Summary of the Thesis
Shahrur treats slavery and concubinage as historical phenomena, not fixed conditions. Slavery is open to deconstruction, concubinage is a transitional stage toward freedom, and contracts are the broader organizational alternative.
Foundational Atoms
- Slavery as a historical phenomenon open to deconstruction
- Concubinage as a transitional stage toward freedom
- Rejecting the confinement of concubinage to slavery
- Concubinage as contractual relations
- Contracts as an alternative basis to slavery
- Fields of concubinage
Position within the Book
This meaning appears in the middle and later sections of the book, in the discussion of freedom and concubinage, and then in the linking of human relations to contract rather than enslavement.
Limits of the Reading
This reading presents a specific interpretive direction in the book, and does not negate the existence of other historical uses of the same terms.