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Muhammad_Article.349.. - Dr. Wesley Muhammad

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“Anyone who says that the Prophet is black should be killed”:<br />

The De-Arabization of Islam and the Transfiguration of MuÈammad in Islamic Tradition <br />

By <strong>Wesley</strong> Williams, PhD<br />

Michigan State University<br />

(Work In Progress)<br />

Abstract<br />

This paper argues that a convergence of evidences – linguistic, ethnographic, and literary<br />

– suggests that the earliest documented Arabs were likely a Kushite or dark-skinned group,<br />

probably derivative from a group of African ‘Proto-Semitic’ speakers that possibly entered the<br />

Levant from Africa several millennia before the Common Era. The Classical Arabic/Islamic<br />

literary sources confirm the same, that a noble Arab was a black-skinned Arab. This makes it<br />

most unlikely that the Islamic prophet MuÈammad, reputedly a most noble Arab, was fairskinned<br />

as in the popular imagination and in official and un-official representations, literary as<br />

well as visual. We have every reason to believe that the Islamic prophet was a black-skinned<br />

Arab, including explicit testimony in the literary sources. While testimony to a fair-skinned<br />

MuÈammad is found there as well, this is no doubt a secondary development that was impacted<br />

by a profound shift in the demographic balance of power in the Muslim world that followed the<br />

#Abb§sid Revolution of 132/750. An ethnically Arab MuÈammad was no longer palatable to the<br />

tastes of a now ethnically diverse umma, and the changed status of Arabs and non-Arabs within<br />

the kingdom is reflected in the new representation of the Prophet. This study suggests the need<br />

for a closer look at the development of the racial ethic in Islam and the impact this development<br />

had on the the emerging Islamic tradition.<br />

I. Introduction<br />

In the 14 th century illuminated manuscript the Luttrell Psalter there is a rather fascinating<br />

image of a joust between the Crusader Richard the Lionheart and the Muslim Sultan, Salah ad-<br />

Din, the Saladin of legend. 1 Saladin himself is depicted dark blue with a grotesque physiognomy.<br />

This conforms to Christian polemical convention of the Middle Ages: the Saracens or Muslim<br />

Arabs (and Turks) were depicted dark and this darkness associated them with the demonic<br />

world. 2 In representations their physiognomical features are also routinely distorted to imply such<br />

an association.<br />

Particularly arresting about this ‘Saracen’ depiction is the shield carried by Saladin:<br />

engraved on it is the image of the head of a black man with what could be taken as curly hair.<br />

His features are likewise distorted, yet his realistic African (Ethiopian?) features are conspicuous<br />

(e.g. while Saladin’s complexion is an unrealistic blue the head on the shield is a realistic dark<br />

brown). Who is the black man on Saladin’s shield supposed to be? Debra Higgs Strickland, who<br />

<br />

I would like to thank Dana Marniche and Tariq Berry for their invaluable feedback and material contributions to<br />

this paper.<br />

1 On the Luttrell Psalter see Michael Camille, Mirror in Parchment: The Luttrell Psalter and the Making of<br />

Medieval England (London: Reaktion, 1998).<br />

2 See especially Debra Higgs Strickland, Saracens, demons, & Jews: making monsters in medieval art<br />

(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003) Chapter 2, 168, 173, 179-180. For images of black Turks (Tartars) see<br />

Michael Camille, The Gothic Idol: Ideology and Image-Making in Medieval Art (Cambridge: Cambridge<br />

University Press, 1991) 154-155.<br />

1


has studied the depiction of Muslims in this Christian literature and iconography, suggests that it<br />

is the image of the Islamic prophet MuÈammad. 3 It is the case that, at least in Christian literary<br />

depictions of the Muslims, it was the latter’s practice to carry images of MuÈammad on their<br />

shield. 4 But these are pro-Crusader polemics that went out of their way to misrepresent their<br />

Muslim enemy. Thus, even if Strickland is right in her identification, we cannot take these<br />

representations as necessarily reflecting any historical reality. 5 It is not impossible, however, that<br />

some Christians encountered such images of the prophet of Islam among some Muslims. The<br />

presence of Muslim proscriptions against such iconography is no real argument against this<br />

possibility: images of MuÈammad exist today and have existed in the Muslim world, since at least<br />

the 13 th century and maybe earlier, in spite of this proscription. 6 In any case, it seems that,<br />

whatever the source of their information, some European Christians imagined that the prophet<br />

of their dark-skinned Muslim enemies was himself dark-skinned. 7<br />

That the prophet MuÈammad was a white-skinned Arab of noble genealogy is a Muslim<br />

and Western academic orthodoxy. Islamicist Frederick Mathewson Denny, in his widely used<br />

textbook, An Introduction to Islam, describes the Prophet as “reddish-white, he had black<br />

eyes and long eyelashes”. 8 This is no doubt based on a long pre-modern Islamic literary and<br />

iconographic tradition, 9 a tradition so detailed some scholars are convinced that an accurate<br />

3 Strickland, Saracens, demons, & Jews, 179, 189.<br />

4 Paul Bancourt, Les Musulmans dans les chansons geste du cycle du roi, 2 vols. (Aix-en-Provence:<br />

Publications Diffusion, 1982) II: 914-915; Meredith Jones, “The Conventional Saracen of the Songs of Geste,”<br />

Speculum 17 (1942): 214. Especially illuminating in this regard is no doubt the Itinerarium Peregrinorum (Itinerary of<br />

the Pilgrims), a Latin prose narrative of King Richard I of England which chronicles England’s participation in the<br />

Third Crusade in 1189-1192. Saladin was the Muslim ruler of Egypt and Syria (and thus of Jerusalem) during the<br />

Third Crusade, making the claims of the Itinerarium Peregrinorum relevant to our famous Luttrell Psalter image. The<br />

anonymous English (?) author says regarding the Muslim ‘enemy’: “Among [the Christians’] opponents was a<br />

fiendish race, forceful and relentless, deformed by nature and unlike other living beings, black in color, of enormous<br />

stature and inhuman savageness. Instead of helmets they wore red coverings (i.e. turbans) on their heads,<br />

brandishing in their hands clubs bristling with iron teeth, whose shattering blows neither helmets nor mailshirts<br />

could resist. As a standard they carried a carved effigy of <strong>Muhammad</strong>.” Quoted from Strickland, Saracens,<br />

demons, & Jews, 169.<br />

5 Jones, “Conventional Saracen,” passim.<br />

6 See Wijdan Ali, “From the Literal to the Spiritual: The Development of the Prophet <strong>Muhammad</strong>’s Portrayal from<br />

13 th Century Ilkhanid Miniatures to 17 th Century Ottoman Art,” EJOS 4 (2001) (=M. Kiel, N. Landman and H.<br />

Theunissen [edd.], Proceedings of the 11 th International Congress of Turkish Art, Utrecht – The<br />

Netherlands, August 23-28, 1999, No. 7: 1-24); Priscilla P. Soucek, “The Life of the Prophet: Illustrated<br />

Versions,” in Priscilla P. Soucek (ed.), Content and Context of Visual Arts in the Islamic World (University<br />

Park and London: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988) 193-217. Sir Thomas W. Arnold, Painting in<br />

Islam: A Study of the Place of Pictorial Art in Muslim Culture (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1965)<br />

91-100.<br />

7 Strickland notes that in this Christian literature and iconography “dark skin is an indentifying attribute of Saracens<br />

(1973).” See further John V. Tolan, Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagination (New York:<br />

Columbia University Press, 2002) 106 and Diane Speed, “The Saracens of King Horn,” Speculum 65 (1990): 580-<br />

582.<br />

8 Frederick Mathewson Denny, An Introduction to Islam, Third Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ:<br />

Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2006) 69. See also Tarif Khalidi Images of <strong>Muhammad</strong>: Narratives of the Prophet in<br />

Islam Across the Centuries (New York: Doubleday, 2009) 42, 97.<br />

9 E.g. Ibn Sa#d, Kib§b al-ãabaq§t al-kabÊr, edd. Eugen Mittwoch and Eduard Sachau, Ibn Saad: Biographien<br />

(Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1917) I/ii,120-127 (=idem, Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir, trans. S. Moinul Haq and H.K.<br />

Ghazanfar [Karachi: Pakistan Historical Society, 1986] I/ii, 484-499); ‘aÈÊÈ BukharÊ, b§b ßifat al-nabÊ, nos. 744,<br />

747 (=The Translation of the Meanings of ‘aÈÊÈ BukharÊ, Arabic-English, trans. <strong>Dr</strong>. MuÈammad<br />

MuÈsin Kh§n [Medina: Islamic University, 1985] IV: 485-488); Muslim, ‘aÈÊÈ Muslim, b§b: k§na al-nabÊ (s)<br />

2


likeness of the Prophet could easily be drawn by an artist. 10 In Muslim iconography, even when<br />

the proscription against depicting the visage of the Prophet is honored, often an exposed limb<br />

(e.g. a hand) leaves no doubt as to the white complexion of God’s Last Messenger. 11<br />

The real question is thus not ‘How could Muslims have depicted MuÈammad’ but rather<br />

‘How could Muslims have possibly depicted MuÈammad as black”! No less of an authority than<br />

Q§∙Ê #Iy§∙ (d. 544/1149), in his famous al-Shif§, could report: “AÈmad b. AbÊ Sulaym§n, the<br />

companion of SaÈnån, said, ‘Anyone who says that the Prophet was black (aswad) should be<br />

killed. The Prophet was not black’.” 12 This declaration of course raises its own set of questions,<br />

like: Why would such a fatwa even be necessary except there was in circulation the claim that the<br />

Prophet was black. On what was such a claim based? And why would describing MuÈammad as<br />

black, whatever its historical merits, be so offensive as to warrant death? 13 We might be tempted<br />

to dismiss the Christian depiction of dark-skinned Muslims as imbued with polemical symbolism,<br />

which it certainly possesses. But it is equally true that the Muslims’ own depictions are imbued<br />

with apologetic symbolism. 14 In addition, while blackness in particular in this Christian literary<br />

and iconographic tradition has symbolic, moral significance, 15 we no doubt have to do here with<br />

a “convergence entre la réalité et le symbolism” 16 ; that the conquering Muslims from Arabia<br />

abya∙, malÊÈ al-wajh, apud al-NawawÊ, Minhaj sharÈ ‘aÈÊÈ Muslim, 18 vols., ed. KhalÊl Ma"mån ShÊh§ (Beirut:<br />

D§r al-Ma#rifa, 1994) XV: 92-97 nos. 6025, 6026, 6033-6035 (=Muslim, ‘aÈÊÈ Muslim, 4 vols. Trans. ‘Abdul<br />

\amÊd ‘iddÊqÊ [New Delhi: Kit§b Bhavan, 1994 (1977)] IV: 1250-1251 nos. 5777-5778, 5785-5786); Abå D§wåd<br />

al-Sijist§nÊ, Sunan Abu Dawud (The Third correct Tradition of the Prophetic Sunna), English-Arabic, 5<br />

vols. trans. Mohammad Mahdi al-Sharif (Beirut: Dar al-Kotob Al-ilmiyah, 2008) V/xxxv, no. 4864; Al-TirmidhÊ,<br />

Sunan al-TirmidhÊ (Hims: Maktabat D§r al-Da#wah, 1965-) VI:69 no. 1754; Al-TirmidhÊ, al-Sham§"il al-<br />

NabÊ, edd. M§hir Y§sin Fahl and Bashsh§r #Aww§d Ma#råf (Beirut: D§r al-Gharb al-Isl§mÊ, 2000) nos. 6, 12, 14;<br />

al-BayhaqÊ, Dal§"il al-nubuwwah wa ma#rifat aÈw§l ߧÈib al-sharÊ#ah, ed. #Abd al-Mu#tÊ Qal#ajÊ (Beirut:<br />

D§r al-Kutub al-#IlmÊya, 1985) I:201-209; Ibn KathÊr, al-Bid§yah wa-"l-nih§yah (Beirut: Maktabat al-Ma#§rif,<br />

1966) VI:13-15. In terms of the iconographic tradition see e.g. Arnold, Painting, Plates XIX-XXIII; Ali, “From the<br />

Literal,” Figs. 1-11.<br />

10 Khalidi Images, 96; Clinton Bennett, In Search of <strong>Muhammad</strong> (London and New York: Cassell, 1998) 36.<br />

11 See e.g. Ali, “From the Literal,” Figs. 9, 11; Jonathon E. Brockopp (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to<br />

MuÈammad (Cambridge: University Press, 2010) 49 fig. 3.<br />

12 Al-Q§∙Ê ‘Iy§∙ b. Mås§ al-YaÈßubÊ, al-Shif§ bi-ta#rÊf Èuqåq al-Mußãaf§ (al-JÊzah: D§r al-F§råq lil-<br />

Istithm§r§t al-Thaq§fiyah, 2009) 558, 540 (=<strong>Muhammad</strong>: Messenger of Allah. Ash-Shifa of Qadi ‘Iyad,<br />

trans. Aisha Abdarrahman Bewley [Scotland: Madinah Press Inverness, 2004] 387, 375)<br />

13 The Iranian shaykhs Maulana <strong>Muhammad</strong> Zakaria and Ahmed E. Bemat, in their commentary on al-TirmidhÊ’s<br />

al-Sham§"il al-MuÈammadÊyah, claim: “the Holy Prophet’s (s) white complexion had a touch of redness and<br />

there was a luster in it…Hence the Imams have stated that ‘if someone says that the Holy Prophet’s (s) complexion<br />

was black, we will issue a fatwa of infidelity (kufr) for him because he insulted and disparaged the Holy Prophet (s) and<br />

the insulting and disparaging of a prophet amounts to infidelity…” Shaikh a-Hadith Maulana <strong>Muhammad</strong> Zakaria<br />

and Shaikh al-Hadith Mufti Ahmed E. Bemat, in Shamail-e-Tirmizi, trans. Prof. Murtaza Hussain F. Qurashi<br />

(New Delhi: Kitab Bhavan, 2006) 11. This raises an important question itself, to be explored further below: what is<br />

the social, political, ideological and/or demographic context in which the simple attribution of a black complexion to<br />

a prophet is tantamount to insulting that prophet?<br />

14 As Khalidi, Images, 42 points out regarding such descriptions of MuÈammad as ‘white’, etc.: “these physical<br />

characteristics are clearly symbolic in character...One might argue that most of these physical attributes appear to<br />

point to his immaculateness and his freedom from physical blemish. Many are allusions to the descriptions of<br />

beautiful women in pre-Islamic poetry…the age of the Hadith…was far more sensitive to physiognomy than we are:<br />

to them, the physical exterior of a human being was intimately linked to his or her moral character.”<br />

15 Bancourt, Les Musulmans, I:69.<br />

16 Bancourt, Les Musulmans, I:58. Bancourt acknowledged this convergence only with regard to depictions of<br />

blond Saracens, and argued instead that “Beaucoup de Sarrasins sont noirs non parce que cette representation a un<br />

support objectif et historique, mais parce qu’ils sont méchants et maudits.” Ibid. 71. We will argue differently below.<br />

3


were dark-skinned is attested in a number of sources. 17 It will be argued here that a convergence<br />

of evidences – linguistic, ethnographic, and literary – suggests that the Christian depiction of a<br />

dark-skinned MuÈammad is likely a more faithful historical representation – mutatis mutandis its<br />

polemical distortions – of Islam’s prophet. It will be further suggested that, among other things, a<br />

“cataclysmic shift in the demographic balance of power” in the Muslim world that followed the<br />

#Abb§sid Revolution of 132/750 impacted the representation of MuÈammad in Muslim<br />

literature. 18<br />

II. Ancient Semites: MuÈammad’s African Ancestors?<br />

The famed Muslim historian and Qur"§nic exegete al-•abarÊ (d. 310/923) recorded in<br />

his Ta"rÊkh al-rusul wa"l-mulåk the following tradition on the authority of #Abd Allāh b.<br />

#Abbās (d. 68/687), the cousin of the prophet MuÈammad:<br />

The Children of Sam (Shem) settled al-Majdal, the center of the Earth, which is between<br />

Satidim§ and the sea and between Yemen and Syria. Allah made the prophets from them,<br />

revealed the Books to them, made them beautiful, gave them a dark complexion, luminous<br />

and free of blemish (al-udma wa l-bay§∙). The children of Ham settled in the south, along<br />

the course of the south and west wind-this region is called al-D§råm. Allah gave them a<br />

dark complexion, a few of whom were also luminous and free of blemish…The children of<br />

Japheth settled in al-‘afån, along the course of the north and east wind. They are ruddycomplexioned<br />

and very fair-skinned (al-Èumra wa l-shaqra). 19<br />

This tradition of dark-skinned Semites and Hamites in contrast to fair-skinned Japhites of<br />

the north is found in Rabbinic Hebrew literature as well. 20 Al-•abarÊ’s report makes two<br />

curious claims. First, while both Semites and Hamites are dark-skinned, there is a distinction<br />

between the two complexions: the former’s dark complexion is characterized by being bay§∙, i.e.<br />

free of blemish and imbued with a sheen or luminosity. 21 On the other hand, the darkcomplexion<br />

of most (but not all) Hamites (i.e. Africans) lack this characteristic. This distinction<br />

will take on greater significance for us later. Secondly, prophecy is the inheritance of a particular<br />

ethnic group: dark-skinned Semites. It would then follow that the prophets were all dark-skinned<br />

17 See below. We are using ‘black’ here chromatically, not ethnically.<br />

18 The language “cataclysmic shift in the demographic balance of power” to describe the consequence of the<br />

#Abb§sid Revolution is that of Saleh Said Agha, The Revolution Which Toppled the Umayads: Neither Arab<br />

nor ‘Abbāsid (Leiden: Brill, 2003) 3.<br />

19 Al-•abarÊ, Ta"rÊkh al-rusul wa"l-mulåk, edd. Michael Jan de Goeje and Lawrence Conrad, Annals of the<br />

Apostles and Kings. A Critical Edition Including ‘Arib’s Supplement (Gorgias Press, 2005) vol. I, 220-<br />

221; The History of al-•abarÊ Volume II: Prophets and Patriarchs, translated and annotated by William<br />

M. Brinner (Alban, NY: State University of New York Press, 1985) 19.<br />

20 For example the 8 th century Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer, Chapter 23 [28a] (Friedlander edition): “Noah brought his sons<br />

and his grandsons, and he blessed them with their (several) settlements, and he gave them as an inheritance all the<br />

earth. He especially blessed Shem and his sons, black but comely, and he gave them the inhabitable earth. He<br />

blessed Ham and his sons, black like a raven, and he gave them as an inheritance the coast of the sea. He blessed<br />

Japheth and his sons, they entirely white, and he gave them for an inheritance the desert and its fields; these (are the<br />

inheritances with) which he endowed them.”<br />

21 On al-bay§∙ as ‘luminous’ and free of blemish raher than as ‘white-skinned’ see below.<br />

4


Semites, probably all genealogically related. 22 We know Mås§ (Moses) was black-skinned and, 23<br />

while this is controversial, according to a number of reports Is§ (Jesus) was as well. 24 From this<br />

perspective one might expect Islam’s last prophet to be a dark-skinned Semite too.<br />

This religio-literary tradition of dark-skinned Semites is consistent with the linguistic<br />

evidence. “Semitic” is properly a linguistic designation, not racial, and describes several living<br />

and dead languages and their native speakers. The Semitic family of languages, the most<br />

widespread of which is Arabic, is a branch of a larger language phylum, called by some scholars<br />

Afroasiatic (hereafter AA), which consists of the Semitic, Ancient Egyptian, Berber, Cushitic,<br />

Omotic and Chadic families. 25 While a few scholars maintain that the AA family originated in<br />

Asia, 26 most now seem to argue that it originated in Africa where five of the six generally<br />

recognized branches still reside. 27 The Proto-Semites likely originated from these African AA<br />

speakers, either in Africa itself or maybe, after migrating northward, in the Levant. 28<br />

22 The Qur"§n suggests that the prophets were all of the same family, the progeny (dhurriya) of Adam through<br />

Abraham (57:26; 29:27; 4:163; 19:58). MuÈammad referred to the prophets as paternal brothers (awl§d #al§t):<br />

‘aÈÊÈ BukharÊ, kit§b aȧdith al-anbiy§", # 651, 652. See further David S. Powers, MuÈammad Is Not the<br />

Father of Any of Your Men: The Making of the Last Prophet (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,<br />

2009) 51; Willem A Bijlefeld, “A Prophet and More than a Prophet?” Muslim World 59 (1969): 17-18.<br />

23 Moses was reportedly tall, thin, curly (ja#d) or straight (sabiã) haired and black-skinned (§dam): ‘aÈÊÈ BukharÊ,<br />

kit§b aȧdith al-anbiy§", # 574, 607, 608, 647, 648.<br />

24 According to an oft-quoted hadith: “Ibn Umar narrated: the Prophet (s) said: “[During my Ascension to Heaven] I<br />

saw Moses, Jesus, and Abraham. Jesus was white-skinned (aÈmar), curly haired with a broad chest; Moses was blackskinned<br />

(§dam), straight-haired and tall as if he was from the people of al-£uãã”: ‘aÈÊÈ BukharÊ, kit§b aȧdith<br />

al-anbiy§", # 648; Ibn Sa#d, Kib§b al-ãabaq§t al-kabÊr, I/ii,125 (=Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir, I/ii, 492). On<br />

this account it is popularly accepted that, while Moses was black-skinned, Jesus was white-skinned. However,<br />

another report insists that this is erroneous: “S§lim narrated from his father: ‘No, By Allah, the Prophet (s) did not<br />

say that Jesus was white-skinned but said: “While I was asleep circumambulating the Ka’ba (in my dream), suddenly<br />

