Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
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This project is focused on slavery in the medieval Islamic world. The aim of the study is to understand in more depth the way in which race and color were incorporated into understandings of slavery by medieval Islamic writers, and also who was able to be enslaved from their perspective. A genre of slave buying manuals will be analyzed in order to gain a greater understanding of these concepts. Research focused primarily on three authors. These authors were Ibn Al-Akfani who lived most of his life in Cairo during the 14th century, Ibn Butlan who lived in the 11th century in Baghdad, and Al-Saqati who lived in the 13th century in Málaga. I argue that there are clearly ideas of race and racial constructions within the medieval Islamic context as evidenced by these texts, but that there is not enough evidence to support a connection between these ideas of race and ideas of color or enslaveability. Additionally, I argue that there is no connection between color and enslaveability during this period as reflected in these texts.