Around 1,200 years ago in what is now Iraq, enslaved people who were forced to build a vast canal system defied authority and rebelled, a new study indicates.
Between A.D. 869 to 883 a group known as the Zanj, many of whom were enslaved people taken from Africa, rebelled against the Abbasid Caliphate (ruled from 750 to 1258) and disrupted its control over the region, according to historical texts. The records also suggest that during the Middle Ages, the Zanj helped build a large system of canals spanning nearly 310 square miles (800 square kilometers) that was used to irrigate agriculture near the city of Basra.
