Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry

by Bernard Lewis

  Even the reader whose acquaintance with Arabic literature goes no further than The Thousand and One Nights may feel some doubts about the validity of this picture of an interracial utopia. His doubts might begin at the very beginning-with the framework story. King Shahzaman, it will be recalled, left home to visit his brother King Shahriyar but turned back to collect something which he had forgotten. Arriving unexpectedly at his palace at midnight, he found his wife sleeping in his bed and attended by a male black slave, who had fallen asleep by her side. The king, enraged by this sight, killed both offenders with his sword as they lay in bed and then resumed his journey to visit his brother. There the situation was even worse. While King Shahriyar went hunting, not only his wife but twenty female members of his household came out and were (to repeat the Victorian translator's discreet usage) "attended" by twenty male black slaves:

  The King's wife, who was distinguished by extraordinary beauty and elegance, accompanied them to a fountain, where they all disrobed themselves, and sat down together. The King's wife then called out, 0 Mes'ood! and immediately a black slave came to her, and embraced her, she doing the like. So also did the other slaves and women; and all of them continued revelling together until the close of the day.°

  King Shahzaman and King Shahriyar were clearly white supremacists, with sexual fantasies, or rather nightmares, of a sadly familiar quality. This resemblance in The Thousand and One Nights to certain aspects of the old American South is confirmed if we look more closely into that work. Blacks appear frequently in the stories that make up the Nights. Where they do, it is almost invariably in a menial role-as porters, household servants, slaves, cooks, bath attendants, and the like-rarely, if ever, rising above this level in society. Perhaps even more revealing in its way is the story of the good black slave who lived a life of virtue and piety, for which he was rewarded by turning white at the moment of his death.10

  We thus have two quite contradictory pictures before us-the first contained in the Study of History, the second reflected in that other great imaginative construction, The Thousand and One Nights. The one depicts a racially egalitarian society free from prejudice or discrimination; the other reveals a familiar pattern of sexual fantasy, social and occupational discrimination, and an unthinking identification of lighter with better and darker with worse.

  Both versions are impressively documented from Islamic sources. The cause of racial equality is sustained by the almost unanimous voice of Islamic religion-both the exhortations of piety and the injunctions of the law. And yet, at the same time, the picture of inequality and injustice is vividly reflected in the literature, the arts, and the folklore of the Muslim peoples. In this, as in so much else, there is a sharp contrast between what Islam says and what Muslims-or at least some Muslims-do.

  What, then, are the realities? There is a distinction which it is important to make in any discussion of Islam. The word "Islam" is used with at least three different meanings, and much misunderstanding can arise from the failure to distinguish between them. In the first place, Islam means the religion taught by the Prophet Muhammad and embodied in the Muslim revelation known as the Qur'an. In the second place, Islam is the subsequent development of this religion through tradition and through the work of the great Muslim jurists and theologians. In this sense it includes the mighty structure of the Shari'a, the holy law of Islam, and the great corpus of Islamic dogmatic theology. In the third meaning, Islam is the counterpart not of Christianity but rather of Christendom. In this sense Islam means not what Muslims believed or were expected to believe but what they actually did-in other words, Islamic civilization as known to us in history. In discussing Muslim attitudes on ethnicity, race, and color, I shall try to deal to some extent at least with all three but to make clear the distinction between them.

  The ultimate Islamic text is the Qur'an, and any enquiry into Islamic beliefs and laws must begin there. There are only two passages in the Qur'an which have a direct bearing on race and racial attitudes. The first of these occurs in chapter XXX, verse 22, and reads as follows:

  Among God's signs are the creation of the heavens and of the earth and the diversity of your languages and of your colors. In this indeed are signs for those who know.

  This is part of a larger section enumerating the signs and wonders of God. The diversity of languages and colors is adduced as another example of God's power and versatility-no more.

