“Echoes of the Abbasids”: Sexual Slavery and ISIS’s Selective Revisionism of the Imagined Golden Age Public
Ross, Micah (Spring 2024)
Published
Abstract
This thesis examines ISIS’s purported reverence and “revival” of the Abbasid caliphate, using the institution of sexual slavery as a case study through which to understand the jihadi group’s relationship to this period in Islamic history.
Chapter One outlines the terrorist group’s conception and veneration of the Abbasids to construct a history of the caliphate in the imagination of ISIS members. To do this, I catalog ISIS’s references to the Abbasids based on my close reading of thousands of pages of their English and Arabic-language magazines. Allusions to the Abbasids encapsulate a wide range of topics which my cataloging organizes into five distinct themes.
Chapter Two analyzes the institution of sexual slavery in the Abbasid caliphate. This analysis reveals that the practice was deeply nuanced and diverse. Many enslaved women of the time were famous courtesans, harboring more power than free women, and most Abbasid caliphs were mothered by concubines. These findings reveal the complexities of the historical record which ISIS attempts to “revive.”
Chapter Three explores ISIS’s implementation of sexual slavery in the modern day. Through UN documents and first-hand testimony, I show how the group’s enslavement of Yazidi women had a distinctly cruel character.
Chapter Four synthesizes all evidence introduced throughout the thesis, comparing the Abbasid historical record with ISIS’s implementation of sexual slavery law. This chapter discusses the multi-vocal nature of both Abbasid and Islamic precedent, fallacies and synergies in ISIS’s “revival” of sexual slavery, potential ulterior motives which may have impacted ISIS’s decision-making, and finally, how the evolution of international human rights law complicates this conversation. This discussion fleshes out what it means for ISIS to reference (and “revive”) Abbasid policies, underscoring the role of interpretation and oversimplification in this endeavor. This chapter answers the question of “Does ISIS faithfully reproduce Abbasid precedent?” while simultaneously complicating and challenging the premises of that very question. I ultimately argue in favor of adopting the term “selective revisionism” as a more apt characterization of ISIS’s relationship to the Abbasid period.
Ultimately, by conducting a comparative analysis of ISIS’s “revived” institution of sexual slavery with the historical record of Abbasid history through the particularistic lens of sexual slavery, we can garner valuable insights about ISIS’s hidden agenda, desires, and inner workings.
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................1
Chapter One: The Imagined Golden Age through ISIS’s Own Words...............................32
Chapter Two: Sexual Slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate..................................................56
Chapter Three: ISIS’s Sexual Enslavement of Yazidi Women..........................................66
Chapter Four: Discussing ISIS’s “Selective Revisionism” ...............................................72 Conclusion................................................................................................................95 Bibliography............................................................................................................110
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