This book has posited that enslaved and freed persons provide a fruitful window on to Islamic history precisely because of their liminality. As liminal figures, they sparked debates about the political, social and religious boundaries of the umma: who belongs to the umma, and how do they demonstrate that belonging? How can Muslims navigate the tension between more egalitarian and more hierarchical readings of religious texts? Who should have access to political power and cultural authority? By tracing how such debates unfolded in the first two centuries of Islam, this book has hoped to shed some light on how Islam transformed from a small Arabian reform movement into the official doctrine of a world-spanning empire. It has also hoped to combat essentialising narratives that present the first century of Islam as a static age that represents some ideal, ‘true’ Islam. Instead, by revealing how early Muslims constructed and re-constructed their identities to fit changing contexts, this book has celebrated the flexibility and creativity of early Islamic history.

For example, we have seen how ‘mawlā’ was simply a marker of shared faith for Abū Bakra, while later authors used his mawlā identity as an anti- Umayyad political symbol. We have seen how enslaved prostitutes in Medina advocated for their own interpretation of Q 24:33, even as later Iraqi exegetes downplayed or discounted these women's actions. We have seen how many Arabian tribal notables – and not only the Umayyads – had a vested interest in excluding ‘half-blood’ children from attaining the imamate; but these children of mixed parentage eventually successfully advocated for their own ‘Arab’ identity by invoking prophetic precedent. Finally, we have seen how muwalladāt courtesans and mawālī scribes teetered on the precipice of power in the Marwanid polity. They used their mastery of Arabic language and lore to enter the caliph's inner circle, but their unfreedom placed great limits on the power that their language mastery afforded them.

In addition to these findings, several larger conclusions emerge from the research presented here. First, enslaved and freed persons shaped Islamic society in myriad ways. From their subaltern positions, they negotiated the meaning of the Quran; helped create a collaborative (if still not completely egalitarian) community in Medina; changed definitions of lineage and ethnicity; produced great works of Arabic-Islamic culture; and acted as powerful courtiers and queens.