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

Islamic Jihadthe stock of barley ran low, they were given nothing at all. Willdon wrote, ‘‘we have not had a bit of breadallowed us for eight days…’’ 789More terrifying was the unbearable load of hard work and torture, which the slaves endured at thehands of the black guards appointed to oversee them. These slave-drivers drove them at daybreak torespective works, where they continued toiling until it got dark in the evening. They played the master overtheir charge of captives and used to take sadistic delight at torturing and beating the poor slaves and makingtheir life as miserable as possible. They would often torture or torment the white slaves to amuse themselvesby making the exhausted souls walk at night or do filthy works. They would punish them for the mostnegligible lapses in work or other mistakes, by denying them food or beating them with a heavy cudgel thatthey always carried while on duty. In beating, they chose those parts of the body, where it would hurt most,wrote Pellow. If a slave was beaten so hard that he could not work, the slave-drivers enabled him for work by‘‘redoubling the stripes, so that the new ones made him forget the old,’’ wrote Mouette. 790Sickness of the slaves was no excuse for missing work. They were not allowed to rest ‘‘till they(black guards) see they are not able to wag hand or foot…,’’ wrote Mouette. As for treatment of sick slaves,‘‘If the slaves complained of any pains in their body…, they have iron rods, with buttons of the same metal atthe end, as big as walnuts, which they made red hot and burn the wretched patient in several parts,’’ addedMouette. The sultan had no mercy for those, who fell ill. Instead, he used to beat them for not working hardenough. When the building program was once delayed because of illness of a large number of slaves, theslave-guards, upon the sultan’s order, dragged the sick slaves out of the infirmary to the sultan’s presence.Seeing that the sick slaves could not stand on their feet, the infuriated sultan, ‘‘instantly killed seven of them,making their resting place a slaughter house,’’ wrote Brooks. 791On his daily visit to the construction sites, Sultan Moulay Ismail was merciless with those, who wereslack in work or if their quality of work was not to his satisfaction. While inspecting bricks on one occasion,he found them too thin. The angry sultan ordered his black guards to break fifty bricks on the head of themaster mason. After the punishment, the blood-soaked slave was thrown into prison. On another occasion, thesultan accused a number of slaves for producing mortar of inferior quality. The enraged sultan struck theirheads one by one ‘‘with his own hands and broke their heads so miserably that the place was all bloody like abutcher’s stall.’’ 792There were other endless kinds of punishment, slaves suffered in the sultan’s palace. Once, a Spanishslave walked past the sultan, forgetting to remove his hat. The angry sultan threw his spear at the poor slave,which pierced deep into the flesh. The poor slaved took it out of his skin and returned to the sultan to berepeatedly stricken by it into his stomach. There was another punishment, frequently meted out to a slave,called "tossing"; three or four black guards, upon the sultan’s order, ‘‘taking hold of his hams (thighs), throwhim up with all their strength and, at the same time, turning him round, pitch him down head foremost,’’wrote Pellow. The horrible punishment often broke their neck or dislocated shoulders. This spectaclecontinued until the sultan ordered them to stop. 793Underfed, malnourished, overworked and living in horribly unhygienic condition in the slave-pen,disease and sickness was daily companion of the slaves. Plagues were a frequent visitor. With little medical789. Ibid, p. 93790 Ibid, p. 105791. Ibid, p. 96–97792. Ibid, p. 106793. Ibid, p. 107227