The role of the Samanids in the slave trade in Khorasan and Transoxiana (Mā Warāʾ al-Nahr)

Authors

1 Hassan Ramazanpour (PhD student of Islamic History of Iran) Department of History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

2 Professor .Department of History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Mashhad, Iran

3 Professor of Islamic History of Iran, Department of History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

Due to the dominance of the important trade routes, the Samanids paid special attention to trade. As a commercial commodity, slaves were one of the sources of income for the Samanids. Samani government both imported slaves and allowed slave traders to import slaves in return for taxes. These slaves were exported from the Samanid territory to other regions of the Islamic world, especially Baghdad, the center of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Abbasid caliphate and the Samanid government used imported slaves, especially Turkish slaves, in military affairs, and these slaves had great power in the caliphate and Samanid system. Research data indicate that the slave trade flourished in this period and the Samanids supported it. The main question of the current research is, what was the extent of the role of the Samanids in the slave trade? The findings of the research indicate that the slave trade flourished in this period and the Samanids supported it, they monopolized this trade, supervised the import and export of slaves, imposed taxes and customs duties on them, and gained a lot of income in this way. In addition, the main core of the Samani army was formed by the military forces of Turkish slaves. Based on ancient sources and historical researches and using descriptive-analytical method in this research it has been trried to study the slave trades during the Samanid period.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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  • Receive Date: 15 November 2023
  • Revise Date: 12 February 2024
  • Accept Date: 08 March 2024

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