The Emancipation and Care of Slaves in the Late Ottoman Empire

Abstract

Islam encouraged manumission as a pious, meritorious act and in some cases imposed it upon slave-owners. Consequently, the rates of manumission in Islamic societies were usually high. Ottoman society was not an exception. A slave in Islamic hands — that is, a legally enslaved or acquired one — could hope to be manumitted in a number of ways. The most common modes of manumission in Islamic societies were as follows:¹