History: For the million or so white slaves captured for the Arab market in the 17th and 18th centuries, there were few choices; though, ironically, the one most likely to guarantee their survival, however short-lived, was also the one most likely to ensure they would be on the B-list when it came to rescue.
Apostates, they were called back home, those wretched slaves who embraced Islam. As Christians who had renounced their religion, they were considered not worth saving by those emissaries sent from England to barter with the Arabs.
The majority of such converts, as Giles Milton shows in his book White Gold, changed sides under the most appalling duress. In Morocco, torture was endemic. A favourite form of punishment was the bastinado, whereby a man was strung up and the soles of his feet beaten. Skinning was another, as was sawing someone in half - starting between the legs. One female slave - and there were quite a few - finally succumbed when molten lead was poured into her private parts.
Amazingly, if you were captured, your quality of life was marginally better if you were kidnapped by Arab traders rather than by the British, since the latter would load you on to ships and despatch you to the Caribbean, and there were many who failed to survive the dreadful conditions on those coffin ships. Destined for the Arab market, however, a slave would be marched northwards across the desert and have some chance of reaching the slave market in Algiers or Morocco.
The latter was ruled for 55 years by Moulay Ismael, the despotic, flamboyant sultan. Moulay needed as many slaves as he could get in order to build his fabulous palace with its high white walls, stabling for 12,000 horses and accommodation for 4,000 concubines. Every time one of these women gave birth, Moulay slapped a tax on his Jewish subjects.
Moulay sent out kidnap gangs to bring back black slaves from Guinea and Senegal, whose other commodities were gold and ivory. These black prisoners he raised - from infancy - to be his personal guard, feared and hated by the other slaves.
The Sultan's alternative source of manpower were the ships trading between England and America. Cornwall and the southern shores of Ireland - 237 villagers captured in Baltimore alone - were especially vulnerable to marauders, the fiercest of whom were the Moors recently expelled from Spain.
Woven into this account of cruelty and sadness is the story of the 11-year-old Thomas Pellow, from Cornwall, who was captured from his uncle's ship off the coast of Morocco.
Four years later, steadfastly refusing to embrace Islam, Thomas came to the attention of Moulay, who singled him out as a leader and took him into his personal service. At 15, Thomas was offered a wife whom he refused on the grounds that she was black. A light-skinned woman was found who bore him a daughter, though both died 10 years later.
Thomas eventually found his way back to Cornwall with the help of a sea captain from Dublin called Toobin. Rescued from the jaws of death, betrayed by his friends, left for dead only to unexpectedly revive, Thomas's adventures read like a Boy's Own story and it's not surprising that, on his return, he sold his story to a local hack.
Historical research is Giles Milton's forte, although, in White Gold, supposition and conjecture are allowed occasionally to show their unwelcome faces.
With Nathaniel's Nutmeg and Samurai William, Milton focused, respectively, on the spice route and the 17th-century trade between Britain and Japan. In White Gold, he employs the same literary device of using the experiences of a real character to illuminate the period. Nevertheless, worthy as Pellow is, it is the diabolic bad boy, Moulay Ismael, that fascinates Milton and who dominates the story.
What a pity, then, that such a splendid book lacks both footnotes and a bibliography. Instead, we have a cumbersome system of notes and references, none of which are in alphabetical order - purgatorial for anyone interested in sources.
Slavery is still with us, of course: I have a Sudanese friend who mentioned recently that her grandfather made his money from the trade in slaves. This book is a welcome and colourful contribution to the whole sorry story.