According to the Byzantine Emperor Constantin P (Xth cent AD) the name of the Serbians come from “servula” to be a slave.

Also, the first to enslave the Slaves were the Romans:

http://historum.com/ancient-history/62034-goths-vandals-really-germans.html

Good article.

So in summary: Slavic originates from Slava/Slowo
or from Slave?

“The two words aren’t really equivalent.”

Actually, they are, since both of them are corrupted pronunciations for the Latin niger, or black. However, it has been to the great advantage of certain sects of the post-modern religion to think one of them is somehow pejorative, rather than descriptive of color.

[…] Ref;  http://www.unz.com/pfrost/from-slavs-to-slaves/ […]

Mostly bollocks. Before The Crusades, Europe, the Med and Near Middle East (which people forget was part of Christendom) were invaded and attacked relentlessly by the forces of Islam; it was the muslims who enslaved the Slavs; they destroyed the Classical world (long story but they attacked at a time when the European powers had become weak), they destroyed almost all of Christendom, they destroyed the trade routes, and hunted the Slavs for the African and Arabian slave markets.

Europe was economically devastated by the Islamic invasions but it’s fortunes improved dramatically with the success of The Crusades. Making the Islamic jihadi invasions a sidenote in the story is like leaving the Nazis out of the story of the Second World War.

[…] carrying on the tradition that had started in Rome of taking Slavic people as slaves, those Africans returned to the Old World and kidnapped Europeans, first enslaving them in the New […]

[…] From Slavs to Slaves – The Unz Review […]

[…] Link […]

I think the idea of the Sephardic origins of the Radhanites is rather one sided and a bit antiquated.
The maps of the Radhantes run between France and China and therefore gave the impression to many scholars that France was the origin.
However, after the important work by Moshe Gil, I believe it is more commonly accepted that the Radhanite’s origin was near Bagdad (where there was a long history of long distance trade by the Persians and then the Parthians). Though Jewish, they were not Sephardic at all.
There is some very strange belief that the Jewish world is and always was divided into Sephardic and Ashkenazi, but the Sephardics only exist since the 1492 and before that the vast majority of jews lived in the East (the area that was once the Persian Empire.)
With the advent of Islam Jewish traders held, a virtual monopoly on East-West trade (crossing boarders that Christians and Moslems could not). It was to the Khazar’s advantage as traders to convert and work with the Radhanite.
For further reading, and differing opinions about the origins, read this link: http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/Radhanite
Gil’s paper the Radhanite Merchants and the Land of Radhan is quite persuasive.

Helmold OF Bosau notes that at one point the Wendish slave markets (now in Eastern Germany) were swollen with Danish captives after the Slavic Wends were set loose. A lot of pagan Slavs were apparently also slavers. While there is very little evidence of Slavic slaves being imported into western Europe, there is plenty of evidence of Wends making captives of non-Slavs. In the west of Europe, etymology is unclear and it's possible that the word Slav may have come to mean people who took "slaves", not were slaves.

Interesting post.

I think an often overlooked part of the slave trade is actually who the Slavs were.

Haplogroup studies show that what is today considered a Slav involves 2 groups I (I2 + I2a) and R1a.

It seems that the I group is older in Europe and R1a corresponds to the arrival of central Asian Turkic tribes which includes the Russians, Avars, Serbs, Croats, Bulgars, Hungarians etc.

It's interesting only the ethnonyms of the Turkic tribes have survived while the names of the I groups are lost and are only preserved by territorial desriptives (ie. Poland, meaning Polja or field).

So the slave trade is the selling of the conquered European I haplogroups by the R1a conquering central Asian Turkic tribes.

I think the confusion lies in the fact that the Western chroniclers incorrectly attributed the name Slav to all Eastern Europeans when in fact there were initially two distinct groups.

The claim only had one thing going for it: uniquely, Khazars converted to Judaism. A very odd choice for what was a steppe cavalry people. But anyone who reads this post now understands why: Khazars were selling slave to Jewish middle men.

To claim that the Mongol-Tatar Khazars somehow turned into the rather Armenoid Ashkenazim is just absurd.

The Khazar claim has historically been based on the idea that the Khazars were an Armenian like population under Turkic dominion, with no significant Siberian / Central Asian ancestry. I don't believe it, but there you go.

