Abstract
The study of slavery in medieval Portugal has focused almost exclusively on the status and fate of the sub-Saharan Africans who started to arrive in the kingdom from 1441 onwards. The work of A. C. de C. M Saunders, A Social History of Black Slaves and Freedmen in Portugal 1441-1555 (Cambridge University Press, 1982) has been particularly important in this respect. In stark contrast to this, the fate of the substantial number of Muslim slaves who lived and worked in Portugal during the medieval period has to a large extent been overlooked. Using documentary evidence obtained from the national Portuguese archives, this article proposes to analyse in detail the origins of these slaves, their economic and social role and the laws that were promulgated to control them and their owners. The status of freedmen and manumission practices are also closely studied.
Highlights
The study of slavery in medieval Portugal has focused almost exclusively on the status and fate of the sub-Saharan Africans who started to arrive in the kingdom from 1441 onwards
It is fair to say that far more interest has been devoted to black slaves, significant numbers of whom were transported into Portugal and Spain from sub-Saharan Africa from 1441 onwards into the modern era
58 This involvement of the mudéjars continued into the fifteenth century and it is worth noting that Muçammad Laparo, the last religious leader of the mudéjar community of Lisbon, was one of the few mudéjars allowed to remain in Portugal after the expulsion of all free Muslims residing in Portugal by Manuel I (1495-1521) in December 1496
Summary
The study of slavery in medieval Portugal has focused almost exclusively on the status and fate of the sub-Saharan Africans who started to arrive in the kingdom from 1441 onwards. This article seeks to offer a concise examination of the status of Muslim slaves and freedmen in medieval Portugal from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. A number of fifteenth century documents record such conditional manumissions offered both to slaves who had remained Muslim and to those who had converted.
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