Editing Manumission (section)

== Ottoman Empire ==

[[Slavery in the Ottoman Empire]] gradually became less central to the functions of Ottoman society throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Responding to the influence and pressure of European countries in the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire began taking steps to curtail the [[History of slavery|slave trade]], which had been legally valid under Ottoman law since the beginning of the empire. A number of reforms where introduced; such as the [[firman of 1830]], the [[firman of 1854]] and the [[Kanunname of 1889]]. 

[[Ottoman Empire]] policy encouraged manumission of male slaves, but not female slaves.<ref name=autogenerated1>Brunschvig. 'Abd; Encyclopedia of Islam, p. 13.</ref> The most telling evidence for this is found in the gender ratio; among slaves traded in Islamic empire across the centuries, there were roughly two females to every male.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zilfi |first=Madeline |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oo_AetRkC9UC |title=Women and Slavery in the Late Ottoman Empire: The Design of Difference |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521515832 |edition=reprint |series=Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization |location=New York |publication-date=2010 |page=99 |chapter=Telling the Ottoman slave story |quote=Manumission was encouraged by law and commonly practiced. |access-date=9 February 2021 |year=2010}}</ref>

[[Sexual slavery]] was a central part of the Ottoman slave system throughout the history of the institution, managed in accordance with the [[Islamic views on concubinage|Islamic Law of concubinage]], and the most resistant to change.
Outside of explicit sexual slavery, most female slaves had domestic occupations, and often, this also included [[Islamic views on slavery#Sexual intercourse|sexual relations with their masters]]. This was a lawful motive for their purchase, and the most common one. It was similarly a common motivation for their retention.<ref name="Schierbrand1886">{{cite news|title=Slaves sold to the Turk; How the vile traffic is still carried on in the East. Sights our correspondent saw for twenty dollars--in the house of a grand old Turk of a dealer.|author=Wolf Von Schierbrand|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=March 28, 1886 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1886/03/28/106300694.pdf|access-date=19 January 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191216220231/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1886/03/28/106300694.pdf|archive-date=16 December 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Zilfi2010">Madeline C. Zilfi ''Women and slavery in the late Ottoman Empire'' Cambridge University Press, 2010</ref>

The Ottoman Empire and 16 other countries signed the 1890 [[Brussels Conference Act of 1890|Brussels Conference Act]] for the suppression of the slave trade. However, clandestine slavery persisted well into the 20th century. Gangs were also organized to facilitate the illegal importation of slaves.<ref>Morgenthau Henry (1918) Ambassador Morgenthau's Story, Garden City, N.Y, Doubleday, Page & Co., chapter 8. Available http://www.gwpda.org/wwi-www/morgenthau/MorgenTC.htm.</ref> Slave raids and the taking of women and children as "spoils of war" lessened but did not stop entirely, despite the public denial of their existence, such as the enslavement of girls during the [[Armenian Genocide]]. [[Armenians in the Ottoman Empire|Armenian girls]] were sold as slaves during the [[Armenian genocide]] of 1915.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gwpda.org/wwi-www/morgenthau/Morgen24.htm|title=Ambassador Morgenthau's Story. 1918. Chapter Twenty-Four.|website=www.gwpda.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L-fpAwAAQBAJ&q=HENRY+I+MORGENTHAU+slavery+ottoman+empire&pg=PA41|title=Remembering Genocide|first1=Nigel|last1=Eltringham|first2=Pam|last2=Maclean|date=27 June 2014|publisher=Routledge|via=Google Books|isbn=9781317754220}}</ref> Turkey waited until 1933 to ratify the 1926 [[League of Nations]] convention on the suppression of slavery. However, illegal sales of girls were reported in the 1930s. Legislation explicitly prohibiting slavery was adopted in 1964.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZW9DjTAox6EC&pg=PA110 "Islam and the Abolition of Slavery", C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2006, p.110]</ref>