Prague slave trade
The Duchy of Bohemia was a new state in Christian Europe at this time, bordering to lands of pagan Slavs to the north and east.
Bohemia was thereby able to traffic pagan captives to the slave market of the Muslim Caliphate of Cordoba through Christian France without trouble.
[2] In the 9th and 10th centuries, the Slavs in Eastern Europe were still adherents of the Slavic religion, making them pagans to the Christians and infidels to the Muslims, and thereby considered as legitimate targets for enslavement by both.
The pagan Slavic tribes of Central and Eastern Europe were targeted for slavery by several actors in the frequent military expeditions and raids alongside their lands.
Greater Poland had some natural resources used for trade, such as fur, hide, honey and wax, but those surely did not provide enough income.
According to Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, Prague in Bohemia, a city built of stone, was the main center for the exchange of trading commodities in this part of Europe.
The Life of St. Adalbert, written at the end of the 10th century by John Canaparius, records the fate of many Christian slaves sold in Prague as the main curse of the time.
The scale of the human trade practice is arguable, however, because much of the population from the defeated tribes was resettled for agricultural work or in the near-gord settlements, where they could serve the victors in various capacities and thus contribute to the economic and demographic potential of the state.
Considerable increase of population density was characteristic of the newly established states in Eastern and Central Europe.
The area was the site of wealthy trade emporia, frequently visited by traders, especially from the east, west and north.
Mieszko had every reason to believe that great profits would have resulted from his ability to control the rich seaports situated on long distance trade routes such as Wolin, Szczecin, and Kołobrzeg.
[18] According to ibn Yaqub, Byzantine Jews regularly bought pagan Slavs at the Prague slave market.
Louis the Fair granted his permission to Jewish merchants to traffic slaves through his kingdom provided they were non-baptized pagans.
[26] In Moorish al-Andalus, European saqaliba slaves were considered as exotic display objects with their light hair, skin and eye colors.
[30] White European slaves were viewed as luxury goods in al-Andalus, where they could be sold for as much as 1,000 dinars, a substantial price.
[33] The saqaliba slave trade from Prague to al-Andalus via France lost its religious legitimacy when the pagan Slavs of the north started to gradually adopt Christianity from the late 10th century, which made them out of bounds for Christian Bohemia to enslave and sell to Muslim al-Andalus.
