islamic-jihad-legacy-of-forced-conversion-imperialism-slavery

Islamic Slavery‘‘had her washed and clothed… and lay with her.’’ Once his desire was sated, ‘‘he inhumanly, in great haste,forced her away out of his presence,’’ added Brooks. 783On another occasion, Anthony Hatfeild, a British consul to Morocco, narrated the fate of an Irishwoman, taken captive aboard a ship in 1717. She was brutally tortured for refusing to convert. Failing toendure the torture, she gave in and became a Muslim and entered the sultan’s seraglio. 784 In 1723, father Jeande la Faye and his brother went to Morocco hoping to free the French captives from Moulay Ismail’s palace.He narrated the story of a female captive, who—upon her refusal to convert to Islam—was tortured sobarbarically that she died of her injuries. ‘‘The blacks (guards) burnt her breasts with candles; and with theutmost cruelty they had thrown melted lead in those areas of her body which, out of decency, cannot benamed,’’ wrote father Jean. 785Let us return to Pellow’s conversion to Islam. A ceremonial peasantry was thrown for hiscircumcision formally confirming his conversion to Islam. Whilst recovering from the painful wounds ofcircumcision, es-Sfa continued beating Pellow because of his refusal to wear Muslim garbs. Pellow finallygave in and donned the Muslim dress. Es-Sfa now continued punishing Pellow for his obstinate persistence toremain a Christian. The news of Pellow conversion reached the pious sultan; delighted, he ordered es-Sfa torelease Pellow from his custody and send him to a madrasa for learning Arabic. The prince ignored thesultan’s instruction and continued torturing Pellow. This defiance infuriated the sultan, who summoned es-Sfato his presence and at the sultan’s beaconing, his bodyguards dispatched es-Sfa instantly—a treatment, neitherfirst nor the last, meted out to his offspring. 786The sultan was, however, no kind guardian of his captives. The slaves of the imperial palace lived ahorrid life. They were accommodated in a military prison-like compound surrounded by high ramparts.Although the compound was large, the large number of inmates made living very uncomfortable. It was themost barbarous place in the world, said British captive John Willdon of the living condition and treatment ofthe slaves in the imperial palace. Willdon and his slave-mates were ‘‘forced to draw carts of lead with ropesabout our shoulders, all one as horses,’’ he wrote. They were beaten and whipped until their skin was raw,and made them to carry ‘‘great bars of iron upon our shoulders, as long as we could well get up, and up toour knees in dart, and as slippery that we could hardly go without the load,’’ added Willdon. 787British ship Captain John Stocker, captured in the sea and brought to the sultan’s palace, left anaccount of the horrible diet served to slaves. They were given ‘‘nothing but one small cake and water for 24hours after hard work’’ and ‘‘I am in a most deplorable condition,’’ he wrote to a friend in England. Of theliving condition in the slave-pen, he wrote, ‘‘[I] live upon the bare ground, and [have] nothing to cover me,and [am] as lousy (louse-infested) as possible.’’ Thomas Pellow’s crewmates in the slave-pen were given anold straw mat and they slept bare on the cold ground. The compound was infested with fleas and cockroaches.In midsummer days, the slave-pen used to get oppressively hot, humid and airless. In the open slave-barrack,‘‘they are exposed to the scorching heat of the sun in summer, and the violence of frost, snow, excessive rainand stormy winds in winter,’’ wrote Simon Ockley. 788The daily food ration was fourteen ounces of black bread and an ounce of oil, badly inadequate forthe overworked slaves. The bread was made from stinking barley dough, which sometimes gave ‘‘such anauseous smell that a man could not endure it at his nose,’’ wrote captive John Whitehead. Moreover, when783. Ibid, p. 121784. Ibid, p. 173785. Ibid, p. 219786. Ibid, p. 83–84787. Ibid, p. 91–92788. Ibid, p. 92,94226