If we took some of a Labradoodle population and crossed it with Dingos you would not expect to see the new Labradoodle/Dingo population look far more like Labrador Retrievers than the Labradoodle population from which their only Labrador ancestry came.

To claim that the Mongol-Tatar Khazars somehow turned into the rather Armenoid Ashkenazim is just absurd. Look at a map, to get from Palestine to East Europe you can go around the Black sea. (Which is where the biggest slave market was based by the way.

PF:

At Confederation, the population of Canada was roughly three million of which Quebec was roughly a third of which maybe 75% were descended from the founding French. By 1930 ~900,000 resided in the US, mostly in N.England. No wonder the Ashkenazim population growth is considered miraculous. 8 million (your post says 10) by the end of the 19th century. Neither the Slavs nor Sephardi experienced that growth rate. Occam's razor favors a mass migration as stated by the Khazar hypothesis. Lex parsimoniae also suggests that Jews (Judeo-Khazars and Rhadonites) dominated the European slave trade. Inconvenient undoubtedly but what can we do? Lie about the historical record?

There is nothing surprising in the Ashkenazim looking more Slav than the Sephardim. That Slav ancestry adds to the heterogeneity of the Ashkenazim is something I understand. My point is the Ashkenazim don't just look more Slavic than the Sephardim, they also look more Armeniod than the Sephardim.

I suppose the Ashkenazim's Armenoid appearance could have been a side effect of them being selected for brainpower. Like short sightedness.

PF:

"A major dif?culty with the Rhineland hypothesis, in addition
to the lack of historical and anthropological evidence to
the multimigration waves from Palestine to Europe (Straten
20 03 ; S and 20 09), is to explain the vast population expansion of Eastern European Jews from ?fty thousand (15th century)
to eight million (20th century). The annual growth rate that
accounts for this population expansion was estimated at
1.7–2%, one order of magnitude larger than that of Eastern European non-Jews in the 15th–17th centuries, prior to the industrial revolution (Straten 2007). This growth could not possibly be the product of natural population expansion, particularly one subjected to severe economic restrictions, slavery, assimilation, the Black Death and other plagues, forced and voluntary conversions, persecutions, kidnappings, rapes, exiles, wars, massacres, and pogroms (Koestler 1976; Straten 2003; Sa nd 20 09 ). Because such an unnatural growth rate, over half a millennium and affecting only Jews residing in Eastern Europe, is implausible—it is explained by a miracle (A t zm on e t al . 2 01 0 ; Ostrer 2012).
Unfortunately, this divine intervention explanation poses a
new kind of problem—it is not science."

Peter Turchin says providing resource surpluses was not important for the establishment of a centralised state, but I bet he was not thinking about a country's weak chief getting the wherewithal to rule absolutely by selling off his female subjects.

Turchin mentions in 'War and Peace and War' that the peasants drove the eastward expansion of Muscovy because they kept moving outside the defence line to settle new land, and they were raided by the Tatars and taken to be sold as slaves; then the government built a new defensive line to protect them, and the process started all over again.

He also says that apart from being vulnerable to Tartar attacks the peasants who were settling the steppe outside the defensive line were a problem, because they did not pay any taxes. Maybe getting away from rapacious tax farmers was a big reason those peasants took the risk of moving outside the defence line. Peasants trying to get from the arendators may have been an important factor in the expansion of Muscovy.

"The most valuable ones are travel accounts, but there are also religious texts that are written in Hebrew with explanatory glosses in Slavic languages (such as Old Czech)."

Wouldn't Sephardim have continued to use Judaeo-Spanish among themselves for a very long time?

When I look at a Brazilian Mastiff my lying eyes tell me it has bloodhound ancestry; confirmed by its good scent tracking ability.

The Armenians have a full share of physicists, mathematicians, chess champions and billionaires. Ashkenazic Jews share physical characteristics with Armenians and the Ashkenazim excel in abstract thought. To me, that the Ashkenazim are an offshoot of and hence have got no more Armeniod ancestry than the Sephardim is not credible.

Ashkenazic Jews would have a nice little sinecure when they were in the slave business with the King. Then the Jewish relationship with the king and nobles developed into that of a arendators who provided the nobles with the cash they needed to fund an extravagant aristocratic lifestyle. Money lending was much the same, these were monopolies, not businesses where there was competition, and extra brainpower was at a premium.

