As the sailor’s tale about the slave king suggests, Muslims welcomed all converts and treated all men, including slaves, as equal in the eyes of God, if not socially. Male slaves in the Islamic world carried goods and rowed boats, but they also managed stores and even tended the personal libraries of their owners. Although the Quran forbade the practice, slave dealers castrated young boys because eunuch slaves were in high demand as supervisors of women’s quarters. Male slaves, particularly those from Central Asia, also served in the armies of different military powers.
