Just passing through and reading the comments that have been posted here, I began to wonder.. One of the first questions that was aked was" didnt the(Arabs) Muslims do the same thing to Our people as did the Christians". You know tis is true,but there is one difference in what the Muslims did than that of the Christians. Although givin that Kings and princes embraced Islam, and cooperated with the Arabians in the exportation of human cargo. Long before the extensive development of the slave trade by Europeans, many of the basic practices of the international slave trade had already been established. It is to be noted, however, that slavery among Muslims was not an institution utilized primarily for the production of goods from which wealth could be derived. There were no extensive cotton,tobacco, and sugarcane firelds in Arabia, Persia, and Egypt. Slaves in these lands were pretty much servents, and the extent of the demand for them depended in a large measure on wealth of the potential masters. So slavery therfore was a manifestation of wealth and the institution showed little of the harshness and severity that it possessed in areas where it was itself the foundation on which wealth was built. Although becoming Muslim did not release slaves from their duties, it did have the effect of elevating their standing and enhancing their dignity among others. Just a thought you know this way of life was much different than the way our people was treated by the christians.