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

Arab, MuÈammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, calling him “Charcoal Face.” Al-Ma#mån (r. 813-833), a
son of a Persian mother, was well-known for his preference for Persians over Arabs. 220 We might
thus understand his mocking his uncle, the #Abb§sid prince Ibr§him b. al-MahdÊ (d. 839).
Ibr§him, the son of the caliph al-MahdÊ (r. 775-85) to a black concubine from Daylam in
northwestern Iran, was so exceedingly black (shadÊd suw§d al-lawn) he was nicknamed al-TinnÊn,
‘The Dragon.’ 221 After an unsuccessful bid for the throne, al- Ma#mån pardoned his uncle and
called him before him, taunting: “Are you then the black caliph?” 222
But this convergence of anti-Arab and anti-black sentiments among the #Abb§sids is best
articulated in the poetry of Abå al-\asan AlÊ b. al-#Abb§s b. Jurayj, also known as Ibn al-RåmÊ
(d. 896). Ibn al-RåmÊ was not an Arab. His mother was a Persian and his father was Byzantine
(some say half-Greek).
223
Yet, he was an advocate of the ill-treated black Arabs, in particular the
family of Prophet MuÈammad. Ibn al-RåmÊ fulminated in his poetry against the #Abb§sid abuse
of the tombs of the Shiite Imams and their living descendents of his day. He wrote to the
#Abb§sid caliph:
You insulted (the family of the Prophet) because of their blackness (bi-l-saw§d), while there
are still deep black, pure-blooded Arabs (al-#arab al-amȧ∙ akh∙ar ad#aj). However, you
are white224
- the Romans (Byzantines) have embellished your faces with their color. The
color of the family of H§shim was not a bodily defect (#§ha). 225
It was inevitable that this new anti-Arab and anti-black sentiment would impact the
manner in which the Prophet was imagined and represented. In this context we can understand
the proliferation in the literature of this period of the impossible image of MuÈammad as aÈmar
which, in the Umayyad period, characterized non-Arabs. 226
Thought, 29. On the impact of Sasanian court-tradition on the memory of al- Manßår’s reign see also Joseph
Sadan, “The Division of the Day and Programme of Work of the Caliph al- Manßår,” Studia Orientalia.
Memoriae D.H. Baneth Dedicata (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1979) 255-272.
220 Goldziher, Muslim Studies, I:138.
221 Ibn al-JawzÊ, Kit§b tanwÊr al-ghabasg, 317 [Ar.], 150 [Eng.]; Ibn Khallikan, Wafay§t al-a#y§n (Bål§q,
1299 AH) I:10 (= Biographical Dictionary, trans. B. MacGuckin de Slane (New York and London: Johnson
Reprint Corporation, 1842-) I:1; EI 2 3:987-88 s.v. Ibr§him b. al-MahdÊ by D. Sourdel. There is some debate as to
how Ibr§him acquired his dark complexion. See Graham W. Irwin, Africans Abroad: A Documentary History
of the Black Diaspora in Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean During the Age of Slavery (New
York: Columbia University Press, 1977) 68.Both and Irwin (Ibid.) and Lewis (Race, 89) doubt the reports which
make Ibr§him’s mother black, but their arguments are unconvincing. It is the case, however, that his intensely dark
complexion may have derived in part from his father. Al-Mas#ådÊ describes the caliph al-MahdÊ as “handsome, with
large, dark-brown (asmar) body”: al-TambÊh wa-"l-ishr§f (Baghdad: Makhtabat al-Mulhann§, 1967) 296-7.
222 Ibn Khallikan, Wafay§t al-a#y§n, I:10 (= Biographical Dictionary,I:18); Lewis, Race and Slavery, 89.
223 EI 2 3:907-909 s.v. Ibn al- RåmÊ by S. Boustany; Dr. Ali A. El-Huni, The Poetry of Ibnal-Rumi (Critical
Study) (London: D§r al-\ikma, 1996) 13-18; Beatrice Gruendler, Medieval Arabic Praise Poetry. Ibn al-
RåmÊ and the Patron’s Redemption (London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003) 42.
224 Literally blue, zurg. One of the many contradictory meanings of this term is white. See Allam, “Sociolinguistic
Study,” 87 and Lewis, Race and Slavery, 26 observes that white peoples in the north were called in Arabic ‘pale
blue’ as well as red.
225 Abå al-Faraj al-Ißbah§nÊ, Maq§til al-ãalibÊyyÊn, ed. AÈmad ‘aqr (Cairo: D§r IÈy§" al-Kutub al-ArabÊya,
1949) 759.
226 We already meet this image in the early biographical literature of age:; Ibn Sa#d, Kit§b al-ãabaq§t al-kabÊr,
I/ii,120, 121,122, 124, 129 (Ar.).
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