Jack Salzman, Cornel West Struggles in the Promised

The Curse of Ham \\ 43
24. Cf. Genesis Rabbah 36.2 (ed. Theodor-Albeck, Jerusalem, 1965, p.336): "And
Ham was the father of Canaan, [that is,] the father of the curse (phth)," which may
stand behind the Zohar passage. For phth as "curse," see Saul Lieberman, Hellenism in
Jewish Palestine (New York, 1950), pp. 12-13, n. 59, and idem,Jewish Quarterly Review
36 (1945-46): 346.
25. See, e.g., the following commentaries: Shim'on Labi (sixteenth century), Sefer
Ketem Paz (Livorno, 1795), p. 207b; (Jerba, 1940), p. 179b; Moses Cordovero (sixteenth
century), 'Or Yaqar (Jerusalem, 1967) 4:91, s.v. Kena'an de'ahshikh; Judah Leib Ashlag
(twentieth century), Ha-Sulam (Jerusalem, 1952) vol.3, "Noah," p.105, sec. 298.
"Darkening the face of mankind" is used elsewhere in the Zohar (2:l49b) in explicating
Genesis 1:2 ("darkness on the face of the deep") having nothing to do with
Ham. The image is as obvious as it is common. See, for example, Hesiod, Works and
Days 154-155: "Black death seized them and they left the bright light of the sun."
26. H. Sperling and M. Simon, The Zohar (London, 1934) 1:246-247.
27. Jordan's strange interpretation of the Zohar is followed (without attribution)
by Joseph Washington, Anti-Blackness in English Religion, p. 12.
28. For Islamic sources, see, e.g., Jahiz, Kitab al-Hayawan, ed. Harun, 3:245,
5:35—36, translation in Andre Miquel, La Geographic humaine du monde mmulman
jusqu'au milieu du 11" siecle, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1973), 1:11; Mas'udl, Kitab al-tanbih wa7ishraf,
translated by B. Carra de Vaux as Le livre de I'avertissement et de la revision (Paris,
1896), pp. 38—40; Minoo Southgate, "The Negative Images of Blacks in Some
Medieval Iranian Writings," Iranian Studies 17 (1984): 12; Mukhtasar al-'aja'ib, trans.
B. Carra de Vaux, L'abrege des merveilles (Paris, 1898), ch. 6, pp. 99-100; ed. Paris,
1984, p. 105. Authorship is attributed to either Mas'udl or Ibrahim ibn Waslf Shah
(d. before 1209). N. Levtzion and J.P.P. Hopkins, Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West
African History (Cambridge, 1981), pp. 37, 133, and 170. For Christian sources, see,
e.g., the Old French Les Narbonnais quoted in W.W. Comfort, "The Literary Role of
the Saracens in the French Epic," Publications of the Modern Language Association 55
(1940): 650-651, and Albertus Magnus in J.P. Tilmann, An Appraisal of the
Geographical Works of Albertus Magnus and His Contribution to Geographical Thought
(Ann Arbor, 1971), p. 101. In Christian writings the devil was commonly portrayed
as an Ethiopian (i.e., a black African), and in such descriptions red (or, flaming, fiery,
glowing) eyes was a typical feature. One example among many: The Martyrdom of
Bartholomew (= Pseudo-Abdias, Book 8) in The Ante-Nicene Fathers 8:556. See Lloyd A.
Thompson, Romans and Blacks, p. 113 and p. 213, n. 114; Jack Winkler, "Lollianos
and the Desperadoes," Journal of Hellenic Studies 100 (1980): 155-181, p. 161. A full
treatment of this subject, with more examples, will appear in my forthcoming book
on the Curse of Ham.
29. Galen is preserved in quotation by the Arab historian Mas'udl, Lespraires d'or,
ed. Pellat (Paris, 1962), 1:69. The quotation is that of J. Desanges in The Image of the