The spread of the Quebec Tay Sachs mutation (and the possibly similar Finnish mutation) did not happen over a millennium in a caste/ guild of bankers. So I think the Ashkenazim got their brain power mutations (Tay Sachs ect) when Jews were artisans, and the cottage industry theory is correct.

What was (until this post) elusive about Khazars, was that although Judaism was theoretically open to converts, Jews did not actively proselytise, so it seemed strange that the Khazar ruling class converted to Judaism.

"Yes, initially there were only Sephardim in Europe. The Ashkenazim appear to have originated as a small founder group of Sephardic origin".

By my way of thinking it is more likely that the opposite is the case, though I don't pretend to know how. Notwithstanding the rather Semitic physog of Albert Einstein (the physicist not the comedian) Ashkenazi Jews are obviously Armenoid in appearance; so where did that come from if Ashkenazim are a blend of Sephardim and Slav women? Moreover, ancient depictions of the original Jews in the Middle East show people who looked like Ashkenazim.

It would seem that European women slaves being sold to the near and middle East has been the foundation of European trade. The Maritime republics of Italy were based on the Black sea white slave business as can be seen from where their trading posts were: here. The book title Double Entry: How the Merchants of Venice Created Modern Finance is self explanatory. Moreover the slaves Venice was trading were Christians (though of the Orthodox variety), so the idea that the Papal Decrees such as Dum Diversas, Romanus Pontifex were permitting enslavement of non white non Christians as any kind of exception or licence to do what was previously forbidden, or that Venice ect had not been dealing in white slaves prior to the Portuguese initiating the period of male black African slavery in the Americas, is not true.

I think it would make far more sense for Khazar traders to head south to the Ottomans.

There is also genetic evidence for the Khazarian hypothesis…

Dr Elhaik writes, "The most parsimonious explanation for our findings is that Eastern European Jews are of Judeo-Khazarian ancestry forged over many centuries in the Caucasus. Jewish presence in the Caucasus and later Khazaria was recorded as early as the late centuries BCE and reinforced due to the increase in trade along the Silk Road, the decline of Judah (1st-7th centuries), and the rise of Christianity and Islam. Greco-Roman and Mesopotamian Jews gravitating toward Khazaria were also common in the early centuries and their migrations were intensified following the Khazars' conversion to Judaism… The religious conversion of the Khazars encompassed most of the Empire's citizens and subordinate tribes and lasted for the next 400 years until the invasion of the Mongols. At the final collapse of their empire in the 13th century, many of the Judeo-Khazars fled to Eastern Europe and later migrated to Central Europe and admixed with the neighbouring populations."

All these slave traders must have kept some written record for their business.
Now, using the psychology of a today's saoud prince as a baseline (look at their women, cars and planes), it's a safe bet to say that the grand sultan didn't want the same slave girls than his generals. He wanted better. So if the Muslim upper class had a relatively easy access to fair skin meat, then the upper upper class wanted fairer fair skin, to make a point. Some places in Slavic Europe must have been better than others in that respect and these merchants must have known and written this information somewhere. The fairest of the fairest girls must have been kept for the highest bidder, and the benefits on each sale must have been recorded in accounting books.
I wonder if for extraordinary and very expensive specimen (redhead or almost white-haired girls of perfect proportions), the merchants proposed some financial accommodations, like loans with interests, to increase the profit.
I bet they did.
It would be great to find one of these accounting book written in jewish language, with the description of the 'product', the sale price, the buyer's name, and the trader's name.
A khazar slave trader of the time, bragging about his latest sale and the growing interest rate bubble of the slave market, would almost certainly worry that the church could burst his bubble, and that could be related almost word for word to modern writings from Greenspan or Bernanke. The traders must have kept some money to bribe the church Inquisitors.

"This topic has been run into the ground"

This topic is almost completly unknown.

.
"Peter, yes but then, what does the origin of the traders have anything to do with physical preferences and sexual selection"

A German merchant wouldn't have known about the preference.

.
"why mean IQ is higher among the Ashkenazim than among the Sephardim. Since these traders were Sephardi (being ultimately from Spain),"

I thought the Ashkenazim derived from a branch of the Sephardim?

