Ronald Segal: Islam's Black Slaves [2002] hardback

Everyone has heard of the Atlantic Trade, in which millions of Africans were transported to the Americas by Europeans to work as slaves. However, there is another slave trade, previously neglected by historians, which matches the European one in scale and massively exceeds it in duration.
Islam's Black Slaves tells the horrifying story of the Islamic slave trade. It traces the business of slavery from Islam's inception in the seventh century, through to today, where in Sudan and Mauritania, Africans continue to be bought and sold. It identifies how many millions of people were involved and explores the differences between Eastern and Western slavery. Islamic slavery was conducted on a different scale and provided slaves for domestic - including sexual - and military service, rather than plantation work. Some slaves even rose to positions of authority. Islamic slavery was generally more humane than its Atlantic counterpart and more willing to grant slaves freedom, although transportation brutalised millions, as did the creation of eunuchs. The book also examines why the existence of this other black diaspora has been denied for so long. It is a highly original account of a previously untold story.