Call for Papers
Conference on Manumission in the Islamicate World
The study of slavery, manumission and abolition has generally focused on the Western world and the trans-Atlantic slave-trade. The objective of the conference is to develop nuanced understandings of how manumission was understood, instantiated and conceptualized within Islamicate discourses and history. In doing so, the conference seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of slavery and manumission practices within the Islamicate world, and develop conversations and conceptual connections amongst scholars working across different epochs, dynasties, and geographies. Manumission also calls attention to ‘freed’ status and post-manumission obligations, which, in their most extreme form, might constitute a form of serfdom.
Topics might include:
– Manumission practices in any period of Islamicate History
– Manumission contracts
– Manumission rituals and practices
– Manumission in last will & testament
– Manumission for the sake of marriage
– Manumission obligations
– Umm walad
– Manumission in theological discourse
For consideration of your proposal, please submit a 300-word abstract to etd4@leicester.ac.uk, along with your full name and bio by 31 October 2025. Please note that selected presentations may be asked to contribute to an edited volume.
Official Project Publications
In addition to the published and forthcoming worked listed below, DoSSE Project is producing a co-authored academic monograph on Slavery, Sex, and Society in Late Antiquity, as well as a sourcebook on slaveholding practices in domestic spaces (AD 250-850). These books are planned for 2027.
All official project publications are available Open Access. See links below.
Burns, James R., ‘‘Slaves’ and ‘Slave Owners’ or ‘Enslaved People’ and ‘Enslavers’?’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (2023), pp. 1-18. (click here for OA download)
Burns, James R., ‘The Bandit, the Holy Man, and the Slave in the Early Medieval West’, Journal of Late Antiquity, 17.2 (2024), pp. 395-421. (click here for OA download)
Dailey, E. T., ‘Caesarius of Arles, Sexual Morality, and Household Slaves: The Vulnerability of Proximity’, Medieval People (2026) (forthcoming)
Dailey, E. T., ‘The Sexual Vulnerability of Non-Adult Slaves in the Late Roman West, AD 300–550’, in Children at Work in the Late Ancient World, ed. by Christian Laes (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2026) (forthcoming)
Heydarishovir, Sheida, ‘Sexual Exploitation and Social Hierarchies in the Qābūsnāma: A Study of Medieval Persian Society’, Medieval People (2026) (forthcoming)
Stadel, Seth M. ‘The Legal Constructions of Christian Slavery in Fars at the End of Late Antiquity’, Journal of Late Antiquity, 18.2 (2025), pp. 401-422. (click here for OA download)
