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Indian Ocean slavers had a range of markets in which to sell their captives. The markets varied over time. Is it generally thought that the primary market was the Arab world (Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and Iraq). Limited documentation makes this only a probability at this time. We are less sure about Persia. Such shipments may at times have been substantial. There appear to have been sales to India, but these seem to have been limited. The Ottomans were another market, but weare unsure as to the dimensions of this trade and here the desert caravan routes throughthe Sahara may have been more important. The French Indian Ocean islands seem to have been important in the 18 and 19th century. Brazil also seems to have been an important market. The market shifted significantly in the 19th century with East Africa and Indian Ocean islands becoming more important than ever before (Pemba, Madagascar, Reunion, and Zanzibar).
Is it generally thought that the primary market was the Arab world, but limited documentation makes this only a probability at this time. The general thinking is that the demand for slaves in the Arab world was relatively limited. There was awell established peasant class and thus unlike the Sestern Hemishere there was no large demand for agrcicultural labor. There seem to havecbeen two exceptions to this general pattern. The Caliphate appears through irrigation work in what is now southern Iraq brought substantial reas of marsh land under cultivation (8th-9th centuries). This did create a demand for slaves. Another exception was in the lasr century of the trade. The Sultan of Oman/Zanzibar began establishing highly profitable palm oil plantations in what is now souhern Somalia and Kenya and spice (cloves) plantations on Zanzibar and Pemba. With these exceptions there is very little information about the dimensions of the shipments of Africans into the Arab world. Most authors suggest that the trade existed throrought, but was usually sporadic and fairly limited in scope.
By the time the Royal Navy moved against the Arab Indian Ocean slave trade, it was largely in the hands of the Sultanate of Zanzibar. The Sultanate's expanding plantation operations in the early 19th century were worked mostly with slave labor. The profits fom the East African plantations induced the Sultan of Oman, Sayyid Said, to relocated his capital from Oman to the east African island of Zanzibar (1840). The Sultan's sovereignty at the time extended from southern Somalia to northern Mozambique.
We are less sure about Persia. The trade in slaves with Persia seems smaler than the shipments to the Arab world, but such shipments may at times have been substantial. But our knowledge about Persian demand for slaves is very limited at this time.
The Ottomans were another market, but weare unsure as to the domensions of this trade and here the desert caravan routes through the Sahara may have been more important. Shipments to the Ottoman Empire would have first had to pass through Arab lands, either North Africa or the Middle East. Later the Ottomans conquered the Middle East and North Africa and had more directvaccess to African slaves. Slavery in the Ottoman Empire is a topic tht we have still not addressed in detail. We have not yet found any data on the number of African slaves in the Ottoman Empire. We do notice numerous references to black enuchs. Note the 18th century Ottoman paihting here (figure 1). I think that the Arab slave traders would have performed the operatin on captive African boys and then sold the castrated or emasculated boys to the Turks.
There appear to have been sales to India, but these seem to have been limited. There was plentiful cheap labor in India and thus no need to import slaves. In fact the colonial powers exported labor from India to Bali, South Africa, Suriname, Trinidad. and other locations. TheBritish with thecadvent of the Raj, ended the trade in India. We do not yet have deails with this such as fifferences anonh Muslim and Hindu communities in India.
The French Indian Ocean islands seem to have been important in the 18 and 19th century. The French as part of theircolonial effort in India set up colonies on the islands of Reunion and Mauritius (18th century). Highly profitable sugar plantations there required imported labor. This was providec by slaves, mostly from Portuguese Mozambique. The islands changed hands over time between the French and British.
Brazil also seems to have been an important market. It seems to have been a primary mrket for Moizambique captives, in part because Brazil was also a Portuguese colony and there was a huge demand for labor.
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