I saw a black-skinned man (rajul §dam) with straight hair walking between two men, and water dripping from his<br />

head. I asked who he was, and the men said he is the Son of Mary (Jesus). Then I looked behind and saw a whiteskinned<br />

man (rajul aÈmar), fat, curly-haired and blind in the right eye which looked like a bulging grape. I asked<br />

whom he was and they said, ‘This is al-Dajj§l’.”’”: ‘aÈÊÈ BukharÊ, kit§b aȧdith al-anbiy§", # 650, 649. In other<br />

words, the white-skinned man seen in MuÈammad’s vision was not Jesus, who was seen as a black-skinned man, but<br />

al- Dajj§l. #AlÊ Q§wÊ al-HarawÊ (d. 1014/1605) in his commentary on al-TirmidhÊ’s famous al-Sham§"il al-<br />

MuÈammadÊyah mentions a variant hadith according to which MuÈammad said regarding Jesus: “I saw a blackskinned<br />

man (rajul §dam), the best one can see among black-skinned men.” Q§wÊ al-HarawÊ, Kit§b jam# alwas§"il<br />

fÊ sharÈ al-sham§"il (Istanbul: Maãba’at Shaykh YaÈy§, 1874) 58.<br />

25 See John Huehnergard, “Afro-Asiatic,” in Roger D. Woodard (ed.), The Ancient Languages of Syria-<br />

Palestine and Arabia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) 225-246.<br />

26 Jared Diamond and Peter Bellwood, “Farmers and Their Languages: The First Expansions,” Science 300 (2003):<br />

597-603; idem, “Response,” Science 306 (2004) 1681; Alexander Militariev, “Home for Afrasian: African or<br />

Asian,” in Cushitic and Omotic Languages: Proceedings of the Third International Symposium,<br />

Berlin, March 17-19, 1994 (Berlin, 1994) 13-32; “Evidence of Proto-Afrasian Cultural Lexicon (1. Cultivation of<br />

Land. II. Crops. III. Dwelling and Settlement),” in Hans G. Mukarovsky (ed.), Proceedings of the Fifth<br />

International Hamito-Semitic Congress (Wien, 1990) I: 73-85; Werner Vycichl, “The Origin of the Hamito-<br />

Semitic Languages,” in Herrmann Jungraithmayr and Walter W. Müller (edd.), Proceedings of the Fourth<br />

Internation Hamito-Semitic Congress, Marburg, 20-22 September, 1983 (Amsterdam and Philadelphia:<br />

John Benjaminus Publishing Company, 1987) 109-121.<br />

27 Huehnergard, “Afro-Asiatic,” 225; Christopher Ehret, S.O.Y Keita and Paul Newman, “The Origins of<br />

Afroasiatic,” Science 306 (2004) 1680-1681; Carleton T. Hodge, “Afroasiatic: The Horizon and Beyond,” in Scott<br />

Noegel and Alan S. Kaye (edd.), Afroasiatic Linguistics, Semitics, and Egyptology: Selected Writings of<br />

Carleton T. Hodge (Bethesda, Maryland: CDL Press, 2004) 64; Christopher Ehret, Reconstructing Proto-<br />

Afroasiatic (Proto-Afrasian): vowels, tone, consonants, and vocabulary (Berkeley: University of<br />

California Press, 1995) 487; Nicholas Faraclas, “They Came Before the Egyptians: Linguistic Evidence for the<br />

5


An African origin of the Proto-Semites would make the evidence of an African<br />

background to the early Arabs comprehensible. George Mendenhall believes he has identified<br />

the “earliest identifiable Arabic-speaking social group,” viz. the Midianites, an important political<br />

entity that came into existence suddenly in the 13 th century BCE in northwest Arabia.<br />

Mendenhall argues that this highly sophisticated culture spoke a language which is an archaic<br />

ancestor of modern Arabic. 29 This is significant, if true, because as David Goldenberg<br />

documents, “Kush is the ancient name of Midian” and “the people of Northwest Arabia (Midian)<br />

were called Kushites.” 30 This would make the earliest identifiable group of Arabic-speakers<br />

Kushites. If, as Jan Restö suggests as well, the Priestly author(s) of the Hebrew Bible offers us the<br />

earliest attempt at a systematic description of peoples living on the Arabian peninsula around the<br />

7 th century BCE, 31 these peoples in general are there identified as Kushites (Gen 10:7) too. 32 The<br />

Classical authors called the whole region from India to Egypt, both counties inclusive, by the<br />

name Ethiopia. 33 Kushites were the dominant ethnic group in Syro-Palestine in late 8 th and 7 th<br />

African Roots of Semitic Languages,” in Silvia Federici (ed.), Enduring Western Civilization: The<br />

Construction of the Concept of Western Civilization and Its “Others” (Westport, Connecticut and<br />

London: Praeger, 1995) 175-96; Joseph H. Greenberg, "African linguistic classification," in Joseph Ki-Zerbo (ed.),<br />

General History of Africa, Volume 1: Methodology and African Prehistory (Berkeley and Los Angeles:<br />

University of California Press. 1981) 292–308. On the Africa vs. Asia AA Origin dispute see Daniel P. Mc Call,<br />

“The Afroasiatic Language Phylum: African in Origin, or Asian?” Current Anthropology 39 (1998): 139-143.<br />

28 A number of scholars postulate an African origin of the Semitic linguistic family and its speakers: See e.g. Gregorio<br />

del Olmo Lete, Questions of Semitic Linguistics. Root and Lexeme: The History of Research (Bethesda,<br />

Maryland: CDL Press, 2008) 115; Edward Lipiński, Semitic Languages: Outline of a Comparative<br />

Grammar (Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters and Departement Oosterse Studies, 1997) 42-43; Faraclas, “They Came<br />

Before the Egyptians” 190; A. Murtonen, Early Semitic (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1967), 74; George Aaron Barton,<br />

Semitic and Hamitic Origins: Social and Religious (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1934) 8;<br />

idem, “The Origins of Civilization in Africa and Mesopotamia, Their Relative Antiquity and Interplay,”<br />

Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 68 (1929) 303-312. On the other hand, some scholars<br />

postulate a Levantine origin of Proto-Semitic. That is to say, a group of African AA speakers migrated northeast into<br />

the Levant and there evolved the Proto-Semitic language, maybe as early as the 8 th millennium BCE. See Peter<br />

Bellwood, First Farmers: The Origin of Agricultural Societies (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005) 209; Igor<br />

M. Diankonoff, “The Earliest Semitic Society,” Journal of Semitic Studies 43 (1998): 209-219; idem, “Earliest<br />

Semites in Asia,” Altorientalische Forschungen 8 (1981)23-70 (the former article by Diankonoff [1998] is a<br />

modification of his views expressed in this latter article [1981]).<br />

29 George E. Mendenhall, “Arabic in Semitic Linguistic History,” JAOS 126 (2006): 17-26; The Anchor Bible<br />

Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman et al, 6 vols. (New York: Doubleday, 1992) 4:815 s.v. Midian by George E.<br />

Mendenhall; idem, “The Syro-Palestinian Origins of the Pre-Islamic Arabic,” in Studies in the History and<br />

Archaeology of Palestine, vol. III (Aleppo University Press, 1988) 215-223.<br />

30 David M. Goldenberg, The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and<br />

Islam (Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World) (Princeton: Princeton<br />

University Press, 2005) 28, 54. See also Jan Retsö, The Arabs in Antiquity: Their History from the<br />

Assyrians to the Umayyads (London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003) 139.<br />

31 Retsö, Arabs in Antiquity, 212. Fred V. Winnett similarly saw the genealogies of Gen. 10:7 as Arabian<br />

genealogies which “contain information of considerable value for the reconstruction of early Arabian history.” He<br />

assumes these genealogies reflect the political and tribal situation in 6 th cent BCE Arabia. Fred V. Winnett, “The<br />

Arabian Genealogies in the Book of Genesis,” in Harry Thomas Frank and William L. Reed (edd.), Translating<br />

and Understanding the Old Testament. Essays in Honor of Herbert Gordon May (Nashville and New<br />

York: Abingdon Press, 1970) 173.<br />

32 Regarding the genealogies of Gen. 10:7 Claus Westermann, Genesis 1-11: A Commentary (Minneapolis:<br />

Augsburg Publishing House, 1984) 511 notes: “It is certain that the majority of the names describes peoples in<br />

Arabia,” not Africa.<br />

33 E.g. Strabo, Geography, Book I, Chapter 2, §§ 24-40; E. A. Wallis Budge, A History of Ethiopia, Nubia and<br />

Abyssinia (According to the Hieroglyphic Inscriptions of Egypt and Nubia and the Ethiopian<br />

6


centuries BCE, 34 though the Africoid presence there probably went back as far as the Natufian<br />

culture of the 10 th millennium BCE. 35 These were no doubt black or dark-skinned (though not<br />

necessarily Negroid) Syro-Palestinians. 36 Being that peoples designated as Arabs first appear in<br />

sources connected with events in Syria in the first centuries of the first millennium BCE, 37 it is not<br />

unlikely that the historical Arabs emerged out of these various groups of Arabian Kushites. 38<br />

Chronicles) 2 vols. (London, 1928: Methuen; republished in Oosterhout, the Netherlands, in 1966 in one volume<br />

by Anthropological Publications) I: 2. See also J.W. Gardner, “Blameless Ethiopians and Others,” Greece and<br />

Rome 24 (1977): 185-193. In this connection it is appropriate to note that many of the early twentieth century<br />

European observes and ethnographers assumed the original Arabians to have been black-skinned Hamites, part of a<br />

supposed ‘black belt of mankind’ stretching from Africa to Melanesia. See e.g. C.G. Seligman, “The Physical<br />

Characters of the Arabs,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 47<br />

(1917): 214-237; Henry Field, “Ancient and Modern Inhabitants of Arabia,” The Open Court 46 (1932): 847-869;<br />

Bertram Thomas, “Racial Origin of the Arabs,” in idem, The Arabs: The life-story of a People who have left<br />

their deep impress on the world (London: Thorton Butterworth Ltd., 1937) 353-359.<br />

34 On the Kushite presence in the Syro-Palestine region see Roger W. Anderson, Jr. “Zephaniah ben Cushi and the<br />

Cush of Benjamin: Traces of Cushite Presence in Syria-Palestine,” in Steven W. Holloway and Lowell K. Handy<br />

(edd.), The Picture is Broken: Memorial Essays for Gösta W. Ahlström (JSOTSupp 190; Sheffield:<br />

Sheffield Academic Press, 1995) 45-70. William Foxwell Albright documented a district or tribe called Kush in<br />

southern Transjordan in the 19 th century BCE and a Kûàân-rÙm, “high Kushan” in Northern Syria in 13 th -12 th cent<br />

BCE. Williams Foxwell Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel (Baltimore: The John Hopkins Press,<br />

1956) 205 n. 49. On the Kushite presence in North Arabia see also Goldenberg, Curse of Ham, 20: “The existence<br />

of a Kushite people in the general area and references to it in the Bible have become well accepted in biblical<br />

scholarship.” Even Arabic tradition records an Arabian Kush. Ibn al-Muj§wir in his T§rÊkh al-mustabßir records a<br />

tradition according to which the southern Tih§ma was called Kush. G. Rex Smith, A Traveller in Thirteenth-<br />

Century Arabia: Ibn al-Mujāwir’s Tārīkh al-mustabßir [London: Ashgate, 2008] 83 [Eng. 109]<br />

35 On the Natufians of Palestine see C. Loring Brace et al, “The questionable contribution of the Neolithic and the<br />

Bronze Age to European craniofacial form,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 103<br />

(2006): 242-247; Margherita Mussi, “The Natufian of Palestine: The Biginnings of Agriculture in a<br />

Palaeoethnological Perspective,” Origini 10 (1976) 89-107; F.J. Los, “The Prehistoric Ethnology of Palestine,”<br />

Mankind Quarterly 7 (1966): 53-59; Sir Arthur Keith, “The Late Palaeolithi Inhabitants of Palestine,”<br />

Proceedings of the First International Congress of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences, London<br />

August 1-6 1932 (London: Oxford University Press, 1934) 46-47; idem, New Discoveries Relating to the<br />

Antiquity of Man (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1931) 210-211.<br />

36 As Roger W. Anderson, Jr. notes: “The Cushites were probably dark-skinned or burnt-faced people, ones whom<br />

we would classify today as black.” Anderson, “Zephaniah ben Cushi,” 68. But Anderson wants to connect these<br />

Syrian Kushites with the Nubian rulers of Egypt’s 25th Dynasty who had some influence in the area. On the other<br />

hand Robert D. Haak has shown that this association is untenable. “ ‘Cush’ in Zephaniah,” in Holloway and<br />

Handy, Picture is Broken, 238-251. On Kushites in the area see also Israel Eph’al, The Ancient Arabs:<br />

Nomads on the Borders of the Fertile Crescent 9th – 5th Centuries B.C. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1982) 78-79.<br />

The ancient Egyptians also depicted Syro-Palestinians as having “dark hair, brown complexions and Semitic<br />

features”: Frank J. Yurco, “Were the Ancient Egyptians Black or White,” BAR 15 (Sept/Oct 1989): 26. In sum, in<br />

Near Eastern, Greco-Roman, Biblical and post-biblical Jewish literatures, Kushites are noted for their black skin.<br />

Goldenberg, Curse of Ham, 113-114.<br />

37 Retsö, Arabs in Antiquity, 119.<br />

38 Arabian populations in fact have a much deeper relationship to African populations. The peninsula is, in terms of<br />

geology and ecology, more appropriately seen as a part of Africa rather than Asia [Maurizio Tosi, “The Emerging<br />

Picture of Prehistoric Arabia,” Annual Review of Anthropology 15 (1986): 461-490; D.T. Potts, The Arabian<br />

Gulf in Antiquity, Vol. I: From Prehistoric to the Fall of the Achaemenid Empire (Oxford: Oxford<br />

University Press, 1990) 9; Ali A. Mazrui, Euro-Jews and Afro-Arabs: The Great Semitic Divergence in<br />

World History (Lanham: University Press of America, 2008) Chapter Seven]. The first hominines of the peninsula<br />

were likely African migrants, Arabia being one of the first territories reached as they expanded out of Africa [Jeffrey<br />

I. Rose and Michael D. Petraglia, “Tracking the Origin and Evolution of Human Populations in Arabia,” in<br />

Petraglia and Rose, Evolution of Human Populations, 1; Michael D. Petraglia, “The Lower Paleolithic of the<br />

7


Some Rabbinic literature suggests that on the eve of MuÈammad’s preaching in Mecca the<br />

Arabs were still identified as Kushites.<br />

The King of the Arabs put this question to R. Akiba: “I am black (kûšī) and my wife is<br />

black (kûšīt), yet she gave birth to a white son. Shall I kill her for having played the harlot<br />

while lying with me? (Num. R. IX.34) 39<br />

While this midrash is probably completely legendary, it does give us a hint of Arabian<br />

ethnography, or what the views of the 5 th /6 th century CE redactors of this text were regarding<br />

Arabian ethnography at the time. 40 See also the Targum Shir ha-Shirim commenting on Song of<br />

Songs 1:5 (“I am black but comely, O Daughters of Jerusalem, [black] as the tents of Qedar”):<br />

When the people of the House of Israel made the Calf, their faces became black like the<br />

sons of Kush who dwell in the tents of Qedar. 41<br />

The Qedar were a powerful Arab tribe of Syria and North Arabia in the 7 th century<br />

BCE. 42 Here they are identified with Kush. They were not active at the time of Rabbi Akiba’s<br />

5 th /6 th century CE redactors, but apparently their memory was still alive and was transferred to<br />

the contemporary black Arabs of the time. “The blackness of the Arabian king,” Restö observes,<br />

“is due to his dwelling in the land of the Qedar whose inhabitants are black, according to the<br />

Song of Songs.” 43<br />

Today the southern portion of the peninsula is home to this dark-skinned Arab, like the<br />

Mahra, Qara, and Shahra tribes of Oman and Hadramawt, 44 which show some affinity to the<br />

Arabian Peninsula: Occupations, Adaptations, and Dispersals,” Journal of World History 17 (June 2003): 173;<br />

Norman M. Whalen and David E. Peace, “Early Mankind in Arabia,” ARAMCO World 43:4 (1992): 20, 23].<br />

Arabian archaeology shows links with African materials [Jakub Rídl, Christopher M. Edens, and Viktor 1erny,<br />

“Mitochondrial DNA Structure of Yemeni Population: Regional Differences and the Implications for Different<br />

Migratory Contributions,” in Michael D. Petraglia and Jeffrey I. Rose (edd.), The Evolution of Human<br />

Populations in Arabia: Paleoenvironments, Prehistory and Genetics (London and New York: Springer,<br />

2009) 71; Whalen and Peace, “Early Mankind in Arabia,” 20, 23]. For further links between southern Arabia and<br />

Africa see below n. 45. Craniofacial measurements in nearly 2000 recent and prehistoric crania from major<br />

geographical areas of the Old World indicated that ancient West Asians and Africans resembled each other. See<br />

Tsunehiko Hanihara, “Comparison of Craniofacial Features of Major Human Groups,” American Journal of<br />

Physical Anthropology 99 (1996): 389-412. On the colonization of Western Asia from Africa see Ofer Bar-Yosef,<br />

“Early colonizations and cultural continuities in the Lower Palaeolithic of western Asia,” in Michael D. Petraglia and<br />

Ravi Korisettar (edd.), Early Human Behaviour in Global Context: The Rise and Diversity of the Lower<br />

Palaeolithic Record (London: Routledge, 1998): 221-279.<br />

39 Num. R. IX.34 on Numbers 5:19 (Soncino translation).<br />

40 Retsö, Arabs in Antiquity, 530. On the rabbinic view of the Arab as dark-skinned see further Goldenberg,<br />

Curse of Ham, 122-24.<br />

41 The Targums of Canticles (The Aramaic Bible 17A), Translated, with a Critical Introduction, Apparatus, and<br />

Notes by Philip S. Alexander (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1986) 81.<br />

42 On Qedar see Jaroslav Stetkevych, MuÈammad and the Golden Bough: Reconstructing Arabian Myth<br />

(Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1996) 68-77.<br />

43 Restö, Arabs in Antiquity, 530.<br />

44 On these tribes see J. E. Peterson, “Oman’s diverse society: Southern Oman,” The Middle East Journal 58<br />

(Spring 2004): 254ff; Encyclopedia of Islam [Second Edition; hereafter EI 2 ] 6:81-84 s.v. Mahra by W.W. Müller;<br />

Bertram Thomas, “Among Some Unknown Tribes of South Arabia,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological<br />

Institute 59 (1929): 97-111; For photos of these black-skinned South Arabians see further Richard F. Nyrop (ed.),<br />

The Yemens Country Studies (Washington D.C.: The American University, 1985): 5-7; D. Van der Meulen,<br />

8


Veddoid-<strong>Dr</strong>avidoid racial type of India and the Ethiopian type of East Africa. 45 However, as late<br />

as the 19 th century dark-skinned Arabs were still noticeable in the Hejaz as well. <strong>Muhammad</strong><br />

Sadiq Bey, who traveled to Medina in 1861, noted that while there were some light-skinned,<br />

almost white Medinese, the people were still basically of “a dark, almost black complexion.” 46 If<br />

the Proto-Semites in general and the early Arabs in particular were a Kushite or dark-skinned<br />

people, on this basis we would, again, expect the Arab prophet of noble genealogy to be a darkskinned<br />

Arab. Evidence from the Classical Islamic literary tradition suggests that the alternative –<br />

a white-skinned Arab prophet – is not only unlikely but even quite absurd.<br />

III. The Black Arabs in Islamic Literary Tradition<br />

The idea that true Arabs were black-skinned and that a fair complexion characterized<br />

non-Arabs – Persians, Byzantines, Turks, ect. – is frequently met with in Classical Arabic/Islamic<br />

literature. Ibn Maníår (d. 711/1311) in his Arabic lexicon, Lis§n al-#arab, notes the opinion<br />

that the phrase aswad al-jilda, ‘black-skinned,’ idiomatically meant kh§liß al-#arab, “the pure<br />

Arabs,” “because the color of most of the Arabs is dark (al-udma).” 47 In other words, blackness of<br />

skin among the Arabs indicated purity of Arab ethnicity. Likewise did the famous grammarian<br />

from the century prior, <strong>Muhammad</strong> b. BarrÊ al-‘AdawÊ (d. 589/1193) note that an akh∙ar or<br />

black-skinned Arab was “a pure Arab (#arabÊ maÈ∙)” with a pure genealogy, “because Arabs<br />

describe their color as black (al-aswad).” 48 Al-JaÈií (d. 255/869), in his Fakhr al-såd§n #al§ lbidan,<br />

thus declared: “The Arabs pride themselves in (their) black color (al-#arab tafkhar bi-saw§d<br />

al-lawn).” 49<br />

“Into Burning Hadhramaut” The National Geographic Magazine 62 (1932): 393-421; Sir Arthur Keith and <strong>Dr</strong>.<br />

Wilton Marion Krogan, “The Racial Characteristic of the Southern Arabs,” in Bertram Thomas, Arabia Felix,<br />

Across the ‘Empty Quarter’ of Arabia (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1932) 327 facing, 330 facing 333.<br />

45 Speaking of the Qara Peterson (“Oman’s Diverse Society,” 261) notes: “European observers have made much of<br />

their physical resemblance to Somalis or Ethiopians”. Vitaly V. Naumkin, Island of the Phoenix, an<br />

