The African Diaspora across Europe and Asia The study of the African Diaspora is a relatively focused topic, in general focusing on the Atlantic Slave Trade and those who were enslaved in the Americas. Of particular interest to many recent historians is the fact that black Africans have been experiencing forced settlement outside of Africa for centuries prior to the Atlantic Slave Trade. Slaves have established a presence in many different urban and rural areas of the world including, Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Europe. Ibn Khaldun has been quoted, “history is information about human social organization and that there were two basic forms of human social organization: urban and rural.” Through urban and rural settings, one can understand the development of African slavery outside of the Africa and excluding the Americas. In ancient times Africans traveled as merchants, sailors, soldiers, and adventurers across the Red and Mediterranean Seas and the Indian Ocean. Africans and Arabs long interacted in the urban areas of Egypt, the Sudan, and across the Red Sea and shared common values and customs. The Arabian Peninsula seems to have the earliest African contact, with Ethiopian traders settling on the peninsula long before the Romans came. Not much is known how these slaves were captured but they were seemingly traded along the Horn of Africa, in urban trading post set up by traders. Furthermore, during the expansion of Islam after the 7th century AD, ushered in the first large-scale movement of black Africans outside of Africa as free and as well as enslaved. A number of Africans fought along Muhammad in Arabia during Islamic military campaigns, whereas the building of ports and metropolitan development in Arabia, contributed greatly to the demand of a large quantity of African slaves. Enslaved Africans were also observed in China as early as the 4th