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Chapter 3 - Captivity, Ransom, and Manumission, 500–1420

from Part I - Captivity and the Slave Trade

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2021

Craig Perry
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
David Eltis
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
Stanley L. Engerman
Affiliation:
University of Rochester, New York
David Richardson
Affiliation:
University of Hull
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Summary

While captivity was the product of the violent confrontation between Jews, Christians, and Muslims, this essay uses Latin, Arabic, and Romance sources to argue that ransoming was also a phenomenon that intimately linked these communities. Grounded in a shared Roman inheritance, the tradition of ransoming brought Jews, Christians, and Muslims into a dialogic and reciprocal relationship with one another, one that depended on mutual understanding and expectations. It provided a channel to share ideas and institutions. Ransomers also helped pave the paths for commercial and diplomatic relations. Nevertheless, if ransoming drew these communities together, it also tore them apart. The physical and emotional cost of captivity, although shared, became the ground of separation.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

A Guide to Further Reading

Bensch, Stephen P., “From Prizes of War to Domestic Merchandise: The Changing Face of Slavery in Catalonia and Aragon, 1000–1300,” Viator, 25 (1994): 6393.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Cipollone, P. Giulio, Cristianità-Islam: cattività e liberazione in nome di Dio: il tempo di Innocenzo III dopo il 1187 (Rome, 1992).Google Scholar
Constable, Olivia Remie, “Muslim Spain and Mediterranean Slavery: The Medieval Slave Trade as an Aspect of Muslim–Christian Relations,” in Waugh, Scott L. and Diehl, Peter (eds.), Christendom and Its Discontents: Exclusion, Persecution, and Rebellion, 1000–1500 (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 260284.Google Scholar
Fancy, Hussein, The Mercenary Mediterranean (Chicago, IL, 2016).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Fontenay, Michel, “Esclaves et/ou captifs. Préciser les concepts,” in Kaiser, Wolfgang (ed.), Le commerces des captifs. Les intermédiares dans l’éc (Rome, 2008).Google Scholar
Friedman, Yvonne, Encounter Between Enemies: Captivity and Ransom in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Leiden, 2002).Google Scholar
Gómez-Rivas, Camilo, “The Ransom Industry and the Expectation of Refuge on the Western Mediterranean Muslim–Christian Frontier, 1085–1350,” in Bennison, Amira K. (ed.), The Articulation of Power in Medieval Iberia and the Maghrib (Oxford, 2014), pp. 217232.Google Scholar
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Marín, Manuela, and El Hour, Rachid, “Captives, Children and Conversion: A Case from Late Nasrid Granada,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 41 (1998): 453473.Google Scholar
Miller, Kathryn A.Reflections on Reciprocity: A Late Medieval Islamic Perspective on Christian-Muslim Commitment to Captive Exchange,” in Trivellato, Francesca, Halevi, Leor, and Antunes, Cátia (eds.), Religion and Trade: Cross-Cultural Exchanges in World History, 1000–1900 (Oxford, 2014), pp. 131149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodriguez, Jarbel A., Captives and Their Saviors in the Medieval Crown of Aragon (Washington, DC, 2007).Google Scholar
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Strickland, Matthew, “Rules of War or War Without Rules? – Some Reflections on Conduct and the Treatment of Non-Combatants in Medieval Transcultural Wars,” in Kortüm, Hans-Henning (ed.), Transcultural Wars: From the Middle Ages to the 21st Century (Munich, 2010), pp. 107147.Google Scholar
Ryan, Szpiech, “Prisons and Polemics: Captivity, Confinement, and Medieval Interreligious Encounter,” in Arenal, Mercedes García and Wiegers, Gerard, Polemical Encounters: Christians, Jews, and Muslims in Iberia and Beyond (University Park, PA, 2019), pp. 271304.Google Scholar
Van Koningsveld, P. S.Muslim Slaves and Captives in Western Europe during the Late Middle Ages,” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 6 (1995): 523.Google Scholar
Vidal Castro, Francisco, “Poder religioso y cautivos creyentes en la edad media: la experiencia Islámica,” in Delgado, Isidro Hernandez (ed.), Fe, cautiverio y liberación. Actas del I congreso Trinitario de Granada, Granada, 6, 7 y 8 (Cordoba, 1996).Google Scholar

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