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

VI. MuÈammad the Black Arab?
We have every a priori reason to expect MuÈammad, as an Arab, to have been darkcomplexioned.
A fair-skinned MuÈammad in seventh-century Hejaz would have invoked
criticisms and charges of being a non-Arab. When we examine the Classical Arabic literature,
our expectations of a dark-skinned MuÈammad are in fact not disappointed. Al-TirmidhÊ (d.
279/892) in his J§mi# al-‘aÈÊÈ reports on the authority of the famous Companion of the
Prophet, An§s b. M§lik:
The Messenger of Allah was of medium stature, neither tall nor short, [with] a beautiful,
dark brown-complexioned body (Èasan al-jism asmar al-lawn). His hair was neither curly nor
completely straight and when he walked he leant forward. 135
Ibn Sa#d (d. 230/845) reports this and a similar description of MuÈammad on the authority of
Ibn #Abbās:
YazÊd al-F§risi said: I saw the Messenger of God (s) in a dream during the time Ibn #Abbās
[was governor] over Basra. I said to Ibn #Abbās: “I saw the Messenger of Allah (s) in a
dream.” Ibn #Abbās said: “Verily, the Messenger used to say, ‘Satan cannot assume my
form, so he who saw me in a dream, surely had a vision of me.’ Can you describe to me
what you saw?” [YazÊd] said: “Yes, I [will] describe [him]. He was a man between two
men. His body and flesh were brown and blemish-free with a sheen (asmar il§ al-bay§∙),
smiling, eyes with collyrium, features of his face beautiful. His beard was thick from this
end to that, and (the man) pointed to his two temples with his hands. It was so thick that it
covered his neck….” Thereupon Ibn #Abbās said: “Had you seen him while awake, you
could not have described him better than this.” 137
Like the report on the authority of An§s, MuÈammad is here described as brown-skinned, asmar.
The normal connotation of this term is a pretty standard dark brown, 138 as evidenced by other
formations from the same root: samar “darkness, night”; al-g§rra al-samr§ “the black continent
(Africa)” 139 . In the context of human complexions sumra /asmar has been associated with khu∙ra,
§dam, aswad, i.e. black. 140
135 Sunan al-TirmidhÊ (Hims: Maktabat D§r al-Da#wah, 1965-) VI:69 no. 1754; Al-TirmidhÊ, al-Sham§"il al-
NabÊ, no. 2. This or a related report is found as well in Ibn Sa#d, Kit§b al-ãabaq§t al-kabÊr, I/i, 123 (Ar.); 488
(Eng); AÈmad b. \anbal, Musnad (Riyad: Bayt al-Afk§r al-DawlÊyah, 1998) III: 969 no. 13854; al-BayhaqÊ,
Dal§"il al-nubuwwah, I:203; Ibn KathÊr, al-Bid§yah wa-"l-Nih§yah, VI: 13.
136 On al-bay§∙ see below.
137 Ibn Sa#d, Kit§b al-ãabaq§t al-kabÊr, I/i,125 (Ar.); 492 (Eng).
138 Vollers, “Rassenfarben,” 88.
139 J M. Cowan (ed.), Hans Wehr Arabic-English Dictionary 4 th edition (Ithica: Spoken Language Services,
Inc., 1994) 500 s.v. ﺮﻤﺳ.
140 Ibn Maníår, Lis§n al-#arab, s.v. ﺮﻀﺧ IV: 245; s.v. ﺮﻤﺳ IV:376: “al-udma is al-sumra, and al-§dam among people
in al-asmar.” See also Ibn AbÊ al-\adÊd, SharÈ nahj al-bal§ghah, V:56. Lane’s note, Lexicon, I: 1425 s.v. ﺮﻤﺳ :
“tawny…like the various hues of wheat” does not accurately capture the chromatic implications of this term. See
also Hidayet Hosain’s translation of Anas b. M§lik’s report as found in TirmidhÊ’s al-Sham§"il (#2): “his
complexion was tawny”: Hidayet Hosain, “Translation of Ash-Shama’il of Tirmizi,” Islamic Culture 7 (1933):
397. Vollers’ “dunkle Bräune” is more accurate: “Rassenfarben,” 88.
20
136