#HiddenHistories: Why is there only critical discourse about European/American colonization and slavery and not other cultures like Arab & Islamic?
Hey there! 👋 Have you ever wondered why our history books seem to only focus on European and American colonization and slavery, while largely ignoring the impact of Arab & Islamic expansion? 🤔
It’s true that in Western education, the spotlight often shines on the exploits of the West. But did you know that the Middle East and Arab & Islamic cultures also played a significant role in shaping the world as we know it today? 🌍
Arabs conquered regions like North Africa, East Europe, Spain, and even made their mark in Asia. They had a policy of “convert to Islam or be killed” and operated a brutal slave trade for over 1,400 years, only abolishing it in the 1970s. 😱
Check out this link for more info: [History of slavery in the Muslim world](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_Muslim_world#:~:text=Throughout%20Muslim%20history%2C%20slaves%20served,and%20concubines%20(sex%20slaves)
So, why are we not taught about this side of history? Shouldn’t we have a more balanced view of the world’s past to understand how different cultures have shaped our present? 🤔
Let’s dig deeper into these hidden histories together. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments or take our poll to join the conversation! 💬✨ #HiddenHistories #MiddleEast #Arab #Islamic #Education #WorldHistory #Curriculum #BalancedView
>I understand that’s because it’s our history.
That is why.
It’s taught, but very lightly. US history (I’m American, but I imagine European is similar) is very US-centric.
>So why are we not taught this? It seems the curriculum is missing crucial information to tell a balanced story of world history and why the world is shaped culturally the way it is.
You can ask that about basically any major historical event/topic. There are many that aren’t taught in detail, even if they’re important. Stuff like the Holodomor, or China’s Cultural Revolution hardly gets covered at all, etc. Even parts of U.S. history get neglected- anything past ~WWII tends to get crunched, if it gets covered at all. Hell, most of Arab/Middle East/Islamic history doesn’t get covered at all. It’s not unique to slavery. Places like India also get very little coverage.
At the end of the day, it’s a mix of countries typically be self-focused when it comes to history, as well as limited time to teach *a lot* of history. Ultimately, *something* has to get cut, via triage. You’ll get a broader exposure in things like AP courses or college courses for precisely that reason.
Quality of teaching also varies widely in the U.S., so that can have a large impact on what gets covered, as well.
That said, I would say it was covered enough that I was aware of it, in my education. Not in a lot of detail, but certainly enough to know it happened. It wasn’t hidden, but it got the same coverage as anything else in those periods. Which (particularly for the Middle East) was “a brief mention”, more or less.
Our country is still affected by the aftermath of it, so it’s key information to teach. There are qualities that are mostly unique to the chattel slavery of the Atlantic slave trade as well. I would imagine in the Middle East they learn way more about their history than ours.
Probably because the colonizing powers of the West are still powerhouses today and basically shaped the modern world to what it is today. The impact they have on world politics is much greater than that of the Muslim World.
The Muslim empires of old either disappeared or are so weakened they only matter in their immediate region in military terms.
Also, the fact you know about these old colonial practices is evidence that Muslim expansion is still taught for history, but not surprisingly westerners will focus more on the west.
>I understand that’s because it’s our history.
There’s your answer.
Slavery across the whole history of the world has been reduced to the Atlantic trade. Even the selling of slaves (captors) by Africans to the Atlantic traders is ignored, and slavery that continues today has a collective blind eye turned to it.
I have no idea why the Atlantic trade is considered worse than the Arab trade. I’ve heard some reasons but there would be the same reasons for Arab trade and none were worse than castrating male slaves (pregnant slaves were of no use so…) and working the slaves to death (cheaper to buy new ones). Europeans bred their slaves which, apparently, was worse. We see the descendants of the Atlantic trade, we don’t see the same for the Arab trade.
I feel the reasons why the facts on the other side(s) aren’t taught is that they don’t fit the needed rhetoric.
>Education in the West doesn’t frequently teach or talk about this.
I think you mean your history classes.
I covered heaps of it in mine.
As an American, I am not living in a country that was impact by the Arab or Ottoman slave trade, but I see evidence of American slavery and imperialism basically everyday.
Because they hate the west generally and they know it’s useful demoralization tactic.