  The second quotation, chapter XLIX, verse 13, is rather more specific:

  O people! We have created you from a male and a female and we have made you into confederacies and tribes' so that you may come to know one another. The noblest among you in the eyes of God is the most pious, for God is omniscient and well-informed.

  It will be clear that the Qur'an expresses no racial or color prejudice. What is perhaps most significant is that the Qur'an does not even reveal any awareness of such prejudice. The two passages quoted show a consciousness of difference; the second of them insists that piety is more important than birth. The point that is being made, however, is clearly social rather than racialagainst tribal and aristocratic rather than against racial pride.

  In the Qur'an, the question of race is obviously not a burning issue. It became a burning issue in later times, as can be seen from the elaboration on these texts by subsequent commentators and by the collectors of tradition.

  The evidence of the Qur'an on the lack of racial prejudice in pre-Islamic and the earliest Islamic times is borne out by such fully authenticated fragments of contemporary literature as survive. As in the Qur'an, so also in the ancient Arabian poetry, we find an awareness of difference-the sentiment of an Arab as against a Persian, Greek, or other identity. We do not, however, find any clear indication that this was felt in racial terms or went beyond the normal feeling of distinctness which all human groups have about themselves in relation to others.

  On the specific question of color, ancient Arabian literature is very instructive. The early poets used a number of different words to describe human colors, a much wider range than is customary at the present time. They do not correspond exactly to those that we use now and express a different sense of color-one more concerned with brightness, intensity, and shade than with hue. Human beings are frequently described by words which we might translate as black, white, red, olive, yellow, and two shades of brown, one lighter and one darker. These terms are usually used in a personal rather than an ethnic sense and would correspond to such words as "swarthy," "sallow," "blonde," or "ruddy" in our own modern usage more than to words like "black" and "white." Sometimes they are used ethnically but even then in a relative rather than an absolute sense. The Arabs, for example, sometimes describe themselves as black in contrast to Persians, who are red, but at other times as red or white in contrast to the Africans, who are black. The characteristic color of the Bedouin is variously stated as olive or brown.

  In early Arabic poetry and historical narrative, the Persians are sometimes spoken of as "the red people," with a suggestion of ethnic hostility. This seems to date back to pre-Islamic times-to Arab resistance to Persian imperial penetration in Arabia and Arab reaction to the disdain which the civilized Persians showed for the semi-barbarous tribes on their desert frontier.`' After the Arab conquest of Iran, the roles were reversed; the Arabs were now the imperial masters, and the Persians their subjects. In this situation, the term "red people" acquired a connotation of inferiority and was used in particular reference to the non-Arab converts to Islam. Redness is similarly ascribed to the conquered natives of Spain, to the Greeks, and to other Mediterranean peoples of somewhat lighter skin than the Arabs.'

  As between Arabs and Africans the situation is more difficult to assess. There are verses, indeed many verses, attributed to pre-Islamic and early Islamic poets which would suggest very strongly a feeling of hatred and contempt directed against persons of African birth or origin. Most if not all of these, however, almost certainly belong to later periods and reflect later problems, attitudes
, and preoccupations.

  References to black people in pre-Islamic Arabia have usually been taken to mean Ethiopians-commonly called Habash, the Arabic name from which our word "Abyssinian" is derived. Habash was probably used for the peoples of the Horn of Africa and their immediate neighbors. Apart from a few questionable references to Nubians, no other specific ethnic term relating to an African people is used in the most ancient Arabic sources; such terms do not appear until after the great waves of Islamic conquest had carried the Arabs out of Arabia and made them masters of a vast empire in southwest Asia and northern Africa.

