Migrants in Chains: On the Enslavement of Muslims in Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe

Journal Title: Religions - Year 2013, Vol 4, Issue 3

Abstract

Between the Renaissance and the French Revolution, hundreds of thousands of Muslim men and women from the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean were forcibly transported to Western Europe. Those who were not ransomed or who did not return to their homelands as part of prisoner exchanges, languished for decades and, many, for the remainder of their lives, in chattel slavery. This essay considers the enslavement process overall and the conceptual frameworks necessary to bring this poorly known chapter in European social history into focus. Emphasizing the case of the Muslim galley slaves of the Catholic ports of France, Italy and Malta, it argues that without appreciating this phenomenon as a form of migration, as well as part of a larger history of global slavery, it not possible to understand the specificity of confessionalized enslavement within the early modern Mediterranean.

Authors and Affiliations

Ariel Salzmann

Keywords

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  • EP ID EP25323
  • DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/rel4030391
  • Views 336
  • Downloads 19

How To Cite

Ariel Salzmann (2013). Migrants in Chains: On the Enslavement of Muslims in Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe. Religions, 4(3), -. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-25323