Humans, for hundreds of years, have enslaved and inflicted violence on other human beings, usually for selfish desires. Slavery is the illegal act of owning another human being as personal property and usually using them for free labor or sexual acts. Slavery has existed for hundreds of years, with the most infamous and violent form of slavery being European slavery. This type of slavery is known as chattel slavery, usually based on racial or geographic differences, where slaves are "treated as property, and they can be bought and sold." European slavery is the well-known form of slavery, in which Africans were viewed as enslaved property, traded, and transported to work on plantations as free property. Although this is well known and familiar, there was a lesser known form of slavery and trade, namely the Arab slave trade. The Arab slave trade began as early as 1095 and was abolished in 1970. This is what makes this form of slavery unique. ; it lasted for more than a millennium. However, by 1839, the Arab slave trade became the primary means of making money and doing business. While the European slave trade was the harshest and most discussed subject of slavery in history, many people do not recognize another practice of slavery that also affected millions of Africans as well as of Europeans: the Arab slave trade: the harem trade. The slave trade, particularly that which took place in harems, was less recognized due to the exploitation and violent extent of European slavery by Africans. Another reason is also that Muslim rulers fail to classify the treatment suffered by their slaves as slavery. Due to the public's lack of knowledge on this topic, they do not know the truth about what happened during this slavery. W...... middle of paper ......nds of Islam. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2002. “The Arab Muslim African Slave Trade, The Untold Story.” The world today. nd http://worldtodayshow.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/the-arab-muslim-slave-trade-of-africans-the-untold-story/ (accessed December 2011). Millingen, Frederick. "The Circassian slaves and the sultan's harem." Journal of the Anthropological Society of London, 1870: 9-10. Toledano, Ehud R. . “Slavery and Abolition in the Ottoman Middle East.” 30. University of Washington Press, 1998. “The Arab and Muslim African Slave Trade, The Untold Story.” The world today. nd http://worldtodayshow.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/the-arab-muslim-slave-trade-of-africans-the-untold-story/ (accessed December 2011). Organization of the Islamic Conference. “Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam.” Article 11. 1990.