Demystifying ‘Malakat Ayman’ (the so-called ‘slave girl’!)

Is slavery recognized in the Quran? And does the Quran state that Muslim men can take slave women or concubines as their property, or marry them by force, even if these women are married to someone else?

To answer this question, let’s examine the conventional translations of Verse 24 from Surah An-Nisa, that addresses Muslim men with respect to the issue of marriage:

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