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

our own – the former being more concerned with brightness, intensity, and shade than with hue
– Lewis suggests that the Arab self-description as ‘black’ is only relative and does not mean blackskinned;
such terms as aswad, sumra, §dam and akh∙ar, all indicating a dark brown or black color,
really signifies ‘swarthy’ when used by the Arabs of themselves in the Classical Arabic literature.
Normal for the Arabs of the peninsula was a light brown or olive complexion. 115 They were
certainly less dark than Africans. 116 Indeed, the conquered natives of Spain, Greece and other
Mediterranean peoples were only “of somewhat lighter skin than the Arabs.” 117 These ‘black’
Arabs and ‘red’ Persians were in fact so similar in complexion, Lewis proposes, that the son of an
Arab father and Persian mother would not look much different from the son of two Arab
parents. 118
A closer look at the relevant references in the Arabic literature indicates that the above is
a misreading. #Ub§da b. al-‘§mit, whom Lewis describes as swarthy, was in fact so black he
struck terror in the heart of his poor Byzantine negotiating partner. 119 There can be no question
of #Ub§da’s appearance being that of a nicely tanned white; on the contrary, his black-skin was
(terrifyingly) real. Similarly, #Abd al-Muããalib’s ten sons – including MuÈammad’s father #Abd
All§h and his important uncles Abå •§lib, Hamza and al-#Abb§s – were not swarthy, according
to al-JaÈií, but a deep black, dalham. #AlÊ b. AbÊ •§lib was intensely black, §dam shadÊd al-udma, 120
not swarthy. 121 In fact, #AlÊ would have been about the same complexion as Bil§l, often said to be
the first ‘black Muslim’; he too was §dam shadÊd al-udma. 122 Lewis’s proposition is thus turned on
its head: the son of two Arabs (i.e. #AlÊ) looks little different from the son of an Arab and an
African (i.e. Bil§l), rather than an Arab and a Persian.
This myth of Arabian swarthy whites has informed some translations of the literature,
sometimes with strange results. Notable in this regard is Jane Dammen McAuliffe’s translation of
al-•abarÊ’s description of MuÈammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya. While al-•abarÊ describes the Imam as
so excessively black (§dam shadÊd al-udma adlam) that he was called “Tar Face” (al-q§rÊ) and
“Charcoal Face” (al-muÈammam), 123 McAuliffe renders this passage thusly: “MuÈammad was very
swarthy-his complexion almost black”. 124 The distance between al-•abarÊ’s “excessively black”
and McAuliffe’s “almost black” is significant and should be noted. Puzzling too is David Powers’
description of Zayd b. \§ritha (d. 8/629), the Prophet’s adopted son. According to Powers,
“Zayd was short, his nose was flat and wide, and his skin was white or tawny colored.” 125 Yet, the
115 Lewis, Race and Slavery, 22.
116 Bernard Lewis, “The Crows of the Arabs,” Critical Inquiry 12 (1985) 88.
117 Lewis, Race and Slavery, 22.
118 Lewis, Race and Slavery, 40.
119 Ibn #Abd al-\aham, FutåÈ mißr (Torrey), 66; Lewis, Race and Slavery, 26, 27; Butler, Arab Invasion, 257.
120 Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, I:37 s.v. ﻡﺩﺍ suggests that §dam means primarily ‘tawny’, and secondarily darkcomplexioned.
However, according to Ibn Maníår’s entry, when used of human complexions (rather than that of
camels, for instance) §dam/udma signifies an excessively dark brown, al-sumra al-shadÊd and it contains a “dose of
blackness (shurbatun min saw§d): Lis§n al-#arab, s.v. ﻡﺩﺍ XII:11. Linguist al-Tha#labÊ (d. 1036), Fiqh al-lugha (Beirut
and London: D§r al-Kit§b al-ArabÊ, 2006) 82 likewise notes that §dam’s blackness exceeds that of sumra. See further
Lammens Études, 44.
121 Philip K. Hitti’s description: History of the Arabs, 10th edition (London: Macmillan Education Ltd, 1970)
183.
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
further EI2 I:1215 s.v. Bil§l b. Rab§È by W. #Arafat.
123 Al-•abarÊ, Ta"rÊkh al-rusul wa"l-mulåk, X:203.
124 History of al-•abarÊ, XXVIII:160.
125 Powers, MuÈammad is Not the Father, 25.
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