The system of serfdom attained its fullest development in the reign of Catherine II. The serfs were bought, sold and given in presents, sometimes with the land, sometimes without it, some times in families and sometimes individually, sale by public auc tion being alone forbidden, as "unbecoming in a European state." The proprietors could transport without trial their unruly serfs to Siberia or send them to the mines for life, and those who pre sented complaints against their masters were punished with the knout and condemned to the mines. The first symptoms of a reaction appear in the reign of Paul (1796-1801). He issued an ukase that the serfs should not be forced to work for their masters more than three days in each week. There were several feeble attempts at further reform, and even abortive projects of emancipation, from the commencement of the 19th century. But no decisive measures were taken before the accession of Alexander II. (1855). That emperor, after the Crimean War, created a secret committee composed of the great officers of State, called the chief committee for peasant affairs, to study the subject of serf-emancipation. Of this body the grand-duke Constantine was an energetic member. To accelerate the proceedings of the com mittee advantage was taken of the following incident. In the Lithuanian provinces the relations of the masters and serfs were regulated in the time of Nicholas by what were called inventories. The nobles, dissatisfied with these, now sought to have them revised. The Government interpreted the application as implying a wish for the abolition of serfdom, and issued a rescript authoriz ing the formation of committees to prepare definite proposals for a gradual emancipation. A circular was soon after sent to the governors and marshals of the nobility all over Russia proper, informing them of this desire of the Lithuanian nobles, and setting out the fundamental principles which should be observed "if the nobles of the provinces should express a similar desire." Public opinion strongly favoured the projected reform ; and even the masters who were opposed to it saw that, if the operation became necessary, it would be more safely for their interests entrusted to the nobles than to the bureaucracy. Accordingly during 1858 a committee was created in nearly every province in which serf dom existed. From the schemes prepared by these committees, a general plan had to be elaborated, and the Government ap pointed a special imperial commission for this purpose.
The plan was formed, and, in spite of some opposition from the nobles, which was suppressed, it became law, and serfdom was abolished (Feb. 19–March 3, 1861). (See Russm.) The total number of serfs belonging to proprietors at the time of the emancipation was 21,625,609, of whom 20,158,231 were peasant serfs and domestic serfs. This number does not include the State serfs, who formed about one-half of the rural population. Their position had been better, as a rule, than that of the serfs on private estates; it might, indeed, R. D. M. Wallace says, be regarded as "an intermediate position between serfage and free dom." Amongst them were the serfs on the lands formerly belonging to the Church, which had been secularized and trans formed into State demesnes by Catherine II. There were also serfs on the apanages affected to the use of the imperial family; these amounted to nearly three and a half millions. Thus by the
law of 1861 more than 4o millions of serfs were emancipated. (J. K. I.) MOHAMMEDAN SLAVERY The Koran, like the Mosaic code, recognizes slavery, and lays down regulations as to the treatment of slaves. These regulations have been interpreted in a more, or in a less, humane spirit by the different sects of Islam (q.v.) and the treatment accorded may also vary by custom and tradition in different countries, and in the administration of the law by individual kadis. In the larger and more modernized Mohammedan States, the slave trade has long been declared illegal. The Ottoman Porte was a signatory to the Berlin Act of 1885 (see p. 785) and enacted a law in 1889 declaring the illegality of the slave trade. Persia and Zanzibar joined her as signatories of the Brussels Act of 1890. In some of the minor Mohammedan States, however, as, for instance, the Hedjaz, the traffic has persisted up to the present time.
The Koran enjoins the good treatment of the slave, and manu mission is encouraged as an act of piety. The child of a slave concubine by her master is free-born, and the mother is usually freed also. The slave "born in the house" is generally regarded as a member of the family and to sell such a slave, except for incorrigible misconduct, would be condemned by public opinion. The favourite slaves of a ruler often held high office as confiden tial advisers, as administrators of provinces, or as leaders in the army. The master is bound to care for his slave in sickness and old age, and to maintain his wife and family. Facilities were afforded for self-redemption and for ransom. The predial slave, on the other hand, gradually developed into a serf adscriptus glebae. He would usually be allowed to retain part of the usu fruct of the estate for himself, or be permitted to work for one or more days in the week on his private holding.
The existence of this internal slave trade first became known to Europe from the reports of the early explorers, in the middle of the 19th century—more especially from the accounts of Dr. Livingstone, Sir Samuel Baker and Dr. Barth. The trade in the north is thus described by Dr. Ingram.