Excellent interview of ⁦ @JonathanACBrown⁩ on his recent book, Slavery and Islam. Some thoughts: 1) He points out how much Islamic legal tradition borrows from pre-Islamic Roman & other traditions, but doesn’t explain why Muslims couldn’t embrace > https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/new-books-network/id477719156?i=1000464890078

> the end of concubinage, as had already happened among pre-Islamic Christians ( https://twitter.com/shahanSean/status/1126960002936254466?s=20) Also that contradicts the opinion of many modern Muslim jurists that Islam had initiated the process of abolishment of slavery, or as professor Brown suggests, no other >

> no other pre-modern religious tradition grappled with the moral implications of slavery, but even in 18th century, Christian Methodists played a leading role in ending slavery (though may be he does in the book). He points out that polygamy (& divorce) was a big nono among >

> Christians & that helped end concubinage in Christianity, but I wonder why couldn’t Muslims embrace that? 2) He does point out that despite the claims of modern Muslim scholars that Maria wasn’t a slave of prophet Mohammad, there is no evidence that she wasn’t, & in fact >

>prophet had a child from her. And that there is no way to reconcile that fact with modern moral abhorrence with slavery. 3) He points out that it was only after contact with western anti-slavery traditions that Muslim scholars began to argue against slavery, but their argument >

> that it lies under the jurisdiction of the ruler falls apart when an entity like ISIS reinstates it. 4) He points out that in Shariah, a slave can’t be a ruler, & Mamluks never called themselves Mamluks. There were incidents when a qadhi refused to accept a slave as a witness >

> even though the slave was a vizier. 5) That though there is no concept in Islam of marital rape or with concubine, there were instances when a jurist restricted an owner’s access to his concubine. 6) The problem with a theological argument on slavery is that we lose history, >

> about racism & the long tradition of castrating young boys to create eunuchs for ( https://twitter.com/gypsy_heart6/status/1158351528740229120?s=20), how young boys were sold under Delhi dynasties cheaper than horses ( https://twitter.com/gypsy_heart6/status/1222039839459233792?s=20), how Ottoman jurists made enslaving Persian Shia POWs legal, also what kind > https://twitter.com/gypsy_heart6/status/1161611218781708290

> of cultural impact did the end of slavery had on sexuality (both homo & hetero) in the Muslim world. How it possibly made Islamicate world more “Victorian” & purist? ( https://twitter.com/gypsy_heart6/status/1219125554516983808?s=20) I think it’s time Muslims begin to grapple with this history instead of shoving it > https://twitter.com/gypsy_heart6/status/1219125554516983808

> under. As he points out, if Islam actually did abolish slavery, how do we reconcile that with the fact that prophet Mohammed owned concubines, or the thousands of legal texts about rights of owners on their slaves from Islam’s most eminent theologians & jurists, from >

> imam Shafi’i & Abu Hanifa to Ghazali & Ibn Rushd. If we can’t respect American founders because they owned slaves, why don’t we apply this moral relativism to prominent scholars & leaders in other traditions?