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

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al-lawn). 168 Yet, he too was azhar, luminous, except, we are told, in the high summer. The heat in his region seems to have robbed him of his bodily sheen and luster, leaving him completely black (tamÊm akh∙ar) and pitch black (È§lik). 169 Al-JaÈií thus clarified the Arab use of such descriptions: The Arabs boast of (their) black color. If it is said, ‘How can this be so, seeing that the Arabs speak of someone as luminous (azhar), white (abya∙), and blazing white (agharr)?’ we would answer: ‘They are not referring in this context to whiteness of skin (bay§∙ al-jilda), but rather to nobility and purity of character. 170 These two descriptions of MuÈammad as (dark) brown (asmar) and as white (abya∙), are therefore not in conflict: the latter would have the sense of sheen (al-ßaf§") and luster (al-lama#§n) on the blemish-free asmar skin under the light of the sun. 171 An§s b. M§lik thus reportedly affirmed that the Messenger of God “was luminous (azhar), not albino-white,” 172 and specified further that “his (s) whiteness was related to (dark) brown, k§na abya∙ bay§∙ahu il§ al-asmar,” 173 thus not related to aÈmar, white-complexioned. This means that, when not specifically qualified by the phrase mushrab bi-Èumra, descriptions of MuÈammad’s complexion as abya∙ should probably be read as ‘blemish-free and luminous black complexion.’ Excursus: Black Semites vs. Black Hamites This tradition of black-skinned Arabs with a blemish-free and luminous complexion throws some light (no pun intended) on a number of passages within the literature relating to black Africans. Above we quoted a report found The in same al-•abarÊ’s is true of Ta"rÊkh Ja#far’s son, al-rusul Mås§ wa"l-mulåk, al-K§íim (d. 183/799), according to the which seventh God Imam. gave He the was Semites deep a brown dark complexion, (asmar #amÊq) luminous or black-complexioned and free of blemish (aswad (aludma wa l-bay§∙), while to the Hamites (i.e. Africans) he gave only a dark complexion. For most Hamites their dark complexion was not luminous and blemish-free. The distinguishing characteristic between Arabs and Africans according to this formulation is not chromatic but quality of complexion and absence or presence of a luster. A poet’s satirical reproach against the black-skinned #Ubayd All§h, son of the Ethiopian Companion Abå Bakra, could claim regarding Nubian blacks: “God put no light in their complexions!” 174 This is no doubt the context for this much quoted hadith on the authority of Ibn Abb§s An Abyssinian man came to the Prophet (s) [wanting] to ask him [something]. The Prophet (s) said to him, ‘Ask whatever you wish.’ So he said: ‘O Apostle of God, you (pl.) 168 Ibn al-‘abb§gh, Al-Fusål, 213; AÈmad b. #AlÊ b. #Inabah, Kit§b #umdat al-ã§lib fÊ ans§b $l AbÊ •§lib (Cairo: Maktabat al-Thaq§fah al-DÊnÊyah, 2001) 156. 169 Ibn Sharhr§shåb, Man§qib, IV:323. 170 Al-JaÈií, Fakhr al-såd§n #al§ al-bidan, 207 (Ar.); 17 (Eng.) 171 Q§wÊ al-HarawÊ, Kit§b jam# al-was§"il,17. 172 Quoted by al-Tha#labÊ, Fiqh al-lugha, 77. 173 al-BayhaqÊ, Dal§"il al-nubuwwah, I:204; Ibn KathÊr, al-Bid§yah wa-"l-nih§yah, VI: 13; Munawi, al- Raw∙ al-b§sim, 25. This is also the context in which we must understand the similar statement found in the Ibn #Abb§s report cited above, that MuÈammad was asmar il§ al-bay§∙, “brown related to white,” which I translated above as “brown and blemish-free with a sheen”. Contra al-B§jårÊ, Maw§hib al-ladunÊyah #al§ al-Sham§"il al- MuÈammadÊyah, apud al-TirmidhÊ, al-Sham§"il al-MuÈammadÊyah, 22. 174 Bal§dhurÊ, Ans§b, I: 505. 24
