Captives and Companions
A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World
Published on 10. July 2025
Book
Hardback
560 pages
978-0-241-52215-8 (ISBN)
Description
**SHORTLISTED FOR 2025 THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION**
A startling exploration of slavery in the Islamic world from the 7th century to the present
Slavery in the Islamic world has a long, diverse and controversial history. Captives and Companions is a brilliant synthesis of history and contemporary reportage that brings to life the voices of the enslaved in stories of eighth-century concubines and ninth-century revolts, thirteenth-century slave soldiers who established dynastic rule over Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, eighteenth-century corsairs and twentieth-century pearl divers in the Gulf. It also has first-hand accounts of this legacy in the twenty-first century, including the depredations of Daesh and continuing hereditary slavery in Mali and Mauritania.
Justin Marozzi traces the extraordinary variety of enslavement in the Islamic world, which ranged from agricultural labour and domestic toil to elite concubinage, guardianship of sacred spaces, political leadership and even military command. He shows how Africa bore the brunt of the demand for slave labour, fuelled throughout the nineteenth century by expanding global markets and commodity chains. Slavers plied African coasts, traders raided inland for human cargo, and millions were marched across the Sahara into captivity. Meanwhile, North African corsairs turned the Mediterranean into a slave-raiding 'free-for-all' between Muslims, Christians and Jews.
Taking the reader on an extraordinary historical journey from Baghdad to Bamako, Tripoli to Timbuktu, Istanbul to the Black Sea, this is the riveting human drama of those caught up in one of history's most remarkable overlooked stories.
A startling exploration of slavery in the Islamic world from the 7th century to the present
Slavery in the Islamic world has a long, diverse and controversial history. Captives and Companions is a brilliant synthesis of history and contemporary reportage that brings to life the voices of the enslaved in stories of eighth-century concubines and ninth-century revolts, thirteenth-century slave soldiers who established dynastic rule over Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, eighteenth-century corsairs and twentieth-century pearl divers in the Gulf. It also has first-hand accounts of this legacy in the twenty-first century, including the depredations of Daesh and continuing hereditary slavery in Mali and Mauritania.
Justin Marozzi traces the extraordinary variety of enslavement in the Islamic world, which ranged from agricultural labour and domestic toil to elite concubinage, guardianship of sacred spaces, political leadership and even military command. He shows how Africa bore the brunt of the demand for slave labour, fuelled throughout the nineteenth century by expanding global markets and commodity chains. Slavers plied African coasts, traders raided inland for human cargo, and millions were marched across the Sahara into captivity. Meanwhile, North African corsairs turned the Mediterranean into a slave-raiding 'free-for-all' between Muslims, Christians and Jews.
Taking the reader on an extraordinary historical journey from Baghdad to Bamako, Tripoli to Timbuktu, Istanbul to the Black Sea, this is the riveting human drama of those caught up in one of history's most remarkable overlooked stories.
Reviews / Votes
A bold, brilliant and timely history that confronts one of the most neglected and uncomfortable subjects in global history. Justin Marozzi brings to life the complexity and humanity of the Islamic world's entanglement with slavery using an extraordinary range of sources, across more than a millennium and across sweeping geographies. Not just a mesmerising book, but a profoundly important one too -- Peter Frankopan, author of <i>The Silk Roads: A New History of the World</i> An unsentimental unveiling of a subject that has long been shrouded in scholarly purdah...An elegant and ambitious synthesis, serving up a scintillating compendium of lives.. .Gliding through the ages, Marozzi's prose recalls an older tradition of history writing - the effortless fluidity of a John Julius Norwich of Jan Morris. Reading him one thinks of Tintoretto: vast canvases, mannered style, high drama, narrative drive -- Pratinav Anil * The Times * [A] vivaciously told, ambitious narrative [that] drags the reader - half hypnotized by horror - through 1,500 years of slavery as practised across the Islamic world. [Marozzi] shines spotlights of research on those areas marginal to the powerful Muslim empires [and] makes us aware that sub-Saharan Africa was only one of many frontier zones from which slaves were extracted -- Barnaby Rogerson * Times Literary Supplement * A powerful and important book ... [while] he is careful not to turn his book into a polemic against Islam.. it is... a masterly and thoughtful study of human cruelty and endurance -- Gerard Russell * Financial Times * Drawing on the work of a new generation of Turkish and north-African historians who have challenged "the default setting of denial," [this] is a monumental revisionist work that will alter views on slavery inside and outside the Islamic world -- Christopher de Bellaigue * Wall Street Journal * A remarkably humane work, written in urbane and polished prose. A rare combination of the erudite and the adventurous, the author... provides first-person glimpses into contemporary slavery in Mali, Libya, Tunisia and Mauritania. Marozzi has once again made a meaningful and enjoyable contribution to historical debate -- Bartle Bull * Literary Review * Well written ... important and well-researched ... Marozzi is able both to redress the balance and to draw very effectively on recent scholarship. A richly impressive book -- Jeremy Black * Nuova Antologia Militare (NAM) * truly an eye opening read, from past to present, it's shocking, yet totally absorbing - a history book that brings the then and the here-and-now graphically to life -- Peter French * Sunderland Echo * A scrupulously fair, fearless and detailed history -- Christopher Hart * Daily Mail * Islamic slavery is poorly documented. Anecdotal evidence is plentiful but may be untypical. Reliable statistics are scarce ... Justin Marozzi's Captives and Companions is a successful attempt to fill this gap -- Jonathan Sumption * Spectator *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Dimensions
Height: 243 mm
Width: 168 mm
Thickness: 40 mm
Weight
980 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-52215-8 (9780241522158)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
approx. 07/2026
Penguin Books Ltd
€21.50
Not yet published
E-Book
07/2025
Penguin Books Ltd
€14.99
Available for download
Person
Justin Marozzi is a historian and journalist who has spent most of his professional life living and working in the Muslim world. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and former Trustee of the Royal Geographical Society, he is a senior advisor to the Middle East Association.
His previous books include South from Barbary: Along the Slave Routes of the Libyan Sahara (2001), the bestselling Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World (2004) and The Man Who Invented History: Travels with Herodotus (2008). His last book, Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood (2014) won the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize and was praised by the judges as 'a truly monumental achievement'.
His previous books include South from Barbary: Along the Slave Routes of the Libyan Sahara (2001), the bestselling Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World (2004) and The Man Who Invented History: Travels with Herodotus (2008). His last book, Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood (2014) won the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize and was praised by the judges as 'a truly monumental achievement'.