book (Jews and Christians), pagan
areas in Africa were a popular source of slaves. Known
selves often from pagan Africa. The eunuchs were headed
as the Zanj (Bantu[20] ), these slaves were mainly drawn
by the Kizlar Agha ("agha of the [slave] girls). While Is-
from the African Great Lakes region as well as Central
lamic law forbade the emasculation of a man, Ethiopian
Africa.[21] The Zanj were employed in households and in
Christians had no such compunctions; thus, they enslaved
the army as slave-soldiers. Some could ascend to high
and emasculated members of territories to the south and
rank ocials but in general were inferior to European and
sold the resulting eunuchs to the Ottoman Porte.[27][28]
Caucasian slaves.[22][23]
The Coptic Orthodox Church participated extensively in
Today, tens of thousands of Afro Turks, the descen- the slave trade of eunuchs. Coptic priests sliced the pe-
dants of the Zanj slaves in the Ottoman Empire, con- nis and testicles o boys around the age of eight in a
tinue to live in modern Turkey. Mustafa Olpak who is castration operation.[29]
an Afro-Turk, founded the rst ocially recognised or-
The eunuch boys were then sold in the Ottoman Em-
ganisation of Afro Turks, the Africans Culture and Soli-
pire. The majority of Ottoman eunuchs endured castra-
darity Society (Afrikallar Kltr ve Dayanma Dernei)
tion at the hands of the Copts at Abou Gerbe monastery
in Ayvalk. Olpak claims that in modern Turkey only
on Mount Ghebel Eter.[29] Slave boys were captured
about 2000 African former slaves have survived and live
from the African Great Lakes region and other areas in
in modern Turkey.[24]
Sudan like Darfur and Kordofan then sold to customers
in Egypt.[21][27] During the operation, the Coptic cler-
gyman chained the boys to tables and after slicing their
5 Slaves in the Imperial Harem sexual organs o, stuck bamboo catheters into the geni-
tal area, then submerged them in sand up to their necks.
The recovery rate was 10 percent. The resulting eunuchs
The concubines of the Ottoman Sultan consisted chiey
fetched large prots in contrast to eunuchs from other
of purchased slaves. The Sultans concubines were gener-
areas.[30][31][32]
ally of Christian origin. The mother of a Sultan, though
technically a slave, received the extremely powerful title
of Valide Sultan which raised her to the status of a ruler
of the Empire (see Sultanate of Women). One notable 6 Sexual slavery
example was Ksem Sultan, daughter of a Greek Chris-
tian priest, who dominated the Ottoman Empire during Circassians, Syrians, and Nubians were the three primary
the early decades of the 17th century.[25] Roxelana (also races of females who were sold as sex slaves in the Ot-
known as Hrrem Sultan), another notable example, was toman Empire. Circassian girls were described as fair,
the favorite wife of Suleiman the Magnicent.[26] light-skinned and were frequently enslaved by Crimean
The concubines were guarded by enslaved eunuchs, them- Tatars then sold to Ottomans. They were the most ex-
4 7 DECLINE AND SUPPRESSION OF OTTOMAN SLAVERY

law since the beginning of the empire. One of the impor-

tant campaigns against Ottoman slavery and slave trade
was conducted in the Caucasus by the Russian authorities
[34]

