Saqaliba

Uncommon card · No. 170266

Saqaliba (Arabic: صقالبة, romanized: ṣaqāliba, singular Arabic: صقلبي, romanized: ṣaqlabī) is a term used in medieval Arabic sources to refer to Slavs, and other peoples of Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe. The term originates from the Medieval Greek slavos/sklavenos (Slav), which in Hispano-Arabic came to designate Slavic slaves. The word was often used to refer specifically to Slavic slaves, but it could also refer more broadly to various other ethnicities of Eastern Europe traded by the Arab traders, as well as all European slaves in some Muslim regions like Spain and Portugal including those abducted from raids on Christian kingdoms of Spain and Portugal. According to Sudár and B. Szabó, the word Saqaliba meant 'forest dweller', regardless of ethnicity. There were several major routes for the trading of Slavic slaves into the Arab world: through Central Asia (Mongols, Tatars, Khazars, etc.) for the East Slavs; through the Balkans for the South Slavs; through Central and Western...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Sergey Ivanov, Public domain