“Anyone who says that the Prophet is black should be killed”: The ...

A particularly instructive case is that of the Arab poet RabÊ# b. #$mir of the early
Umayyad period, better known as MiskÊn al-D§rimÊ (d. 90/708). MiskÊn was a distinguished
member of noble ancestry from the Banå D§rim from TamÊm of Iraq. 50 A pure Arab born to a
wealthy family, he was known for being “very dark, handsome, courageous, and eloquent”. 51
MiskÊn was famously black-skinned (al-aswad; al-sumra) and a pureblooded Arab. 52
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At a certain
point in his life MiskÊn became a very religious ascetic. He gave up his wealth with its finery and
his poetry, and all but locked himself in a mosque in Medina. According to a well-known
anecdote, MiskÊn proposed to a woman of his tribe who rejected him because of both his
blackness and (now) poverty. She instead married a wealthy, fairer-skinned man who was not a
pure Arab. One day MiskÊn passed the two on the street and recited some verses to them,
boasting of his noble heritage and denigrating her spousal choice for his lack of the same. He said
before them:
I am MiskÊn to those who know me.
My complexion is dark brown (al-sumra),
the complexion of the Arabs. 53
Regarding her husband MiskÊn said: “the wealth of his house (samÊn al-bayt) is poverty with
respect to genealogy (mahjål al-nasab),” 54 i.e. his material wealth cannot equal MiskÊn’s pure Arab
genealogy, which her choice lacks. This anecdote articulates an important historical truth: pure
Arabs were black-skinned Arabs. 55 Secondly, and related to this point, fair-skinned Arabs were
considered of ignoble birth. 56
That a fair complexion was a distinctly non-Arab trait is equally well documented in the
Classical Arabic sources. Ibn Maníår affirms:
Red (al-Èamr§#) refers to non-Arabs due to their fair complexion which predominates
among them. And the Arabs used to say about the non-Arabs with whom white skin was
characteristic, such as the Romans, Persians, and their neighbors: ‘They are red-skinned
(al-Èamr§#)…” al-Èamr§# means the Persians and Romans…And the Arabs attribute white
skin to the slaves. 57
Ibn Maníår goes on to quote important commentary on MuÈammad’s famous claim, “I was sent
to the Whites (al-aÈmar) and the Blacks (al-aswad)’: “i.e., the Arabs and the non-Arabs, for the
predominant complexion of the Arabs is dark brown [al-sumra wa l-udma] and that of the non-
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 s.v.
MiskÊn al-D§rimÊ by Ch. Pellat.
51 EI 2 7:145 s.v. MiskÊn al-D§rimÊ by Ch. Pellat.
52 Al-Ißfah§nÊ, Kit§b al-agh§nÊ, 174.
53 Al-Ißfah§nÊ, Kit§b al-agh§nÊ, 174. On sumra see below.
54 Al-Ißfah§nÊ, Kit§b al-agh§nÊ, 175.
55 Vollers, “Rassenfarden,” 86, 88.
56 For another anecdote making the same point see Ibn AbÊ al-\adÊd, SharÈ nahj al-bal§ghah, ed. MuÈammad
AbÊ al-Fa∙l Ibr§hÊm (Cairo: #^s§ al-B§bÊ al-\alabÊ, 1959) V:55.
57 Ibn Maníår, Lis§n al-#arab, s.v. ﺮﻤﺣ IV: 210.