Religious Conversion and Slave Agency in Medieval Cairo

Domestic slaves remain one of the most elusive segments of society for historians of the medieval Near East. Although household slaves were ubiquitous in urban areas such as Cairo, they did not themselves leave records and medieval authors were not concerned with documenting the experiences of the non-elite slave population in any systematic manner. However, the Cairo Geniza, the worn manuscript depository of the Ben Ezra synagogue in old Cairo, has preserved an abundance of opportunities for the study of domestic slaves’ lives. Surviving letters and legal documents make it possible to delineate the lived experiences and agency of household slaves.

These records illustrate, for example, how slave women used religious conversion as a tactic of resistance. Since Jews could not legally own a Muslim slave, slaves who converted compelled their owners to sell them to another master. Yet other slaves used conversion to Judaism as a means to improve their own socio-economic well-being within the household. Even after their manumission, some slave converts to Judaism continued to profess the faith and even sought marriage with free Jewish men. My paper will analyze instances of conversion that are discussed in family letters, legal documents and in responsa queries to the scholar Abraham Maimonides. What motivated an individual slave to convert to either Islam or Judaism? What did slaves stand to gain through their decisions? Finally, how does the efficacy of conversion compare to other instances of slave agency?

This paper is part of a larger project to recover and describe the social experiences of domestic slaves in medieval Egypt. However briefly and obliquely domestic slaves appear in the medieval record, my paper will suggest sources and methodologies that make a history of medieval domestic slavery possible.