Ethnological Study of the People of Socotra (Ithaca Press Reading, 1993) 67 notes also: “Socotra, and possibly<br />

all of Southern Arabia, may after all be the missing intermediate link in the race-genetic ‘west-east’ gradient for<br />

which anthropologists search in order to fill the gap between the African Negroids and the Australo-Veddo-<br />

Melanesian types in the equatorial area.”. The Encyclopedia Britanica [9th Edition; 1:245-46 s.v. Arabia] lists<br />

ten literary, linguistic, cultural, and ethnological evidences suggesting some relation between South Arabians and<br />

Africa. See also EI 1 VIII: 1156 s.v. al-Yaman by Adolf Grohmann; Carleton Stevens Coon, The Races of Europe<br />

(New York: The Macmillan Company, 1939) 402-3; Sir Arthur Keith and <strong>Dr</strong>. Wilton Marion Krogman, “The<br />

Racial Characters of the Southern Arabs,” in Bertram Thomas, Arabia Felix, Across the ‘Empty Quarter’ of<br />

Arabia (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1932) 301-333; Bertram Thomas, “Anthropological Observatins in<br />

South Arabia,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 62 (1932) 83-<br />

103. For a discussion of the recent genetic data suggesting ancient and more recent gene-flow from Africa to Yemen<br />

see Rídl, Edens, and 1erny, “Mitochondrial DNA Structure of Yemeni Population,” 69-78. On the cultural links<br />

between Bronze Age Yemen and the Horn of Africa see Christopher Edens and T.J. Wilkinson, “Southwest Arabia<br />

During the Holocene: Recent Archaeological Developments,” Journal of World History 12 (1998): 55-119.<br />

46 John De St. Jorre, “Pioneer Photographer of the Holy Cities,” Saudi Aramco World (Jan-Feb 1999) 45.<br />

47 Ibn Maníår, Lis§n al-#arab (Beirut: D§r al-‘§dir - D§r al-Bayråt, 1955-1956) s.v. رضخا IV:245f; See also<br />

Edward William Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon (London: Williams & Norgate 1863) I: 756 s.v. رضخ .<br />

48 Ibn Maníår, Lis§n al-#arab, s.v. رضخا IV:245. On akh∙ar (lit. green) as black (aswad) see further al-MawardÊ, al-<br />

AÈk§m al-sulã§niyya w"al-wil§y§t al-dÊniyya, trans. Wafaa H. Wahba, Al-MawardÊ: The Ordinances of<br />

Government (Reading: Garnet Publishing, Ltd, 1996) 190; K. Vollers, “Über Rassenfarben in der arabischen<br />

Literatur,” Centenario della nascita di Michele Amari 1 (1910) 3.<br />

49 Al-JaÈií, Fakhr al-såd§n #al§ al-bidan, in Ris§"il Al-JaÈií, 4 vols. (Cairo, 1964) I:207. See also the English<br />

translation by T. Khalidi, “The Boast of the Blacks Over the Whites,” Islamic Quarterly 25 (1981): 3-26 (17).<br />

9


A particularly instructive case is that of the Arab poet RabÊ# b. #$mir of the early<br />

Umayyad period, better known as MiskÊn al-D§rimÊ (d. 90/708). MiskÊn was a distinguished<br />

member of noble ancestry from the Banå D§rim from TamÊm of Iraq. 50 A pure Arab born to a<br />

wealthy family, he was known for being “very dark, handsome, courageous, and eloquent”. 51<br />

MiskÊn was famously black-skinned (al-aswad; al-sumra) and a pureblooded Arab. 52 At a certain<br />

point in his life MiskÊn became a very religious ascetic. He gave up his wealth with its finery and<br />

his poetry, and all but locked himself in a mosque in Medina. According to a well-known<br />

anecdote, MiskÊn proposed to a woman of his tribe who rejected him because of both his<br />

blackness and (now) poverty. She instead married a wealthy, fairer-skinned man who was not a<br />

pure Arab. One day MiskÊn passed the two on the street and recited some verses to them,<br />

boasting of his noble heritage and denigrating her spousal choice for his lack of the same. He said<br />

before them:<br />

I am MiskÊn to those who know me.<br />

My complexion is dark brown (al-sumra),<br />

the complexion of the Arabs. 53<br />

Regarding her husband MiskÊn said: “the wealth of his house (samÊn al-bayt) is poverty with<br />

respect to genealogy (mahjål al-nasab),” 54 i.e. his material wealth cannot equal MiskÊn’s pure Arab<br />

genealogy, which her choice lacks. This anecdote articulates an important historical truth: pure<br />

Arabs were black-skinned Arabs. 55 Secondly, and related to this point, fair-skinned Arabs were<br />

considered of ignoble birth. 56<br />

That a fair complexion was a distinctly non-Arab trait is equally well documented in the<br />

Classical Arabic sources. Ibn Maníår affirms:<br />

Red (al-Èamr§#) refers to non-Arabs due to their fair complexion which predominates<br />

among them. And the Arabs used to say about the non-Arabs with whom white skin was<br />

characteristic, such as the Romans, Persians, and their neighbors: ‘They are red-skinned<br />

(al-Èamr§#)…” al-Èamr§# means the Persians and Romans…And the Arabs attribute<br />

white skin to the slaves. 57<br />

Ibn Maníår goes on to quote important commentary on MuÈammad’s famous claim, “I was<br />

sent to the Whites (al-aÈmar) and the Blacks (al-aswad)’: “i.e., the Arabs and the non-Arabs, for the<br />

predominant complexion of the Arabs is dark brown [al-sumra wa l-udma] and that of the non-<br />

50 On him see AbÊ al-Faraj al-Ißfah§nÊ, Kit§b al-agh§nÊ (Beirut: D§r al-Thaq§h, 1955) 20: 167-178; EI 2 7:145<br />

s.v. MiskÊn al-D§rimÊ by Ch. Pellat.<br />

51 EI 2 7:145 s.v. MiskÊn al-D§rimÊ by Ch. Pellat.<br />

52 Al-Ißfah§nÊ, Kit§b al-agh§nÊ, 174.<br />

53 Al-Ißfah§nÊ, Kit§b al-agh§nÊ, 174. On sumra see below.<br />

54 Al-Ißfah§nÊ, Kit§b al-agh§nÊ, 175.<br />

55 Vollers, “Rassenfarden,” 86, 88.<br />

56 For another anecdote making the same point see Ibn AbÊ al-\adÊd, SharÈ nahj al-bal§ghah, ed. MuÈammad<br />

AbÊ al-Fa∙l Ibr§hÊm (Cairo: #^s§ al-B§bÊ al-\alabÊ, 1959) V:55.<br />

57 Ibn Maníår, Lis§n al-#arab, s.v. رمح IV: 210.<br />

10


Arabs is white [al-baya∙ wa l-Èumra].” 58 The same point was made by several other authors. The<br />

Syrian scholar and historian al-Dhahabī (d. 748/1348) observed:<br />

Red (al-Èamr§#), in the speech of the people of the Hejaz, means white-complexioned (albay∙§#<br />

bi-shuqra), and this is rare among them. Thus the meaning of the hadith ‘a red man as if<br />

one of the slaves.’ The speaker is saying that this is the complexion of the Christian slaves<br />

captured from Syria, Rome, and Persia (emphasis mine). 59<br />

White skin in Arab society signaled slave-status. The seventh century Arab from the tribe<br />

of Nakhāʾī, Shurayk b. #Abd All§h al-Qā∙ī, could claim that, because it was such a rare<br />

occurrence “a fair-skinned Arab (#arabÊ asqar) is something inconceivable (al-muȧl).” 60 Al-JaÈií<br />

even noted that it was common knowledge that Arabs were black and not white-skinned:<br />

[The Blacks say]: ‘The Arabs are from us (wa minn§ al-#arab), not from the whites,<br />

because their color is closer to ours. The Hindis complexion is more conspicuous than the<br />

Arabs, they are black (wa hum min al-sud§n). Since the Prophet (s) said, ‘I was sent to the<br />

Whites (al-aÈmar) and the Blacks (al-aswad),’ it is common knowledge that the Arabs are not<br />

white-skinned (al-#arab laysat bi-Èumra). 61<br />

Because white-skin was the mark of the Persian and Byzantine slaves, it was looked down<br />

upon by the dark-skinned Arabs. Al-Mubarrad (d. 285/898), the leading figure in the Basran<br />

grammatical tradition, claimed:<br />

The Arabs used to take pride in their brown and black complexion (al-sumra wa al-saw§d)<br />

and they had a distaste for a white and fair complexion (al-Èumra wa al-shaqra), and they<br />

used to say that such was the complexion of the non-Arabs. 62<br />

IV. MuÈammad’s Black Kinsfolk<br />

True Arabs were dark-brown-/black-skinned, and fair skin characterized non-Arab slaves<br />

in Arabian society: how could it be that the noble Arab prophet MuÈammad – who was accused<br />

by his Meccan detractors of much, but never of being a non-Arab – could have been faircomplexioned?<br />

If Arabs were characteristically dark-skinned, the reputedly most noble of Arab<br />

58 Ibn Maníår, Lis§n al-#arab, s.v. رمح IV: 209; ibid. s.v. رضخ IV: 245. See also Ibn AbÊ al-\adÊd, SharÈ nahj<br />

al-bal§ghah, V: 54 who notes regarding this prophetic statement: “He alludes to Arabs by ‘the blacks’ and the non-<br />

Arabs by ‘the reds’, for the Arabs call non-Arabs ‘red’ due to the fair-complexion that predominates among them.”<br />

59 Al-DhahabÊ, Siyar a#l§m al-nubal§", edd. Shu#ayb al-Arna "åã and Husayn al-Asad (Beirut: Mu"assasat al-<br />

Ris§lah, 1981) II:168.<br />

60 Ibn #Abd Rabbih, al-#Iqd al-farīd (Cairo: Maãba#at al-Istiq§mah, 1940-) VIII:147.<br />

61 Al-JaÈií, Fakhr al-såd§n #al§ al-bidan, 216 (Ar.); 22 (Eng.). Vollers (“Rassenfarben,” 87) notes also regarding<br />

this claim of MuÈammad: “Hier muss al-aÈmar die Perser und al-aswad die Araber bezeichnen”. See further Ignaz<br />

Goldziher, Muslim Studies (Muhammedanische Studien) 2 vols. (London, Allen & Unwin, 1967-), 1:268 who<br />

notes that, in contrast to the Persians who are described as red or light-skinned (aÈmar) the Arabs call themselves<br />

black.<br />

62 Apud Ibn AbÊ al-\adÊd, SharÈ nahj al-bal§ghah, V:56.<br />

11


tribes - MuÈammad’s own Quraysh tribe, and his H§shim clan in particular – were famous for<br />

their black complexion and, thus, pure genealogy. 63<br />

The Quraysh consisted of several sub-clans. One important Qurayshī sub-clan is the<br />

Banå ’l-Mughīra of the larger Qurayshī sub-clan of the Banå Makhzåm. According to al-JaÈií:<br />

“The clan of Mughīra is the Khu∙r of the tribe of Makhzåm.” 64 By “the Khu∙r” al-JaÈií means<br />

the exceptionally dark or black-skinned (akh∙ar). 65 Thus, the second caliph ‘Umar’s mother,<br />

Khaythama bt. H§shim b. al-Mughīra is described as black (såd§"). 66 Another significant subclan<br />

is the Banå Zuhra, the tribe from which the prophet’s mother, Amīa bt. Wahb, hailed. Its<br />

members were likewise noted for their dark-complexion. See for example the famous Sa#d b. Abī<br />

Waqqās (d. 54/646), cousin of Amīa and uncle of MuÈammad. He is described as black-skinned<br />

(§dam), 67 flat-nosed (afãas) and tall. 68 MuÈammad, it should be noted, was quite proud of his<br />

uncle Sa#d. We are told that once MuÈammad was sitting with some of his companions and Sa#d<br />

walked by. The prophet stopped and taunted: “That’s my uncle. Let any man show me his<br />

uncle.” 69<br />

The Qurayshī sub-clan Banå H§shim is MuÈammad’s own family (usra), his clan (rahã),<br />

kinsfolk (§l), and relatives (dhawu l-qurb§). As the ahl al-bayt (family) of the Prophet the Banå<br />

H§shim enjoyed special status, both during his life time and in the early post-prophetic<br />

community. 70 This special status accorded the Banå H§shim was related to their noted purity. 71<br />

Henry Lammens remarks that they are “généralement qualifies de ﻢﺪﺁ = couleur foncée,” but he<br />

attributes this to the supposed fact that the Banå H§shim were “famille où dominait le sang<br />

nègre”. 72 This is unnecessary. The convergence of H§shimÊ blackness and genealogical nobility<br />

is well represented by the lineage of #Abd al-Muããalib (d. 578), the Prophet’s paternal<br />

grandfather. According to al-J§Èií:<br />

The ten lordly sons of #Abd al-Muããalib were deep black (dalham) in color and big<br />

(∙ukhm). 73 When Amir b. al-•ufayl saw them circumambulating (the Ka#ba) like dark<br />

camels, he said, “With such men as these is the custody of the Ka#ba preserved.” #Abd<br />

All§h b. #Abb§s was very black and tall. Those of Abå •§lib’s family, who are the most<br />

noble of men, are black and tall (såd wa ādam wa dulm).” 74<br />

63 As Robert F. Spencer remarks: “It is said that the Quraysh explained their short stature and dark skin by the fact<br />

that they always carefully adhered to endogamy.” Robert F. Spencer, “The Arabian Matriarchate: An Old<br />

Controversy,” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 8 (Winter, 1952) 488.<br />

64 Al-JāÈií, Fakhr al-såd§n #al§ al-bidan, 208 (Ar.); 18 (Eng.).<br />

65 Al-JaÈií, Fakhr al-såd§n #al§ al-bidan, 207, 208 (Ar.); 17, 18 (Eng.): “Blacks according to the Arabs are alkhu∙r<br />

because al-akh∙ar is black (li-anna al-akh∙ar aswad).”<br />

66 Al-Mas’ådÊ, Muråj al-dhahab wa-ma#§din al-jawhar, ed. C. Barbier de Meynard, Les Prairies d’Or 9<br />

vols. (Paris: Imprimerie impériale, 1861-[1930]), IV: 192; EI 2 6:139 s.v. Makhzåm, Banå by M. Hinds.<br />

67 On §dam see below n. 122.<br />

68 Al-DhahabÊ, Siyar, I:97.<br />

69 #Abd al-RaÈmān Rāfat al-Bāshā, ‘uwar min Èayāt al-‘aÈābah (Karachi: al-Maktabah al-GhafårÊya al-<br />

#$ßimÊyah, 1996 ) 287.<br />

70 See W.F. Madelung, “The ‘H§shimiyy§t’ of al-Kumayt and H§shmÊ Shi#ism,” Studia Islamica 70 (1989) 5-26.<br />

71 Madelung, “The ‘H§shimiyy§t’,” 24.<br />

72 Études sur le siècle des Omayyades (Beirut: Imprimerie Calholique, 1930) 44.<br />

73 Dalham is an intense blackness, aswad mudlahimm. See Lis§n al-#arab, XII: 206 s.v. ﻢهلد;Lane, Arabic-English<br />

Lexicon, I: 908 s.v. ﻢهلد.<br />

74 Al-JaÈií, Fakhr al-såd§n #al§ al-bidan, I:209.<br />

12


One of these ‘deep black and tall’ sons of #Abd al-Muããalib was #Abd All§h b. #Abd al-<br />

Muããalib, the Prophet’s father. Another is al-#Abb§s, the Prophet’s uncle whose descendants<br />

founded the #Abb§sid Dynasty in 132/750 CE. This was evidently a line of dark-skinned Arabs. 75<br />

#Abd All§h b. #Abb§s whom al-J§Èií described as “very black and tall,” was MuÈammad’s first<br />

cousin and his son, #Alī b. #Abd All§h, was also black-skinned (§dam). 76 Of particular<br />

importance for us are #Abd al-#Uzz§ (Abå Lahab), uncle and infamous enemy of the Prophet<br />

and Abå •§lib, supportive uncle and father of the progenitor of the Shiite line of Imams. Abå<br />

Lahab’s importance for us here rather lies with his great grandson, the seventh century CE<br />

Qurayshī poet, al-Fa∙l b. al-#Abb§s. Al-Fa∙l was a cousin of the Prophet. Called al-Akh∙ar al-<br />

LahabÊ “The Flaming Black,” he was well-known for his black complexion, handsome face and<br />

his genealogical purity, and reportedly recited these famous words:<br />

I am the black-skinned one (al-Akh∙ar). I am well-known.<br />

My complexion is black. I am from the noble house of the Arabs. 77<br />

Al-Fa∙l’s black-complexion (akh∙ar) was thus the visual mark of his pure, Qurayshī<br />

background. 78<br />

Al-J§Èií noted that Abå •§lib’s family was “the most noble of men” and “more or less<br />

black (såd).” This fact is further affirmed for Abå •§lib’s famous son, #Alī b. AbÊ •§lib (d.<br />

40/661), the first cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet. #Alī b. AbÊ •§lib was a very blackskinned<br />

Arab, described by his son Abå Ja#far MuÈammad as “an intensely black man (rajul<br />

§dam shadīd al-udma) with big, heavy eyes, pot-bellied, bald, and kind of short.” 79 Many of #Alī’s<br />

descendents, the sharÊfs/sayyids, were similarly described as black-skinned. 80 This ‘family<br />

blackness’ of Abå •§lib is very significant for our discussion of the appearance of the Prophet<br />

because Abå •§lib’s son Ja#far, known as al-H§shimÊ, “The H§shimite,” who is the elder<br />

brother of #Alī, is “one of MuÈammad’s kinsmen who most closely resembled him.” 81 Indeed,<br />

MuÈammad himself is reported to have said to his presumably black-skinned cousin: “You<br />

resemble me both in appearance and character (ashbahta khalqÊ wa khuluqÊ).” 82<br />

The representative of the Banå H§shim who is most instructive in this regard is<br />

MuÈammad b. #Abd Allāh (d. 145/762), known also as al-Nafs al-Zakiyya (“The Pure Soul”).<br />

75 In 659/1261 a black-skinned man claiming to be a surviving member of the Banå "l-#Abb§s after the destruction<br />

of Baghdad by the Mongols in 656/1258 was brought by a group of Iraqis to Cairo. He was given a ceremonious<br />

welcome by the Seljuk sultan, al-£§hir Baybars, who had the chief judge make an official inquiry into his genealogy.<br />

Once confirmed, Abå "l-Q§sim AÈmad b. al-£§hir MuÈammad was inaugurated as the first #Abb§sid ‘shadow’<br />

caliph in Cairo, taking the throne-name “al-Mustanßir”. See AÈmad al-DardÊr, al-SharÈ al-kabÊr, 4 vols. (Beirut:<br />

D§r al-Fikr, n.d.) IV:409 (on the margin of MuÈammad al-DasåqÊ, \§shÊyat al-dasåqÊ #al§ al-sharÈ al-kabÊr,<br />

4 vols. [Beirut: D§r al-Fikr, n.d.]); EI 2 VII:729 s.v. al-Mustanßir (II) by P.M. Holt.<br />

76 Al-Dhahabī, Siyar,V:253.<br />

77 Ibn Maníår, Lis§n al-#arab, s.v. رضخا IV:245f; al-MawardÊ, Ordinances, 190; Edward William Lane, Arabic-<br />

English Lexicon (London: Williams & Norgate 1863) I: 756 s.v. رضخ .<br />

78 Ibn Maníår, Lis§n al-#arab, s.v. رضخا IV:245; Ibn AbÊ al-\adÊd, SharÈ nahj al-bal§ghah, V: 56.<br />

79 Ibn Sa#d, al-•abaqāt al-kubrā III/i,17; Al-Suyåãī, Tārikh al-khulafā, ed. Jam§l MaÈmåd Mußãaf§<br />

(Cairo: D§r al-Fajr lil-Tur§th, 1999) 134.<br />

80 Ibn al-‘abb§gh, Al-Fusål al-muhimmah fÊ ma#rifat aÈw§ l-a"ummah (Najaf: D§r al-Kutub al-<br />

Tij§rÊyah, 1950) e.g. 183 (Zayn al-#$bidÊn, asmar), 193 (MuÈammad al-B§qir, asmar mu#tadil), 205 (Ja#far al-‘§diq,<br />

§dam§), 214 (Mås§ al-K§íim, asmar #amÊq).<br />

81 EI 2 II: 372 s.v. Dja#far b. AbÊ •§lib by L. Veccia Vaglieri.<br />

82 ‘aÈÊÈ BukharÊ, b§b fa∙§"il aßȧb al-nabÊ, no. 47 (=Translation, V:47).<br />

13


He was a pure descendent of the Prophet himself through the latter’s daughter F§ãimah, wife of<br />

#AlÊ b. AbÊ •§lib, a fact in which he took great pride. 83 This point is clearly evident in a letter he<br />

sent to the #Abb§sid caliph Abå Ja#far al-Manßår (r. 136-158/754 – 775), against whom he<br />

rebelled in 145/762. Al-Nafs al-Zakiyya felt Abå Ja#far al-Manßår’s mixed lineage (his mother<br />

was a Berber), among other things, disqualified him for leadership over the community. He<br />

wrote to the caliph:<br />

You well know that no one has laid claim to this office who has a lineage, nobility, and<br />

status like ours. By the nobility of our fathers, we are not the sons of the accursed, the<br />

outcasts, or freedmen…I am at the very center of the Banå H§shim’s lines. My paternity is<br />

purest among them, undiluted with non-Arab blood, and no concubines dispute over me. 84<br />

What did this pure Arab descendent of the Prophet look like? “MuÈammad (Al-Nafs al-Zakiyya)<br />

is described as tall and strong with very dark skin”. 85 According to al-•abarÊ:<br />

