Prague slave trade

The Prague slave trade refers to the slave trade conducted between the Duchy of Bohemia and the Caliphate of Córdoba in Moorish al-Andalus in roughly the 9th–11th century in the Early Middle Ages. The Duchy's capital of Prague was the center of this slave trade, and internationally known as one of the biggest centers of slave trade in Europe at that time.

The Prague slave trade is known as one of the main routes of saqaliba-slaves to the Muslim world, alongside the Balkan slave trade by the Republic of Venice in the south, and the Volga route of the Vikings via Volga Bulgaria and the Samanid slave trade in the east.

The Duchy of Bohemia was a new state in Christian Europe at this time, bordering the lands of pagan Slavs to the north and east. Pagans were considered as legitimate targets of enslavement both by Christian and Islamic law. Bohemia was thereby able to traffic pagan captives to the slave market of the Muslim Caliphate of Cordoba through Christian France without trouble. The Prague slave trade was a mutual trade of benefit between the Caliphate of Córdoba, who were dependent on slaves to manage their state bureaucracy and military, and the Duchy of Bohemia, whose new state rose to economic prominence due to the trade.

The Prague slave trade was dependent upon supply of pagan captives to maintain the slave trade with Muslim al-Andalus via Christian Europe, and therefore lost its supply source when Eastern Europe started to adopt Christianity. In parallel, in the early 11th century both the Caliphate of Cordoba as well as the Duchy of Bohemia went through a period of political instability.

In Western Europe, a major slave trade route went from Prague in Central Europe via France to Moorish Al-Andalus, which was both a destination for the slaves as well as center of slave trade to the rest of the Muslim world in the Middle East. Prague in the Duchy of Bohemia, which was a recently Christianized state in the early 10th century, became a major center of the European slave trade in between the 9th and 11th centuries. The revenue from the Prague slave trade has been named as one of the economic foundations of the Bohemian state, financing the armies necessary to form a centralized state, which was not uncommon for the new Christian state in Eastern Europe.

The Duchy of Bohemia was a state in a religious border zone, bordering to pagan Slavic lands to the north, east, and southeast. In the Middle Ages, religion was the determining factor on who was considered a legitimate target for enslavement. Christians prohibited Christians from enslaving other Christians, and Muslims prohibited Muslims from enslaving other Muslims; however both approved of the enslavement of pagans, who thereby became a lucrative target for slave traders.

In the 9th and 10th centuries, the Slavs in Eastern Europe were still adherents of the Slavic religion, making them pagans to the Christians and infidels to the Muslims, and thereby considered as legitimate targets for enslavement by both. Bohemia, being a religious border state close to pagan lands, were thus in an ideal position to engage in slave trade with both Christians and Muslims, having access to a close supply of pagan captives. The slaves were acquired through slave raids toward the pagan Slavic lands north of Prague.

The pagan Slavic tribes of Central and Eastern Europe were targeted for slavery by several actors in the frequent military expeditions and raids alongside their lands. During the military campaigns of Charlemagne and his successor in the 9th century, pagan Slavs were captured and sold by the Christian Franks along the Danube and Elbe Rivers, and by the mid 10th-century, Prague had become a big center of the slave trade in Slavic pagans to al-Andalus via France.