A series of legal acts was issued that limited the slavery

of white people initially and of those of all races and reli-
gions later. In 1830, a rman of Sultan Mahmud II gave
freedom to white slaves. This category included the Cir-
cassians, who had the custom of selling their own chil-
dren, enslaved Greeks who had revolted against the Em-
pire in 1821, and some others.[35] Another rman abol-
ishing the trade of Circassian children was issued in Oc-
tober, 1854. A rman to the Pasha of Egypt was issued in
1857 and an order to the viziers of various local author-
ities in the Near East, such as the Balkans and Cyprus,
in 1858, prohibited the trade of Zanj slaves but did not
order the liberation of those already enslaved.
However, slavery and the slave trade in Ottoman Empire
continued for decades, as legal texts like the above were
not backed by a penalty system. It was not until 1871 that
a circular of July 20 of that year introduced the penalty
of one years imprisonment for those who practiced the
slave trade.
Later, slave tracking was expressly forbidden by using
clever technical loopholes in the application of sharia, or
Islamic law, although sharia permitted slavery. For exam-
ple, by the terms of the new application of sharia, those
A 19th-century photograph of a Kek, a cross-dressing young taken as slaves could not be kept a slave if they had been
slave boy sometimes used for homosexual purposes. Muslim prior to their capture. They could also not be cap-
tured legitimately without a formal declaration of war,
which could be issued only by the Sultan. As late Ot-
pensive, reaching up to 500 pounds sterling and the most toman Sultans wished to halt slavery, they did not autho-
popular with the Turks. Second in popularity were Syrian rize raids for the purpose of capturing slaves and so mak-
girls, with their dark eyes, dark hair, and light brown skin, ing it eectively illegal to procure new slaves, but those
and came largely from coastal regions in Anatolia. Their already in slavery would remain slaves.[36][37]
price could reach up to 30 pounds sterling. They were
described as having good gures when young. Nubian The Ottoman Empire and 16 other countries signed the
girls were the cheapest and least popular, fetching up to 1890 Brussels Conference Act for the suppression of the
20 pounds sterling.[6] slave trade. Clandestine slavery persisted into the early
20th century. A circular by the Ministry of Internal Af-
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, sexual slavery fairs in October 1895 warned local authorities that some
was not only central to Ottoman practice but a criti- steam-ships stripped Zanj sailors of their certicates of
cal component of imperial governance and elite social liberation and threw them into slavery. Another circu-
reproduction.[7] Dhimmi boys taken in the devirme could lar of the same year reveals that some newly freed Zanj
also become sexual slaves, though usually they worked slaves were arrested based on unfounded accusations, im-
in places like bathhouses (hammam) and coeehouses. prisoned and forced back to their lords.[38]
They became tellaks (masseurs), keks (cross-dressing
dancers) or sqs (wine pourers) for as long as they were An instruction of the Ministry of Internal Aairs to the
young and beardless.[33] Vali of Bassora of 1897 ordered that the children of liber-
ated slaves should be issued separate certicates of liber-
ation to avoid both being enslaved themselves and separa-
tion from their parents. George Young, Second Secretary
7 Decline and suppression of Ot- of the British Embassy in Constantinople, wrote in his
toman slavery Corpus of Ottoman Law, published in 1905, that by the
time the book was written the slave trade in the Ottoman
Empire was practiced only as contraband.[39] The trade
Due to European intervention during the 19th century,
continued up until World War I. Henry Morgenthau, Sr.,
the Empire began to attempt to curtail the slave trade,
who served as the U.S. Ambassador in Constantinople
which had been considered legally valid under Ottoman

