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

He was a pure descendent of the Prophet himself through the latter’s daughter F§ãimah, wife of
#AlÊ b. AbÊ •§lib, a fact in which he took great pride. 83 This point is clearly evident in a letter he
sent to the #Abb§sid caliph Abå Ja#far al-Manßår (r. 136-158/754 – 775), against whom he
rebelled in 145/762. Al-Nafs al-Zakiyya felt Abå Ja#far al-Manßår’s mixed lineage (his mother
was a Berber), among other things, disqualified him for leadership over the community. He
wrote to the caliph:
You well know that no one has laid claim to this office who has a lineage, nobility, and
status like ours. By the nobility of our fathers, we are not the sons of the accursed, the
outcasts, or freedmen…I am at the very center of the Banå H§shim’s lines. My paternity is
purest among them, undiluted with non-Arab blood, and no concubines dispute over me. 84
What did this pure Arab descendent of the Prophet look like? “MuÈammad (Al-Nafs al-Zakiyya)
is described as tall and strong with very dark skin”. 85 According to al-•abarÊ:
MuÈammad (Al-Nafs al-Zakiyya) was black, exceedingly black, jet black (§dam shadÊd aludma
adlam) and huge. He was nicknamed “Tar Face” (al-q§rÊ) because of his black
complexion (udmatihi), such that Abå Ja#far used to call him “Charcoal Face” (almuÈammam).
86
MuÈammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, a QurayshÊ Arab whose pure lineage on both his paternal and
maternal sides put him “at the center” of the genealogical lines of the Banå H§shim, the
Prophet’s kinsfolk, was so black he was called ‘Tar face’ and ‘Charcoal face.’ This is undoubtedly
of significance for our discussion of the ethnicity and appearance of the Prophet himself. If
MuÈammad too was a pure QurayshÊ Arab of the Banå H§shim, equally noble on ‘both his
father’s and his mother’s side,’ 87 how could he have looked much different than al-Nafs al-
Zakiyya, or #AlÊ b. AbÊ •§lib, or his deep black father #Abd All§h b. #Abd al-Muããalib?
Excursus: ‘Black and Bearded’: What Did the Arabs of the Conquests Look Like?
In 638 the Persian ruler Yazdgird III pleaded to the T’ang emperor of China, T’ai-tsung,
for assistance against the Arabs who had invaded his realm. This assistance was refused. In 651
an Arab embassy arrived in China bearing gifts. There are two extant notices of this embassy in
Chinese literature: in the ninth-century administrative text, T’ung tien, which was presented to the
83 Muhammad Qasim Zaman, “The Nature of MuÈammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya’s Mahdiship: A Study of Some
Reports in Ißbah§nÊ’s Maq§til,” Hamdard Islamicus 13 (1990): 60-61.
84 Quoted from al-•abarÊ, The History of al-•abarÊ, Vol. XXVIII: #Abb§sid Authority Affirmed, trans.
annot. Jane Dammen McAuliffe (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985) 167-68.
85 EI 2 7:389 s.v. MuÈammad b. #Abd Allāh by F. Buhl.
86 Al-•abarÊ, Ta"rÊkh al-rusul wa"l-mulåk, X:203.
87 According to Q§∙Ê #Iy§∙, al-Shif§, 92 (=al-Shifa, 43), MuÈammad “was from the best of the Banå H§shim,
and the stock and core of the Quraysh. He was from the noblest and mightiest of the Arabs, both on his paternal and
maternal side.” In fact, the Prophet could even claim to have been “the most Arab” of all his companions. Ibn
Hish§m, SÊrat Rasål All§h, ed. F. Wüstenfeld (Göttingen, 1858-59) 101, 106 (=The Life of Muhammad, trans.
A. Guillaume [London, 1955] 69, 72). See also Ibn KathÊr, al-SÊra al-Nabawiyya, trans. Dr. Trevor LeGassick,
The Life of the Prophet MuÈammad 4 vols. (London: Center for Muslim Contributions to Civilization;
Reading, UK: Garnet, 1998) I:130-141.
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