Muslim Slave System in Medieval India c16.5

c16.5

In the campaigns launched by Muslims, it was easy to capture women, more so after their menfolk had been massacred. The Prophet's one great aim was propagation of his religion and as Margoliouth observes, Abu Bakr (the chief campaigner for Muhammads creed) probably was aware that women are more amenable to conversion than men slaves than freemen, persons in distress than persons in prosperity and affluence.² Women slaves turned concubines could increase Muslim population by leaps and bounds when captured in large numbers.³ Hence there was particular keenness on enslaving women from the very beginning of Islam.