Egyptian Muslim intellectuals argued Islamic slavery was distinctively gentle

Evidence

Shafïk stipulated that, while Islam “did not directly condemn slavery,” it did not accept it in the form in which the prophet Muhammad found it, and thus the Prophet had tried to “attenuate its effects.” Because of this, slavery within Islam was inherently different and intrinsically gentler than that practiced in Christian lands. Islamic law actually protected the rights of slaves, and European abolitionists needed to erase from their eyes the clichéd images of slavery and look anew at its different aspects under Islam. Muslims, for example, did not enslave other Muslims, and as soon as the “fetishists” of Africa converted to Islam, the practice would die out altogether. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 678