MuÈammad (Al-Nafs al-Zakiyya) was black, exceedingly black, jet black (§dam shadÊd aludma<br />

adlam) and huge. He was nicknamed “Tar Face” (al-q§rÊ) because of his black<br />

complexion (udmatihi), such that Abå Ja#far used to call him “Charcoal Face” (almuÈammam).<br />

86<br />

MuÈammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, a QurayshÊ Arab whose pure lineage on both his paternal and<br />

maternal sides put him “at the center” of the genealogical lines of the Banå H§shim, the<br />

Prophet’s kinsfolk, was so black he was called ‘Tar face’ and ‘Charcoal face.’ This is undoubtedly<br />

of significance for our discussion of the ethnicity and appearance of the Prophet himself. If<br />

MuÈammad too was a pure QurayshÊ Arab of the Banå H§shim, equally noble on ‘both his<br />

father’s and his mother’s side,’ 87 how could he have looked much different than al-Nafs al-<br />

Zakiyya, or #AlÊ b. AbÊ •§lib, or his deep black father #Abd All§h b. #Abd al-Muããalib?<br />

Excursus: ‘Black and Bearded’: What Did the Arabs of the Conquests Look Like?<br />

In 638 the Persian ruler Yazdgird III pleaded to the T’ang emperor of China, T’ai-tsung,<br />

for assistance against the Arabs who had invaded his realm. This assistance was refused. In 651<br />

an Arab embassy arrived in China bearing gifts. There are two extant notices of this embassy in<br />

Chinese literature: in the ninth-century administrative text, T’ung tien, which was presented to the<br />

83 <strong>Muhammad</strong> Qasim Zaman, “The Nature of MuÈammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya’s Mahdiship: A Study of Some<br />

Reports in Ißbah§nÊ’s Maq§til,” Hamdard Islamicus 13 (1990): 60-61.<br />

84 Quoted from al-•abarÊ, The History of al-•abarÊ, Vol. XXVIII: #Abb§sid Authority Affirmed, trans.<br />

annot. Jane Dammen McAuliffe (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985) 167-68.<br />

85 EI 2 7:389 s.v. MuÈammad b. #Abd Allāh by F. Buhl.<br />

86 Al-•abarÊ, Ta"rÊkh al-rusul wa"l-mulåk, X:203.<br />

87 According to Q§∙Ê #Iy§∙, al-Shif§, 92 (=al-Shifa, 43), MuÈammad “was from the best of the Banå H§shim,<br />

and the stock and core of the Quraysh. He was from the noblest and mightiest of the Arabs, both on his paternal and<br />

maternal side.” In fact, the Prophet could even claim to have been “the most Arab” of all his companions. Ibn<br />

Hish§m, SÊrat Rasål All§h, ed. F. Wüstenfeld (Göttingen, 1858-59) 101, 106 (=The Life of <strong>Muhammad</strong>, trans.<br />

A. Guillaume [London, 1955] 69, 72). See also Ibn KathÊr, al-SÊra al-Nabawiyya, trans. <strong>Dr</strong>. Trevor LeGassick,<br />

The Life of the Prophet MuÈammad 4 vols. (London: Center for Muslim Contributions to Civilization;<br />

Reading, UK: Garnet, 1998) I:130-141.<br />

14


throne in 801 by Tu Yu; and in the T’ang History, the official dynastic history of the T’ang<br />

completed in 945. In these notices the Arabs (called there Ta-shih) encountered during the Yunghui<br />

period (650-656) are described: “The Arab country was originally part of Persia. The men<br />

have high noses, are black and bearded.” 88<br />

Descriptions of the Arab conquerors of the West are similar. In the French epic poem<br />

Song of Roland (wr. ca. 1100), Sir Roland’s Saracen enemies at the Battle of Roncevaux (778) are<br />

described as “hordes blacker than the blackest ink – no shred of white on them except their<br />

teeth.” 89 Roland further describes the Saracen commander:<br />

at their head rides the Saracen…no worse criminal rides in their company, stained with the<br />

marks of his crimes and great treasons, lacking faith in God, Saint Mary’s son. And he is<br />

black, black as melted pitch… 90<br />

In a miniature from Charles V’s Grandes chroniques de Franch (ca. 1370s) Roland’s Saracen<br />

enemies are depicted black-skinned – though handsome – in contrast to the white faces of<br />

Roland and his charging Christian knights. 91 While it is certainly true that these depictions<br />

employ a symbolic convention that seeks to contrast the dark (sinful) from the (white) virtuous, 92<br />

they no doubt reflect a historical reality as well. This is confirmed by details relating to the Arab<br />

conquest of Egypt.<br />

The conquest of Egypt by the Arab Muslims in 641 was in the main carried out by darkskinned<br />

Arabs. 93 The second caliph who authorized the conquest, #Umar b. al-Khaãã§b (d.<br />

23/644), was a QurayshÊ Arab with African ancestry. Not only was his mother from the<br />

exceptionally dark Banå "l-MughÊra, but his paternal grandmother was an enslaved Ethiopian. 94<br />

The caliph himself has been described as a bald, black-skinned man (rajul §dam) as if he were<br />

from the Banå Sadås. 95 The troops were mainly Yemeni Arabs, who are noted for their dark<br />

88 Robert G. Hoyland, Seeing Islam As Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish<br />

and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam (Princeton, NJ: The Darwin Press, INC., 1997): 245, 250.<br />

89 The Song of Roland, trans. Frederick Goldin (New York: W.W. Norton, 1978) 99.<br />

90 Song of Roland, 107.<br />

91 See Rita Lejeune and Jacques Stiennon, The Legend of Roland in the Middle Ages 2 vols. (New<br />

York: Praeger Publishers, 1971), I: 288 and plate 41B; Strickland, Saracens, demons, & Jews, 179-180.<br />

92 Strickland, Saracens, demons, & Jews, 169.<br />

93 This seems also to be the case with regard to the conquest of Syria. The famous Khālid b. al-Walīd (d. 21/642),<br />

who led the Syrian expedition, was from the exceptionally black Banå l- MughÊra (EI 2 VI:138 s.v. Makhzåm by M.<br />

Hinds). Many leaders at the decisive Battle of Yarmåk (14/636), besides Kh§lid, were black-skinned Arabs, like<br />

#Amr b. al-#$ß and Abå l-A#war b. Sufy§n from the exceptionally black Banå Sulaym. Many SulaymÊs participated.<br />

On Abå l-A#war and the black Sulaym see Michael Lecker, The Banå Sulaym: A Contribution to the Study of<br />

Early Islam (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1989) 140, 242-245; EI 2 IX:818 s.v. Sulaym by M. Lecker; al-JaÈií,<br />

Fakhr al-såd§n #al§ al-bidan, 219 (Ar.), 23 (Eng).<br />

94 MuÈammad b. HabÊb, Kit§b al-Muhabbar, ed. E. Lichtenstädler (Hyderabad, 1361/1942) 306.<br />

95 Ibn Sa#d’s entry on this caliph, al-•abaqāt al-kubrā III/i, 234-235, presents disagreement over #Umar’s<br />

appearance. It is reported on the authority of both Zirr b. \ubaysh and Hil§l b. #Abd All§h that he was blackskinned.<br />

On the other hand, #Abd All§h b. #$mir and, surprisingly, the caliph’s famous son #Abd All§h reportedly<br />

claimed that he was extremely white-complexioned (abya∙ amhaq ta#låhu Èumra). But #Abd All§h b. #Umar is himself<br />

described as black-skinned (§dam; al-DhahabÊ, Siyar, III:209). According to his own black-skinned son (the caliph’s<br />

black-skinned grandson) S§lim b. #Abd All§h, Ibn #Umar said regarding this family blackness: “We inherited our<br />

black complexion (al-udma) from our maternal uncles.” Ibn Sa#d, al-•abaqāt al-kubrā III/i, 235. Ibn #Umar’s<br />

mother was Zaynab b. Maí#ån from the Jumah clan of the Quraysh. On the blackness of this clan see al-DhahabÊ,<br />

Siyar, I:160.<br />

15


complexions. 96 Leading the troops into Egypt was the Arab general #Amr b. al-#Aß (d. 45/664)<br />

who had previously commanded the Muslim forces in southern Palestine. He too had an<br />

Ethiopian mother and QurashÊ father. 97 #Amr was sent 4000 reinforcements divided into four<br />

detachments of 1000, each led by one of four commanders: al-Miqd§d b. al-Aswad, who was<br />

black-skinned (§dam) and tall 98 ; the black (aswad) and tall MuÈammad b. Maslama, an Arab from<br />

the Banå Aws 99 ; al-Zubayr b. al-Awwan, the cousin of the Prophet and nephew of KhadÊjah,<br />

who was dark brown-skinned (asmar al-lawn) 100 ; and the famously black (aswad) #Ub§da b. al-<br />

Ԥmit (d. 34/654). 101<br />

A famous incident involving #Ub§da likely illustrates the overall complexion of the<br />

Muslim conquest of Egypt. When Cyrus, the Byzantine governor of Egypt, sought negotiations<br />

with #Amr b. al-#Aß in October 640, the latter deputed ten of his officers to negotiate. They were<br />

led by #Ub§da. When the tall and black Ub§da was ushered into Cyrus’ presence, the governor<br />

was terrified and exclaimed: “Take away that black man: I can have no discussion with him!”<br />

The party insisted that #Ub§da was the wisest, best, and noblest among them and their appointed<br />

leader, declaring that “though he is black he is the foremost among us in position, in precedence,<br />

in intelligence and in wisdom, for blackness is not despised among us.” 102 #Ub§da himself then<br />

replied to Cyrus: “There are a thousand blacks, as black as myself, among our companions. I and<br />

they would be ready each to meet and fight a hundred enemies together.” 103 Benard Lewis<br />

makes an important observation here: “#Ub§da is not African nor even of African descent but (as<br />

the chroniclers are careful to point out) a pure and noble Arab on both sides.” 104 #Ub§da was an<br />

eminent AnߧrÊ from the tribe Awf b. al-Khazraj, 105 in particular the clan Banå Ghanm b.<br />

96 Almut Nebel et al, “Genetic evidence for the Expansion of Arabian Tribes into the Southern Levant and North<br />

Africa,” American Journal of Human Genetics 70 (2002): 1595; Kennedy, Great Arab Conquests, 147. On<br />

the dark-complexion of southern Arabs see above n. 45 and Baron von Maltzan’s description of the southern Arab,<br />

“Geography of Southern Arabia,” Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London 16 [1872]: 121:<br />

“Their complexion is almost as black as that of the Abyssinians; their bodies are very finely formed, and with<br />

slender, yet strong limbs; their faces are Semitic, noses generally aquiline, eyes full of fire, lips small, and mouths of<br />

very diminutive proportions. They are generally thin, and never fat; they have little or no beard, their hair is long,<br />

but curly, not woolly.”<br />

97 Ibn Habib, Kit§b al-Muhabbar, 306; Bernard Lewis, “The Crows of the Arabs,” Critical Inquiry 12 (1985):<br />

89 [art.=88-97].<br />

98 Al-•abarÊ, Ta"rÊkh al-rusul wa"l-mulåk, XIII, 2312; Y.A. Talib, “The African Diaspora in Asia,” in I.<br />

Hrbek, General History of Africa, III: Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century (Abridged<br />

Edition) (Paris: UNESCO, 1992) 338.<br />

99 Ibn ‘a#d, al-•abaqat al-kubr§, III/ii, 19; al-DhahabÊ, Siyar, II:371.<br />

100 Al-•abarÊ, Ta"rÊkh al-rusul wa"l-mulåk, XIII, 2313. Contra Kennedy, Great Arab Conquests, 151 who<br />

reports that he was pale-skinned. This latter claim is apparently based on the notice in Ibn #Abd al-\akam’s FutåÈ<br />

Mißr, where al-Zubayr is described as abya∙. FutåÈ Mißr wa-l-Maghrib (Cairo: Maktabat al-Thaq§fah al-<br />

DÊnåyah, 1995) 86. However, as demonstrated below, abya∙ as used of human complexions in the literature of this<br />

period does not normally indicate ‘pale-skinned’; Èumra, ‘red’ does.<br />

101 Ibn #Abd al-\akam, FutåÈ Mißr, ed. Charles C. Torrey (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1922) 66;<br />

MuÈammad b. #Abd All§h al-HimyarÊ, al-Raw∙ al-mu#aããar fÊ khabar al-aqã§r (Beirut: Maktabat<br />

Lubn§n, 1975) 553; Hitti, History of the Arabs, 163.<br />

102 Ibn #Abd al-\akam, FutåÈ Mißr (Torrey) 66; Bernard Lewis, Race and Color in Islam (New York: Harper<br />

& Row, 1979)10; Alfred Butler, The Arab Invasion of Egypt and the Last Years of Roman Domination<br />

(New York: A&B Publishers, 1992 [1902]) 257.<br />

103 Ibn #Abd al-\akam, FutåÈ Mißr (Torrey) 66.<br />

104 Lewis, Race and Color, 10; idem, Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry (New<br />

York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990) 26.<br />

105 Ibn Hibb§n, Mash§hÊr #ulam§" al-amߧr (Beirut: D§r al-Kutub al-#Ilmiyah, 1995) 66.<br />

16


Awf b. al-Khazraj, 106 thus a pure, very black-skinned Arab. The thousand fellow blacks, possibly<br />

the detachment of which he was commander, were no doubt black Arabs like him. 107<br />

Patricia Crone recently raised the question: What did the Bedouin of the Arab conquests<br />

look like? “(H)ow should we,” she queried, “tell a filmmaker who wanted to screen the story of<br />

the Arab conquests to depict the conquerors?” 108 A good question, though her focus was<br />

exclusively on the dress of the conquerors. However, the cumulative evidence suggests that they<br />

did not resemble the cast of Moustapha Akkad’s 1976 film, The Message. 109 Rather, in the context<br />

of our discussion, K. Vollers observation in 1910 is relevant to Crone’s question:<br />

So werden die Ausdrücke grün (akh∙ar) und Schwarz (aswad) oft identisch gebraucht. Die<br />

khu∙ra (von akh∙ar) wird neben der sumra (von asmar) als die herrschende Farbe der<br />

eigentlichen Beduinen genannt; ebenso heissen die Araber…aswad, Schwarz, im Gegensatz<br />

zu den Persern (aÈmar). 110<br />

Thus, when “The chansons de gestes routinely mention the blackness of Saracen skin,” 111 this does<br />

indeed have “support objectif et historique,” and is not simply because the Saracens were<br />

considered “méchants et maudits.” 112<br />

V. The Myth of the Swarthy Whites<br />

According to Arnold Toynbee in his tour d’force A Study of History, the Arabs of the<br />

Umayyad period identified themselves as ‘the swarthy people’ in contrast to their Persian and<br />

Turkish subjects whom they identified as ‘the ruddy people’. But he assures us that both are but<br />

“two shades of white,” similar to the common blond/brunet distinction. 113 While somewhat<br />

critical of Toynbee, Bernard Lewis shares and develops this idea of the Arabs as a group of tawny<br />

whites. 114 Noting that Classical Arabic color terminology often carries different significances than<br />

106 KhalÊl b. Aybak ‘afadÊ, Kit§b al-wafÊ bi-"l-wafay§t, ed. Helmut Ritter (Istanbul: Maãba#at al-dawlah, 1931-)<br />

XVI: 618-619; Al-•abarÊ, The History of Al-•abarÊ, Vol. VI: MuÈammad at Mecca (trans. W.<br />

Montgomery Watt and M.V. McDonald (Albany: SUNY Press, 1988) 126.<br />

107 Contra Daniel Pipes, “Black Soldiers in Early Muslim Armies,” International Journal of African Historical<br />

Studies 13 (1980) 87 who had to assume that, even though #Ub§da was a black Arab, the others must be African<br />

because he felt it unlikely that Black Arabs “would band together”. There is nothing to commend this argument<br />

which is, as Lewis remarks (Race and Slavery, 112 n. 14) “not supported by any other evidence in the rich Arabic<br />

historiography dealing with this period.”<br />

108 Patricia Crone, “’Barefoot and Naked’: What Did the Bedouin of the Arab Conquests Look Like?” Muqarnas<br />

25 (2008): 1.<br />

109 Freek L. Bakker (The Challenge of the Silver Screen: An Analysis of the Cinematic Portraits of Jesus,<br />

Rama, Buddha and <strong>Muhammad</strong> [Leiden: Boston, 2009] Chapter Five; idem, “The Image of <strong>Muhammad</strong> in<br />

The Message, the First and Only Feature Film about the Prophet of Islam,” Islam and Christian-Muslim<br />

Relations 17 [2006]: 77-92) noted the film’s fidelity to Muslim tradition, but Anthony Quinn’s lead character,<br />

Hamza, is in Muslim tradition one of the deep black (dalham) sons of #Abd al-Muããalib, MuÈammad’s paternal<br />

grandfather. Similarly, MuÈammad’s adopted son Zayd b. H§ritha, who was a short, flat-nosed and very blackskinned<br />

(§dam shadÊd al-udma) Arab, was well-played by the no doubt visually incongruous British actor Damien<br />

Thomas. On Zayd see below.<br />

110 Vollers, “Rassenfarben,” 86.<br />

111 Strickland, Saracens, demons, & Jews, 168.<br />

112 Contra Bancourt, Les Musulmans, I:58.<br />

113 Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History, vol. 1 (London: Oxford University Press, 1939) 266.<br />

114 Lewis, Race and Slavery, 19, 22.<br />

17


our own – the former being more concerned with brightness, intensity, and shade than with hue<br />

– Lewis suggests that the Arab self-description as ‘black’ is only relative and does not mean blackskinned;<br />

such terms as aswad, sumra, §dam and akh∙ar, all indicating a dark brown or black color,<br />

really signifies ‘swarthy’ when used by the Arabs of themselves in the Classical Arabic literature.<br />

Normal for the Arabs of the peninsula was a light brown or olive complexion. 115 They were<br />

certainly less dark than Africans. 116 Indeed, the conquered natives of Spain, Greece and other<br />

Mediterranean peoples were only “of somewhat lighter skin than the Arabs.” 117 These ‘black’<br />

Arabs and ‘red’ Persians were in fact so similar in complexion, Lewis proposes, that the son of an<br />

Arab father and Persian mother would not look much different from the son of two Arab<br />

parents. 118<br />

A closer look at the relevant references in the Arabic literature indicates that the above is<br />

a misreading. #Ub§da b. al-‘§mit, whom Lewis describes as swarthy, was in fact so black he<br />

struck terror in the heart of his poor Byzantine negotiating partner. 119 There can be no question<br />

of #Ub§da’s appearance being that of a nicely tanned white; on the contrary, his black-skin was<br />

(terrifyingly) real. Similarly, #Abd al-Muããalib’s ten sons – including MuÈammad’s father #Abd<br />

All§h and his important uncles Abå •§lib, Hamza and al-#Abb§s – were not swarthy, according<br />

to al-JaÈií, but a deep black, dalham. #AlÊ b. AbÊ •§lib was intensely black, §dam shadÊd aludma,<br />

120 not swarthy. 121 In fact, #AlÊ would have been about the same complexion as Bil§l, often<br />

said to be the first ‘black Muslim’; he too was §dam shadÊd al-udma. 122 Lewis’s proposition is thus<br />

turned on its head: the son of two Arabs (i.e. #AlÊ) looks little different from the son of an Arab<br />

and an African (i.e. Bil§l), rather than an Arab and a Persian.<br />

This myth of Arabian swarthy whites has informed some translations of the literature,<br />

sometimes with strange results. Notable in this regard is Jane Dammen McAuliffe’s translation of<br />

al-•abarÊ’s description of MuÈammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya. While al-•abarÊ describes the<br />

Imam as so excessively black (§dam shadÊd al-udma adlam) that he was called “Tar Face” (al-q§rÊ)<br />

and “Charcoal Face” (al-muÈammam), 123 McAuliffe renders this passage thusly: “MuÈammad was<br />

very swarthy-his complexion almost black”. 124 The distance between al-•abarÊ’s “excessively<br />

black” and McAuliffe’s “almost black” is significant and should be noted. Puzzling too is David<br />

Powers’ description of Zayd b. \§ritha (d. 8/629), the Prophet’s adopted son. According to<br />

Powers, “Zayd was short, his nose was flat and wide, and his skin was white or tawny colored.” 125<br />

115 Lewis, Race and Slavery, 22.<br />

116 Bernard Lewis, “The Crows of the Arabs,” Critical Inquiry 12 (1985) 88.<br />

117 Lewis, Race and Slavery, 22.<br />

118 Lewis, Race and Slavery, 40.<br />

119 Ibn #Abd al-\aham, FutåÈ mißr (Torrey), 66; Lewis, Race and Slavery, 26, 27; Butler, Arab Invasion, 257.<br />

120 Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, I:37 s.v. مدا suggests that §dam means primarily ‘tawny’, and secondarily darkcomplexioned.<br />

However, according to Ibn Maníår’s entry, when used of human complexions (rather than that of<br />

camels, for instance) §dam/udma signifies an excessively dark brown, al-sumra al-shadÊd and it contains a “dose of<br />

blackness (shurbatun min saw§d): Lis§n al-#arab, s.v. مدا XII:11. Linguist al-Tha#labÊ (d. 1036), Fiqh al-lugha<br />