surpass us in appearance (al-ßåra) and complexion (al-alwan) and in prophethood. If I were to believe just as you believe, and if I were to do just as you do, would I enter Paradise with you?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ Then the Prophet (s) said: ‘I swear by the One who owns my heart, that the radiance of the Black person (baya∙ al-aswad) will be seen over the stretch of a thousand years.’ 175 Ignaz Goldziher’s translation, “the black skin of the Ethiopian will spread a brilliance on the road of a thousand years ” 176 certainly captures the context better than Lewis’, “the whiteness of the Ethiopian will be seen over a stretch of a thousand years”. 177 The latter implies a chromatic transformation on the part of the Ethiopian in Paradise, a theme that is wholly absent here. The context is surely that of the different endowments between Semites and Hamites of somatic når (light). In Paradise, however, Hamites (Ethiopians) will possess their fair share and, like the Semites, their complexion will be both al-udma wa l-bay§∙. VI.1. ‘His whiteness is a fair-skinnedness’: The Transfiguration of MuÈammad It is pretty certain that as an Arab from the Banå H§shim of the Quraysh tribe, MuÈammad was not fair-skinned. Yet, a number of reports do insist that “the whiteness of [MuÈammad’s] complexion was a fair-skinnedness (abya∙ al-lawn mushrab Èumra).” 178 We are thus confronted with what Clinton Bennett has aptly called “the problematic of divergent and contradictory material” in the SÊra and hadith literature. 179 However, given the popularity and canonicity that this image of a ruddy MuÈammad will eventually acquire, these reports don’t have the distribution in the developing biographical literature that we might expect. It does not have a particularly strong presense amoung the founding quartet of what Tarif Khalidi has called the “Sira of primitive devotion,” i.e. a sÊra that stands in such awe of its subject that it presents all of the reports that it gathers, paying little or no heed to conflict and consistency. 180 A good illustration of this primitive devotion is surely Ibn Sa#d’s Kit§b al-ãabaq§t al-kabÊr: he cites three reports explicitly attributing a black or dark complexion to MuÈammad; 181 three describing him as abya∙ and four as azhar; and six attributing a white (aÈmar) complexion. 182 Ibn Sa#d makes no attempt to reconcile these ‘contrasting images’. 183 On the other hand, Ibn IsÈ§q (d. 151/767), the author of the earliest extant biography (sÊra), does not seem to have reported either of these contrasting images, 184 nor al-•abarÊ (d. 175 Ibn al-Jawzī, Kitāb tanwīr al-ghabash, 140 [Eng], 307 [Arb]. 176 Goldziher, Muslim Studies, I:75. 177 Lewis, Race and Slavery, 35. 178 Ibn Sa#d, Kit§b al-ãabaq§t al-kabÊr, I/i,120, 121,122, 124, 129 (Ar.); Bal§dhurÊ, Ans§b, I: 391 § 836; 394 § 848. 179 Bennett, In Search, 44. On which see also Khalidi, Images, 72-78. 180 Khalidi, Images, 17. 181 Along with the two cited above on the authority of An§s b. M§lik and #Abd All§h b. #Abb§s, he cites the following suggestive report: al-Zubayr reported on the authority of Ibr§hÊm: “The Messenger of Allah (s) stretched his left foot, such that the blackness of its exposed part (í§hiruh§ aswad) was visible.” Ibn Sa#d, Kit§b alãabaq§t al-kabÊr, I/i,127 (Ar.); 495 (Eng). 182 See above no. 179. 183 On contrasting images of MuÈammad in the sÊra as well as counter-narratives see Khalidi, Images, 73-75. 184 A review of Ibn Hish§m, SÊrat Rasål All§h, ed. F. Wüstenfeld (Göttingen, 1858-59) (=The Life of Muhammad, trans. A. Guillaume [London, 1955] 183-84) turns up no such report. 25
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