Muhammad_Article.349.. - Dr. Wesley Muhammad
Muhammad_Article.349.. - Dr. Wesley Muhammad
Muhammad_Article.349.. - Dr. Wesley Muhammad
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
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