(Beirut and London: D§r al-Kit§b al-ArabÊ, 2006) 82 likewise notes that §dam’s blackness exceeds that of sumra. See<br />

further Lammens Études, 44.<br />

121 Philip K. Hitti’s description: History of the Arabs, 10th edition (London: Macmillan Education Ltd, 1970)<br />

183.<br />

122 Bal§dhurÊ, Ans§b al-ashr§f, ed. MuÈammad \amÊd All§h (Cairo: D§r al-Ma#§rif, 1987) I:193. On Bil§l see<br />

further EI2 I:1215 s.v. Bil§l b. Rab§È by W. #Arafat.<br />

123 Al-•abarÊ, Ta"rÊkh al-rusul wa"l-mulåk, X:203.<br />

124 History of al-•abarÊ, XXVIII:160.<br />

125 Powers, MuÈammad is Not the Father, 25.<br />

18


Yet, the sources Powers cites are unanimous in describing Zayd as intensely black-skinned, §dam<br />

shadÊd al-udma: 126 he too would have looked like Bil§l in complexion. Neither Bil§l nor Zayd were<br />

‘tawny’: the Arabic indicates that they were intensely dark. It is the case that one of Powers’<br />

sources, Ibn #As§kir (d. 571/1175), reports an unattributed alternative view according to which<br />

Zayd was intensely white (shadÊd al-bay§∙), while it was his son Us§ma who was black (aswad),<br />

born as he was to an Ethiopian mother. 127 But this “alternative view” is clearly secondary;<br />

neither Ibn Sa#d, al-•abarÊ or Bal§dhurÊ report it. Because of his short stature, black skin and<br />

flat nose Zayd has occasionally been described as “a negro,” 128 but he was a true Arab Bedouin<br />

(a#r§bÊ) from the Banå Kalb. 129<br />

Two reports found in the Arabic literature clarify the Arab self-description. The first<br />

concerns the Arab linguist and genealogist al-\asan b. AÈmad (d. 436/1044-45), better known<br />

as al-Aswad al-Ghandaj§nÊ, “the black-skinned man from Ghandaj§n.” He was also known as<br />

al-A#r§bÊ, the Arab, and it is said that he was excessively proud of his Arab heritage, particularly<br />

the dark skin (al-sumra) of the Arabs. 130 The latter was so important to al-\asan, in fact, that he<br />

would not only apply tar to his skin and frequently sit in the very hot sun of Ghandaj§n to<br />

blacken his own complexion, but would also throw his son in oil and have him sit in the sun so<br />

that his complexion would be dark brown like the Arabs. The poor boy died from this. 131 It is<br />

certainly a stretch to imagine that the goal of such extreme measures was a soft olive-toned tan!<br />

Secondly, Abå’l-Faraj al-Ißfah§nÊ reports the story of the pitch-black (adlam) Arab poet<br />

al-Sayyid al-\imyarÊ (d. 173/789). We are told that al-Sayyid used to carouse with the young<br />

men of the camp, one of whom was as dark as he. This one, with his thick nose and lips, had a<br />

general Negroid appearance (muzannaj). Al-Sayyid had foul-smelling armpits and as the two<br />

pitch-black Arabs were jesting together one day, al-Sayyid said: “You are a ZanjÊ in your nose<br />

and lips!” to which the youth replied: “And you are a ZanjÊ in your color and armpits!” 132 Notice<br />

that it is the youth with the Negroid appearance that points out the Negroid complexion of al-<br />

Sayyid. This anecdote challenges Lewis’s assumption of a chromatic difference between ‘black’<br />

Arabs and black Africans. 133 As we shall see, the difference between the two highlighted in the<br />

Arabic literature is frequently one of luminosity, not chromaticity. 134<br />

126 Ibn ‘a#d, al-•abaqat al-kubr§, III/i, 30; Bal§dhurÊ, Ans§b al-ashr§f, I:470; Al-•abarÊ, Ta"rÊkh al-rusul<br />

wa"l-mulåk, XIII: 2301 (=The History of al-•abarÊ, Volume XXXIX: Biographies of the Prophet’s<br />

Companions and Their Successors, trans. and annot. Ella Landau-Tasseron [Albany: State University of New<br />

York Press, 1985] 10); Ibn #As§kir, Ta"rÊkh madÊnat Dimashq, ed. #Umar Ghar§mah #AmrawÊ (Beirut: D§r al-<br />

Fikr, 1995) XIV:351. See also Ibn al-Jawzī, Kitāb tanwīr al-ghabash fī fa∙l ‘l-sūdān wa’l-Èabash, ed. and<br />

trns. by Imran Hamza Alawiye, “Ibn al-Jawzī’s Apologia on Behalf of the Black People and their status in Islam: A<br />

Critical Editon and Translation of Kitāb tanwīr al-ghabash fī fa∙l ‘l-sūdān wa’l-Èabash,” (PhD. Dissertation, University<br />

of London, 1985) 298 [Ar.]; 132 [Eng.]; Khalid <strong>Muhammad</strong> Khalid, Men Around the Messenger (New Revised<br />

Edition; Kuala Lumpur, 2005) 232.<br />

127 Ibn #As§kir, Ta"rÊkh madÊnat Dimashq, XIV:351.<br />

128 E.g. J.A. Rogers, World’s Great Men of Color 2 vols. (New York: Collier Books, 1996 [1973]) II: 539-40;<br />

idem, Sex and Race: Negro-Caucasian Mixing in All Ages and All Lands (St. Petersburg, Fl: Helga M.<br />

Rogers, 1967; 9th edition) 96; Vasudeo B. Mehto, “If Europe had been Muslimised,” Islamic Review 2 (1932):<br />

220.<br />

129 Ibn #As§kir, Ta"rÊkh madÊnat Dimashq, XIV:349-50.<br />

130 #AlÊ b. Yåsuf al-QifãÊ, Inbah al-ruw§h #al§ anb§h al-nuȧh (Cairo, 1973) 168-169.<br />

131 Al-QifãÊ, Inbah al-ruw§h, 169; Y§qåt b. #Abd All§h al-HamawÊ, Kit§b irsh§d al-arÊb il§ ma#rifat aladÊb,<br />

ed. D.S. Margoliouth (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1910) III/i, 22-23.<br />

132 Abå’l-Faraj al-Ißfah§nÊ, Kit§b al-Agh§nÊ, 20 vols. (Bål§q, 1285/1868-69) VII:20.<br />

133 Lewis in fact cites this anecdote in his study of race in Islam: Lewis, Race and Slavery, 92.<br />

134 See below.<br />

19


VI. MuÈammad the Black Arab?<br />

We have every a priori reason to expect MuÈammad, as an Arab, to have been darkcomplexioned.<br />

A fair-skinned MuÈammad in seventh-century Hejaz would have invoked<br />

criticisms and charges of being a non-Arab. When we examine the Classical Arabic literature,<br />

our expectations of a dark-skinned MuÈammad are in fact not disappointed. Al-TirmidhÊ (d.<br />

279/892) in his J§mi# al-‘aÈÊÈ reports on the authority of the famous Companion of the<br />

Prophet, An§s b. M§lik:<br />

The Messenger of Allah was of medium stature, neither tall nor short, [with] a beautiful,<br />

dark brown-complexioned body (Èasan al-jism asmar al-lawn). His hair was neither curly nor<br />

completely straight and when he walked he leant forward. 135<br />

Ibn Sa#d (d. 230/845) reports this and a similar description of MuÈammad on the authority of<br />

Ibn #Abbās:<br />

YazÊd al-F§risi said: I saw the Messenger of God (s) in a dream during the time Ibn #Abbās<br />

[was governor] over Basra. I said to Ibn #Abbās: “I saw the Messenger of Allah (s) in a<br />

dream.” Ibn #Abbās said: “Verily, the Messenger used to say, ‘Satan cannot assume my<br />

form, so he who saw me in a dream, surely had a vision of me.’ Can you describe to me<br />

what you saw?” [YazÊd] said: “Yes, I [will] describe [him]. He was a man between two<br />

men. His body and flesh were brown and blemish-free with a sheen (asmar il§ al-bay§∙), 136<br />

smiling, eyes with collyrium, features of his face beautiful. His beard was thick from this<br />

end to that, and (the man) pointed to his two temples with his hands. It was so thick that it<br />

covered his neck….” Thereupon Ibn #Abbās said: “Had you seen him while awake, you<br />

could not have described him better than this.” 137<br />

Like the report on the authority of An§s, MuÈammad is here described as brown-skinned, asmar.<br />

The normal connotation of this term is a pretty standard dark brown, 138 as evidenced by other<br />

formations from the same root: samar “darkness, night”; al-g§rra al-samr§ “the black continent<br />

(Africa)” 139 . In the context of human complexions sumra /asmar has been associated with khu∙ra,<br />

§dam, aswad, i.e. black. 140 However, ‘black’ too has various connotations. There were several<br />

135 Sunan al-TirmidhÊ (Hims: Maktabat D§r al-Da#wah, 1965-) VI:69 no. 1754; Al-TirmidhÊ, al-Sham§"il al-<br />

NabÊ, no. 2. This or a related report is found as well in Ibn Sa#d, Kit§b al-ãabaq§t al-kabÊr, I/i, 123 (Ar.); 488<br />

(Eng); AÈmad b. \anbal, Musnad (Riyad: Bayt al-Afk§r al-DawlÊyah, 1998) III: 969 no. 13854; al-BayhaqÊ,<br />

Dal§"il al-nubuwwah, I:203; Ibn KathÊr, al-Bid§yah wa-"l-Nih§yah, VI: 13.<br />

136 On al-bay§∙ see below.<br />

137 Ibn Sa#d, Kit§b al-ãabaq§t al-kabÊr, I/i,125 (Ar.); 492 (Eng).<br />

138 Vollers, “Rassenfarben,” 88.<br />

139 J M. Cowan (ed.), Hans Wehr Arabic-English Dictionary 4 th edition (Ithica: Spoken Language Services,<br />

Inc., 1994) 500 s.v. رمس.<br />

140 Ibn Maníår, Lis§n al-#arab, s.v. رضخ IV: 245; s.v. رمس IV:376: “al-udma is al-sumra, and al-§dam among people<br />

in al-asmar.” See also Ibn AbÊ al-\adÊd, SharÈ nahj al-bal§ghah, V:56. Lane’s note, Lexicon, I: 1425 s.v. رمس :<br />

“tawny…like the various hues of wheat” does not accurately capture the chromatic implications of this term. See<br />

also Hidayet Hosain’s translation of Anas b. M§lik’s report as found in TirmidhÊ’s al-Sham§"il (#2): “his<br />

complexion was tawny”: Hidayet Hosain, “Translation of Ash-Shama’il of Tirmizi,” Islamic Culture 7 (1933):<br />

397. Vollers’ “dunkle Bräune” is more accurate: “Rassenfarben,” 88.<br />

20


shades or degrees of ‘black’ in Classical Arabic: Èumma, aswad, akh∙ar, §dam (deep black), asÈam,<br />

jawn, f§Èim (coal black), ȧlik (pitch black), and more. 141 Linguistic scholar Abå Manßår al-<br />

Tha#labÊ (d. 427/1036), enumerating the different “classifications of human blackness (fÊ tartÊb<br />

saw§d al-ins§n),” explains:<br />

When his maximum [blackness] (al§hu) is less than sawad (black), then he is asmar (brown). If<br />

his blackness is greater with yellow enhancing it then he is aßham. If his blackness exceeds<br />

al-sumra then he is §dam. If it exceeds that, then it is asÈam. If his blackness is intense, then<br />

he is adlam. 142<br />

This suggests a hierarchy of intensifying blackness: asmar / sumra → sawad/§dam →<br />

aßham → asÈam → adlam. It also implies that, while at the bottom of the hierarchy, asmar /<br />

sumra still falls within the category ‘black’. Ibn Maníår reports that “al-sumra [is] a degree<br />

between white (al-bay§∙) and black (al-aswad), and it is that in the context of human complexions,<br />

camels, etc.” 143 According to Ibn AthÊr, al-sumra’s ‘blackness’ predominates over its ‘whiteness’<br />

(al-sumra alladhÊ yaghlibu saw§duhu #al§ bay§∙ihi), 144 and al-Taft§z§nÊ (d. 792/1390) reports in<br />

his al-TahdhÊd: ‘al-sumra…is a color inclining to a faint blackness (sawad in khafiy in ), as in the<br />

description of the Prophet: he was brown complexioned (k§na asmar al-lawn)…” 145 Asmar/sumra is<br />

therefore a (dark) brown complexion.<br />

Al-TirmidhÊ also reports from An§s b. M§lik:<br />

The Messenger of Allah (s) was neither tall, such that he would stand out, nor was he short.<br />

He was not albino-white (al-abya∙ al-amhaq), nor was he deep black (§dam). His hair was<br />

neither very curly nor completely straight. Allah commissioned him towards the end of his<br />

fortieth year. He remained in Mecca for ten years and in Medina for ten years. Allah<br />

caused him to pass away at the turn of his sixtieth year and there was not found on his<br />

head and beard [as much as] twenty white hairs. 146<br />

This report does not necessarily stand in contradiction to An§s’ report according to which the<br />

Prophet was brown-skinned, 147 because asmar is not necessarily §dam. 148 According to al-<br />

Tha#labÊ’s classification, §dam is a more excessive blackness than asmar. 149 What would be denied<br />

here is that MuÈammad was one of the excessively black Arabs, like the Banå Sulaym maybe. 150<br />

141 For more ‘blacks’ see al-Tha#labÊ, Fiqh al-lugha, 81.<br />

142 al-Tha#labÊ, Fiqh al-lugha, 82.<br />

143 Ibn Maníår, Lis§n al-#arab, s.v. رمس IV:376.<br />

144 Ibn Maníår, Lis§n al-#arab, s.v. رمس IV:376.<br />

145 Ibn Maníår, Lis§n al-#arab, s.v. رمس IV:376.<br />

146 Sunan al-TirmidhÊ, IX:244 no. 3627; Al-TirmidhÊ, al-Sham§"il al-NabÊ, no. 1; al-Bukh§rÊ, ‘aÈÊÈ, b§b<br />

ßifat al-nabÊ, no. 747, 748; Ibn Sa#d, Kit§b al-ãabaq§t al-kabÊr, I/i, 123 (Ar.); 488 (Eng).<br />

147 Q§wÊ al-HarawÊ, Kit§b jam# al-was§"il, 14.<br />

148 Contra M§hir Y§sin Fahl and Bashsh§r #Aww§d Ma#råf, comments in al-TirmidhÊ, al-Sham§"il al-NabÊ, 33 n.<br />

4; #Abd al-Ra#åf b. T§j al-#$rifÊn al-Munawi, al-Raw∙ al-b§sim fÊ Sham§"il al-Mußtaf§ AbÊ al-Q§sim<br />

(Damascus: D§r al-Bash§"ir, 2000) 23, n. 2.<br />

149 Ibn Maníår, Lis§n al-#arab, s.v. مدا XII:11: §dam/udma signifies an excessively dark brown, al-sumra al-shadÊd.<br />

150 As pointed out by al-B§jårÊ (d. 1276/1860), Maw§hib al-ladunÊyah #al§ al-Sham§"il al-MuÈammadÊyah,<br />

apud al-TirmidhÊ, al-Sham§"il al-MuÈammadÊyah, ed. MuÈammad #Aww§mah (Medina, 2001) 22 (al-manfÊy<br />

innam§ huwa shiddat al-sumra). However, al-B§jårÊ’s claim that the intent of the affirmed al-sumra is really al-aÈmar is<br />

unlikely. See below. On the Sulaym see above n. 94.<br />

21


But An§s is also the reported source of a more widely known description of the Prophet which, at<br />

first sight, seems to completely contradict all of the above.<br />

While we were sitting with the Prophet in the mosque, a man came riding on a camel. He<br />

made his camel kneel down in the mosque, tied its foreleg and then said: “Who amongst<br />

you is MuÈammad?” At that time the Prophet was sitting amongst us (his companions)<br />

leaning on his arm. We replied, “This white man (hadh§ l-rajul l-abya∙) reclining on his<br />

arm.” 151<br />

This description of MuÈammad as abya∙, white, is frequently encountered in the Arabic<br />

literature. 152 What are the implications of this description and how does it relate, if at all, to<br />

An§s’s other description of the Prophet as brown-skinned? In his study of Classical Arabic color<br />

terminology Arabist Jeham Allam makes a relevant observation:<br />

color terms often acquire, in certain fixed allocations, a range that goes beyond what they<br />

normally possess, e.g., “white” in the expression “white coffee” refers to a deep shade of<br />

brown…when referring to skin, an Arabic speaker may use [abya∙] (“white”) as a<br />

euphemism for [aswad] (“black”). 153<br />

Allam’s point is confirmed by the appropriate Classical Arabic/Islamic sources. Al-Dhahabī<br />

affirmed:<br />

When Arabs say, ‘so-and-so is white (abya∙),’ they mean a golden brown complexion with a<br />

black appearance (al-hinãÊ al-lawn bi-Èilya sud§"). And if they are speaking of the color of<br />

the people of India, they say: more or less dark brown (asmar wa ādam). And regarding the<br />

blackness of the people of Takrur they say aswad, intensely black, and similarly all those<br />

whose complexion is overwhelmingly black are called aswad or shadīd al-udma..” 154<br />

Abya∙ thus does not suggest a white complexion. Ibn Maníår affirmed the same:<br />

The Arabs don’t say a man is white [or: “white man,” rajul abya∙] due to a white<br />

complexion. Rather, whiteness [al-abya∙] with them means an external appearance that is<br />

free from blemish [al-í§hir al-naqÊ min al-#uqåb]; when they mean a white complexion<br />

they say ‘red’ (aÈmar)… when the Arabs say, ‘so-and-so is white (abya∙ - bay∙§#), they [only]<br />

mean a noble character (al-karam fÊ l-akhl§q), not skin color. It is when they say ‘so-and-so is<br />

red’ (aÈmar - Èamr§#) that they mean white skin. And the Arabs attribute white skin to the<br />

slaves. 155<br />

151 al-Bukh§rÊ, ‘aÈÊÈ, kit§b #alim, b§b fa∙l #alim, # 63.<br />

152 See above n. 9.<br />

153 Jehan Allam, “A Sociolinguistic Study on the Use of Color Terminology in Egyptian Colloquial and Classical<br />

Arabic,” in Zeinab Ibrahim, Nagwa Kassabgy and Sabiha Aydelott (edd.), Diversity in Language: Contrastive<br />

Studies in English and Arabic Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (Cairo and New York: The American<br />

University on Cairo Press, 2000) 78; Lewis, Race and Slavery, 22.<br />

154 Al-DhahabÊ, Siyar, II:168.<br />

155 Ibn Maníår, Lis§n al-#arab, s.v. رمح IV: 209, 210.<br />

22


To speak of someone as white complexioned, like the Romans, Persians, Turks, etc., the Arabs<br />

used the term aÈmar, red. 156 Abya∙ ‘white’ had a different connotation: it signified a blemish-free<br />

black complexion with a sheen (thus the ‘golden-brown’ appearance). In other words, what we<br />

call white today the Arabs called red, and what they called white often was what we would today<br />

call black.<br />

Further, as Goldenberg notes, ‘white’ in pre-modern Arabic was about luminosity, not<br />

chromaticity. 157 Arab usage distinguished between whiteness related to redness or whiteskinnedness<br />

(al-baya∙ al-mushrab bi-Èumra) and whiteness related to yellowness or luminance (albaya∙<br />

al-mushrab bi-ßufra). The former (bi-Èumra) arises from the blood visible from within the<br />

body, and the latter (bi-ßufra) arises from gloss and sheen (ßaq§la wa ßaf§#). 158 According to al-<br />

Tha#labÊ, the whiteness that is praise-worthy is that which associates a person’s complexion<br />

“closer to yellowness (ßufra), like the color of the moon and pearls, then he is azhar, luminous.” 159<br />

Not unexpectedly MuÈammad is described as luminous. “The Messenger of Allah was luminous<br />

of complexion (azhar al-lawn).” 160 His face shone with resplendence like that of a full moon and<br />

his azhar and abya∙ complexion had a luster (når) resembling that of a statue made of clear<br />

silver. 161 Indeed, according to one Companion under his cloths the Prophet was like the halfmoon<br />

in luminance. 162 Luminance, rather than a white complexion, is no doubt the significance<br />

of these reports describing MuÈammad as abya∙. 163<br />

In Classical Arabic there is no incompatibility between being black-skinned and being<br />

luminous (azhar/abya∙). The verb, ißfarra, which in Modern Standard Arabic means “to become<br />

yellow,” in Classical Arabic also meant “to become black.” 164 ‘ufra meant both “yellowness” and<br />

“blackness.” 165 The same is true for human complexions. Ja#far al-‘§diq (d. 148/765), the sixth<br />

Shiite Imam, had a black complexion (§dam§ l-lawn), 166 but like the Prophet was also described as<br />

possessing a luminous face (azhar al-wajh). 167 The same is true of Ja#far’s son, Mås§ al-K§íim (d.<br />

183/799), the seventh Imam. He was deep brown (asmar #amÊq) or black-complexioned (aswad<br />

