I found this in my travels. It is very interesting to see that the rules for slaves were so liberal. However, I suspect that they applied only to a privileged few slaves.
Lord Hardinge on Religious Laws Governing Slavery in Zanzibar
The following are the legal disabilities which the [Islamic] religion and law (and the two are in Zanzibar, save for a few exceptions, identical) impose upon the slave:
· He cannot own, or acquire, or dispose of private property without the permission of his master.
· He cannot give evidence in a Court of Justice, nor, without his Master’s sanction, take an oath.
· He cannot, without the sanction of his master, contract a legal marriage, nor, according to most of the doctors, even with the permission of his master, have more than two wives at the same time.
· He cannot sue his Master before a Court of law unless severely mistreated. In case of ill-treatment the qadi (judge) may and ought to warn the master that if the complaint is repeated, and proved genuine, he will forfeit his slave. Should the slave sue his master a second time, and the charge of cruelty be established, the qadi may order the slave to be sold, and the purchase money paid to the master.
· He cannot sue any other person without his master’s consent.
· He cannot, without his master’s permission, engage in trade, undertake a journey, or even make the pilgrimage to Mecca, nor in general claim any legal or civil right, except through and with his master’s sanction.
· There is no legal limitation to his master’s power of punishing him, and, theoretically, I believe that he might put him to death without himself being held guilty of murder, or of any more serious offense than cruelty.
· Except for the general prohibition described above of ill-treatment or cruelty, there is no legal limitation to the amount or nature of the work which a master may impose on his slave, whether the latter be a man, woman, or a child.
These rules are contradicted by practice in two categories: by custom, and by power of the Sultan.
In practice slaves do hold property of their own and are allowed by their masters to dispose of it. It is quite a common thing for a slave to have slaves of his own, and to treat the produce of their labour as his own personal property.
In practice, moreover, the slave is always allowed to labour two days in the week (Thursday and Friday) or at least one day (Friday) for himself and his family alone, and what he earns on those days is regarded by local custom as exclusively his.
He is also permitted to retain a small portion of what he earns while working for his master, and once every six months he is entitled to new clothing (one shirt or white cotton gown for a man, two pieces of cloth for a woman).
If his master gives him neither board, lodging, nor clothing beyond the regular half-yearly allowance, he is entitled to half his earnings. Should [his master] refuse it to him, he can be summoned on the slave’s complaint by the qadi and ordered to pay, and if he refuses, he can be imprisoned for contempt of the qadi’s order. If the slave gets no pay he is entitled to a portion of a room, a bed, and any food left over from his master’s meal or cooked by the slaves of the house or, in place of food, to 2 annas to provide for him.
Hardinge to Kimberley, Africa No. 6, C-7707, February 26, 1895.