Ashkenazi vs Ashkenazim… the former sounds better to me, given the context.

I thought the Church was more active against enslavement of Christians, even since the council of Nicea in 325, that explicitly forbid self-castration, which means that forced-castration of young Christian slaves could only be forbidden also. The trade of Christians by jews was also severely condemned by the church. And despite that, the trade continued? hmmm, Staline's word must have been true 'The Pope! how many divisions?'.
Many people, before or beside Adalbert or Agobard, must have found the practice repugnant, but they just could do nothing about it. So to answer Anonymous 02:26:
"Pointing out Muslims purchase white sex slaves" = OBVIOUSLY NOT OK. But perhaps the Church considered these muslims acting under the urge of the bodily need to please themselves as a lesser sin than those who made a profit of it, fully aware of the sin.

Also, regarding the 'fair skin' issue, it is interesting that it is specifically mentioned in the Preambule de La Loi Salique, which is basically the Constitution of the Frankish nation.
This Preambule is a very emotionally powerful text, needless to say banished from any French textbook in History because it precisely defines the frankish 'type', in particular with an emphasis on their 'remarkable', or 'singular', white or fair skin.
I've seen different adjective used here, but the qualificative conveys a tone of something 'unique and surprisingly white'.
So, I wonder, surprising for who?
It can't be for the franks themselves and the celts were supposed to be fair skin already, so the romans/latins occupants of Gaul must have been sufficiently darker to notice the difference in whiteness of the franks.
Maybe small differences in hue were considered very important in these days.

A french translation from latin is here, page 287:
http://books.google.com/books?id=yfFSAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA287&dq=preambule+loi+salique+blancheur+remarquable&hl=en&sa=X&ei=X1lAUsmVHoqz2QXCv4DICg&ved=0CGIQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=preambule%20loi%20salique%20blancheur%20remarquable&f=false

I suppose Muslim polygyny will be cited as an explanation for white slavery.

Slavery may never vanish. Europeans re-instituted slavery from the Bay of Biscayne to the Bering Sea in 1943 and after. The perpetrators of these crimes against humanity will never be punished (though some were).

It exists today. In fact I think I met one recently on a train in France. A modern Saudi couple, very nice, modern, attractive, sat beside us with their two children nearby and a Philippine "Nanny" in tow, whom they commanded with startling insolence. I knew there was something strange in the visage and manners of the Nanny. It was only afterwards that I surmised this was the "look" of a person who had been brutalized and was probably a captive of the couple. I had read of such things inside Saudi Arabia but never suspected they could be found traveling abroad. Of course I may have been wrong.

Peter

Before the 12th Century the division between Sepharadim (Spanish speaking Jews) and Ashkenazim (German speaking Jews) was inexistent. Ultimately, Polish-Ucrainian Jews spoke a German based dialect, so they were definitely Ashkenazim. Before, European Jews spoke Latin (French).

[quote]My "agenda" is simply to show that preference for European women is something that predated European colonialism and domination[/quote]

Peter, yes but then, what does the origin of the traders have anything to do with physical preferences and sexual selection, since they are here in the story only to make money? You cannot deny you want to put some politic in your book here….to spice the story, OK, I like that, so if you have to present your book at a conference, don't forget to videotape the audience and youtube it.

hilarious that you apologize for pre-emptive anti-Semitism, meanwhile you've been calling Muslims women stealing, rapist, child molesting thugs for months with no such apology.

pointing out Muslims purchase white sex slaves= ok
pointing out Jews were selling them = NOT OK

If we are descended from 300-400 international traders, smart and multilingual, then Greg Cochran's thesis of the evolution of Ashkenazi intelligence is unnecessary.

This topic has been run into the ground..

The Khazar ruling class converted to Judaism, all the better to get rich from white slavery. Europe kings and nobles getting rich from white slavery encountered their only opposition from the Church.

This will never do! Don't you know the Christian religion is the root of all evil?

"Yes, because there're so much talk about the trans-atlantic (slave) trade, which undoubtly qualifies as a crime against humankind”

Slavery may never vanish. Europeans re-instituted slavery from the Bay of Biscayne to the Bering Sea in 1943 and after. The perpetrators of these crimes against humanity will never be punished (though some were).

