In this important book, Clarence-Smith provides the first general survey of the Islamic debate on slavery. Sweeping away entrenched myths, he hopes to stimulate more research on this neglected topic. He draws on examples from the 'abode of Islam', from the Philippines to Senegal and from the Caucasus to South Africa, paying particular attention to the period from the late eighteenth century to the present. Once slavery had disappeared, it was the Sufi mystics who did most to integrate former slaves socially and religiously, avoiding the deep social divisions that have plagued the Western societies in the aftermath of abolition.