APPENDIX B.
SLAVERY AND CONCUBINE-SLAVES AS CONCOMITANT EVILS OF WAR.
Slavery and concubinage not allowed by the Koran.
1. It is a false accusation against the Koran, that it allows enslavement of the captives of war, and sanctions female captives to the conquerors' embrace, or, in other words, female captives are made concubines on the field of battle. There is not a single sentence in the Koran allowing either of the above allegations. Sir W. Muir, in his "Life of Mahomet," could neither quote any verse of the Koran sanctioning the enslavement of the captives of war or servile concubinage, nor was he able to relate any instance of them during the several battles described therein. Yet, in a recent work,[336] he refers boldly, but vaguely, to the Koran; and regarding the battle of Walaja fought by Khálid against the Persians in A.H. 12 writes, after quoting Khálid's oration on gaining the victory:—
"Now, also, the cunning device of the Corân, with respect to the other sex, began to tell. Persian ladies, both maids and matrons, 'taken captive by the right hand,' were forthwith, without stint of number, lawful to the conquerors' embrace; and, in the enjoyment of this privilege, they were nothing loth to execute upon the heathen 'the judgment written.'"
I do not understand why, if such was the case, Khálid did not refer the believers to the so-called "cunning device" of the Koran? By referring to this imaginary device of the Koran to the lawfulness of female captives "to the conquerors' embrace," he might have struck a chord, at which every Bedouin heart would have leapt with joy, instead of referring, as he did, merely to the riches of the land and fair fields. In fact there is no such inducement in the Koran.
Measures taken by the Koran to abolish slavery.
2. Slaves are mentioned in the Koran defacto, but not dejure. The Koran took several measures to abolish future slavery. Its steps for its abolition were taken in every moral, legal, religious, and political departments. The liberation of slaves was morally declared to be a work of piety and righteousness—(Sura XC, 13; II, 172).[337] Legally the slaves were to be emancipated on their agreeing to pay a ransom—(Sura XXIV, 33).[338] They were to be set at liberty as a penalty for culpable homicide—(Sura IV, 94);[339] or in expiation for using an objectionable form of divorce—(Sura LVIII, 4);[340] and also they were to be manumitted from the Public Funds out of the poor-taxes—(Sura IX, 60).[341] They were religiously to be freed in expiation of a false oath taken in mistake—(Sura V, 91).[342] These were the measures for the abolition of existing slavery. The future slavery was abolished by the Koran by putting hammer deep unto its root and by annihilating its real source. The captives of war were, according to the clear injunctions of the Koran contained in the 5th verse of the 47th Sura, to be dismissed either by a free grant or by exacting a ransom. They were neither to be enslaved nor killed.
4. "When ye encounter the unbelievers strike off their heads, till ye have made a great slaughter among them, and of the rest make fast the fetters."
5. "And afterwards let there either be free dismissals or ransoming, till the war hath laid down its burdens. Thus do...."