  Ethiopians were active in Arabia in the sixth century as allies of the Byzantines in the great struggle for power and influence between the Christian Roman Empire on the one hand and the Persian Empire on the other. An Ethiopian expedition seems to have crossed the Red Sea in about 512 A.D. to help the Christians in southern Arabia. After fighting a victorious campaign they returned home, leaving garrisons behind them. These were, however, overwhelmed in a local reaction. The Ethiopians returned in about 525 A.D. to restore their authority and protect the Christians. Having done this, they once again withdrew, leaving the country in the hands of a local puppet ruler. Later, he was overthrown by a group of Ethiopian deserters who had remained in the country. Their leader, who now became king, was Abraha, a former slave of a Byzantine merchant in the Ethiopian port of Adulis. The Ethiopians tried unsuccessfully to remove him and then agreed to grant him some form of recognition. He probably led the Ethiopian force which advanced northward from the Yemen and attacked Mecca, at that time a Yemenite trading post on the West Arabian caravan route to Syria.4 The attempt, which seems to have been part of a campaign against the Persians, failed, and in about 570 the Persians sent a naval expedition which brought the Yemen under their control.

  Some Ethiopians remained in Arabia, mostly as slaves-that is to say, as captives-or as mercenaries. These were at times of some importance, as is attested by the Arabic sources and also by ancient Ethiopic loanwords in classical Arabic. The early poets also made frequent references to Ethiopians serving the Arab tribesmen as shepherds and herdsmen.

  Apart from some inscriptions there is no contemporary internal historical evidence on Arabia on the eve of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad. There is, however, a great deal of poetry and narrative, committed to writing in later (that is, Islamic) times. Although very detailed and informative, it needs careful critical scrutiny in that it often tends to project back into the preIslamic Arabian past the situations and attitudes of the very different later age in which the texts were compiled and written. This consideration applies particularly to the poems and traditions relating to blacks, whose situation changed radically after the great Arab conquests, as did also the attitude of the Arabs toward them.

  The normal fate of captives in antiquity was enslavement, and Ethiopians appear together with Persians, Greeks, and others among the foreign slave population of seventh-century Arabia. The proportion of black slaves is unknown; but from lists of the slaves and freedmen of the Prophet and of some of his Companions, it would seem that they formed a minority. Slave women were normally and lawfully used as concubines; and it was not unusual for a man to have a free, noble Arab as father and a slave concubine as mother. In such a case, according to ancient Arabian custom, he was a slave unless he was recognized and liberated by his father.

  Arab poetry and legend have preserved the names of several famous figures in ancient Arabia who are said to have been born to Ethiopian mothers and who in consequence were of dark complexion. The most famous of these was the poet and warrior `Antara, whose father was of the Arab tribe of `Abs and whose mother was an Ethiopian slave woman called Zabiba. He is considered one of the greatest Arabic poets of the pre-Islamic period. Already in early times he became the subject of a series of tales and legends. As the son of a slave mother, he was by ancient custom himself a slave. A relatively early account tells how he gained his freedom. One day his tribe, the `Abs, were attacked by raiders from a hostile tribe, who drove off their camels.

  The `Abs pursued and fought them, and `Antara, who was present, was called on by his father to charge. "'Antara is a slave," he replied, "he does not know how to charge-only to milk camels and bind their udders." "Charge!" cried his father, "and you are free." And `Antara charged.5

  If we are to accept the verses ascribed to him, `Antara, once free, despised those who were still slaves and, proud of his part-Arab descent, looked down on the "jabbering barbarians" and "skin-clad, crop-eared slaves" who lacked this advantage. Later, in the shortened form `Antar, his name appears as the hero of a famous Arab romance of chivalry, covering the wars against Persia, Byzantium, the Crusaders, and various other enemies. On one campaign, against the blacks, the hero penetrates farther and farther into Africa until he reaches the empire of Ethiopia and discovers, in true fairy-tale style, that his mother, the slave girl Zabiba, was the granddaughter of the emperor.

  All this is clearly fiction; but even the early historical accounts of `Antara are questionable, and only a very small part of the poetry extant in his name can be ascribed to him with any certainty. The greater part, and especially the verses in which he complains of the insult and abuse which he suffered because of his blackness, is of later composition and is probably the work of later poets of African origin. Some of these verses do indeed recur in collections ascribed to later poets of African or part-African birth. And it is not uncommon to find the same verses ascribed to more than one of these poets. A famous verse ascribed only to `Antara runs:

  This may mean no more than that his mother was a slave, without reference to race or color. There are, however, other verses ascribed to him, indicating that his African blood and dark skin marked him as socially inferior and exposed him to insult and abuse. For example:

  1. The slave market in Zabid, in the Yemen.

  Baghdad, 1237

  2. A slave bringing food.

  Probably Syria, 1222.