Hmm, what's the point of this topic?
1)anthropologic (genetic impact)

2)historic (to improve our historical literacy, thanks Peter, although it is gonna be hard to use this knowledge to impress female guests at a restaurant, since they typically don't give a s' about these sort of topics)

or 3) politic
Ah, here we are talking.
I've seen a video of Louis Farrakhan, saying that since jews got $$$$$ financial reparation for 12 years (only) of abuse by Nazis, then blacks should be entitled as well by their 400 years of slavery and deportation!
Oh wait, in this video, Farrakhan insists heavily on the jewish involvement and enrichment in the transatlantic slave trade, and he asks financial reparation to them, specifically! Ahem….
Waste of time. At this point in history, is it necessary to explain why?
My American wife (see point 2) asked me once, if there was a 'jewish lobby in uhmarica?', seriously?
She was past 30 and with all her mind, so I didn't laugh.
I said: nope, not anymore, it's called the '''''American''''' government.
So…I would guess that Farrakhan and his 400 years of enslavement have zero chance to see any shiny penny anytime soon. Shuptzah!

Forget about all that. I've read the excellent latest of Kim Stanley Robinson: 'Shaman'
Excellent beautiful and inspiring, and more in line with this blog.
Maybe a topic on this book soon?

szopeno

"While reading the description, it's almost boring…The next year another Tatar raid hit so-and-so areas… and so it went, for a hundred of years…"

Yes, it's also interesting as one of the triggers for early european imperial expansion especially Russia expanding east into central asia but also the northwestern maritime states vs the corsairs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_pirates

Anonymous said…

Here is a full PDF of Pogonowski's Jews in Poland: A Documentary History:

pogonowski.com/books/Jews_in_Poland/Jews_in_Poland_all.pdf

Thanks for that. I couldn't afford the book.

On the other side of the ledger I must say that it bothers me that Israel tolerates so much human trafficking from that part of the world even today. The authorities could stop it if they wanted to. And they should if only because it is not in Israel's long-term interest. This kind of thing plays terribly in the West. I know it does with me.

Everyone,

The Radanites were one of three groups that dominated the white slave trade. They were the ones who controlled the western overland route from the Slav territories to Muslim Spain via Germany and France. The northern route, via the Baltic, was run by Viking traders. The various eastern routes, via the Dnieper, the Don, and the Volga, were run by either Viking or Khazar traders. This is a bit simplified because all three trading groups worked with each other, particularly the Radanites and the Khazars (who converted to Judaism).

Needless to say, this trade would have been impossible without the active collaboration of local elites. They were the main beneficiaries.

J,

The same is true in French, “la traite des Blanches”. The English translation, "white slave trade", leaves out this aspect, although the term is often used as a synonym for international prostitution.

The other skeptic,

I’m away from home right now (and using a slow-speed Internet connection). I’ll see what I can find when I get home.

Ben,

I'm not sure I agree. A lot has been written, notably by Bernard Lewis, about the black slave trade in the Muslim world. But it is true that many African American leaders and intellectuals downplay this trade or ignore it entirely. I guess it comes down to a misplaced sense of Third World solidarity.

Here is a full PDF of Pogonowski's Jews in Poland: A Documentary History:

pogonowski.com/books/Jews_in_Poland/Jews_in_Poland_all.pdf

Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski is not a historian. He's considered a conspiracy theorist. His purported history of the Jews in Poland is NOT a reliable source.

The book has a foreword by Richard Pipes, who was a historian at Harvard for many decades and is the father of Daniel Pipes.

