Trade Caravans

Lore & Background

The slave market of Prague was one route for saqaliba slaves to al-Andalus. Bohemia was in an ideal position to become a supply source for pagan saqaliba slaves to al-Andalus. The slaves were acquired through slave raids toward the pagan Slavic lands north of Prague. The Prague slave trade adjusted to the al-Andalus market, with females required for sexual slavery and males required for either military slavery or as eunuchs. Male slaves selected to be sold as eunuchs were subjected to castration in Verdun. Traditionally, the slave traders acquiring the slaves in Prague and transporting them to the slave market of al-Andalus are said to have been dominated by the Jewish Radhanite merchants. Jewish slave traders had an advantage because they were able to move across Christian and Muslim lands and act as mediators between Christian and Muslim commercial markets. While Christians were not allowed to enslave Christians and Muslims not allowed to enslave Muslims, Jews were able to sell Christian slaves to Muslim buyers and Muslim slaves to Christian buyers, as well as pagan slaves to both. The slaves were transported to Al-Andalus via France. White European slaves were viewed as luxury goods in Al-Andalus, where they could be sold for as much as 1,000 dinars. The saqaliba slave trade from Prague to al-Andalus via France became defunct in the 11th century, when the pagan Slavs of the north started to gradually adopt Christianity from the late 10th century, which prohibited Christian Bohemia from enslaving them to sell to Muslim al-Andalus.

In Their Own Story

A record of tolls paid in Raffelstetten (903–906), near St. Florian on the Danube, describes merchants traveling from Kiev through Przemyśl, Kraków, Prague, and Bohemia. The same record values female slaves at a tremissa (about 1.5 grams of gold or roughly 1/3 of a Byzantine solidus or Islamic gold dinar) and male slaves, who were more numerous, at a saiga (which is much less). Eunuchs were especially valuable, and 'castration houses' arose in Venice, as well as other prominent slave markets, to meet this demand.

Reader's Guide

Trade caravans in the medieval period relied on established routes and toll stations. The pactum Lotharii of 840 regulated the slave trade, banning the sale of Christian slaves to Muslims. Caravans of slaves traveled from Eastern Europe, via the Prague slave trade through Alpine passes in Austria, to reach Venice. The Baltics became a religious border zone as one of the last remaining Pagan areas in Christian Europe. Both Christians and Muslims banned the enslavement of people of their own religion, but Pagans were viewed as legitimate targets of enslavement for sale to both Christians and Pagans. Up until the Christianization of the Baltics in the 13th century, the Baltic people were viewed as legitimate targets of slave trade from surrounding slave traders, such as the vikings from the West and the Rus of the Kievan Rus' slave trade from the East. When the Viking slave trade stopped in the mid 11th century, the old slave trade route between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea and Central Asia via the Russian rivers was upheld by Pagan Baltic slave traders, who sold slaves via Daugava to the Black Sea and East. In the 13th century, the Latvians reportedly had found slave trade to be so lucrative that many used it as their main source of income. The island of Saaremaa was a base for the Baltic pirates, who were noted for selling women captives to the slave trade. In 1226, the pagan Baltic pirates from Saaremaa conducted a slave raid toward now Christian Sweden, where they captured many Swedish women and girls with the purpose to sell as slaves. The Baltic slave trade ended after conquest of the Baltic by the Teutonic order during the 13th century.

Did You Know?

• The pactum Lotharii of 840 between Venice and the Carolingian Empire banned the sale of Christian slaves to Muslims.
• Arabic silver dirhams, presumably exchanged for slaves, are plentiful in eastern Europe and Southern Sweden.
• Male slaves selected to be sold as eunuchs were subjected to castration in Verdun.
• White European slaves were viewed as luxury goods in Al-Andalus, where they could be sold for as much as 1,000 dinars.
• In 1226, pagan Baltic pirates from Saaremaa raided Christian Sweden and captured many women and girls to sell as slaves.