[johnqueuepublic]

I think that those who actually captured the tribesman were of varying ethnicity, arab, african and later european, but the muslims got the ball rolling.

[Anamensis]

I've always read that slaves were captured by warring tribes, and then sold to outsiders. I suspect that outsiders, not knowing the lay of the land, would have a hard time just walking up to African villages and snatching people up.

[Squawk 8888]

but the muslims got the ball rolling.

And they were the last to ban it. Slavery was legal in Saudi Arabia until 1964, and although it's officially illegal in Sudan the Islamist regime there tacitly condones the practice.