Some legal aspects. //
Workshop: Slavery in the Black Sea Region, c. 1000-1900:
Forms of Unfreedom at the Intersection between Orthodox Christianity and Islam,
University of Leiden 30-31 May 2017
CONFERENCE PROGRAM 16 PAGES
In Byzantine law –as in Roman law– slaves were used to expand the economic activities of their owners. Slaves had no legal personality. That is why legal constructions were used to allow slaves to take part in business and economic activities. I will attempt in this paper to highlight some of the legal aspects that concern the participation of slaves in economic activity in Byzantium. Starting point will be the Book of the Eparch which dates from 911/912.
SLAVE TRADE IN THE EARLY MODERN CRIMEA FROM THE
PERSPECTIVE OF CHRISTIAN,MUSLIM, AND JEWISH SOURCES.
MIKHAIL KIZILOV
Oxford University
The fires
are burning behind the river—
The Tatars are dividing their captives.
Our village is burnt
And our property plundered.
Old mother is sabred
And my dear is taken into captivity.
(a Ukrainian folk-song)
Abstract
The Crimea, a peninsula on the border between the
Christian West and the Muslim East, was a place where merchants from all over
the Black Sea region, East and West Mediterranean, Anatolia, Turkey, Russia,
and West European countries came to buy, sell, and exchange their goods. In
this trade “live merchandise”—reluctant travelers, seized by the Tatars during
their raids to adjacent countries—was one of the main objects to be negotiated.
Numerous published and archival sources (accounts of European and Ottoman travelers,
letters and memoirs of captives, Turkish defters [registers], Russian and
Ottoman chronicles to mention some of them) composed by Muslim, Christian, and
Jewish authors provide not only a detailed account of the slave trade in the
region in the Early Modern times, but also a discussion of some moral
implications related to this sort of commercial activity. While most of the
authors expressed their disapproval of the Tatar predatory raids and cruel
treatment of the captives, none of them, it seems, objected to the existence of
the slave trade per se, considering it just another offshoot of the
international trade. Another issue often discussed in the sources was the
problem of the slaves’ conversion.
Slaves, Money Lenders, and Prisoner Guards:
The Jews and the Trade in Slaves and Captives in the Crimean Khanate
Mikhail Kizilov
Merton College, Oxford
Abstract
The Crimea, a peninsula lying in the Northern part of the Black Sea,has been inhabited since ancient times by representatives of various ethnic groups and confessions. Trade in slaves and captives was one of the most important (if not the most important) sources of income of the Crimean Khanate in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. The role which was played by the Jewish population in this process has still not been properly investigated. Nevertheless, written documents contain frequent references to the involvement of the Jewish population (both Karaite and Rabbanite) in the trade in slaves and prisoners of war carried out by the Crimean Khanate in the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries. Despite their fragmentary character, the sources allow us to attempt to restore a general view of the problem and to come to essential conclusions regarding the role and importance of the Jewish population in the Crimean slave trade.
“Desperation, Hopelessness, and Suicide: An Initial Consideration of Self-Murder by Slaves in Seventeenth-Century Crimean Society”,
Turkish Historical Review, vol. 9 (2018): 198-211.
Fırat Yaşa
Suicide, a new issue in Crimean social history research, has not been dealt with in terms of the status of free persons and slaves. It is difficult to find reliable and detailed primary source about slaves' private lives and their expectations apart from some cases which focus on slaves as merchandise to be bought and sold, and examples of their release and escape. However, the Crimean Shari'a court records, which recently became available, provide researchers with such information on slaves as well as some incidental information on many topics such as their living conditions, their hopes for release, and reasons for their suicide. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of society on slave suicides by examining the Shari'a court records of the Crimean Khanate from 1650 to 1675.
Slaves, Money Lenders, and Prisoner Guards:
The Jews and the Trade in Slaves and Captives in the Crimean Khanate
Mikhail Kizilov
Merton College, Oxford
Abstract
The Crimea, a peninsula lying in the Northern part of the Black Sea,has been inhabited since ancient times by representatives of various ethnic groups and confessions. Trade in slaves and captives was one of the most important (if not the most important) sources of income of the Crimean Khanate in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. The role which was played by the Jewish population in this process has still not been properly investigated. Nevertheless, written documents contain frequent references to the involvement of the Jewish population (both Karaite and Rabbanite) in the trade in slaves and prisoners of war carried out by the Crimean Khanate in the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries. Despite their fragmentary character, the sources allow us to attempt to restore a general view of the problem and to come to essential conclusions regarding the role and importance of the Jewish population in the Crimean slave trade.
“Desperation, Hopelessness, and Suicide: An Initial Consideration of Self-Murder by Slaves in Seventeenth-Century Crimean Society”,
Turkish Historical Review, vol. 9 (2018): 198-211.
Fırat Yaşa
Suicide, a new issue in Crimean social history research, has not been dealt with in terms of the status of free persons and slaves. It is difficult to find reliable and detailed primary source about slaves' private lives and their expectations apart from some cases which focus on slaves as merchandise to be bought and sold, and examples of their release and escape. However, the Crimean Shari'a court records, which recently became available, provide researchers with such information on slaves as well as some incidental information on many topics such as their living conditions, their hopes for release, and reasons for their suicide. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of society on slave suicides by examining the Shari'a court records of the Crimean Khanate from 1650 to 1675.
“Reports of Dominican Missionaries as a Source of Information about the Slave Trade in the Ottoman and Tatar Crimea in the 1660s.”
In Osmanlı Devletinde Kölelik: Ticaret–Esaret–Yaşam.
Eds. Zübeyde Güneş Yağcı, Fırat Yaşa, and Dilek İnan. Istanbul, 2017, 103-116.
The accounts and letters of the Dominicans analyzed in this article provide wealth of data regarding the slave trade in the Kefe province and the Crimean Khanate in the 1660s. Especially important is the fact that the friars themselves spent a long time in the area as slaves. Therefore, they provide us with unique and first-hand perspective regarding the position of the “live merchandise” in the Crimea.
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