Because there isn’t enough time to teach about every single aspect of human history. There’s literally thousands of years of it and around 30 lessons a school year. And heavy topics like global scale slavery aren’t suitable for young kids. So even if you assume a high school freshman can handle the heavy topic and you teach it through high school, that leaves you with 120 lessons within which you must cover (as you put it) a balanced history of the world. You wouldn’t even be able to do one lesson per country. The UK has 2000+ years of history, if you include Roman Britain. Good luck fitting that in a single lesson.
I agree that it’d be great if people had a better understanding of other peoples’ history and experience. But you can’t possibly cover all of that in standard education. You’ve also gotta learn how to count n shit.
Many possible answers but they seem to mostly deal with the lack of willpower to teach that other cultures were as bad if not worse.
Take a look at America’s first war after it became independent: [the US Barbary Wars.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Wars) Practically no American knows that the first war the US got into was, in alliance with Sweden, invading Morocco and the Barbary Coast (modern day Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya) It’s why the Marines sing in their anthem [“From the Halls of Montezuma,
**To the shores of Tripoli**…”](https://www.marineband.marines.mil/Audio-Resources/The-Marines-Hymn/)
The key aspect of the above wars were that these barbary pirates captured American ships and forced the survivors into slavery. Yes, American citizens were enslaved by northern African pirates in the late 1700s/early 1800s. Google “barbary wars ship” + these real vessel names whose American survivors were enslaved: Maria, Dauphin, Philadelphia, among others. The US even paid ransom for some of these survivors.
It still surprises me that this important part of US history is seldom covered in schools.
I think you will find that most countries don’t talk that much about other countries in their world history.
Because it involved them coming to a New World as opposed to territory that had been fought over for centuries. Also, many of the Arab empires did not openly persecute people of other backgrounds and religions. The people of the lands that were conquered would still govern themselves in many cases and some of the Caliphates were structured much like the US is. This is also really different from the European/Christian conquests that set the standard in terms of violence and persecution such as the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition.
Slavery was also different as the Transatlantic slave trade was built on black Africans and before that Native Americans. The Arab empires had mostly practiced the same kind of slavery as other civilizations like the Greeks, Romans and Asian groups. It was usually conquered groups that would become slaves and for many of the Arab civilizations you could actually get out of slavery in most cases.
I think its about owning your own country’s history and avoiding the “They did it too” defence of the shameful bits.
There is plenty of discourse on the topic. However, whenever it is brought up, it’s always in a “whataboutism” kind of way instead of an acknowledgment that both parties were/are involved in the act.
Isn’t it *far* more recent history, too?
India can’t seem to catch a break lmao
I’m from Greece, and we do talk about it extensively. I suppose that’s the case in other Southern European/ Balkan countries.
You see? There ARE those discussions, however, most of the west is literally focus on itself at all times. Something about western “exceptionalism” and the way we tend to think of ourselves as the “pinacle” of civilizations.
Additionally, the slave trade in the west was systematic, was the first and major mass “produced” industry, defined the west. It is the reason why the west is wealthy, today, compared to Africa, and some asian countries.
Also today, we still see the effects of slavery, police killings of unarmed people, The racial caste system of America, the trade of African american life and culture as America’s most important trade. Mass incarceration in literal for-profit jails. In the west, Slavery didn’t end. It just transformed itself.
Now everyone is a slave to the very wealthy and the rich. Don’t believe me? Stop working and see how you will end up in a for profits jail working as a slave to the system.
There is, but not to the same extent. Fredrik Segerfeldt has written about it in Black Man’s Burden for example. Not sure if it’s actually available in English yet or just in Swedish.
It’s true. Russian colonization happened at about the same time, and nobody criticized them for it. Unlike trans-Atlantic slave trade, Russian colonial warfare is currently ongoing and shows no signs of stopping. Kidnappings by invading Russian troops are a thing today, and in the 18th century they still sold captives to slavery.
Also, Islamists like ISIS and Taliban are currently engaged in destroying minorities in their area as well. Even though ISIS-K and Taliban are enemies, they still collaborated in 2017 to massacre Hazaras. Taliban has continued this so far.
Azerbaijan conquered Nagorny Karabakh recently, forcing its population to flee.
Examples of currently ongoing persecutions are numerous. These are arguably equally important for dealing with current events as Western colonialism, which is already waning. Good riddance.