Muslim Slave System in Medieval India c15.14

c15.14

It may be mentioned at the outset, even at the cost of repetition, that the slave was the property of the master. The slave forms the most fundamental form of property which, as in the case of every property, is a source of profit.³⁵ The master is empowered to endow his slave with almost all privileges and responsibilities of freeman, preserving at the same time his property in him inviolate, which rendered him an attached dependent rather than a mere servile instrument.³⁶ This we have seen being universally practised in the case of early Turkish slaves who were treated well by their master merchants and sold at good profit.