PT spinoff thread: Let's discuss this item from the Historical Muslim record

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Background[edit]
As the plantation economy boomed and the Arabs became richer during the Muslim Agricultural Revolution, agriculture and other manual-labor jobs were thought to be demeaning. The resulting labor shortage led to an increased slave market.

It is certain that large numbers of slaves were exported from eastern Africa; the best evidence for this is the magnitude of the Zanj revolt in Iraq in the 9th century, though not all of the slaves involved were Zanj. There is little evidence of what part of eastern Africa the Zanj came from, for the name is here evidently used in its general sense, rather than to designate the particular stretch of the coast, from about 3°N. to 5°S., to which the name was also applied.[3]

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