Muhammad_Article.349.. - Dr. Wesley Muhammad
Muhammad_Article.349.. - Dr. Wesley Muhammad
Muhammad_Article.349.. - Dr. Wesley Muhammad
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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