Slavery in Iraq

Under the First World War, Ottoman Iraq came under rulership of the British, who disliked slavery.

[4] Women were trafficked to the royal Abbasid harem from Europe via the Volga trade route, as well as from Africa and Asia.

Thousands and possibly millions of Africans, Berbers, Turks, and Europeans from Northeastern Europe (saqaliba) are estimated to have been enslaved in this time period.

[1] During the early modern period, the territory of modern Iraq, Mesopotamia, was a battle ground dominated first by the Aq Qoyunlu, the Safavid Iran and finally the Ottoman empire, with an interruption of the Mamluk dynasty (1704-1831).

[8] Armenian girls and children where sold from Syria to harems and brothels in Ottoman Iraq, such as Baghdad.

Slaves in Islam were mainly directed at the service sector – concubines and cooks, porters and soldiers – with slavery itself primarily a form of consumption rather than a factor of production.

[10] The most telling evidence for this is found in the gender ratio; among slaves traded in Islamic empire across the centuries, there were roughly two females to every male.

[14] Egyptian Armenians organized squads to resque enslaved Armenians from Beduins in Syria and Mesopotamia (Iraq); one of these, led by Rupen Herian, raported that they hade liberated 533 enslaved women and children between June and August 1919.

The British Empire, having signed the 1926 Slavery Convention as a member of the League of Nations, was obliged to investigate, report and fight slavery and slave trade in all land under direct or indirect control of the British Empire.