The book is also recommended as reading material in university courses on Jewish history and culture:

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hebrew-jewish/students/studentresources/syllabi-details/survey-of-jewish-culture-and-history-1000-1800

Here are some excerpts from reviews of Pogonowski's book by historians:

“Mr. Pogonowski’s colorful compendium fills a very definite need. It is especially welcome on three counts. First it covers a wide span of history, from the earliest times to 1991. Second, among other things, it contains a mass of documentary material that is not readily available in English. Third, an extensive collection of maps and prints enlivens the body of detailed information, bringing it within the reach of wide audience. I learned much from reading the book. It will be a rare reader who does not do the same.”
— Professor Norman Davies, Oxford University

“The fact that today over ninety percent of Ashkenazic Jews trace their origins to the historical lands of the old Polish Commonwealth testifies to the importance of the Polish chapter of the Jewish history. Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski’s Jews In Poland: A Documentary History gives full documentation to this historic truth and places it in the permanent record.”
— Józef Gierowski, Professor of History and former President of the Jagiellonian University of Kraków

“Pogonowski shows us the wealth of the still living legacy of Polish and Lithuanian Jews carried by their descendants in the Diaspora and the State of Israel. This legacy represents an important element of the modern European and world culture.”
— Aleksander Gieysztor, Professor of History and President of the Polish Academy of Sciences

“The need for a good historical atlas describing the history of the Jews in Poland has long been recognized. This carefully researched and well drawn volume will enable students and the lay public to better understand the complex problems of the Polish-Jewish past and of Polish-Jewish relations.”
— Anthony Polonsky, Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science; Professor of Jewish History at Brandeis University

"The book endeavors to ‘encompass’ Jews within the Polish discourse, a rarity in American scholarship and in the discourse about Jews. While Poles have often been encompassed within the Jewish discourse (and within other discourses), the other way around has never been attempted. This pioneering attempt, as well as the sheer volume of documentation gathered in this volume, make Pogonowski’s opus remarkable and unusual.”
— M. K. Dziewanowski, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; author of War at Any Price (1990)

“Even though Hitler selected Poland as the principal slaughter house for the “final solution”…, it must never be mistakenly believed that the Holocaust was perpetrated by Poles. Nor must it be ignored that three million Poles perished at German hands. ..The materials collected in this volume bring to life some of these tragedies, but also record of good will and exemplary heroism.”
— Richard Pipes, Professor of History at the Harvard University, former Director of East European and Soviet Affairs in the National Security Council, 1981-1982

Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski is not a historian. He's considered a conspiracy theorist. His purported history of the Jews in Poland is NOT a reliable source.

continues

…Q : So even today, that's something not to talk about, beacuse it could hurt the muslim world sensitivity…
T. N’D. Yes, I think we should not ignore this historical period. There's lots of talks about the transatlantic trade so we should also consider the arabo-muslim trade, also keeping in mind that the first victims of the slave trade were the slavic people, that phoenicians and people from marsalla (today's Marseille) used to abduct during razzias in central and oriental europeans territories, to be sold in the arabo-muslim world. This happened during all the carolingian period, under saxons monarchs like Henry l'Oiseleur et Otton I.
Only emergent and powerful states in Occidental Europe was able to stop the muslim expension in the Pyrenean Mountains. In fact the nigger slave trade was a prolongation of this trans-european (slavic ?) trade and all these trades must be denounced with the same severity.
Q: So, in your point of view, is the celebration of Malcom X or Farrakhan like ignoring History ?
T. N’D. (smiling) : I think it's a different context. As soon slavery was abolished in the US, african americans were victims of racial segregation, (economical etc), or were linked to increased criminality and considered unfit for many jobs. In reaction, this segregation brought the emergence of people like Malcom X. I think that if they could see Obama today, they wouldn't take the same positions, but we should not forget that he (note: Farrakhan ?) was a member of the "black muslims" and I was talking earlier about the volunteer amnesia of the black elite on this question (…) that explains why this slave trade is not denounced in the US. And so we can expect some anger from the english translation of my book.
Q : which brings us to the crisis in Sudan
T. N’D.: In Darfur yes. We should go back to pharaonic Egypt. After the Hebrews, other tribes were enslaved by egyptians, like Ethiopians or people from sudanese-nubian regions like Darfur.But it is during the arab invasion of 652 that the general emir Abdalah ben Said (phonetic translation) imposed the bah'rt ( or bah'rd ? muslim word by phonetic) to the nubian king. This was a forced agreement under which the nubian king had to deliver each year 360 (or 364 ?) healthy captives as slaves for the arab world. (…) this agreement is at the origin of a trans-saharian, and later oriental, traffic that spead largely outside the arab countries. The black slave trafficants involved were maghrebins, Turks of the Ottoman empire, or Iranians. Thousand of captives were sold even to India, since, for example in the middle of the 15th century, the Bengalish king owned almost 8000 slaves . Since the only common point of these niger trafficants was their religion, I cannot NOT use the expression arabo-muslims. But all of this started from Darfur and today, it comes back to Darfur. (…) It is indeed incredible that in 2008 these practices are still ongoing, under our eyes, and that international institutions are blocked by procedural issues.
Q : Thank you etc .

