Originally Posted by
monkeybarz
when I took a modern Middle East course in college, the professor brought this up, and all of a sudden there was a debate: what was better, Christian slavery or Muslim slavery? when I say "better," I mean less cruel. most of the kids in the class were white Christians, so they said Muslim slavery was worse because it lasted longer, etc. but then the professor brought up your point. a lot of these "slaves" weren't really slaves. unlike the Christians, the Muslims never treated them as sub-human species, and I believe they could be set free if they converted to Islam, though not always. the point is, many slaves under Muslim rule went on to become successful statesmen and army generals. the black Muslim dude who conquered Spain (I forgot his name) was a former slave who later became a general. that shit would NEVER happen within Christian slavery. I don't know, maybe you can shed some light on Muslim slavery vs. Christians slavery.....
by the way, does anybody know why Muslims never bothered to convert the people they conquered?? when Queen Isabella conquered people, she either exterminated them or kicked them out, or forced them to convert to Catholicism. I wonder why the Muslims never bothered to convert Spaniards and Greeks and Armenians, etc...it seems like it would've been a smart idea, from an Islamic perspective, instead, those groups kept their religion and fought back (not good for Islam). why not just convert them?