156 Ibn Maníår, Lis§n al-#arab, s.v. رمح IV: 209: “al-aÈmar is a general white complexion (al-abya∙ muãlaqan).”<br />

See further Goldziher, Muslim Studies, 1:268 and below.<br />

157 Goldenberg, Curse of Ham, 93.<br />

158 al-B§jårÊ, Maw§hib al-ladunÊyah #al§ al-Sham§"il al-MuÈammadÊyah, apud al-TirmidhÊ, al-Sham§"il<br />

al-MuÈammadÊyah, 22.<br />

159 Al-Tha#labÊ, Fiqh al-lugha, 77.<br />

160 Al-TirmidhÊ, Sham§"il al-nabÊ, no. 8; Ibn Sa#d, Kit§b al-ãabaq§t al-kabÊr, I/i:121, 123 (Ar.); 484, 488<br />

(Eng.)<br />

161 Al-TirmidhÊ, Sham§"il al-nabÊ, no. 8, 12; Ibn Sa#d, Kit§b al-ãabaq§t al-kabÊr, I/ii:121 (Ar.); 484 (Eng.)<br />

162 Ibn Sa#d, Kit§b al-ãabaq§t al-kabÊr, I/i:127 (Ar.); 495 (Eng.)<br />

163 Vollers, “Rassenfarben,” 90-91: “Weit mehr fällt ins Gewicht, dass der Prophet MuÈammad, der doch auch<br />

körperlich der vollendetste Araber sein musste, so geschildert wird: von heller Hautfarbe, zwischen hellweiss und<br />

bräunlich, von schwarzen Haar und sehr dunkeln Augen. Ebenso im \adÊth, wo der Beduine 4imâm ibn Tha‘laba<br />

den Propheten in einem Kreise sucht und fragt, worauf er die Antwort erhält: ضيبلأا لجرلا ‘der weisse (helle) Mann<br />

da,. Für unsern Zweck ist es einerlei, ob diese Scene historisch ist oder der Legende angehört; in beiden Fällen<br />

gewinnen wir das Resultat, dass die Araber das Bedürfnis empfanden, den vollendetsten Mann ihres Volkes als hell<br />

zu schildern.”<br />

164 Allam, “Sociolinguistic Study,” 82.<br />

165 Ibn Maníår, Lis§n al-#arab, s.v. رفص IV:244 “aßfar (“yellow”) is black”. See also Allam, “Sociolinguistic Study,”<br />

82.<br />

166 Ibn al-‘abb§gh, Al-Fusål, 205.<br />

167 Ibn Sharhr§shåb, Man§qib $l AbÊ •§lib, 4 vols. (Qum: al-Maãba#ah al-#IlmÊyah [Tamma al-Kit§b], 1959) IV:<br />

281.<br />

23


al-lawn). 168 Yet, he too was azhar, luminous, except, we are told, in the high summer. The heat in<br />

his region seems to have robbed him of his bodily sheen and luster, leaving him completely black<br />

(tamÊm akh∙ar) and pitch black (ȧlik). 169 Al-JaÈií thus clarified the Arab use of such<br />

descriptions:<br />

The Arabs boast of (their) black color. If it is said, ‘How can this be so, seeing that the<br />

Arabs speak of someone as luminous (azhar), white (abya∙), and blazing white (agharr)?’ we<br />

would answer: ‘They are not referring in this context to whiteness of skin (bay§∙ al-jilda),<br />

but rather to nobility and purity of character. 170<br />

These two descriptions of MuÈammad as (dark) brown (asmar) and as white (abya∙), are<br />

therefore not in conflict: the latter would have the sense of sheen (al-ßaf§") and luster (al-lama#§n)<br />

on the blemish-free asmar skin under the light of the sun. 171 An§s b. M§lik thus reportedly<br />

affirmed that the Messenger of God “was luminous (azhar), not albino-white,” 172 and specified<br />

further that “his (s) whiteness was related to (dark) brown, k§na abya∙ bay§∙ahu il§ al-asmar,” 173<br />

thus not related to aÈmar, white-complexioned. This means that, when not specifically qualified<br />

by the phrase mushrab bi-Èumra, descriptions of MuÈammad’s complexion as abya∙ should<br />

probably be read as ‘blemish-free and luminous black complexion.’<br />

Excursus: Black Semites vs. Black Hamites<br />

This tradition of black-skinned Arabs with a blemish-free and luminous complexion<br />

throws some light (no pun intended) on a number of passages within the literature relating to<br />

black Africans. Above we quoted a report found in al-•abarÊ’s Ta"rÊkh al-rusul wa"l-mulåk,<br />

according to which God gave the Semites a dark complexion, luminous and free of blemish (aludma<br />

wa l-bay§∙), while to the Hamites (i.e. Africans) he gave only a dark complexion. For most<br />

Hamites their dark complexion was not luminous and blemish-free. The distinguishing<br />

characteristic between Arabs and Africans according to this formulation is not chromatic but<br />

quality of complexion and absence or presence of a luster. A poet’s satirical reproach against the<br />

black-skinned #Ubayd All§h, son of the Ethiopian Companion Abå Bakra, could claim regarding<br />

Nubian blacks: “God put no light in their complexions!” 174 This is no doubt the context for this<br />

much quoted hadith on the authority of Ibn Abb§s<br />

An Abyssinian man came to the Prophet (s) [wanting] to ask him [something]. The<br />

Prophet (s) said to him, ‘Ask whatever you wish.’ So he said: ‘O Apostle of God, you (pl.)<br />

168 Ibn al-‘abb§gh, Al-Fusål, 213; AÈmad b. #AlÊ b. #Inabah, Kit§b #umdat al-ã§lib fÊ ans§b $l AbÊ •§lib<br />

(Cairo: Maktabat al-Thaq§fah al-DÊnÊyah, 2001) 156.<br />

169 Ibn Sharhr§shåb, Man§qib, IV:323.<br />

170 Al-JaÈií, Fakhr al-såd§n #al§ al-bidan, 207 (Ar.); 17 (Eng.)<br />

171 Q§wÊ al-HarawÊ, Kit§b jam# al-was§"il,17.<br />

172 Quoted by al-Tha#labÊ, Fiqh al-lugha, 77.<br />

173 al-BayhaqÊ, Dal§"il al-nubuwwah, I:204; Ibn KathÊr, al-Bid§yah wa-"l-nih§yah, VI: 13; Munawi, al-<br />

Raw∙ al-b§sim, 25. This is also the context in which we must understand the similar statement found in the Ibn<br />

#Abb§s report cited above, that MuÈammad was asmar il§ al-bay§∙, “brown related to white,” which I translated<br />

above as “brown and blemish-free with a sheen”. Contra al-B§jårÊ, Maw§hib al-ladunÊyah #al§ al-Sham§"il al-<br />

MuÈammadÊyah, apud al-TirmidhÊ, al-Sham§"il al-MuÈammadÊyah, 22.<br />

174 Bal§dhurÊ, Ans§b, I: 505.<br />

24


surpass us in appearance (al-ßåra) and complexion (al-alwan) and in prophethood. If I were<br />

to believe just as you believe, and if I were to do just as you do, would I enter Paradise with<br />

you?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ Then the Prophet (s) said: ‘I swear by the One who owns my heart,<br />

that the radiance of the Black person (baya∙ al-aswad) will be seen over the stretch of a<br />

thousand years.’ 175<br />

Ignaz Goldziher’s translation, “the black skin of the Ethiopian will spread a brilliance on the road<br />

of a thousand years ” 176 certainly captures the context better than Lewis’, “the whiteness of the<br />

Ethiopian will be seen over a stretch of a thousand years”. 177 The latter implies a chromatic<br />

transformation on the part of the Ethiopian in Paradise, a theme that is wholly absent here. The<br />

context is surely that of the different endowments between Semites and Hamites of somatic når<br />

(light). In Paradise, however, Hamites (Ethiopians) will possess their fair share and, like the<br />

Semites, their complexion will be both al-udma wa l-bay§∙.<br />

VI.1. ‘His whiteness is a fair-skinnedness’: The Transfiguration of MuÈammad<br />

It is pretty certain that as an Arab from the Banå H§shim of the Quraysh tribe,<br />

MuÈammad was not fair-skinned. Yet, a number of reports do insist that “the whiteness of<br />

[MuÈammad’s] complexion was a fair-skinnedness (abya∙ al-lawn mushrab Èumra).” 178 We are thus<br />

confronted with what Clinton Bennett has aptly called “the problematic of divergent and<br />

contradictory material” in the SÊra and hadith literature. 179 However, given the popularity and<br />

canonicity that this image of a ruddy MuÈammad will eventually acquire, these reports don’t<br />

have the distribution in the developing biographical literature that we might expect. It does not<br />

have a particularly strong presense amoung the founding quartet of what Tarif Khalidi has called<br />

the “Sira of primitive devotion,” i.e. a sÊra that stands in such awe of its subject that it presents all<br />

of the reports that it gathers, paying little or no heed to conflict and consistency. 180 A good<br />

illustration of this primitive devotion is surely Ibn Sa#d’s Kit§b al-ãabaq§t al-kabÊr: he cites<br />

three reports explicitly attributing a black or dark complexion to MuÈammad; 181 three describing<br />

him as abya∙ and four as azhar; and six attributing a white (aÈmar) complexion. 182 Ibn Sa#d makes<br />

no attempt to reconcile these ‘contrasting images’. 183<br />

On the other hand, Ibn Isȧq (d. 151/767), the author of the earliest extant biography<br />

(sÊra), does not seem to have reported either of these contrasting images, 184 nor al-•abarÊ (d.<br />

175 Ibn al-Jawzī, Kitāb tanwīr al-ghabash, 140 [Eng], 307 [Arb].<br />

176 Goldziher, Muslim Studies, I:75.<br />

177 Lewis, Race and Slavery, 35.<br />

178 Ibn Sa#d, Kit§b al-ãabaq§t al-kabÊr, I/i,120, 121,122, 124, 129 (Ar.); Bal§dhurÊ, Ans§b, I: 391 § 836; 394 §<br />

848.<br />

179 Bennett, In Search, 44. On which see also Khalidi, Images, 72-78.<br />

180 Khalidi, Images, 17.<br />

181 Along with the two cited above on the authority of An§s b. M§lik and #Abd All§h b. #Abb§s, he cites the<br />

following suggestive report: al-Zubayr reported on the authority of Ibr§hÊm: “The Messenger of Allah (s) stretched<br />

his left foot, such that the blackness of its exposed part (í§hiruh§ aswad) was visible.” Ibn Sa#d, Kit§b alãabaq§t<br />

al-kabÊr, I/i,127 (Ar.); 495 (Eng).<br />

182 See above no. 179.<br />

183 On contrasting images of MuÈammad in the sÊra as well as counter-narratives see Khalidi, Images, 73-75.<br />

184 A review of Ibn Hish§m, SÊrat Rasål All§h, ed. F. Wüstenfeld (Göttingen, 1858-59) (=The Life of<br />

<strong>Muhammad</strong>, trans. A. Guillaume [London, 1955] 183-84) turns up no such report.<br />

25


310/923). 185 Rounding out this quartet al-Bal§dhurÊ (d. 297/892) reports that the Prophet had a<br />

shinning face (tala"lu") and a luminous complexion (azhar) or a white one (abya∙ al-lawn mushrab<br />

Èumra), but he cites neither of the reports attributing a dark complexion. 186 In contrast, it is the<br />

fair-complexioned MuÈammad that is conspicuously absent from the two ‘aÈÊÈ hadith<br />

collections: in the chapter on the ‘Description of the Prophet’ the famed Persian traditionist al-<br />

Bukh§rÊ (d. 256/870) cites only those reports describing MuÈammad as abya∙ and azhar, 187 as<br />

does Muslim. 188 Without the qualifier mushrab bi-Èumra, these descriptions could refer to an Arab<br />

prophet with a blemish-free and radiant black-complexion. 189<br />

While no portraits of the Prophet dating to this period have been found, the mention of<br />

such portraits in the literature is relevant. There is for example the famous story of the Meccan<br />

Arabs (from the Banå Umayya!) who travel to the Byzantine emperor Heraclius (r. 610-641) in<br />

an attempt to covert him to Islam. While there, the emperor is said to have pulled out for his<br />

Meccan guests a cubed object with compartments, in each of which was a silk portrait of one of<br />

the prophets from Adam to MuÈammad. When Heraclius pulls out a black silk cloth on which is<br />

a white figure, the Arabs weep, for they recognize the portrait as that of MuÈammad, the<br />

Messenger of God. 190 While the setting of this tale is the Byzantine realm during the lifetime of<br />

the Prophet, the earliest version is found in al-DÊnawarÊ’s al-Akhb§r al-ãiw§l, completed<br />

around 895. 191 By the tenth century this tale circulated among writers of every major literary<br />

185 Al-•abarÊ doesn’t mention any of these reports, e.g., in his The History of al-•abarÊ, VI: MuÈammad at<br />

Mecca (trans. W. Montgomery Watt and M.V. McDonald: Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988).<br />

186 Al-Bal§dhurÊ, Ans§b, I:386-3396.<br />

187 ‘aÈÊÈ BukharÊ, b§b ßifat al-nabÊ, nos. 744, 747.<br />

188 ‘aÈÊÈ Muslim, b§b: k§na al-nabÊ (s) abya∙, malÊÈ al-wajh, apud al-NawawÊ, Minhaj sharÈ ‘aÈÊÈ Muslim,<br />

XV: 92-97 nos. 6025, 6026, 6033-6035.<br />

189 The absence of the ruddy (aÈmar)-complexioned MuÈammad from the top three of the Six Books is worth<br />

emphasizing further, an absence the most popular translations of these collections conceal. Thus in these the Prophet<br />

is an abya∙ rajul, not a ‘white(-skinned) man’ (‘aÈÊÈ BukharÊ, III/1, no. 63 (=Translation, I:54); he was luminous<br />

(azhar/abya∙), not ‘rosy’ or ‘white-complexioned’ (‘aÈÊÈ BukharÊ, LVI/22 nos. 744, 747 (=Translation, IV:486,<br />

487); Muslim, ‘aÈÊÈ Muslim, apud al-NawawÊ, Minhaj XV, nos. 6026, 6035 and translation IV: 1250-1251 nos.<br />

5778, 5786; Abå D§wåd, Sunan, V/xxxv, no. 4864 and translation). These collections report on the Prophet’s<br />

exposed bay§∙, not white (aÈmar), leg, forearm, armpits, abdomen, and face (‘aÈÊÈ BukharÊ, LVI/22, no. 767<br />

(=Translation, IV:493); VIII/12, no. 367 (=Translation, I:224); LXXXVI/15, no. 108 (=Translation, IX:89);<br />

LXXXIX/41, no. 305 (=Translation, IX: 234-235), etc; XC/7, no. 342 (=Translation, IX: 259); LII/34, no. 90<br />

(=Translation, IV:65; Muslim, ‘aÈÊÈ Muslim, apud al-NawawÊ, Minhaj V, no. 84; VI, no. 120 and translation<br />

II/viii, no. 3325; III/xvii no. 4437; Abå D§wåd, Sunan, I/ii, nos. 899, 996; IV/xx, no. 3206 and translation). This<br />

is quite remarkable. The only deviation from this clear privileging of azhar/abya∙ as the only legitimate descriptors of<br />

MuÈammad’s complexion is a number of reports that describe the #ufra of his armpits (‘aÈÊÈ BukharÊ, XLVII/17,<br />

no. 769 [=Translation, III:464]; LXXVIII/3, no. 631 [=Translation, VIII:411-412]; LXXXIX/24, no. 286<br />

[=Translation, IX: 217-218]). <strong>Dr</strong>. MuÈammad MuÈsin Kh§n translates ‘the whiteness of his armpits’. But #ufra<br />

has a different connotation than a white-complexion. The verb #afara means ‘to cover with dust’ and #afar/#ufar is<br />

dust. #ufra is therefore dust-colored inclining to a dull white (see Lane, Lexicon, II:2090 s.v. رفع), but probably dustcovered<br />

as well. The possibility that #ufra ibãayhi means here ‘his dusty armpits’ rather than ‘his white(-complexioned)<br />

armpits’ is reinforced by a report on the authority of al-Bara’ b. ‘Azib who, as the Prophet was carrying earth on the<br />

day of the battle of al-AÈz§b, saw dust (al-turab) covering the bay§∙ of MuÈammd’s abdomen ((‘aÈÊÈ BukharÊ,….).<br />

White dust on a white complexion would not have been easily noticeable. However, dull white dust on a bay§∙ or<br />

blemish-free black complexion would have been noticible when MuÈammad raised his hands high.<br />

190 On this tradition and its appearance in Muslim literature see Oleg Grabar and Mika Naif, “The Story of Portraits<br />

of the Prophet <strong>Muhammad</strong>,” Studia Islamica 96 (2003): 19-38+VI-IX.<br />

191 AÈmad b. D§"åd al-DÊnawarÊ, al-Akhb§r al-ãiw§l, ed. #Abd al-Mu"nim AmÊn (Tehran, 1960) 18-19; Grabar<br />

and Naif, “Story of Portraits of the Prophet,” 23-24.<br />

26


genre. 192 It featured prominently in the Dal§"il al-nubuwwah, “Proofs of Prophethood,”<br />

literature, 193 suggesting a growing popularity for a white-skinned MuÈammad.<br />

This coincides with what Khalidi describes as the following age of the canonical SÊra,<br />

during which the Prophet’s biography was subjected to critical assessment and pruned of its<br />

objectionable or heretical materials, in sum reconstructed. The divergent material is specifically<br />

addressed and that material that distracts from the grandiose image of the Prophet as the<br />

community imagined it at the time is excluded. 194 This stage, which Khalidi dates to the<br />

eleventh-twelfth centuries, introduces a reconstituted SÊra with a reconstructed image of<br />

MuÈammad. 195 Representative of this stage of sÊra-writing is al-Q§∙Ê ‘Iy§∙ and his canonical al-<br />

Shif§ bi-ta#rÊf Èuqåq al-Mußãaf§, “The Remedy Concerning the Determination of the Just<br />

Merits of the Chosen (i.e. MuÈammad).” Al-Q§∙Ê ‘Iy§∙ addresses himself to the controversies of<br />

his day regarding the Prophet and ‘remedies’ them. Along with clarifying the perfect qualities –<br />

internal and external – of God’s apostle, the Q§∙Ê enumerates the judgments against those –<br />

Muslim and non-Muslim – who affirm for him imperfections. For example, twice he reports the<br />

judgment that “Anyone who says that the Prophet is black (aswad) should be killed.” The<br />

Prophet, of course, was not black, and saying so disparages him and attributes to him what does<br />

not befit him! 196 Clearly there were Muslims who were still claiming such, no doubt based on,<br />

among other things, the description of MuÈammad as asmar, a description that does not figure in<br />

the Q§∙Ê’s description of his Chosen. The Q§∙Ê found such talk disparaging to the Prophet, for<br />

by his time and in his environment ‘blackness’ has clearly acquired a negative valuation.<br />

But this is not the only conspicuous absence from the Q§∙Ê’s enumeration of the<br />

Prophet’s perfect physical qualities. If al-Q§∙Ê’s MuÈammad was emphatically not black, he yet<br />

was not unambiguously fair-skinned either. Al-Q§∙Ê never describes the Prophet as aÈmar nor<br />

does he report those traditions that do. He doesn’t even use abya∙. Rather his Chosen of God<br />

had a luminous complexion (azhar al-lawn), was bright (ablaj) with an illuminated body (anwara almajarrad)<br />

and face that shinned like the sun and moon. 197 Al-Q§∙Ê’s decision to exclude abya∙ as<br />

a ‘just merit’ may be due to his recognition that the term, unqualified, indicates a black<br />

complexion and for whatever reason he chose not to qualify it (or the Prophet) with aÈmar as will<br />

later become standard. On the other hand it might be argued that, by this time luminosity and<br />

chromaticity have converged (i.e. azhar = aÈmar), as will certainly be the case later, and thus the<br />

Q§∙Ê clearly had a fair-skinned prophet in mind. Be that as it may, the exclusion of both aÈmar<br />

and abya∙ as legitimate descriptors of the Prophet is notable.<br />

By the seventeenth century commentators were going great exegetical distances to make<br />

MuÈammad white-skinned. Al-Q§rÊ al-HarawÊ (d. 1605) even claimed that the description of<br />

the Prophet as brown, asmar, intends to deny to MuÈammad any whiteness that does not involve<br />

192 Grabar and Naif, “Story of Portraits of the Prophet,” 27.<br />

193 Al-BayhaqÊ, Dal§"il al-nubuwwah, I:384-391; Abå Nu#aym al-IsfahanÊ, Dal§"il al-nubuwwah, ed.<br />

MuÈammad al-Qala"anji (Damascus, 1970) 55-64.<br />

194 Khalidi, Images, 17-18, and Chapter VII.<br />

195 Khalidi, Images, 176.<br />

196 Al-Q§∙Ê ‘Iy§∙, al-Shif§, 540, 558 (=<strong>Muhammad</strong>: Messenger of Allah, 375, 387). See also Q§wÊ al-<br />

HarawÊ, Kit§b jam# al-was§"il, 56.<br />

197 Al-Q§∙Ê ‘Iy§∙, al-Shif§, 77-80, 172, 173. In her popular translation of this text and undoubtedly under the<br />

influence of the popular iconography, Bewley inappropriately renders ablaj (bright, clear) and azhar al-lawn as ‘fair’<br />

and ‘very fair’ skinned, respectively: <strong>Muhammad</strong>: Messenger of Allah,34,80.<br />

27


a fair-complexion! 198 Rather, he insisted that MuÈammad’s whiteness was a luminance, yes; but<br />

a white complexion as well (bal k§na baya∙ahu når an mushrab an bi-Èumrat an ). 199 Al-Munawi (d. 1621)<br />

insisted on the same:<br />

concerning [MuÈammad’s] whiteness (bay§∙) due to light (al-når), illumination (i∙§"a), and<br />

brilliant gloss (al-i∙§"a al-s§ãi#), this does not deny that he was (also) white-skinned (mashrab<br />

bi-Èumra). 200<br />

Considering that a ‘fair-skinned Arab’ is oxymoronic and a noble H§shimÊ in particular<br />

by definition is black-skinned, how do we account for the development and, more importantly,<br />

the general acceptance in the pre-modern and modern Muslim world of this impossible image of a<br />

fair-skinned MuÈammad? Any answer to this question could only be speculative. However, we<br />

suggest that an appropriate context in which to understand this development is the Kulturkampf<br />

that pitted Persian ethno-cultural sentiments against Arab sentiments, a conflict the Arabs all but<br />

linguistically lost. This development contributed to a general ‘de-arabizing’ of Islamic tradition,<br />

and eventually a de-arabizing of Islam’s prophet.<br />

VII. De-Arabizing Islam and its Prophet<br />

The Egyptian polymath Jal§l al-DÊn al-SuyåãÊ (d. 991/1583), in his T§rÊkh al-Khulaf§",<br />

reports a variant of a very suggestive hadith:<br />

[The Messenger of God said:] “I dreamed that I drove before me some black sheep, then I<br />

drove after them some white sheep, so that the black could not be seen among them.” And<br />

