Prophet Muhammad and the Black Arabs - Dr. Wesley Muhammad

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650. This is not surprising. Chinese-Persian relations were quite intimate before the rise of the Muslim Arabs. Over thirty Persian embassies from 455 to 651 are noted in Chinese sources and trade and diplomacy flourished between the two countries. Persian (Mazdean) temples were established in China and the relatively accurate accounts in official Chinese sources of pre- Islamic Persian customs and religion suggest that real communication was taking place [Leslie, 1998: 3-4]. Fīrūz’s appeal for assistance was made while he, his son, and thousands of his followers were given asylum in China. The T’ang emperor declined to offer military assistance, however, but did send an embassy to the Caliph Uthman to plead the case of his Persian ally. In return, Uthman sent an embassy to China in 650 bearing tribute. This was the beginning of formal relations between the Islamic and the T’ang dynasty. Between 650 and 798 the Muslims will send thirty-nine formal embassies to China [Junyan, 1980: 93]. Official Chinese records document these embassies, though the Arabic historical tradition makes little mention of them. This latter circumstance, no doubt a consequence of the above mentioned lacunae which characterizes the Arabic tradition, makes the Chinese sources that much more valuable [Gibb, 1923]. While the Chinese records possess gaps of their own and are prone to the occasional error, some of them are contemporary with the events they record and in general show a good awareness of the major events in the Muslim world through the reign of the ‘Abbāsid caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd (786-809). These sources show Chinese awareness of: the rise of Muhammad (though the account is garbled); the Arab/Muslim conquests and the rise of the caliphate; some caliphal ceremonial; Mu’awīya, the first Umayyad caliph, and his unsuccessful siege of Constantinople; the Quraysh tribe and its political division between the Banū Marwān (i.e. the Umayyads) and the Banū Hāshim (i.e. the ‘Abbāsids), and the latter’s overthrow of the former. These sources also demonstrate accurate Chinese awareness of Arab Muslim ethnicity. The oldest relevant T’ang source at our disposal is the T’ung Tien, an encyclopedic administrative tract written by the T’ang official Tu yu (d. 812). After 36 years Tu yu completed the work and presented it to the throne in 801. As a high official Tu yu would have had access to governmental archives. He also used as a source the first-hand account of his nephew, Tu Huan. Tu Huan was taken prisoner after Arab and Chinese forces clashed at the Battle of Talas in 751. He was incarcerated in Iraq until 762, when he was allowed to return to China. Tu Huan made a record of his observations of the Muslims during his incarceration, and this record was utilized by Tu yu. One portion of the T’ung Tien is a section dealing with the ‘western barbarians (His jung),’ a history of China’s relations with the peoples on its western frontier: Central Asia, Northern India, Sassānian Iran, Tibet, the Roman Orient, Arabia [Wakeman, 1990]. Arabia, called Ta-shi, is described in the last section, which reads in part: During the Yung-Hui period (650-651) of the Great T’ang dynasty, the Arabs (Ta-shi) dispatched missions to China. Their country is said to be located to the west of Persia or alternatively, it was said that they were originally Persian Hu who, apparently with [a spirit’s aid], obtained swords and killed…the men of the country have large noses. They 8
are slender in shape and dark brown in color. They have heavy beards and whiskers, like the Indians. Their women are graceful and pretty [trans. Behbehani, 1989: 99, modified with Wakeman, 1990: 892-904]. This is likely the earliest extent reference to the embassy of 650. Some comment on this text is in order. Prior to the rise of the caliphate the Chinese considered Arabia a part of Persia. This is no doubt the context of the “alternative” account that the Arabians were originally Persian (clients), before their rise to independent power and their extinguishing of Sassānian Persia [Broomhall, 1910: 8; Drake, 1943: 23]. But the Chinese sources distinguished between ethnic Arabs, called Ta-shi, and ethnic Persians, called Bosi [Leslie, 1998: 11]. This nomenclature is significant. As is frequently noted, the Chinese double-character term for the Arabs, Ta-shi, doubtlessly derives from the Persian Tā-zī. The latter is the Persianized form of the Syriac tayyāyē, which properly means “Arab of the tribe of Tayyi’”[EI 2 s.v. al-Sin; Behbehani, 1989: 93]. The Banū Tayyi’ were a southern Arabian tribe that migrated north and who became one of the most prominent tribes in pre-Islamic Arabian history [EI 2 s.v. Tayyi’]. It had important relations with Persia and its clients, the Lakhmids of Iraq. They were so prominent in Pre-Islamic Arabia, in fact, that their specific name became the general term for ‘Arab.’ Sogdian Persians regarded the Tayyi’ as representative of the Arabs in general and thus designated the latter Tā-zī. The significance of this point can be fully appreciated only when we consider the following observation by scholar of Arabian ethnography Dana Marniche: “These Yemenite tribes of Tayyi and his brother Madhj were notoriously black and the early Arabic writings make clear that they also held fair-skin in derision or low regard [Marniche, n.d.].” It is thus unsurprising that Ta-shi or Arabs encountered by and known to the Chinese are described as “dark brown in color.” This embassy of dark brown Arabs that visited the Chinese court in 650 likely included Sa’d b. Abī Waqqās, the dark-brown or black-skinned uncle of the prophet Muhammad [Pickens, 1942: 210-211]. Note also that this description of the Arab as dark brown in color with an high nose and whiskers agrees with the description of Muhammad himself as recorded in Chinese Muslim tradition [above]. The second Chinese source treating the Arabs as encountered during the T’ang is the official T’ang History (T’ang Shu). In 941 the Chin emperor Kao-tsu ordered the production of a full-scale dynastic history of the T’ang. This work, the Chiu T’ang shu (Old T’ang History), was completed by the chief minister and director of National History, Liu Hsü, in 945 and presented to the new emperor Shao-ti. A century later an imperial decree went out for a revised version: the Hsin T’ang shu (New T’ang History) was presented to the throne in 1060. The description of Ta-shi (Arabia) and its inhabitants is not much different from what we encounter in the T’ung Tien. The Hsin T’ang shu records: Ta-shi was originally part of Persia. The men have high noses, are black, and bearded. The woman are very fair and when they go out they veil the face. Five times daily they 9
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Page 13 and 14: Ibn al-Faqīh al-Hamadānī. (1996)
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Prophet Muhammad and the Black Arabs - Dr. Wesley Muhammad

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