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> the Trans-Atlantic Trade was a sui generis world-historical event, at a whole new scale (by percentage perhaps the largest forced movement in human history)

> the Trans-Atlantic Trade was a sui generis world-historical event, at a whole new scale (by percentage perhaps the largest forced movement in human history) Wrong. The Arab slave trade [1] exceeded the Western one both in scale [2] and in cruelty [3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_slave_trade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_slave_trade [2] https://www.quora.com/Who-did-most-of-the-slave-trade-Europeans-or-Arabs https://www.quora.com/Who-did-most-of-the-slave-trade-Europe... [3] https://www.quora.com/Was-the-Arabic-slave-trade-more-humane-than-the-Western-one https://www.quora.com/Was-the-Arabic-slave-trade-more-humane...

mirimir 8y ago
So it seems. But the aggregate estimates are similar, about 10-20 million slaves. And the estimate for the Arab slave trade covers a much longer period, ~1300 years vs ~400 years for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. So the mean rate for that was correspondingly greater.
- dogma1138 8y ago
  The Arab slave trade unfortunately persists even today.
- reacweb 8y ago
  It is difficult to compare aggregates also because you should take into account population density. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population#Past_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population#Past_populati.... trans-Atlantic slave trade was very huge (it had an impact on demography). Arab slave trade was already huge and has been lenghty. Both are terrible.
aedron 8y ago
The Quora answers (your [2] and [3]) are biased and full of factual errors and misrepresentations, of course without references to sources. Stick with Wikipedia.
- bergoid 8y ago
  > The Quora answers (your [2] and [3]) are biased and full of factual errors and misrepresentations Such as?
emptyfile 8y ago
Unsourced Quora answers are not sources. Quora is on the same level as reddit or even worse in my experience since most people seem to have an agenda.

mirimir 8y ago

So it seems. But the aggregate estimates are similar, about 10-20 million slaves. And the estimate for the Arab slave trade covers a much longer period, ~1300 years vs ~400 years for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. So the mean rate for that was correspondingly greater.

dogma1138 8y ago
The Arab slave trade unfortunately persists even today.
reacweb 8y ago
It is difficult to compare aggregates also because you should take into account population density. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population#Past_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population#Past_populati.... trans-Atlantic slave trade was very huge (it had an impact on demography). Arab slave trade was already huge and has been lenghty. Both are terrible.

aedron 8y ago

The Quora answers (your [2] and [3]) are biased and full of factual errors and misrepresentations, of course without references to sources. Stick with Wikipedia.

bergoid 8y ago
> The Quora answers (your [2] and [3]) are biased and full of factual errors and misrepresentations Such as?

emptyfile 8y ago

Unsourced Quora answers are not sources. Quora is on the same level as reddit or even worse in my experience since most people seem to have an agenda.