This article concentrates on the slave trade of pe
ople from Eastern Europe, Balkans, and Asia Minor/Byzantium: Remember, Mohammad (allah) demanded jihad/war until all the religion is allah’s—it cannot go away and nor can the associated slavery and dhimmitude. (see comments from 20th century Muslims and others on the ongoing desire for jihad Bostom p 94-104). Both Ottoman Turkey and Shiite Iran openly practised slavery in the 20th century. The last Ottoman sultan had a British captive in his harem, 20th century (Khan p325). Slavery continues throughout the Islamic world today and is brought by Muslims into the west.
Europe, Asia Minor, the Balkans etc were initially attacked by Arab Muslims, then Muslim Turks and Tartars attacked central and eastern Europe (11th-15th century), Muslim Tartars attacked Poland and Muscovite Russia (15th-17th century); and Asia Minor was attacked by Seljuk and Ottoman Turks (11th-15thC ) while Persia, Armenia, and Georgia were attacked by many Muslim groups including Shiite Safavids.
From the 11th century, particularly as Arab power was waning, the Turks moved out into the middle-east eg Syria, Palestine and spread through Asia Minor (much of today’s Turkey) to North Africa and into the Balkans/Eastern Europe.
Islamic slavery, destruction, conquest and dhimmitude
Bat Ye’r notes:
“The two waves of Muslim expansion, the Arab from the seventh century and the Turkish from 4 centuries later-are remarkably similar....the great Arab and Turkish conquerors used the same military tactics and the same policies of consolidating Islamic power. This continuity resulted from the fact that the conquests took place within the framework of the common ideology of jihad and the administrative and judicial apparatus of the sharia- a uniformity that defies time, since it adapts itself to diverse lands and peoples, being integrated into the internal coherence of a political theology. In the course of their military operation, the Turks applied to the conquered populations the rules of jihad, which had been structured 4 centuries earlier by the Arabs and enshrined in Islamic sacred law. (Bostom p 60)”