from 1913 until 1916, alleges in his Ambassador Mor- [14] Osmanl mparatorluu'nda Klelik at the Wayback Ma-
genthaus Story that there were gangs trading white slaves
during his term in Constantinople.[40] The same author
[15] Soldier Khan
reports that Armenian girls were sold as slaves during the
Armenian persecutions of 1915.[41][42] [16] Historical survey > Slave societies
8 See also
Arab slave trade
Barbary slave trade
Islam and slavery (disambiguation)
Afro Turks
The Lustful Turk
9 Notes
[1] Supply of Slaves
[2] Spyropoulos Yannis, Slaves and freedmen in 17th- and
early 18th-century Ottoman Crete, Turcica, 46, 2015, p.
181, 182.
[3] Ottomans against Italians and Portuguese about (white
slavery).
[4] Welcome to Encyclopdia Britannicas Guide to Black
History.
[5] Eric Dursteler (2006). Venetians in Constantinople:
Nation, Identity, and Coexistence in the Early Modern
Mediterranean. JHU Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-8018-
8324-8.
[6] Wolf Von Schierbrand (March 28, 1886 (news was re-
ported on March 4)). Slaves sold to the Turk; How the
vile trac is still carried on in the East. Sights our corre-
spondent saw for twenty dollars--in the house of a grand
old Turk of a dealer.. The New York Times. Retrieved
19 January 2011. Check date values in: |date= (help)
[7] Madeline C. Zil Women and slavery in the late Ottoman
Empire Cambridge University Press, 2010
[8] Fischer W. Alan (1978) The sale of slaves in the Ottoman
Empire: Markets and state taxes on slave sales, some pre-
liminary considerations. Bogazici Universitesi Dergisi,
Beseri Bilimler - Humanities, vol. 6, pp. 150-151.
[9] Janissary
[10] Lewis. Race and Slavery in the Middle East
[11] The Turks: History and Culture
[12] In the Service of the State and Military Class
[13] Horrible Trac in Circassian WomenInfanticide in
Turkey, New York Daily Times, August 6, 1856
5
chine (archived February 21, 2006)
[17] For slaves oered as gifts to the sultan and other high-rank
ocials, see Reindl-Kiel, Hedda. Power and Submission:
Gifting at Royal Circumcision Festivals in the Ottoman
Empire (16th-18th Centuries). Turcica, Vol.41, 2009, p.
53.
[18] When Europeans were slaves: Research suggests white
slavery was much more common than previously believed
[19] British Slaves on the Barbary Coast
[20] Khalid, Abdallah (1977). The Liberation of Swahili from
European Appropriation. East African Literature Bureau.
p. 38. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
[21] Tinker, Keith L. (2012). The African Diaspora to the Ba-
hamas: The Story of the Migration of People of African
Descent to the Bahamas. FriesenPress. p. 9. ISBN
1460205545.
[22] Zil C. Madeline, Women and Slavery in the Late Ot-
toman Empire: The Design of Dierence, Cambridge
University Press, 2010, pp. 133, 139, 140, 196 etc.
[23] Michael N.M., Kappler M. & Gavriel E. (eds.), Ottoman
Cyprus, Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co., Wiesbaden,
2009, p. 168, 169.
[24] Afro-Turks meet to celebrate Obama inauguration. To-
days Zaman. Todayszaman.com. 20 January 2009. Re-
trieved 22 January 2009.
[25] See generally Jay Winik (2007), The Great Upheaval.
[26] Aye zakba, Hrrem Sultan, Tarih Dergisi, Say 36,
2000
[27] Gwyn Campbell, The Structure of Slavery in Indian Ocean
Africa and Asia, 1 edition, (Routledge: 2003), p.ix
[28] See Winik, supra.
[29] Henry G. Spooner (1919). The American Journal of Urol-
ogy and Sexology, Volume 15. The Grafton Press. p. 522.
Retrieved 2011-01-11.
[30] Northwestern lancet, Volume 17. s.n. 1897. p. 467. Re-
trieved 2011-01-11.
[31] John O. Hunwick, Eve Troutt Powell (2002). The African
diaspora in the Mediterranean lands of Islam. Markus
Wiener Publishers. p. 100. ISBN 1-55876-275-2. Re-
trieved 2011-01-11.
[32] American Medical Association (1898). The Journal of
the American Medical Association, Volume 30, Issues 1-
13. American Medical Association. p. 176. Retrieved
2011-01-11.
[33] Madeline C. Zil Women and slavery in the late Ottoman
Empire Cambridge University Press, 2010 p74-75, 115,
186-188, 191-192
6 9 NOTES

[34] L.Kurtynova-d'Herlugnan, The Tsars Abolitionists, Lei-

den, Brill, 2010

[35] George Young, Corps de Droit Ottoman. Clarendon

Press, Oxford, 1905. Vol. II, p. 171

[36] Slavery in the Ottoman Empire.

[37] See also the seminal writing on the subject by Egyptian

Ottoman Ahmad Shaq Pasha, who wrote the highly in-
uential book L'Esclavage au Point de vue Musulman.
(Slavery from a Muslim Perspective).

[38] George Young, Vol. II, pp. 166-206.

[39] George Young, Vol. II, pp. 166-206.

[40] Morgenthau Henry (1918) Ambassador Morgenthaus

Story, Garden City, N.Y, Doubleday, Page & Co.,
chapter 8. Available http://www.gwpda.org/wwi-www/
morgenthau/MorgenTC.htm.

[41] Morgenthau, 1918, chapter XXIV

[42] Nigel Eltringham, Remembering Genocide, Routledge,

2014, p. 41
 7

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