The Indian Ocean slave trade encompassed Africa, Asia and the Middle East, with people from these areas involved as both captors and captives. For so many centuries hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans were taken from East Africa to many Arab Countries as enslaved Africans and many converted into Islam. For many centuries dhow had carried slaves from eastern Africa to Arabia, Iran, and India. The slave trade of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries significantly increased the African presence in Asia.

The societies of the Indian Ocean Slave trade include Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion, Seychelles, came into being of ancient slave trades and the migrations of populations from Africa, Asia and Europe, systems of slavery had and existed in the islands of the Indian Ocean since before colonization. This was part of Madagascar and the Comoros Islands, where slaves were brought by Swahili traders from the East Coast of Africa. The arrival of Europeans to the Indian Ocean in the 17^th and 18^th centuries saw the revitalization of the slave trade in the region. This resulted into the population and exploitation of Mascarene Islands. Severing millions of people from their roots, this system of slavery saw the establishment of a new society. For example, the new oral traditions developed throughout the period of slavery as slaves were forbidden to read and write up to the time of the abolitions.

The Arab slave trade is the intersection of slavery and trade surrounding the Arab world and Indian Ocean, mainly in Western and Central Asia, Northern and Eastern Africa, India, and Europe. This barter occurred chiefly between the medieval era and the early 20th century. The trade was conducted through slave markets in these areas, with the slaves captured mostly from Africa’s interior, Southern and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. There is some contention among scholars over whether it is appropriate to call this slave trade as the “Arab slave trade” or “Islamic slave trade.” Historians that are against both nomenclature argue that the names imply that slavery and slave trading within these societies were an intrinsic part of Arab culture or Islam when, in reality, the patterns of slaving had more to do with economics. They tend to prefer to name it after a general region or some geographic area in which the slave trading was happening such as the “Trans-Saharan slave trade” or the “Indian Ocean slave trade.”