The Forgotten Slave Trade: The White European Slaves of Islam

by (Historian) Simon Webb

Jews, not being bound to one side or the other, could often travel and trade more freely. It was accordingly far easier for a Jew to transport slaves to Venice or Verdun and then on to Africa, than it would be for a Christian. As early as the late fifth century AD, a pope gave permission for Jews to bring non-Christian slaves into Italy, from where they were then sent to North Africa. Pope Gelasius was appointed Pontiff in 492 and from the first year of his reign was happy to see Slavs and Germans brought south, en route to Africa. This was the beginning of extensive Jewish involvement in the slave trade. Within a century or two, the Jews were accepted as being the chief slave traders between Europe and Africa and the Middle East. A large part of their trade was in young men who had been brought to southern Europe to be castrated and then sold to Arab markets as eunuchs.