Born in Purpcast: Episode 3 – Non-White people in Medieval Europe

Please note, based on new information some of these points are now redundant. Some corrections:

1) Frederick II had a retinue of Saracens though some of these would have been Moors as well. He also had black eunuchs as guards for his harem.

2) The term Ghulam and Mamluk could also be used for people from the Caucuses as well, though generally the ideal people chosen would need to be Turkic.

3) The Saracen example in Montailliou, the shepherd was in the South of France, not the North.

4) Slavery is a bit more complicated then what is mentioned for Portugal and England. For Portugal, the people bought in were slaves however they were assigned to menial/service roles (usually for high class families). In England, the people who came weren’t slaves but did come as a result of the slave trade.

5) Ethnicity did play a large part in the Medieval period (more than what has been suggested).

6) Black people in the Islamic world is very diverse as well and was not exclusive to slavery. For example, Black Africans were valued in the Fatmid Caliphate.

7) I say “Ethnicity is old as time itself,” what I meant was as long as humans have been around.

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