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

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fair-complexion! 198 Rather, he insisted that MuÈammad’s whiteness was a luminance, yes; but a white complexion as well (bal k§na baya∙ahu nåran mushraban bi-Èumratan ). 199 Al-Munawi (d. 1621) insisted on the same: concerning [MuÈammad’s] whiteness (bay§∙) due to light (al-når), illumination (i∙§"a), and brilliant gloss (al-i∙§"a al-s§ãi#), this does not deny that he was (also) white-skinned (mashrab bi- Èumra). 200 Considering that a ‘fair-skinned Arab’ is oxymoronic and a noble H§shimÊ in particular by definition is black-skinned, how do we account for the development and, more importantly, the general acceptance in the pre-modern and modern Muslim world of this impossible image of a fair-skinned MuÈammad? Any answer to this question could only be speculative. However, we suggest that an appropriate context in which to understand this development is the Kulturkampf that pitted Persian ethno-cultural sentiments against Arab sentiments, a conflict the Arabs all but linguistically lost. This development contributed to a general ‘de-arabizing’ of Islamic tradition, and eventually a de-arabizing of Islam’s prophet. VII. De-Arabizing Islam and its Prophet The Egyptian polymath Jal§l al-DÊn al-SuyåãÊ (d. 991/1583), in his T§rÊkh al-Khulaf§", reports a variant of a very suggestive hadith: [The Messenger of God said:] “I dreamed that I drove before me some black sheep, then I drove after them some white sheep, so that the black could not be seen among them.” And Abå Bakr said: “O apostle of God, as for the black sheep, they signified the Arabs who shall embrace the faith and increase in numbers, and the white sheep are the non-Arabs (#ajam) who shall be converted until the Arabs shall not be seen among them by reason of their numbers.” The apostle of God replied, “likewise did the angel interpret it this morning.” 201 This tradition could illustrate the prophetic powers of MuÈammad, but such a post eventum prophecy more likely is a response to an historical development that had taken place long after his death. The era of the ‘Arab empire’ passed with the overthrow of the Umayyads in 132/750 and a profoundly different era was ushered in. 202 The post-Revolution empire was not only ‘dearabized’ politically, but (eventually) culturally as well. The impact of Persian, Hellenistic and 198 Q§wÊ al-HarawÊ, Kit§b jam# al-was§"il,15. Likewise al-B§jårÊ, Maw§hib al-ladunÊyah #al§ al-Sham§"il al-MuÈammadÊyah, apud al-TirmidhÊ, al-Sham§"il al-MuÈammadÊyah, 22. 199 Q§wÊ al-HarawÊ, Kit§b jam# al-was§"il,14. 200 Al-Munawi, al-Raw∙ al-b§sim, 37. 201 Al-Suyåãī, Tārikh al-khulafā, 86. See also #Al§ al-DÊn b. Hus§m al-DÊn al-MuttaqÊ, Kanz al-#umm§l (Haydarabad, 1312/1894-98) VI: 215 # 3755; al-Tha#§libÊ, Mukhtaßar§t, ed. Gustav Flügel, Der vertraute Gefährte des Einsamen in schlagfertigen Gegenreden (Wien, 1829) 270 # 313; Goldziher, Muslim Studies, 1:112. 202 Asma Afsaruddin, The First Muslims: History and Memory (Oxford: Oneworld, 2008) 106 notes: “The third generation of Muslims, called the ‘Successors to the Successors’ (atba’ al-tabi’in) inherited a changed world after the ‘Abbasid revolution…Important ideological, administrative, cultural, political, and socio-economic developments and changes were ushered in after the overthrow of the Umayyads in 750.” 28
Ottoman culture on Islamic tradition is conspicuous in the ‘reconstituted SÊra’ with its ‘reconstructed’ image of MuÈammad. VII.1. ‘Tell all the sons of H§shim…Retreat to the Hejaz and resume eating lizards’ Recent research has demonstrated that, while Arabized mawl§ from Kufa and Persianized Arabs in Khurasan were involved, the preponderant element of the Revolution that toppled the Umayyads was the Iranian masses who were resentful both of the Arabs’ putting an end to eleven-hundred years of Persian civilization and the Arab racial arrogance and discrimination that followed. 203 The success of the Revolution meant a redistribution of the ethnic weights. 