Felix Fabri was a Dominican friar from Switzerland who made two pilgrimages to Jerusalem. His first pilgrimage in 1480 was a brief trip, but on his second pilgrimage in 1483-1484 he was able to see more of the region, visiting the monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai and passing through Cairo and Alexandria on his return journey. His descriptions are detailed, evocative, and sometimes very funny. In this passage, however, he witnesses a disturbing scene of domestic violence carried out at the command of the wife of the Venetian consul in Alexandria. Although slavery was practiced in Venice at this time, Fabri did not mention slaves or slave markets in his description of the city. His description of Alexandria, however, included a detailed description of the process by which slaves were inspected and purchased, followed by a discussion of the constant desire of slave owners of Alexandria to acquire more slaves. The main slave market in that city was located in the Tatar funduq, the building designated as a lodging and warehouse for merchants from the Golden Horde. Fabri and his fellow pilgrims were staying in the Venetian funduq, the lodging and warehouse for Venetian merchants and residence of the Venetian consul, where they witnessed the following scene.

Translated from the Latin by Hannah Barker. Felix Fabri, Evagatorium in Terrae Sanctae, Arabiae et Egypti peregrinationem, ed. Conrad Hassler (Stuttgart: Societatis literariae stuttgardiensis, 1843-1849), 18:167-168. This translation CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

But as great as is the greed of masters to possess slaves (servi), just as great is the desire of slaves to escape their hands, for they talk of nothing else among themselves, they think and speak of nothing else, except in what way and to where they might flee and be able to escape. But when their masters consider and weigh this carefully, immediately they begin to deny them a supply of food, lest they might be able to prepare travel provisions for themselves from the excess in order to flee. However, many do flee, but they accomplish nothing, neither do they escape. Provided that they are found and driven back after flight, their miseries are doubled, and if they flee and are driven back a second time, there is no longer a place for pardon, but they are beaten, tortured, and crushed without any mercy. If, however, they have persisted in fleeing, they are sold or restrained from flight with various bonds. Some allow them to die having denied them food and water and clothes, others put a heavy weight of iron on their feet, others draw tight their necks with chains, others make them lame by burning sinews, others make them useless and disfigured and noticeable by cutting off ears and nose, others kill them even more cruelly having led them back to the galleys[?]. Many, however, come in flight to uninhabited places, and wandering in the mountains and lonely places they perish of hunger and thirst, or what is a bad end, having been oppressed with hard service or miseries and having been afflicted with weakness in flight, laying hands they twist life away from themselves with a noose or destroy themselves by casting themselves down from a height or plunge in water. These are daily occurrences in places where a man can possess a man like a beast, for I even saw this happen with my own eyes in our lodging in Alexandria. The host or consul had bought an Ethiopian woman with other purchased slaves whom he owned. One day the Ethiopian woman, having been charged with some failure by the mistress, impatient of correction, resisted being chastised by the mistress, who ordered her to be afflicted with blows. But she held herself thus defiantly, and the punisher slave (servus) having snatched a stick was beating her with full force like a donkey and was trampling her falling on the ground with his feet. She nevertheless resisted most defiantly and was almost tiring the torturer, striking against him, spitting, and sticking out her tongue. In the end, barely defeated when she had been tied up with ropes, she raged bitterly at herself, howling like an ox, and mangling herself with her teeth, striking her head on the ground and walls, and from the step on which she was tied frequently throwing herself down on her head and in all ways seeking to tear life away from herself. Then she rose up against the mistress and disparaged her with the worst words and openly spoke very ugly insults against the consul himself. However, she became so deluded with anger that she blasphemed God and blessed Muhammad and declared that she would convert to the rite of Muhammad, and she would have done it, if she were tied with all her limbs. Finally she lay as if dead for many hours, until her suffering (passio) was alleviated. For the sold man arrives at such miseries, that he may tire of living and seek death in all ways. Therefore we had great sympathy with those miserable ones sold in the funduq of the Tatars. 

Discussion Questions

  1. What forms of violence did enslaved people experience, according to Felix Fabri? In what ways did enslaved people resist violence? What forms of resistance seem to have been most effective?
  2. Islamic law stipulated that if a slave owned by non-Muslims wished to convert to Islam, an Islamic judge could order that the slave be transferred to Muslim owners and some compensation be paid to the non-Muslim former owners. Christian canon law included a similar provision for slaves of non-Christians wishing to convert to Christianity. What religion do you think the enslaved Ethiopian woman belonged to? How would you interpret her declaration of intention to convert to Islam?  
  3. If Felix Fabri had sympathy for the enslaved Ethiopian woman, why did he not intervene to help her?

Related Primary Sources

Related Secondary Sources

Themes

Agency, Flight, Religion, Violence