Origin of the word "slave."

All numbers related to the slave trade are rough estimates. While a figure like 80% of all slave traffic to the Middle East region seems high, it may stem from the fact Arabian slavery predates Middle Passage slave transport by at least 1,500 years. A fascinating aspect of this pre-Americas slave system was many of the victims were Caucasian peoples from Southern and Eastern Europe. They were transported to Northern Africa to serve as mercenary soldiers and cavalry men, primarily for the Nubians. Thus, the word "slave" is derived from "Slavic". Therefore, Serbs, Czechs, Russians, Poles, Bulgarians, etc. were your original slaves.

Truth is stranger than fiction.

Comment by John Pearson [emphasis added] on The Slave Trade Continues where M. Simon wrote:

Of all the slaves shipped to the western hemisphere less tha 5% went to North America (mainly the American Slave States). I found out that the slave trade to the west comprised about 10% of the trade. The vast majority went to the countries of Islam. In transporting the slaves to the Americas about 10% died in transit. In transporting slaves to Muslim countries 80% died in transit.

Gahrie also commented:

I am a teacher. I am amazed at the ignorance about the true nature of slavery and the slave trade in the New World. Even my fellow teachers who are Black are astounded when I show them the numbers concerning the importation of slaves to the New World. One fact that caps it for most of them is the fact that South American slave traders stopped importing female slaves because they usually died before they could bear children, and you could get more work out of a male slave before he died.

The Colonel once knew a young black man in Washington, DC who had converted to Islam because "The Moors" had not enslaved his ancestors.

His historical ignorance was sad but, alas, no worse than that of the (white) college kid who couldn't identify the country from which the U.S. gained its independence or the high school kids (race unknown) who couldn't identify the major combatants in WWII or the century in which the American War of Northern Aggression took place.

Be that as it may, the Colonel learned from a reliable source^[1] many years ago that one reason Islam spread in the regions of Black Africa is because it was forbidden under Islam to enslave another Muslim.

Mr. Pearson is correct about the origin of the word "slave":

Middle English sclave, from Old French esclave, from Medieval Latin sclvus, from Sclvus, Slav (from the widespread enslavement of captured Slavs in the early Middle Ages).

American Heritage dictionary.

Who could those slavers have been?

Notes
^[1] The Colonel's mom.