204 It is somewhat of an understatement to say that the Persians benefitted most under the #Abb§sid caliphs, 205 most of whom were sons of non-Arab mothers. 206 The Persians in fact were so influential under the new caliphs, a number of Muslim authors have characterized the Umayyad and the #Abb§sid dynasties as Arab and Khurasanian respectively. 207 #Abb§sid culture was profoundly shaped by Persian, 208 such that it can be said that Persian civilization would “rebound…mutatis mutandis its Islamicization, slowly almost stealthily in less than a century.” 209 In the process ethnic Arabs became less and less observable, 210 not only in administration but in all 203 Saleh Said Agha, The Revolution Which Toppled the Umayads: Neither Arab nor ‘Abbāsid (Leiden: Brill, 2003) has made a strong and very convincing case in favor of the original thesis of Julius Wellhausen, Das Arabische Reich und sein Sturz (1902) which fell out of favor largely due to the researches of M.A. Shaban (The #Abb§sid Revolution [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970]) and Moshe Sharon (Black Banners From the East [Jerusalem and Leiden: the Hebrew University, 1983]). Restö, Arabs, 24 notes as well: “the Abbasid revolution in 750 was, to a large extent, the final revolt of the non-‘arab Muslims against the ‘arab and their taking power. This revolt was dominated by the Iranian ‘aÆam (non-Arabs), and the outcome was the establishment of at least formal equality between the two groups.” The Arabs in Khurasan were assimilated into Persian society. Many spoke Persian, married Persian women and observed local Persian customs and holidays. See Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies, 2 nd Edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002) 40. On the Arab discrimination against non-Arabs in the early empire see Goldziher, Muslim Studies, I, Chapter Three. 204 Agha, Revolution, 324: “Arabs lost supremacy, but Islam and Arabic continued to prosper. The Establishment, inasmuch as it was an Islamic edifice, was not destroyed, but was taken over and overhauled. It was…de- Arabianized…The ‘Arab’ Muslim kingdom fell, and the inter-racial ‘Muslim’ empire rose, with Persian overtones.” 205 Afsaruddin, First Muslims, 107: “The group that benefitted the most from this sea change were the Persians, a significant number of whom assumed important official positions in various ‘Abbasid administrations and who wielded significant political as well as cultural influence…” Goldziher noted that “The preference for Persians was a tradition of the #Abb§sid house.” Muslim Studies, I:139. 206 Only the first #Abb§sid caliph al-Saff§È (r. 749-754) was a pure Arab, in contrast to the Umayyad caliphs, almost all of whom were pure Arabs. See Lewis, Race and Slavery, 39; Goldziher, Muslim Studies, I: 118-119. 207 Al-J§Èií, Bay§n wa-al-taly§n, 4 vols. ed. #Abd al-Sal§m MuÈammad H§rån (Egypt: Maktabat al-Kh§njÊ, 1960-61) III:366; al-DhahabÊ, Siyar, VI:58. 208 Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early Abbasid Society (London and New York: Routledge, 1986) 34: “The transfer of the seat of the caliphate to #Ir§q, and eventually to Baghd§d, after the accession of the #Abb§sids to power, placed #Abb§sid life in the center of a Persian-speaking population. The history and culture of this population thus inevitably played a crucial role in defining the new #Abb§sid culture that was being formed.” 209 David Levering Lewis, God’s Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215 (London and New York: W.W. Norton, 2008)76. Johathan P. Berkey, The Formation of Islam. Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 117 notes that, following the Revolution, Persian was the non-Arab cultural tradition that “shaped Islam more than any other.” 210 G.E. von Grunebaum, Classical Islam. A History, 600 A.D. to 1258 A.D. (New Brunswick and London: AldineTransaction, 2005 [1970]) 80: “The victory of the #Abb§ssids signified the pushing back, but not the elimination of the Arabs…in the transition to national states the importance of the Arabs as a racial and military 29
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