Islam’s Sexual Enslavement of White Women: A History in Paintings
Because Pictures Are Worth a Thousand Words.
Warning: Nineteenth century paintings depicting female nudity follow.
As a way of drawing attention to and warning against the sexual abuse of European women at the hands of Muslim migrants, in 2019, a political party in Germany provoked controversy by using the following painting in its election campaign:
Painted in France in 1866, the image is described as “show[ing] a black, apparently Muslim slave trader displaying a naked young woman with much lighter skin to a group of men for examination.”
Objectively speaking, the painting in question portrays a reality that has played out countless times over the centuries: African, Asiatic, and Middle Eastern Muslims have long targeted European women—so much so as to have enslaved millions of them over the centuries (see Sword and Scimitar for documentation).
Not only do elements of this phenomenon continue to this day—right smack in Europe—but there is something else, another medium besides writing, that documents this long history: countless more such paintings that feature the abduction, trafficking, and sexual enslavement of European women. Altogether they further underscore the ubiquity and notoriety of this phenomenon.
Indeed, this was such a well-known theme that many nineteenth and early twentieth century artists and painters specialized in it, often based on their own eye-witness accounts. (As one art gallery puts it, “Many … of the most important painters did travel [to the Muslim world] themselves, and what they painted was based on the sketches they had made while they were there…”)
Below are just 20 such paintings (there are many more). Aside from noting the artist’s name, year of painting, and, where possible, title—information which is often difficult to ascertain—I’ve limited my remarks to important asides and clarifications, mostly in the first few paintings, leaving the rest to speak for themselves.
“The Bulgarian Martyresses,” by Konstantin Makovsky, 1877. Depicts events from a year earlier, when Ottoman irregular soldiers (the so-called bashi-bazouks or “crazy heads”) raped and massacred the Christian women of Bulgaria and their children. In this image, a Bible is mockingly placed atop one victim, as the perpetrators prepare to perpetuate the deed on another. American journalist MacGahan, who reported from Bulgaria, wrote the following of this incident: “When a Mohammedan has killed a certain number of infidels he is sure of Paradise, no matter what his sins may be.…[T]he ordinary Mussulman takes the precept in broader acceptation, and counts women and children as well…. the Bashi-Bazouks, in order to swell the count, ripped open pregnant women, and killed the unborn infants.”
“The Abduction of a Herzegovinian Woman,” by Jaroslav Čermák, 1861. From the museum’s official description: “Disturbing and extremely evocative, it depicts a white, nude Christian woman being abducted from her village by the Ottoman mercenaries who have killed her husband and baby.”
“A New Arrival,” by Giulio Rosati (1858–1917).
“Abduction,” by Eduard Ansen-Hofmann (1820-1904).
“Slaves,” by Otto Pilny, 1910.
“The New Slave Girl,” by Eduard Ansen-Hofmann (1820-1904).
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