Abå Bakr said: “O apostle of God, as for the black sheep, they signified the Arabs who<br />

shall embrace the faith and increase in numbers, and the white sheep are the non-Arabs<br />

(#ajam) who shall be converted until the Arabs shall not be seen among them by reason of<br />

their numbers.” The apostle of God replied, “likewise did the angel interpret it this<br />

morning.” 201<br />

This tradition could illustrate the prophetic powers of MuÈammad, but such a post eventum<br />

prophecy more likely is a response to an historical development that had taken place long after<br />

his death. The era of the ‘Arab empire’ passed with the overthrow of the Umayyads in 132/750<br />

and a profoundly different era was ushered in. 202 The post-Revolution empire was not only ‘dearabized’<br />

politically, but (eventually) culturally as well. The impact of Persian, Hellenistic and<br />

198 Q§wÊ al-HarawÊ, Kit§b jam# al-was§"il,15. Likewise al-B§jårÊ, Maw§hib al-ladunÊyah #al§ al-Sham§"il<br />

al-MuÈammadÊyah, apud al-TirmidhÊ, al-Sham§"il al-MuÈammadÊyah, 22.<br />

199 Q§wÊ al-HarawÊ, Kit§b jam# al-was§"il,14.<br />

200 Al-Munawi, al-Raw∙ al-b§sim, 37.<br />

201 Al-Suyåãī, Tārikh al-khulafā, 86. See also #Al§ al-DÊn b. Hus§m al-DÊn al-MuttaqÊ, Kanz al-#umm§l<br />

(Haydarabad, 1312/1894-98) VI: 215 # 3755; al-Tha#§libÊ, Mukhtaßar§t, ed. Gustav Flügel, Der vertraute<br />

Gefährte des Einsamen in schlagfertigen Gegenreden (Wien, 1829) 270 # 313; Goldziher, Muslim<br />

Studies, 1:112.<br />

202 Asma Afsaruddin, The First Muslims: History and Memory (Oxford: Oneworld, 2008) 106 notes: “The<br />

third generation of Muslims, called the ‘Successors to the Successors’ (atba’ al-tabi’in) inherited a changed world after<br />

the ‘Abbasid revolution…Important ideological, administrative, cultural, political, and socio-economic developments<br />

and changes were ushered in after the overthrow of the Umayyads in 750.”<br />

28


Ottoman culture on Islamic tradition is conspicuous in the ‘reconstituted SÊra’ with its<br />

‘reconstructed’ image of MuÈammad.<br />

VII.1. ‘Tell all the sons of H§shim…Retreat to the Hejaz and resume eating lizards’<br />

Recent research has demonstrated that, while Arabized mawl§ from Kufa and<br />

Persianized Arabs in Khurasan were involved, the preponderant element of the Revolution that<br />

toppled the Umayyads was the Iranian masses who were resentful both of the Arabs’ putting an<br />

end to eleven-hundred years of Persian civilization and the Arab racial arrogance and<br />

discrimination that followed. 203 The success of the Revolution meant a redistribution of the<br />

ethnic weights. 204 It is somewhat of an understatement to say that the Persians benefitted most<br />

under the #Abb§sid caliphs, 205 most of whom were sons of non-Arab mothers. 206 The Persians in<br />

fact were so influential under the new caliphs, a number of Muslim authors have characterized<br />

the Umayyad and the #Abb§sid dynasties as Arab and Khurasanian respectively. 207 #Abb§sid<br />

culture was profoundly shaped by Persian, 208 such that it can be said that Persian civilization<br />

would “rebound…mutatis mutandis its Islamicization, slowly almost stealthily in less than a<br />

century.” 209 In the process ethnic Arabs became less and less observable, 210 not only in<br />

203 Saleh Said Agha, The Revolution Which Toppled the Umayads: Neither Arab nor ‘Abbāsid (Leiden:<br />

Brill, 2003) has made a strong and very convincing case in favor of the original thesis of Julius Wellhausen, Das<br />

Arabische Reich und sein Sturz (1902) which fell out of favor largely due to the researches of M.A. Shaban (The<br />

#Abb§sid Revolution [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970]) and Moshe Sharon (Black Banners<br />

From the East [Jerusalem and Leiden: the Hebrew University, 1983]). Restö, Arabs, 24 notes as well: “the<br />

Abbasid revolution in 750 was, to a large extent, the final revolt of the non-‘arab Muslims against the ‘arab and their<br />

taking power. This revolt was dominated by the Iranian ‘aÆam (non-Arabs), and the outcome was the establishment<br />

of at least formal equality between the two groups.” The Arabs in Khurasan were assimilated into Persian society.<br />

Many spoke Persian, married Persian women and observed local Persian customs and holidays. See Ira M. Lapidus,<br />

A History of Islamic Societies, 2 nd Edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002) 40. On the Arab<br />

discrimination against non-Arabs in the early empire see Goldziher, Muslim Studies, I, Chapter Three.<br />

204 Agha, Revolution, 324: “Arabs lost supremacy, but Islam and Arabic continued to prosper. The Establishment,<br />

inasmuch as it was an Islamic edifice, was not destroyed, but was taken over and overhauled. It was…de-<br />

Arabianized…The ‘Arab’ Muslim kingdom fell, and the inter-racial ‘Muslim’ empire rose, with Persian overtones.”<br />

205 Afsaruddin, First Muslims, 107: “The group that benefitted the most from this sea change were the Persians, a<br />

significant number of whom assumed important official positions in various ‘Abbasid administrations and who<br />

wielded significant political as well as cultural influence…” Goldziher noted that “The preference for Persians was a<br />

tradition of the #Abb§sid house.” Muslim Studies, I:139.<br />

206 Only the first #Abb§sid caliph al-Saff§È (r. 749-754) was a pure Arab, in contrast to the Umayyad caliphs, almost<br />

all of whom were pure Arabs. See Lewis, Race and Slavery, 39; Goldziher, Muslim Studies, I: 118-119.<br />

207 Al-J§Èií, Bay§n wa-al-taly§n, 4 vols. ed. #Abd al-Sal§m MuÈammad H§rån (Egypt: Maktabat al-Kh§njÊ,<br />

1960-61) III:366; al-DhahabÊ, Siyar, VI:58.<br />

208 Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in<br />

Baghdad and Early Abbasid Society (London and New York: Routledge, 1986) 34: “The transfer of the seat of<br />

the caliphate to #Ir§q, and eventually to Baghd§d, after the accession of the #Abb§sids to power, placed #Abb§sid life<br />

in the center of a Persian-speaking population. The history and culture of this population thus inevitably played a<br />

crucial role in defining the new #Abb§sid culture that was being formed.”<br />

209 David Levering Lewis, God’s Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215 (London and New<br />

York: W.W. Norton, 2008)76. Johathan P. Berkey, The Formation of Islam. Religion and Society in the<br />

Near East, 600-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 117 notes that, following the Revolution,<br />

Persian was the non-Arab cultural tradition that “shaped Islam more than any other.”<br />

210 G.E. von Grunebaum, Classical Islam. A History, 600 A.D. to 1258 A.D. (New Brunswick and London:<br />

AldineTransaction, 2005 [1970]) 80: “The victory of the #Abb§ssids signified the pushing back, but not the<br />

elimination of the Arabs…in the transition to national states the importance of the Arabs as a racial and military<br />

29


administration but in all fields, including the religious sciences. 211 Iranian scholars would become<br />

some of the chief fashioners of Islamic tradition, and were instrumental in fact in creating a new<br />

Arab identity. 212<br />

In this new philopersian environment, the Arabs themselves would become persona non<br />

grata. 213 A violently anti-Arab sentiment was expressed in the Shu#åbiyya literature, most of<br />

whose authors were Persian. 214 A common theme of this literature is Persian cultural superiority<br />

over the Arabs. The deep anti-Arab sentiment displayed in this literature did not spare<br />

MuÈammad’s own clan, the Banå H§shim. Said one Shu#åbÊ poet:<br />

I am a noble of the tribe of Jam-he called in the name of the nation-and I demand the<br />

inheritance of the Persian kings.<br />

Tell all the sons of H§shim: submit yourselves before the hour of regret arrives.<br />

Retreat to the Hejaz and resume eating lizards and herd your cattle<br />

While I seat myself on the throne of the kings supported by the sharpness of my blade and<br />

the point of my pen. 215<br />

The Shu#åbÊ movement, which sought to remodel the whole spirit of Islamic culture on<br />

the model of Sasanian institutions and values, was highly influential at the caliphal court. 216<br />

Sasanian strands were “woven into the fabric of Muslim thought,” including a pronounced antiblack<br />

ideology which, when combined with the anti-Arab sentiment, will have far reaching<br />

consequences for the development of post-Umayyad Islamic tradition in general and the<br />

unity declined visibly. The dissemination of Arabic as a cultural medium, the adoption of Arabic nomenclature by<br />

the islamized non-Arabs and not least the Arab origin of the dynasty were all factors tending to conceal the gradual<br />

disappearance of Arab preponderance in the #Abb§sid central administration.” While their political influence was<br />

reduced, the social or socio-religious prestige of the Arabs remained, Grunebaum notes. It was left to the Iranian<br />

shu#åbiyya to break the Arabs’ cultural monopoly. Ibid. 87. On the shu#åbiyya see below.<br />

211 Goldziher, Muslim Studies, I:104-112, 140, 142.Hugh Kennedy notes that “It is characteristic of this<br />

intellectual activity (of the #Abb§sid period) that it was overwhelmingly conducted by non-Arabs”: “Intellectual Life<br />

in the First Four Centuries of Islam,” in Farhad Daftary (ed.), Intellectual Traditions in Islam (London and<br />

New York: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2001) 24.<br />

212 Richard W. Bulliet, Islam: The View From the Edge (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994) 146, 152-<br />

153: “many practices, beliefs, and institutions most characteristic of the period when Islam invented a uniform<br />

identity for itself are rooted in the urban Muslim communities of eleventh-century Iran…the impact of the Iranian<br />

diaspora (also) went beyond institutional changes. It affected the content of religious thought and practice as well…”;<br />

Rina <strong>Dr</strong>ory, “The Abbasid Construction of the Jahiliyya: Cultural Authority in the Making,” Studia Islamica 83<br />

(1996): 33-49: “the non-Arab maw§lÊ were the ones who actually constructed Arab identity for the Arab community<br />

through a colossal effort of collecting and organizing knowledge belonging to ‘the Arab (and Islamic) sciences’. (42)”<br />

213 See Goldziher, Muslim Studies, I:138; <strong>Dr</strong>ory, “Abbasid Construction,” 34: “the #Abb§sids were notorious for<br />

their infatuation with Persian…sedentary, urban culture while condescending to ‘genuine Arabic’ (i.e. nomadic)<br />

culture.”<br />

214 On the Shu#åbiyya see EI 2 s.v.al-Shu#åbiyya by S. Endwitz; H.T. Norris, “Shu#åbiyya in Arabic Literature,” in<br />

Julia Ashtiany et al (edd.), #Abbasid Belles-Lettres (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) 31-47; Roy P.<br />

Mottahedah, “The Su#ûbîyah Controversy and the Social History of Early Islamic Iran,” International Journal<br />

of Middle East Studies 7 (1976): 161-182; H.A.R. Gibb, “The Social Significance of the Shuubiya,” in Studies<br />

on the Civilization of Islam, edd. Stanford J. shaw and William R. Polk (Boston: Beacon Press, 1962): 62-73;<br />

Goldziher, Muslim Studies, I, Chapter Four.<br />

215 al-Tha#§libÊ, Mukhtaßar§t, 272 #314.<br />

216 Gutas, Greek Thought, 29; <strong>Dr</strong>ory, “Abbasid Construction,” 43; Lapidus, History, 76-77; Norris, “Shu#åbiyya,”<br />

31; Gibb, “Social Significance,” 66; Goldziher, Muslim Studies, I:137-138.<br />

30


epresentation of MuÈammad therein in particular. 217 Indeed, the hostility shown towards blacks<br />

in some Medieval Muslim Iranian writings provides a context in which to understand the<br />

proclamation that anyone who claims MuÈammd is black should be killed. 218<br />

A number of incidents indicates the changed Zeitgeist. Under Abå Ja#far al-Manßår (r.<br />

754 – 775), the second #Abb§sid caliph, it was a common scene for Arabs to wait vainly for<br />

admission at the caliphal gates, while Khurasanians freely entered, ridiculing the Bedouin Arabs<br />

(a#r§bÊ) on their way in. 219 It was al-Manßår too who mocked the intensely black-skinned pure<br />

217 Lewis, Race and Slavery, 95, 96 points out that the stereotype of a black man as a monster or bogeyman<br />

figured prominently in Iranian mythology. See also Ibid., 53-54. Mino Southgate has documented that in Iranian<br />

sources of the 10 th – 14 th centuries, Muslim and non-Muslim, “no group was the butt of such fierce racial attack as<br />

were blacks…” Mino Southgate, “The Negative Images of Blacks in Some Medieval Iranian Writings,” Iranian<br />

Studies 17 (1984): 3-35 (9). Southgate notes further: “many medieval Islamic Iranian sources show color<br />

consciousness, depict negative black stereotypes, and reveal hostile sentiments toward blacks. This is not to say that<br />

negative sentiments are not expressed about other groups…It is fair to say, however, aside from mildly positive<br />

comments about Ethiopians, hardly anything good is said about blacks, and that the attack against this group…is<br />

much more fierce than that against any other group…What motivated Muslim Iran to develop the grotesque images<br />

and stereotypes…? (26)”.<br />

It seems clear that anti-black racism was absent from or minimal in pre- and early Islamic Arabia. Even though<br />

#Abduh BadawÊ’s study of Arabic poetry and the image of blacks therein, Al-Shu#ar§" al-Såd wa Khaߧ"ißuhum<br />

fÊ l-Shi#r al-#ArabÊ (Cairo, 1973) found that “the Arabs despised the black color as much as they loved the white<br />

color,” Bernard Lewis is surely right when he points out: “There are verses, indeed many verses, attributed to pre-<br />

Islamic and early Islamic poets which would suggest very strongly a feeling of hatred and contempt directed against<br />

persons of African birth or origin. Most, if not all of these, however, almost certainly belong to later periods and reflect later<br />

problems, attitudes, and preoccupations…(emphasis mine)” Lewis, Race and Slavery, 22, 24-25, 87; idem, “Crows,” 90.<br />

There is good evidence, Lewis informs us, that in pre-Islamic Arabia Ethiopians were regarded with respect as a<br />

people with a higher civilization than that of the Arabs. There were African slaves, but these were treated no worse<br />

than white slaves. Lewis notes: “pagan and early Islamic Arabia seems to have shared the general attitude of the<br />

ancient world, which attached no stigma to blackness (Race and Slavery, 25)”. See further St. Clair <strong>Dr</strong>ake, Black<br />

Folk Here and There 2 vols. (Los Angeles: Center For Afro-American Studies University of California, 1987)<br />

II:85, 152; John Alembillah Azumah, The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa: A Quest for Inter-religious<br />

Dialogue (Oxford: Oneworld, 2001) 130-131. It is also now clear that the Arabs themselves were a black-skinned<br />

people, a fact which forces us to look for other explanations for any hints of anti-African sentiments we might find<br />

among the early Arabs. A good illustration of this point is the case of Abå Dharr’s insulting Bil§l, the black-skinned<br />

Companion of MuÈammad and freed-slave whose mother was an Ethiopian. It is reported that Abå Dharr, from<br />

the Arab tribe Ghaf§r, insulted Bil§l by calling him ‘son of a black woman’. While this is frequently cited as an<br />

example of an early Arab anti-black sentiment, several factors mitigate against this explanation. (1) Abå Dharr was a<br />

black-skinned Arab. According to al-DhahabÊ, it was said that Abå Dharr was “black-skinned (§dam), huge, with a<br />

thick beard.” He goes on to quote Ibn Burayda who claimed: “Abå Dharr was a black man (rajul aswad).” Siyar, II:<br />

47, 50, 74.(2) The insult is social, not racial, expressing the contempt of the highborn for the baseborn. The slave<br />

status of Bil§l’s mother was the point of the insult, not her dark-complexion. Secondly, the insult comments on the<br />

fact that she was a non-Arab, and Bil§l was thus a hajÊn or half-breed (his father was an Arab). Such persons across<br />

the board were looked down upon by purebred Arabs. “Son of a Persian woman (ibn al-f§risiyya)” and “Son of a<br />

Frankish woman (ibn al-ifranjiyya)” were insults hurled around equally. See Lewis, “Crows,” 89; Goldziher, Muslim<br />

Studies, I:120.(3) Abå Dharr reportedly later explained the insult, and race was not the factor: “Once there were<br />

heated words between a friend (Bil§l) and I. His mother was a non-Arab and I insulted her. Then the Prophet (s)<br />

asked me, ‘Did you insult so-and-so?’ I said yes. He (the Prophet) asked, ‘Did you mention his mother?’ I said, when<br />

a person insults another he usually mentions his mother or father. The Prophet then said: ‘Surely you are one with<br />

the Days of Ignorance in him.” Al-DhahabÊ, Siyar, II:72-73. From this report it is clear that blackness had nothing<br />

to do with the insult, but non-Arabness and slave-status.<br />

218 We find in this literature for example the claim that blacks are enemies of God and Islam and the killing of each<br />

of them is penance for a lifetime of sin, for God wants them destroyed. See Southgate, “Negative Images,” 10.<br />

219 Al-Ißfah§nÊ, Kit§b al-Agh§nÊ (Bål§q), XVIII:148; Goldziher, Muslim Studies, I:138. On al-Manßår as<br />

architect of the policy to incorporate Sasanian culture into mainstream #Abb§sid culture see Gutas, Greek<br />

31


Arab, MuÈammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, calling him “Charcoal Face.” Al-Ma#mån (r. 813-833), a<br />

son of a Persian mother, was well-known for his preference for Persians over Arabs. 220 We might<br />

thus understand his mocking his uncle, the #Abb§sid prince Ibr§him b. al-MahdÊ (d. 839).<br />

Ibr§him, the son of the caliph al-MahdÊ (r. 775-85) to a black concubine from Daylam in<br />

northwestern Iran, was so exceedingly black (shadÊd suw§d al-lawn) he was nicknamed al-TinnÊn,<br />

‘The <strong>Dr</strong>agon.’ 221 After an unsuccessful bid for the throne, al- Ma#mån pardoned his uncle and<br />

called him before him, taunting: “Are you then the black caliph?” 222<br />

But this convergence of anti-Arab and anti-black sentiments among the #Abb§sids is best<br />

articulated in the poetry of Abå al-\asan AlÊ b. al-#Abb§s b. Jurayj, also known as Ibn al-RåmÊ<br />

(d. 896). Ibn al-RåmÊ was not an Arab. His mother was a Persian and his father was Byzantine<br />

(some say half-Greek). 223 Yet, he was an advocate of the ill-treated black Arabs, in particular the<br />

family of Prophet MuÈammad. Ibn al-RåmÊ fulminated in his poetry against the #Abb§sid abuse<br />

of the tombs of the Shiite Imams and their living descendents of his day. He wrote to the<br />

#Abb§sid caliph:<br />

You insulted (the family of the Prophet) because of their blackness (bi-l-saw§d), while there<br />

are still deep black, pure-blooded Arabs (al-#arab al-amȧ∙ akh∙ar ad#aj). However, you<br />

are white 224 - the Romans (Byzantines) have embellished your faces with their color. The<br />

color of the family of H§shim was not a bodily defect (#§ha). 225<br />

It was inevitable that this new anti-Arab and anti-black sentiment would impact the<br />

manner in which the Prophet was imagined and represented. In this context we can understand<br />

the proliferation in the literature of this period of the impossible image of MuÈammad as aÈmar<br />

which, in the Umayyad period, characterized non-Arabs. 226<br />

Thought, 29. On the impact of Sasanian court-tradition on the memory of al- Manßår’s reign see also Joseph<br />

Sadan, “The Division of the Day and Programme of Work of the Caliph al- Manßår,” Studia Orientalia.<br />

Memoriae D.H. Baneth Dedicata (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1979) 255-272.<br />

220 Goldziher, Muslim Studies, I:138.<br />

221 Ibn al-JawzÊ, Kit§b tanwÊr al-ghabasg, 317 [Ar.], 150 [Eng.]; Ibn Khallikan, Wafay§t al-a#y§n (Bål§q,<br />

1299 AH) I:10 (= Biographical Dictionary, trans. B. MacGuckin de Slane (New York and London: Johnson<br />

Reprint Corporation, 1842-) I:1; EI 2 3:987-88 s.v. Ibr§him b. al-MahdÊ by D. Sourdel. There is some debate as to<br />

how Ibr§him acquired his dark complexion. See Graham W. Irwin, Africans Abroad: A Documentary History<br />

of the Black Diaspora in Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean During the Age of Slavery (New<br />

