Abeed (Arabic: عبد, plural Abīd عبيد or al-Abīd العبيد), is a term in Arabic meaning "slaves". The name has been explained as an allusion to the submission that Muslims owe to God (Allah). Meyer dismisses this as "efforts by propagandists [to] explain the term away [that are] at the least, disingenuous".
The term is widely used in the Middle East and North Africa by Arabs in reference to black people, this is due to the historical legacy of the Arab Slave Trade wherein black people from East Africa were bought or captured, enslaved and sold by Arabs.
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