I took the pain to translate a video from Tidiane N'Diaye, expert in the trans-arabic slave trade. here is what N'Diaye said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcIcd3T2BMw

Q:…So, the title of your book is : "The hidden genocide, historical investigation on the (nigger) trade", You say "The hidden genocide", after I read your book, I feel this expression is actually an understatement.

T. N’D. : Yes, because there're so much talk about the trans-atlantic (slave) trade, which undoubtly qualifies as a crime against humankind, but what has to be said now is that the slave trade organized by arabo-muslims was a REAL genocide. Under this trade, the fate of african slaves appears now like an ethnic extinction, planned and organized using a massive castration practice. Despite huge number of slaves deported in arabo-muslim countries, we now know that these african slaves have all disappear. This is why I prefer to use the word genocide. When you have 17 millions deported submitted to massive castration, and that only a minority were able to survive in these muslim countries, and you compare that to the trans-atlantic trade, where the sons and daughters (or metis) of african slaves now compose 70 millions individuals in all the american continent, including the caribeans, while they all have disappear in arabo-muslim countries.
Q : you say that this trade should be more exposed as an historical fact. Would you say that this is not very well known or voluntarily occulted ?
T. N’D. : Yes, voluntarily hidden, no doubt about that. (…) This volunteer amnesia from the black elite can be explained by religious solidarity, it's obvious. To write this book I had to cross check references from explorers like Livingstone, Stanley, Lavigerie and direct reports from arab merchants operating from Eunuchs Center factories. I also used data from my american colleague Ralph O'sealt (approximate phonetic translation of this name from the video). So the outcome is terrifying, just for the Sahara area, we can estimate the number of captives to 9 millions, deported in absolutely inhuman conditions, of which 2 millions died or were confined in the edges of the desert. For the Oriental trade, near the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, our estimate is about 8 millions victims. Globally we reach a total of 17 millions dead, deported, or castrated by arabs. It is therefore a genocide.
Q : (….) so you say that the arabo-muslim trade was devastative for Black Africa, much more than the trans-atlantic trade.
T. N’D. : Yes, (…) you had arabs leaders from the fourteen century like Ibn' al Randoun (approximate phonetic translation) who considered black africans like animals, calling them anthropophages and spread the idea that they were sub-humans. And it must be said that no voices from the arab world ever contested that idea, as opposed to the europeans intellectuals of the enlightment period. This explain that inhuman treatments and generalized mutilations of captives were well accepted in the arabo-muslim populations. This explain why the slave descendants have disappeared in Turkey, Iran, Yemen, and very few can be found in Saoudia and North Africa.
…

By a coincidence, I have just read "Sulejman the Great" book (in Polish). The constant Tatar raiding and counter-raids by Cossacks and Polish magnates were ever-present issue in Polish-Ottoman relations in XVI century. While reading the description, it's almost boring: the year so-and-so Tatars raided villages, they cavalry hit them and recaptured part of captives; the same year conter-raid hit Oczakow, killing Tatars and recapturing slaves. The next year another Tatar raid hit so-and-so areas… and so it went, for a hundred of years…

Is there an on-line version of that book?

It is interesting that the legacy of slavery plays such an important role in the US.

I've read (from Jewish sources) that European Jews were sometimes involved in this trade, as middle-men I presume. Is this true and, if so, do you know how extensive their involvement was? Are there any good scholarly sources?

A good source is the book Jews in Poland: A Documentary History: The Rise of Jews as a Nation from Congressus Judaicus in Poland to the Knesset in Israel by Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski (Hippocrene Books, New York, 1998)

Here are some passages from it on the medieval slave trade:

“The situation of Jews within the Arab Empire was normalized in A.D. 637 by the decree of Omar I. Jews in Islam were recognized as “tolerated infidels.” Most medieval Jews resided in Spain. Jewish medieval merchants were known as “Radanites.” They included western European Jews from France and Germany, as well as those from Arab Spain.

