Justin Marozzi – Islam and Slavery

Justin Marozzi has spent most of his professional life living and working in the Muslim world. A Fellow and former Trusteeof the Royal Geographical Society, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a senior advisor to the Middle East Association. His previous books include South from Barbary: Along the Slave Routes of the Libyan Sahara (2001), the bestselling Islamic Empires: Fifteen Cities that Define a Civilization(2019), Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World (2004) and The Arab Conquests: The Spread of Islam and the First Caliphates(2021). Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood (2014) won the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize and was praised by the judges as ‘a truly monumental achievement’. His latest book is Captives & Companions: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World, described by Peter Frankopan as ‘A bold, brilliant and timely history that confronts one of the most neglected and uncomfortable subjects in global history. Marozzi brings to life the complexity and humanity of the Islamic world’s entanglement with slavery using an extraordinary range of sources, across more than a millennium and across sweeping geographies. Not just a mesmerising book, but a profoundly important one too’.