Saqaliba
Saqāliba (سقالبة, sg.
Siqlabi) refers to the
Slavs, particularly Slavic
mercenaries and
slaves in the medieval
Arab world in
North Africa,
Sicily and
al-Andalus. The Arabic term is a
Byzantine loanword:
saqlab,
siklab,
saqlabi etc. is a
corruption of Greek
Sklavinoi for "Slav".
The Arab chronicler
Ibn al-Faqih wrote that there were two types of
saqāliba: those with swarthy skin and dark hair that live by the sea and those with light skin that live farther inland. It was typical in the Arab world to have a somewhat vague notion of ethnic distinctions between Slavs.
Theophanes mentions that the
Umayyad caliph
Muʕāwīyah ibn Abū Sufyān settled a whole army of 5,000 Slavic mercenaries in
Syria in the 660s.
There were several major routes of Slav trade into the Muslim world: through Central Asia (
Mongols,
Tatars,
Khazars, etc.), through the Mediterranean (
Byzantium), through Central and Western Europe to
Spain and further to North Africa (Morocco, Egypt). The European route, according to
Ibrahim ibn Jakub, was serviced by
Radanites,
Jewish merchants.
Saqaliba served in a multitude of ways: servants,
eunuchs, craftsmen, soldiers, and even as
caliph's guards. Many of them became prominent, and unlike millions of nameless slaves, their fate is generally known. In
Iberia,
Morocco,
Damascus and
Sicily their role may be compared with that of
mamluks in the
Ottoman Empire. Some Saqāliba even became rulers of
taifas (principalities) in
Iberia after the collapse of the
Caliphate of Córdoba.
As mentioned above, Arabs had vague notions about ethnic differences beyond their immediate neighborhood, and it is quite possible that in some old texts "Saqualiba" may refer to other peoples. In particular,
Ibn Fadlan referred to the ruler of the
Volga Bulgaria as "King of the Saqaliba", although another likely reason for this is that there were many genuine Slavs living at that time in his domain, both slaves and ordinary settlers.
*
Barry Hoberman, "Treasures of the North"*
Slavs in Muslim Spain 