  3. The story of the two foxes. A prince hunting with falcon, cheetah, and huntsman.

  Herat, ca. 1490-1500.

  4. The birth of the Persian hero Rustam, with women and black servants in attendance.

  Egypt, 1510.

  5. A merchant with attendants and packhorse driver.

  Tabriz, Iran, ca. 1530.

  6. An Ottoman prince and grand vizier with attendants.

  Istanbul, 1597.

  7. The heir apparent Mehmed at the Ibrahim Pasha Palace, with eunuchs.

  Istanbul, 1597.

  8. The funeral of the sultan's mother, Nur Banu, with eunuchs in the background.

  Istanbul, 1597.

  9. The chief black eunuch conducts the young prince to the circumcision ceremony.

  Istanbul, ca. 1720-1732.

  10. Princes, pages, and eunuchs at an evening party by the Golden Horn.

  Istanbul, ca. 1720-1732.

  11. Isfandiyar slaying the black sorceress.

  Iran, early sixteenth century.

  12. Iskandar fighting the Zanjis (Habashis).

  Qazvin, ca. 1590-1594.

  13. Mihrasb and Tahrusiyye watching Darab fighting the Zanjis. The body of Tanbalus is floating in the water.

  Mughal, India, ca. 1580-1585.

  14. Darab going into battle against the Zanjis.

  Mughal, India, ca. 1580-1585.

  15. Darab receiving homage from the defeated Zanjis.

  Mughal, India, ca. 1580-1585.

  16. A black slave wrestles with Abu Jahl, an Arab sayvid.

  Istanbul, 1594-1595.

  17. The Ethiopian king with some of the Prophet's Companions, who are bringing greetings.

  Istanbul, 1594-1595.

  18. Bilal and other Companions of the Prophet.

  Istanbul, 1594-1595.

  19. Iskandar shooting a duck from a boat, with boatmen.

  Tabriz, Iran, 1526.

  20. Magicians.

  Istanbul, fifteenth century.

  21. Humay's g
room, who had a secret passion for her, murdering her at night when she would not submit to him.

  Mughal, India, ca. 1580-1585.

  22. "The woman who discovered her maidservant having improper relations with an ass."

  Tabriz, Iran, ca. 1530.

  23. "The old man who upbraided the Negro and the girl for flirting."

  Mughal, India, 1629

  24. A woman of the Sudan.

  Istanbul, ca. 1793.

  In another poem, he is even quoted as insulting his own mother:

  Similar complaints are ascribed to other figures of the pre-Islamic and early Islamic period, including, for example, a tribal chief called Khufaf ibn Nadba, a contemporary of the Prophet. The son of an Arab father and a black slave mother, Khufaf was a man of position and a chief in his tribe. A verse ascribed to him remarks that his tribe had made him chief "despite this dark pedigree.-9

  These stories and verses almost certainly belong to a later period and reflect a situation which did not yet exist at that time. This is indicated by the very fact that such men as `Antara, Khufaf, and others could rise to the social eminence they attained, something which would have been very difficult a century later. In pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabia, there would have been no reason whatever for Arabs to regard Ethiopians as inferior or to regard Ethiopian ancestry as a mark of base origin. On the contrary, there is a good deal of evidence that Ethiopians were regarded with respect as a people on a level of civilization substantially higher than that of the Arabs themselves. A slave as such was of course inferior-but the black slave was no worse than the white. In this respect pagan and early Islamic Arabia seems to have shared the general attitude of the ancient world, which attached no stigma to blackness and imposed no restrictions on black freemen."'