The term “Radanites” was derived from the name of the Arab-Christian border along the river Rhone (in Latin Rodanus) because of an intense slave trade which was conducted across it. The slaves were castrated in Verdun, Venice, and Lyon and sold by Jewish Radanite slave-traders to the Arabs of Spain. This Jewish slave trade also included girls and small boys who were properly indoctrinated in order to be used later by Arab rulers as bodyguards, slave soldiers and bureaucrats.

An alternate origin of the name “Radanite” was a Persian word for those who “knew the way.” This explanation was related to the leading role of Jewish merchants in trade after the fall of the Roman Empire. From the 7th century to mid-10th century Radanites controlled the trade which encompassed Europe, North Africa, and southern Asia including China. It was a period when Hebrew was the only language of world trade.”

[…]

“Arab Spain was the main market for slaves (eunuchs, girls, and young boys). Some slaves were sold as far away as China, which also bought furs, beaver skins, silk, and weapons. Exports from China to Europe included cinnamon, spices, musk, and camphor. The capital of Khazaria, Itil, was an important Jewish trading center. Jewish merchants played an important role in international trade after the fall of the Roman Empire. For two centuries they made Hebrew the only language of world commerce. Slavery, which was the foundation of the Roman economy, was important in the Arab Empire in which the Jews became the main merchants, trading with the infidels and bringing European slaves to Islam.”

[…]

“Jews in service of Boleslaus the Great minted his coins and inscribed on them the name of the Polish sovereign with Hebrew letters. Besides such highly valued craftsmen there were active in Poland Jewish slave-traders. Ever since the time when the economy of Rome was based on slavery the slave trade has continued. In the 11th century the main slave market was in Arab Spain, then the most civilized country in Europe. The Catholic Church fought against slavery and this fight is documented in the treatise “Infelix Aurum” by the first patron saint of Poland, and since A.D. 997 the first bishop of Gdansk, Adalbert or Wojciech (voy-chekh). In the struggle against the slave trade the family of St. Adalbert lost the Czech throne in Prague to their opponents supported by Jewish slave traders. One of 18 sculptures on the 1170 bronze door made for the cathedral of Gniezno depicted the scene of redeeming manacled Christian slaves by a Polish bishop from Jewish merchants in the presence of the son of King Boleslaus the Great, the second formally crowned King of Poland, Mieszko II (990-1034).”

I've read (from Jewish sources) that European Jews were sometimes involved in this trade, as middle-men I presume. Is this true and, if so, do you know how extensive their involvement was? Are there any good scholarly sources?

A popular book on this topic is "White Gold" by Giles Milton.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/411475.White_Gold

Slavery existed in England in the 11th century – Domesday book records how many slaves in each village. The Norse and Vikings had their 'thralls'. Eleventh century Bristol shipped English slaves to the Viking city of Dublin – the then Bishop of Worcester, St Wulfstan, preached against the trade.

The Barbary Corsairs raided northern Europe for slaves on many occasions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_01.shtml

Even getting as far north as Iceland – the story of "Gudda The Turk".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu%C3%B0r%C3%AD%C3%B0ur_S%C3%ADmonard%C3%B3ttir

Arab = Caucasian

Arab/Euro mixtures usually look more white than those who are Euro/Afro and Euro/Oriental Asian.

Heck, some Arabs from North Africa, Middle East and West Asia can sometimes pass for Mediterranean.

I once knew this girl who was half Italian/half Arab. Quite white-looking with fine features (straight nose, almond eyes, medium sized lips), light eyes (light brown? hazel?), brunette hair, fair white skin, oval face and wavy/straight hair. She was also thin but had a medium-sized body build.

I'd guess most people would guess her as a white European woman and they would be somewhat right about that.

It would be interesting to verify if this massive trade can be recognized in the Maghreb and the Turkish populations genotype.

In Spanish, the female slave trade is still called "Trata de Blancas" that is, White Women Trade.

I thought that is what modern Western Universities were for.

In Spanish, the female slave trade is still called "Trata de Blancas" that is, White Women Trade.

Only tangentially related, but Mohammed and Charlemagne Revisited has interesting ideas on the question of DME (Along the lines of DJE).