The Arabic “wonders” literature of the ninth through the eleventh centuries has usually been studied for its depictions of the dangers of the sea and marvels of exotic lands, an example of the geographic imagination of the culture which produced it. However, the Book of the Wonders of India contains several accounts touching on the slave trade which can provide insight into views of the actual conduct of the trade apart from prescriptive legal texts and slavery manuals. Although attributed to sea captain named Buzurg b. Shahriyār, the text was actually compiled for the Fatimid court by a Basran from Gulf informants and reflects the same Fatimid accumulation of knowledge of the world seen in the recently edited Book of Curiosities. Its social positionality thus includes influence from both slave traders and court elites who benefitted from the trade and were key in creating the medieval Islamicate world’s dominant civilizational self-image. The best-known enslavement account in the Wonders is that of a Zanj king who is betrayed by a slaving crew and sold in Oman. During his time as a slave he learns Islam and the ways of medieval Islamicate civilization, and ultimately returns to his kingdom to bring Islam to it. The effect is that while the slave traders are ethically problematic, their dealings ultimately brought benefits to those they betrayed. This is similar to justifications of slavery as “civilizing” found in other times and places, such as the U.S. South. Meanwhile, a sympathetic image of the enslaved is also found in an account in which some slaves turned out to be merpeople and capable of escaping. One who was kept captive until liberated by the sons she had borne in captivity blesses God while diving into the sea to escape. Finally, there is an account of a slave revolt on a ship in the South China Sea. The slavers treat the slaves harshly, and when the slaves revolt and seize the ship, the crew is stranded. This most realistic of the three accounts may be the one closest to actual events of slave resistance during the trade. Taken together, the accounts of the slave trade in the Wonders portrayed it as brutal and carried out by unsavory characters, but also ingrained into the self-conception of the society and culture.