The Social and Economic History of Slavery in Libya (1800- 1950) A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2015 Amal M. Altaleb School of Arts, Languages and Cultures Table of Contents Table of Contents Illustrations ................................................................................................................. 5 Abbreviations ............................................................................................................. 6 Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 7 Declaration .................................................................................................................. 8 Copyright Statement .................................................................................................. 9 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................... 10 A Note on Transliteration ........................................................................................ 12 Terminology………………………………………………………………………..14 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 17 Mediterranean Slavery and its Sources ........................................................ 24 Histories of the Slave Trade in Libya .......................................................... 31 John Wright and the Debate on the Libyan Slave Trade ............................. 39 Historiographies of the End of Slavery in Africa ........................................ 41 The Meaning of Slavery in Libya ................................................................ 47 Sources... ...................................................................................................... 52 Outline for the Thesis................................................................................... 60 Chapter One: Trading in Slaves ............................................................................. 63 Introduction .................................................................................................. 63 1.1 Ghadames ........................................................................................... 66 1.2 Historiography of the Caravan Trade ................................................. 72 1.3 Correspondence and Commerce ......................................................... 81 1.4 Responses to the Abolition of Slavery ............................................... 87 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 100 2 Chapter Two: The Legal Status and Social Life of Slaves in Libya .................. 102 Introduction ................................................................................................ 102 Slavery in the Islamic Legal System……………………………………..106 2.1 Working Lives of Slaves .................................................................. 110 2.1.1 Domestic Servants ....................................................................... 110 2.1.2 Caravan Workers ......................................................................... 116 2.1.3 Slave Demography in Libya ........................................................ 121 2.1.4 Rental of Slaves ........................................................................... 125 2.1.5 Wet Nursing ................................................................................. 127 2.2 Resistance ......................................................................................... 128 2.2.1 Runaway of Slaves ...................................................................... 128 2.2.2 Theft by Slaves ............................................................................ 131 2.3 Master-Slave Relations ..................................................................... 133 2.3.1 Patronage ..................................................................................... 136 2.3.2 Abuse ........................................................................................... 139 2.3.3 Marriage ....................................................................................... 143 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 145 Chapter Three: Patterns of Emancipation .......................................................... 147 Introduction ................................................................................................ 147 3.1 Piety Emancipation ........................................................................... 156 3.2 Self-Purchase .................................................................................... 162 3.3 Deferred Manumission ..................................................................... 164 3.4 Manumission of Concubines ............................................................ 166 3.5 Papers of Emancipation .................................................................... 174 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 175 Chapter Four: The Aftermath of Manumission .................................................. 177 Introduction ................................................................................................ 177 3 4.1 Post-Emancipation Economic Ties................................................... 179 4.1.1 Caravan Workers ......................................................................... 180 4.1.2 Wage Labourers ........................................................................... 184 4.1.3 Clientship and the Economic Lives of Former Slaves ................. 188 4.1.4 Child Labour ................................................................................ 194 4.2 Social Life in Post-Emancipation Libya ........................................... 198 4.2.1 Al-Wala’: Clientship .................................................................... 198 4.2.2 Marriage ....................................................................................... 201 4.2.3 Divorce ........................................................................................ 205 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 209 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 211 Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 218 Appendixes .............................................................................................................. 237 Appendix 1 .............................................................................................................. 237 Appendix 2 .............................................................................................................. 243 Appendix 3 .............................................................................................................. 244 Appendix 4 .............................................................................................................. 261 Appendix 5 .............................................................................................................. 262 Appendix 6 .............................................................................................................. 263 Appendix 7 .............................................................................................................. 264 Word Count: 84,850 4 Illustrations Map one: Trans-Saharan trade routes in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, p.13. Source: Ali Abdullatif Ahmida (ed), Bridges across the Sahara: Social, Economic, and Cultural Impact of the Trans-Sahara Trade during the 19th and 20th Centuries (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009). Table one: Terminology, pp.15-16. Table two: Number of Ghadames merchants settled in different regions of Africa, p.70. Source: Muhammad al-Hasha’ishi, Jala’ al-Karab ‘an Tarabuls al-Gharb (Beirut: Dar Lebanon, 1965). 5 Abbreviations FO Foreign Office MLMDT (T) al-Markaz al-Libi lil-Mahfuzat wa al-Dirasat al-Tarikhiya [Libyan Center for Archives and Historical Studies] Tripoli MLMDT (G) al-Markaz al-Libi lil-Mahfuzat wa al-Dirasat al Tarikhiya [Libyan Center for Archives and Historical Studies] Ghadames MG Mahkama Ghadames [Ghadames Court] NA National Archive QA Qism al-Arishif [Department of Archive] QWA Qism al-Watha’iq al-‘Arabiya [the Department of Arabic Documents] QWJ Qism al-Watha’iq al-’Ajnabiya [the Department of Foreign Documents] SMSTG (T) Sijillat Mahkama Shari‘iya Tarablus al-Gharb [The Registers of Tripoli Legislative Court] SMGS Sijillat Mahkama Ghadames Shari‘iya [The Registers of Ghadames Legislative Court] 6 Abstract This thesis investigates the social and economic history of slavery in Libya in the period between 1800 and 1950. Focusing on Tripoli and the trading centres of Ghadames and Fezzan, it uses a combination of sources including legal records, travel accounts, commercial correspondence, memoirs and oral interviews to examine the impact of the slave trade, the economic and social lives of the enslaved, and their experiences of emancipation. Examining the trading of slaves in Ghadames, the thesis reveals how merchants considered slaves one commodity among others.