New Study Dates the Ridges That Sparked the Zanj Slave Revolt and Reshaped an Empire

Peter J. Brown/The Conservative

Written accounts tell the story of the Zanj rebellion , a slave revolt that took place in the late 9th century in southern Iraq. Some of the rebels were enslaved Africans working in various sectors of the local economy.

Thousands of ridges and canals still stand today across a floodplain in southern Iraq. They’ve long been believed to be the remains of a massive agricultural system built by these enslaved people. Creating them, and farming here, could have been what drove the rebellion that’s often thought to have led to the rapid decline of the historic city of Basra and the local economy.