1<\/p>\n
To what degree was the Arabian Peninsula, as described in this article, a \u201cslave society\u201d ?<\/p>\n
The article by Reilly notes that the Arabian Peninsula was a slave society or, in other words, economically depended on slavery for its prosperity. Among the critical reasons for this is that while the Wadis wadis are dry river valleys, not people! You mean Bedouins? settled in a place they could farm, they stuck to raiding and hence, the need for extensive labor that enslaved people could quickly provide. Besides, due to various ecological factors, the natives found it hard to work in the fields leaving enslaved Africans best suited for the conditions. Much more, the rising number of enslaved Africans in the Indian Ocean world immensely saw the Arabian Peninsula rely on enslaved people for its economic activities. <\/p>\n
OK, but you might have a hard time proving this point. For example, the fact that the Bedouins exist is an argument AGAINST it being a slave society \u2013 Bedouins were pastoralists, and there is no indication they used slavery, so clearly some parts of the economy are NOT dominated by slaves\u2026<\/p>\n
First, the Arabian Peninsula relied on agriculture as one of its major economic activities. However, due to little mechanization, farming required extensive labor. The need for this labor saw the peninsula depend on enslaved people as the primary source of work for the society\u2019s agricultural exploits while the Wadis concentrated on raiding. OK, I\u2019ll buy that Reilly (2014) writes that \u201cArabian Bedouin groups themselves sometimes settled down in wadi agricultural areas, though they were extremely reluctant farmers, usually taking up the profession only if raids or drought left them with too few animals to maintain a pastoralist lifestyle, and quickly returning to pastoralism if circumstances allowed.\u201d For this reason, it made economic sense for the masters to rely on slaves of African origin to explore farming. Good<\/p>\n
Another critical reason the Arabian Peninsula can be considered to have heavily relied on slavery for its economic growth is that various ecological conditions made it hard for the Wadis Bedouins! Wadis are seasonal flood plains\u2026 where water was often not far below the surface and thus agriculture was possible to work on the farm. In this, the warm environment with a lot of moisture acted well as a breeding factor for the female anopheles\u2019 mosquitoes that cause malaria. Malaria outbreaks scared the natives that most of them preferred not to work on the farms. Evidencing this, Reilly (2014) writes, \u201cAs we have seen, the wadi oasis environments were potentially very productive and highly malarial, which discouraged both Arabian townsmen and Bedouins from directly exploiting these environments.\u201d In their place, enslavers preferred enslaved Africans drawn from areas that allowed them to gain immunity against malaria infections. Essentially, this placed them at an advantage to work in the malarial-invested Wadi landscapes. That\u2019s a good point. But to say this is a slave society you have to argue that without slavery the economy would be fundamentally different. Is that the case? <\/p>\n
Another point \u2013 are the agriculturalists in the paper that Reilly talks about all SLAVES? They are all of African ancestry, but not all are actually enslaved \u2013 many are mawla! Doesn\u2019t that undermine the idea that this was a slave society?<\/p>\n
Additionally, geographical and demographic realities helped play a crucial role in increased reliance on Arabian Peninsula\u2019s extensive dependence on enslaved people. In this, the Wadis Bedouins? were not as many, and hence, it proved hard for them to work on the farms by themselves. Reilly (2014) posits that \u201cGiven the geographical realities of the wadis, therefore, it made logical sense for Arabian Bedouins and townsmen to farm these lands by proxy, through sharecroppers or other dependent farmers.\u201d For this reason, they had to look elsewhere, and fortunately for them, enslaved Africans were available in abundant numbers. This was partly caused by the slave trade at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, which had shifted from the Atlantic and expanded to the Indian ocean. The low number of the Wadis and the abundant number of enslaved Africans extensively saw the Arabian Peninsula turn into a slave society. You did a good job reading the article, Reema \u2013 you are summarizing my argument quite well, even if I don\u2019t entirely agree with your conclusions.<\/p>\n
One thing to keep in mind is that the slave populations that Reilly talks about are small and scattered over a large area. And reilly doesn\u2019t talk at all about the major farming towns of the Arabian peninsula \u2013 Medina, Al-Hasa, Buraida, Ha\u2019il, Riyadh, etc. Can we make the sweeping statement that the Arabian economy was dependent on slavery without ever even talking about those towns?<\/p>\n
I guess you have figured out by now what my opinion is \u2013 this is NOT a slave society, to the degree that is it fundamentally dependent on slavery. Slavery played a role, especially in agriculture in unhealthy oasis and wadi environments. But the main industry in Arabia wasn\u2019t actually agriculture at all, but pastoralism, and other industries existed as well like fishing, pearl diving, trade, pilgrim guiding, etc. Arabia was very unlike the Americas before the civil war, which WERE a slave society- without slavery they would not have been able to produce nearly as much cotton, which was America\u2019s most profitable export<\/p>\n
In essence, it is clear that the Arabian Peninsula extensively relied on slavery to explore its agricultural economic exploits that it is termed a slave society. Among the reasons for this is that the Wadis were reluctant to work on farms and, hence, the need for enslaved Africans. Also, the ecological conditions saw widespread malaria scare the Wadis from farms leaving Africans who were surprisingly resistant. Lastly, due to the slave trade shift from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, many enslaved people saw the peninsula extensively rely on enslaved people in its economic activities. Good summary of the article though this is not convincing on the \u2018slave society\u2019 point<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1 To what degree was the Arabian Peninsula, as described in this article, a \u201cslave society\u201d ? The article by Reilly notes that the Arabian Peninsula was a slave society or, in other words, economically depended on slavery for its prosperity. Among the critical reasons for this is that while the Wadis wadis are dry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-93721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-paper-writing","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93721\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}