Captivity, Ransom, and Manumission, 500–1420

doi:10.1017/9781139024723.003

Chapter 3 - Captivity, Ransom, and Manumission, 500–1420

from Part I - Captivity and the Slave Trade

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2021

Hussein Fancy

Edited by

Craig Perry ,

David Eltis ,

Stanley L. Engerman and

David Richardson

Show author details

Craig Perry: Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
David Eltis: Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
Stanley L. Engerman: Affiliation:
University of Rochester, New York
David Richardson: Affiliation:
University of Hull

Book contents

Get access

Summary

While captivity was the product of the violent confrontation between Jews, Christians, and Muslims, this essay uses Latin, Arabic, and Romance sources to argue that ransoming was also a phenomenon that intimately linked these communities. Grounded in a shared Roman inheritance, the tradition of ransoming brought Jews, Christians, and Muslims into a dialogic and reciprocal relationship with one another, one that depended on mutual understanding and expectations. It provided a channel to share ideas and institutions. Ransomers also helped pave the paths for commercial and diplomatic relations. Nevertheless, if ransoming drew these communities together, it also tore them apart. The physical and emotional cost of captivity, although shared, became the ground of separation.

Keywords

Ransom Captivity North Africa Crown of Aragon Islamic Law Canon Law Slavery Crusades

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge World History of Slavery , pp. 53 - 75

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139024723.003 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

A Guide to Further Reading

Bensch, Stephen P., “From Prizes of War to Domestic Merchandise: The Changing Face of Slavery in Catalonia and Aragon, 1000–1300,” Viator, 25 (1994): 63–93.CrossRef Google Scholar

Brodman, James, Ransoming Captives in Crusader Spain: The Order of Merced on the Christian-Islamic Frontier (Philadelphia, PA, 1986).Google Scholar

Cipollone, P. Giulio, Cristianità-Islam: cattività e liberazione in nome di Dio: il tempo di Innocenzo III dopo il 1187 (Rome, 1992).Google Scholar

Constable, Olivia Remie, “Muslim Spain and Mediterranean Slavery: The Medieval Slave Trade as an Aspect of Muslim–Christian Relations,” in Waugh, Scott L. and Diehl, Peter (eds.), Christendom and Its Discontents: Exclusion, Persecution, and Rebellion, 1000–1500 (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 260–284.Google Scholar

Fancy, Hussein, The Mercenary Mediterranean (Chicago, IL, 2016).CrossRef Google Scholar

Mallol, Ferrer i, Teresa, Maria, “La redempció de captius a la corona Catalano-Aragonesa (segle XIV).” Anuario de Estudios Medievales, 15 (1985): 237–297.Google Scholar

Mallol, Ferrer i, Teresa, Maria, “Els redemptors de captius: mostolafs, eixees o alfaquecs (segles XII–XIII),” Medievalia, 9 (1990): 85–106.Google Scholar

Fontenay, Michel, “Esclaves et/ou captifs. Préciser les concepts,” in Kaiser, Wolfgang (ed.), Le commerces des captifs. Les intermédiares dans l’éc (Rome, 2008).Google Scholar

Friedman, Yvonne, Encounter Between Enemies: Captivity and Ransom in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Leiden, 2002).Google Scholar

Gómez-Rivas, Camilo, “The Ransom Industry and the Expectation of Refuge on the Western Mediterranean Muslim–Christian Frontier, 1085–1350,” in Bennison, Amira K. (ed.), The Articulation of Power in Medieval Iberia and the Maghrib (Oxford, 2014), pp. 217–232.Google Scholar

Hopley, Russell, “The Ransoming of Prisoners in Medieval North Africa and Andalusia: An Analysis of the Legal Framework,” Medieval Encounters, 15 (2009): 337–354.Google Scholar

Marín, Manuela, and El Hour, Rachid, “Captives, Children and Conversion: A Case from Late Nasrid Granada,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 41 (1998): 453–473.Google Scholar

Miller, Kathryn A. “Reflections on Reciprocity: A Late Medieval Islamic Perspective on Christian-Muslim Commitment to Captive Exchange,” in Trivellato, Francesca, Halevi, Leor, and Antunes, Cátia (eds.), Religion and Trade: Cross-Cultural Exchanges in World History, 1000–1900 (Oxford, 2014), pp. 131–149.CrossRef Google Scholar

Rodriguez, Jarbel A., Captives and Their Saviors in the Medieval Crown of Aragon (Washington, DC, 2007).Google Scholar

Salicrú i Lluch, Roser, “Cartes de captius cristians a les presons de Tunis del regnat de Ferran d’Antequera,” Miscel·lània de Textos Medievals, 7 (1994): 550–590.Google Scholar

Strickland, Matthew, “Rules of War or War Without Rules? – Some Reflections on Conduct and the Treatment of Non-Combatants in Medieval Transcultural Wars,” in Kortüm, Hans-Henning (ed.), Transcultural Wars: From the Middle Ages to the 21st Century (Munich, 2010), pp. 107–147.Google Scholar

Ryan, Szpiech, “Prisons and Polemics: Captivity, Confinement, and Medieval Interreligious Encounter,” in Arenal, Mercedes García and Wiegers, Gerard, Polemical Encounters: Christians, Jews, and Muslims in Iberia and Beyond (University Park, PA, 2019), pp. 271–304.Google Scholar

Van Koningsveld, P. S. “Muslim Slaves and Captives in Western Europe during the Late Middle Ages,” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 6 (1995): 5–23.Google Scholar

Vidal Castro, Francisco, “Poder religioso y cautivos creyentes en la edad media: la experiencia Islámica,” in Delgado, Isidro Hernandez (ed.), Fe, cautiverio y liberación. Actas del I congreso Trinitario de Granada, Granada, 6, 7 y 8 (Cordoba, 1996).Google Scholar