York: Columbia University Press, 1977) 68.Both and Irwin (Ibid.) and Lewis (Race, 89) doubt the reports which<br />

make Ibr§him’s mother black, but their arguments are unconvincing. It is the case, however, that his intensely dark<br />

complexion may have derived in part from his father. Al-Mas#ådÊ describes the caliph al-MahdÊ as “handsome, with<br />

large, dark-brown (asmar) body”: al-TambÊh wa-"l-ishr§f (Baghdad: Makhtabat al-Mulhann§, 1967) 296-7.<br />

222 Ibn Khallikan, Wafay§t al-a#y§n, I:10 (= Biographical Dictionary,I:18); Lewis, Race and Slavery, 89.<br />

223 EI 2 3:907-909 s.v. Ibn al- RåmÊ by S. Boustany; <strong>Dr</strong>. Ali A. El-Huni, The Poetry of Ibnal-Rumi (Critical<br />

Study) (London: D§r al-\ikma, 1996) 13-18; Beatrice Gruendler, Medieval Arabic Praise Poetry. Ibn al-<br />

RåmÊ and the Patron’s Redemption (London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003) 42.<br />

224 Literally blue, zurg. One of the many contradictory meanings of this term is white. See Allam, “Sociolinguistic<br />

Study,” 87 and Lewis, Race and Slavery, 26 observes that white peoples in the north were called in Arabic ‘pale<br />

blue’ as well as red.<br />

225 Abå al-Faraj al-Ißbah§nÊ, Maq§til al-ãalibÊyyÊn, ed. AÈmad ‘aqr (Cairo: D§r IÈy§" al-Kutub al-ArabÊya,<br />

1949) 759.<br />

226 We already meet this image in the early biographical literature of age:; Ibn Sa#d, Kit§b al-ãabaq§t al-kabÊr,<br />

I/ii,120, 121,122, 124, 129 (Ar.).<br />

32


VII.2. Hellenizing the Prophet<br />

It was not only Persian Sasanian influences that impacted Islam and its representation of<br />

MuÈammad. The first wave of the Islamic conquests (632-641) secured Arab dominion over<br />

Hellenized areas (Syria, Egypt, and the western portion of the Sasanian empire). 227 Rather than<br />

being smothered, this Hellenism continued in the Arab-ruled territories as a living force of<br />

surprising vigor. 228 It seems even that the ‘Semitic bedrock’ in pre-Islamic Arabia, out of which<br />

Islam can be said to have developed, itself came under Hellenistic influences. 229 Nevertheless, we<br />

can safely speak of real differences between Semitism and Hellenism, and early Semitic Islam was<br />

no exception. 230 Yet even though one dominant Islamic school of thought openly rejected the<br />

Classical tradition, 231 eventually Islamic civilization would be greatly impacted by it through<br />

converts and translations into Arabic of Hellenistic literature. 232<br />

One such text translated into Arabic which impacted Islamic tradition and likely the<br />

profile of the Prophet is Polemo’s (second century) de Physiognomonia. 233 According to Polemo the<br />

ideal man who loves scholarship has a well-proportioned, straight figure, a ruddy-white<br />

complexion, and wavy, reddish brown hair, smooth and not curly or thick. This Hellenistic<br />

physiognomy tradition influenced popular Islamic physiognomy (fir§sa) traditions. 234 We are thus<br />

not surprised to learn that the caliph al-Ma"mån (r. 813-833), famous for his role in the<br />

Translation Movement, claimed to have seen Aristotle himself in a dream, ruddy-white with a<br />

high forehead and handsome features. 235 But this Hellenistic physiognomy also impacted<br />

representations of MuÈammad. 236 A contributing factor to the popularizing of this ruddy<br />

Prophet is undoubtedly the development and popularity of the Èilya tradition, calligraphic<br />

227 Franz Rosenthal, The Classical Heritage in Islam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), 2.<br />

228 Averil Cameron, “The Eastern Provinces in the 7th Century A.D. Hellenism and the Emergence of Islam,” in<br />

Hellenismos: Quelques jalons pour une histoire de l’identité grecque: actes du Colloque de<br />

Strasbourg, 25-27 octobre 1989, ed. S. Said (Leiden and New York, 1991), 295.<br />

229 G.W. Bowersock, “Hellenism and Islam,” in idem, Hellenism in Late Antiquity (Jerome Lectures 18; Ann<br />

Arbor, 1990), 71-82.<br />

230 <strong>Wesley</strong> Williams, “A Body Unlike Bodies: Transcendent Anthropomorphism in Ancient Semitic Tradition and<br />

Early Islam,” JAOS 129 (2009): 19-44; Daud Rahbar, “Relation of Muslim Theology to the Qur"§n,” MW 51<br />

(1961): 44-49.<br />

231 Ignaz Goldziher, “The Attitude of Orthodox Islam Toward the ‘Ancient Sciences’,” in Merlin L. Swartz (ed.),<br />

Studies on Islam (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981) 185-215.<br />

232 On Hellenism and Islam generally see further Gutas, Greek Thought; Lapidus, History, 77-80; W.<br />

Montgomery Watt, Islamic Philosophy and Theology: an Extended Survey, 2 nd edn (Edinburgh, 1985), 37-<br />

49; F. E. Peters, “Hellenism and the Near East,” BA (Winter 1983): 33-39; idem, Allah’s Commonwealth. A<br />

History of Islam in the Near East 600-1200 A.D. (New York, 1973); idem, “The Origins of Islamic Platonism:<br />

The School Tradition,” in Islamic Philosophical Theology, ed. Parviz Morewedge (Albany, 1979), 14-45;<br />

Gustave E. von Grunbaum, “Islam and Hellenism,” in idem, Islam and Medieval Hellenism: Social and<br />

Cultural Perspectives, ed. Dunning S. Wilson (London, 1976), 21-27; W.F. Albright, “Islam and the Religions of<br />

the Ancient Orient,” JAOS 60 (1940): 283-301.<br />

233 Rosenthal, Classical Heritage, 239, 251-253.<br />

234 EI 2 II: 916-917 s.v. Fir§sa by T. Fahd.<br />

235 Rosenthal, Classical Heritage, 48.<br />

236 Khalidi, Images, 96-97; Priscilla Soucek, “The Theory and Practice of Portraiture in the Persian Tradition,”<br />

Muqarnas 17 (2000): 106. See e.g. Abå \§tim al-R§zī, A#lam al-nubuwwah, ed. Salah al-Sawy (Tehran:<br />

Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy, 1977)85-86.<br />

33


enditions of textual descriptions of the Prophet’s physical appearance. 237 The text of the Èilya –<br />

short descriptive lines – derives from the hadith and sÊra sources. The most popular is a<br />

description of the Prophet attributed to #AlÊ b. AbÊ •§lib and found in al-TirmidhÊ’s Sham§"il:<br />

The Messenger of God (s) was neither extremely tall nor extremely short, rather he was of<br />

medium height. His hair was neither curly nor completely straight, rather in between. He<br />

did not have a very fleshy face, neither was it completely round, rather it was only slightly<br />

so. He was ruddy white (abya∙ mushrab bi-Èumra). His eyes were large with jet-black pupils<br />

and long eyelashes. His joints were large as was his upper back. He did not have hair all<br />

over his body but had a line of fine hair extending from his chest to his navel… 238<br />

For all of the reasons cited above it is highly unlikely that the intensely black-skinned firstcousin<br />

of the Prophet described him as white-complexioned. It is more probable that this<br />

description was influenced by the fir§sa tradition. 239 This image of a ruddy MuÈammad “survives<br />

the changes of time,” not because it “truly [expresses] the Prophet’s ephemeral and perpetual<br />

characteristics,” which is most unlikely, at least as far as the ephemeral is concerned. 240 Rather,<br />

another redistribution of ethnic weights within the empire was no doubt a major factor: the rise<br />

of dawla turkiyya. 241 Calligraphic renditions of this ‘verbal portrait’ of MuÈammad are said to<br />

have circulated as early as the ninth century, 242 but there is very little evidence that this was<br />

common before the Ottoman period in the sixteenth century. 243 The ruddy-white Prophet<br />

resonated with the Ottoman Turks, 244 while the marginalization of ethnic Arabs, who seem to<br />

have been identified with blacks in Turkish folklore, 245 continued. 246 But it is in Iran today where<br />

we meet “the ultimate expression” of the merging of this visual and verbal tradition of portraying<br />

MuÈammad. 247 Portraits of MuÈammad, #AlÊ and the Imams have been poplar in Iran and<br />

India since the time of Nasir al-DÊn Shah (r. 1846-96) and are found on canvas, mirror cases,<br />

237 A good introduction to the Èilya tradition is still Annemarie Schimmel, And <strong>Muhammad</strong> is His Messenger:<br />

The Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press,<br />

1985) 24-45. See further Grabar and Naif, “Story of Portraits of the Prophet,” 33-35;<br />

238 Al-TirmidhÊ, al-Sham§"il al-MuÈammadÊya, #7.<br />

239<br />

Soucek, “Theory and Practice,” 106; Khalidi, Images, 97.<br />

240 Contra Ali, “Literal to the Spiritual,” 10. Ali wrongly assumes that the features attributed to MuÈammad in the<br />

#AlÊ b. AbÊ •§lib text and in the Èilya tradition in general are those of “an Arab archetype”.<br />

241 On which see Lapidus, History, 117-120, 248-282. For a historical tour d’horizon of Arab-Turkish relations and<br />

their impact on ideology see Ulrich W. Haarmann, “Ideology and History, Identity and Alterity: The Arab Image of<br />

the Turk From the #Abbasids to Modern Egypt,” IJMES 20 (1988); idem, “Rather the Injustice of the Turks than the<br />

Righteousness of the Arabs – Changing #Ulam§" Attitudes Towards Mamluk Rule in the Late Fifteenth Century,”<br />

Studia Islamica 68 (1988): 61-77.<br />

242 Soucek, “Theory and Practice,” 106.<br />

243 Grabar and Naif, “Story of Portraits of the Prophet,” 34.<br />

244 Schimmel, And <strong>Muhammad</strong> is His Messenger, 39; Grabar and Naif, “Story of Portraits of the Prophet,” 33-<br />

34.<br />

245 Pertev N. Boratav and W. Eberhard, “The Negro in Turkish Folklore,” Journal of American Folklore 64<br />

(1951): 83-88. On the menial image of blacks in Ottoman literature and art see further Lewis, Race and Slavery,<br />

92-98.<br />

246 On the marginalization of the Arab in the dawla tukiyya see Haarmann, “Ideology and History,” and idem, “Rather<br />

the Injustice”.<br />

247 Grabar and Naif, “Story of Portraits of the Prophet,” 35.<br />

34


pen-boxes, necklaces, and posters. 248 Not surprisingly, in this very popular iconography the<br />

Prophet is “depicted not as an Arab but with distinctly Persian features.” 249<br />

VII.3. Medieval Portraits of a De-arabized Prophet<br />

The earliest extant Muslim pictorial depictions of MuÈammd date to the thirteenth and<br />

fourteenth centuries. 250 A number of manuscripts produced in this period, like the J§mi# al-<br />

Taw§rÊkh produced by RashÊd al-DÊn (d. 1318), contain illustrated cycles of the Prophet’s life<br />

drawn from accounts found in the standard sÊra sources: W§qidÊ, Ibn Sa#d, Ibn IsÈaq/Ibn<br />

Hish§m, •abarÊ. 251 In these visual depictions the Prophet and his Companions are fully<br />

depicted; the veiling of the prophetic visage doesn’t seem to have begun until around the<br />

sixteenth century. 252 Characteristic of all of these depictions is the fair skin and rather Asian look<br />

of the Prophet and his Companions. 253 This is not hard to comprehend.<br />

RashÊd al-DÊn, who lived in the Persian city of Tabriz, was vizier to two successive<br />

Mongol rulers of the Ilkh§nid dynasty which ruled parts of Persia at the time. After the Mongols<br />

terminated the #Abb§sid caliphate in 1258, the first ruler to convert to Islam was Mahmud<br />

Ghazan Khan in 1295. His great grandfather Hulagu (r. 1256-65) founded the Ilkh§nid dynasty<br />

which encompassed Persia, Iraq, the Caucasus and Anatolia. Wanting to establish their<br />

legitimacy as successors to great historical dynasties and as heirs to a religious tradition that goes<br />

back to the Prophet and beyond him to the biblical prophets, the Ilkh§nid Khans created<br />

manuscripts that were meant to bestow legitimacy on them and act as a form of state<br />

propaganda. 254 Mahmud Ghazan Khan commissioned RashÊd al-DÊn to prepare a work on the<br />

history of the Mongol tribes. This work was expanded to a general world history: the J§mi# al-<br />

Taw§rÊkh or “A Compendium of Chronicles”. Considering the purpose of the work, it is not at all<br />

surprising that the Prophet and his Companions would have a Mongol-look. In this manner the<br />

dynasty is legitimized and its Central Asian former nomads acquire an important place within<br />

the Heilsgeschicht of Islam. What is important to point out here is that we have another example of<br />

the portrait of MuÈammad changing with a major demographic change in the umma and its<br />

administration.<br />

VIII. Conclusion<br />

The earliest documented Arabs were likely a Kushite or dark-skinned group. The<br />

Classical Arabic/Islamic literary sources confirm the same, that a noble Arab was a blackskinned<br />

Arab. This makes it most unlikely that MuÈammad, reputedly a noble Arab, was fairskinned<br />

as in the popular imagination and in official and un-official representations, literary as<br />

well as visual. We have every reason to believe that the Arab prophet was a dark-skinned Arab,<br />

248 Grabar and Naif, “Story of Portraits of the Prophet,” 34; Omid Safi, Ph.D, Memories of <strong>Muhammad</strong>: Why<br />

the Prophet Matters (New York: HarpersCollins, 2009) 34-37.<br />

249 Safi, Memories of <strong>Muhammad</strong>, 35 and portrait on 34; Grabar and Naif, “Story of Portraits of the Prophet,”<br />

Pl. VIII.<br />

250 Soucek, “Life of the Prophet,” 193-194; Ali, “Literal to the Spiritual,” 3; Arnold, Painting in Islam, 93.<br />

251 Soucek, “Life of the Prophet,” 199.<br />

252 Ali, “Literal to the Spiritual,” 10; Arnold, Painting in Islam, 98.<br />

253 See Soucek, “Life of the Prophet,” figs. 1-9; Ali, “Literal to the Spiritual,” figs. 1-8; Arnold, Painting in Islam,<br />

Pls. XIX-XX, XXII-XXIII.<br />

254 Ali, “Literal to the Spiritual,” 2, 6.<br />

35


including explicit testimony in the literary sources. While testimony to a fair-skinned<br />

MuÈammad is found there as well, this is no doubt a secondary development that was impacted<br />

by the changed status of Arabs and non-Arabs within the kingdom.<br />

The biography of the prophet MuÈammad as found in the standard sÊra texts is<br />

undoubtedly tendentious. It was shaped not only by sectarian disputes within Islam, but also by<br />

inter-faith dialogue and dispute between Muslims and the non-Muslim subject peoples within the<br />

kingdom. 255 The portraits of the Prophet, literary and visual, are likewise equally tendentious.<br />

Oleg Grabar and Mika Natif suggest that these prophetic portraits were affected by popular<br />

tastes. 256 It appears that with the fall of the Arab kingdom, there was little popular taste for an<br />

ethnically Arab prophet. 257 At a point in the #Abb§sid period, the Muslim populace became<br />

preponderantly non-Arab, 258 and Persian culture was more influential than any other for a while<br />

after the Revolution. Tarif Khalidi has suggested that the biography of the Prophet might be<br />

seen as a form of synecdoche, in which the individual life stands for, symbolizes, and prefigures<br />

the larger communal history. 259 In this regard, this de-arabization of MuÈammad no doubt<br />

reflects the de-arabization of the umma MuÈammadiyya and Islamic tradition.<br />

255 EQ 5:29-51 s.v. SÊra and the Qur"§n by Wim Raven; Tilman Nagel, Mohammed: Leben and Legend<br />

(Munich: Oldenbourg, 2008); idem, Allahs Liebling: Ursprung und Erscheinungsformen des<br />

Mohammedglauben (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2008); Cottfried Hagen, “The Imagined and the Historical<br />

MuÈammad,” JAOS 129 (2009): 97-111; Herbert Berg, Method and Theory in the Study of Islamic Origins<br />

(Leiden: Brill, 2003); H. Motzi (ed.), The Biography of MuÈammad. The Issue of the Sources (Leiden, 2000);<br />

Michael Cook, <strong>Muhammad</strong> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996) Chapter 7 (“The sources”); M. Schöller,<br />

Exegetisches Denken und Prophetenbiographie. Eine quellenkritische Analyse der SÊra<br />

Überlieferung zu MuÈammads Konflikt mit den Juden (Berlin, 1996); Uri Rubin, The Eye of the<br />

Beholder: The Life of MuÈammad as Viewed by the Early Muslims. A Textual Analysis (Princeton,<br />

New Jersey: The Darwin Press, 1995); F.E. Peters, “The Quest of the Historical <strong>Muhammad</strong>,” IJMES 23 (1991):<br />

291-315; Patricia Crone, Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University<br />

Press, 1987) Chapter 9 (“The Sources”); Sebastian Günther, “MuÈammad, the Illiterate Prophet: An Islamic<br />

Creed in the Qur’an and Qur’anic Exegesis,” JQS 4 (2002): 1-26; Isaiah Goldfeld, “The Illiterate Prophet (NabÊ<br />

UmmÊ): An inquiry into the development of a dogma in Islamic Tradition” Der Islam 57 (1980): 58-67; Sara<br />

Stroumsa, “The Signs of Prophecy: The Emergence and Early Development of a Theme in Arabic Theological<br />

Literature,” HTR 78 (1985): 101-14; Sidney H. Griffith, “The Prophet MuÈammad, His Scripture and His Message<br />

According to the Christian Apologies in Arabic and Syriac From the First Abbasid Century,” in La Vie du<br />

prophete Mahomet; colloque de Strasbourg, octobre 1980 (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1983) 99-<br />

146; idem, “Comparative Religion in the Apologetics of the First Christian Arabic Theologians,” in Proceedings<br />

of the Patristic, Mediaeval and Renaissance Conference 4 (1979): 63-87; Richard C. Martin, “The Role of<br />

the Basrah Mutazilah in Formulating the Doctrine of the apologetic Miracle,” JNES 39 (1980) 175-89; R. Sellheim,<br />

“Prophet, Calif und Geschichte. Die <strong>Muhammad</strong>-Biographie des Ibn Isȧq,” Oriens 18-19 (1965-66): 33-91;<br />

Harris Birkeland, The Lord Guideth. Studies on Primitive Islam (Oslo: I Kommisjon Hos H. Aschehoug &<br />

Co. [W. Nygaard], 1956); Geo Widengren, MuÈammad, the Apostle of God, and his Ascension<br />

(Uppasala/Wiesbaden, 1955); Joseph Horovitz, “The Growth of the Mohammed Legend,” MW 10 (1920): 49-58;<br />

Tor Andrae, Die person Muhammeds in lehre und glauben seiner gemeinde (Stockholm: P.A. Vorstedt og<br />

söner, 1918). This is not to say that we can’t mine this mass of late traditional material for imformation related to<br />

early Islam. See especially Andreas Görke and Gregor Schoeler, Die ältesten Berichte über das Leben<br />

MuÈammads: Das Korpus #Urwa ibn az-Zubair (Princeton, NJ: The Darwin Press, Inc., 2008).<br />

256 Grabar and Naif, “Story of Portraits of the Prophet,” 33.<br />

257 Ali’s observation seems quite germane here: “although the description of the Prophet (viz. as ruddy-white, etc.) is<br />

quite explicit in the Arabic annals, there is not a single picture painted by an Arab that portrays him. On the other<br />

hand, among the Turks, the Persians and the Indians, whose artistic heritage had been rich in pictorial images and<br />

whose language is other than Arabic, the Prophet was actually portrayed…” Ali, “Literal to the Spiritual,” 10.<br />

258 Berkey, Formation, 118.<br />

259 Khalidi, Images, 3.<br />

36


This study has a number of implications for scholarship on Islam. First, it strongly<br />

suggests that the common scholarly trope of the Arabian ‘swarthy whites’ be abandoned, as it has<br />

little support in the sources and is more a figment of scholarly imagination. Secondly, while<br />

Bernard Lewis’s study of race and slavery in Islam was ground-breaking, this study suggests that<br />

a new interpretation of the development of the racial ethic in early Islam is desirable. 260 It seems<br />

that we have the extraordinary case of black anti-white racism giving way to white anti-black<br />

racism, both in the context of an articulation of Islam. 261 While the latter has been explored, the<br />

former – black racism in Islam – has not. Such a situation is worthy of further study.<br />

260 While Lewis acknowledges that pre-Islamic Arabia was free of an anti-Black, anti-African sentiment, he attributes<br />

the development of these sentiments to the ‘Bedouin aristocracy of the conquests’. But these Bedouin Arabs, we have<br />

shown, were a proud black-skinned group themselves. The beginning of anti-black racism must be sought elsewhere.<br />

See Lewis, Racism and Slavery, 21-26; idem, “Crows,” 90. For a more recent discussion see <strong>Dr</strong>ake, Black Folk,<br />

II, Chapter Five. <strong>Dr</strong>ake, following Lewis, also assumes that anti-black (or anti-Negro) prejudice existed among the<br />

Bedouin conquerors.<br />

261 On Arab racism against the ‘red’ maw§lÊ see Ibn #Abd Rabbihi, al-#Iqd al-farÊd, III: 317-328; Lewis, Race and<br />

Slavery, 38; Goldziher, Muslim Studies, Chapter Three.<br />

37

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