Slavery in the Ottoman Empire
For most of the earlier period of the empire, slaves were won by invading European borders and the Black Sea. In the following century, slaves came from Africa with a small minority from the Caucasus mainly from Circassia and Georgia. In the late 18th and 19th centuries, Africans were imprisoned in Sudan, Central Africa and Ethiopia. They were then transported across the desert and the Mediterranean to reach ports in the Balkans and the Middle East. Some were transported through the Nile Valley, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the pilgrimage network.