Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry
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There were many contacts between Arabs and Ethiopians, both in Arabia and in Africa, and during the career of the Prophet several of his Meccan Companions were able, for a while, to find refuge in Ethiopia from the persecution of their pagan compatriots. Many prominent figures of the earliest Islamic period had Ethiopian women among their ancestresses, including no less a person than the Caliph `Umar himself, whose father, al-Khattab, had an Ethiopian mother. Another was `Amr ibn al-`As, the conqueror of Egypt and one of the architects of the Arab Empire. There were several others of Ethiopian descent among the Companions of the Prophet." One of the most famous was Bilal ibn Rabah. Born a slave in Mecca, he was an early and devoted convert to Islam and was acquired and manumitted by Abu Bakr, the Prophet's father-in-law and eventual successor as first caliph. He is remembered chiefly as the first muezzin, when the call to prayer was instituted shortly after the Prophet's arrival in Medina. He was also the personal attendant of the Prophet and is variously described in the sources as his mace bearer, his steward, his adjutant, and his valet.'' Another Companion was Abu Bakra, literally, "the Father of the Pulley," an Ethiopian slave in Ta'if. He acquired this nickname by letting himself down with a pulley during the Muslim siege of Ta'if, and joining the Muslims. He was accepted and manumitted by the Prophet and later settled in Basra, where he died in about 672 A.D.
During the period immediately following the death of the Prophet in 632 A.D., the great Islamic conquests took the new faith to vast areas of Asia and also of Africa. A new situation was created, and many changes can be observed in the literature of the time.
The first of these is the narrowing, specializing, and fixing of color terms applied to human beings. In time almost all disappear apart from "black," "red," and "white"; and these become ethnic and absolute instead of personal and relative. "Black," overwhelmingly, means the natives of Africa south of the Sahara and their offspring. "White"-or occasionally (light) "red"means the Arabs, Persians, Greeks, Turks, Slavs, and other peoples to the north and to the east of the black lands. Sometimes, in contrast to the white Arabs and Persians, the northern peoples are designated by terms connoting dead white, pale blue, and various shades of red or ruddy. In some contexts the term "black" is extended to include the Indians and even the Copts; but this is not normal usage."
Together with this specialization and fixing of color terms comes a very clear connotation of inferiority attached to darker and more specifically black skins. A story is told concerning the Arab conquest of Egypt which, if authentic, may well be the last surviving example of the older attitude. The story tells how a certain Arab leader called 'Ubada ibn al-Samit took a party of Muslims to meet the Muqawqis, the great Christian functionary who at one point led the defenders of Egypt. 'Ubada (the chronicler tells us) was "black," and when the Arabs came to the Muqawqis and entered his presence, 'Ubada led them. The Muqawqis was frightened by his blackness and said to them: "Get this black man away from me and bring another to talk to me."
The Arabs insisted that `Ubada was the wisest, best, and noblest among them and was their appointed leader, whom they obeyed and to whose judgment they deferred. The Muqawqis asked:
"How can you be content that a black man should be foremost among you? It is more fitting that he should be below you."
"Indeed no," they replied, "for though he is black, as you see, he is still the foremost among us in position, in precedence, in intelligence and in wisdom, for blackness is not despised among us."
The Muqawqis asked 'Ubada to speak gently to him, because speaking harshly would increase the dread already inspired by his blackness. The narrative concludes with 'Ubada stepping forward and saying to the Muqawqis: "I have heard what you say. Among the men I command there are a thousand, all of them black, indeed blacker and more frightening than I. If you saw them, you would be very frightened indeed.""
There are two interesting points about this story. The first is that the black man appears as a figure of terror rather than of contempt, though that element is not entirely lacking. The second, and far more important, is that `Ubada is not an African or even of African descent but (as the chroniclers are careful to point out) a pure and noble Arab. Here "black" is still a personal and relative term describing an individual's complexion and not an ethnic absolute denoting the distinguishing marks of a race. "Blackness is not despised among us" means no more than that persons of dark complexion are not considered inferior to those of light complexion. The episode of the noble but swarthy `Ubada occurred at the very beginning of Arab expansion. Under the patriarchal caliphs and still more under the Umayyad caliphs in the late seventh and early eighth centuries, we find ample evidence of a radical change of attitudes.
The evidence for the growth of anti-black prejudice comes in the main from two groups of sources. The first of these is literary, especially poetry and anecdote. Several Arabic poets, of the pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods, are described as "black" and are known collectively, to the literary tradition, as aghribat al-'Arab-"the crows of the Arabs."' Some of them-mostly preIslamic-were Arabs of swarthy complexion; others were of mixed Arab and African parentage. For the latter, and still more for the pure Africans, blackness was an affliction. In many verses and narratives, they are quoted as suffering from insult and discrimination, as showing resentment at this, and yet in some way as accepting the inferior status resulting from their African ancestry.
One such was the poet Suhaym (d. 660), born a slave and of African origin. His name, obviously a nickname, might be translated as "little black man." In one poem he laments:
In another he defends himself (in striking anticipation of William Blake's famous line, "But I am black, but 0! my soul is white"):
In the same mood:
These lines are also attributed to Nusayb ibn Rabah (d. 726), probably the most gifted of these black poets.' He was very conscious of his birth and color, for which he endured many insults. On one occasion the great Arab poet Kuthayyir said mockingly:
Challenged by his friends to reply, Nusayb refused with dignity. For one thing, he said, God had given him the gift of poetry to use for good; he would not misuse it for satire. For another, "all he has done is call me black-and he speaks truth." Then Nusayb said, of his own color:
But all the same:
A black contemporary of Nusayb, similarly attacked, responded less meekly. All that we know of al-Hayqutan is that he was a black slave, who lived in the Umayyad period. The name denotes a kind of bird, something like a partridge, and was presumably a slave name or nickname. No less a person than the famous Arab poet and satirist Jarir (d. ca. 729) chose al-Hayqutan as the butt of his wit. Jarir, we are told, encountered al-Hayqutan on a festival day, wearing a white shirt over his black skin. This prompted the poet to improvise a line of verse, likening him to a donkey's penis wrapped in papyrus. Al-Hayqutan responded with a long ode, beginning:
After proclaiming the greatness and glory of the Ethiopians and taunting the Arabians with their previous fear of Ethiopian conquest, he ends by returning Jarir's insult in kind. Alluding to an accusation sometimes brought against the tribe of Kulayb, to which Jarir belonged, he concluded:
Some of these made careers as court poets. One such was a second Nusayb, known as Nusayb al-Asghar, the Younger (d. 791). In the course of a panegyric ode addressed to the Caliph Harun al-Rashid, he remarks of himself:
Probably the best known of the early black poets in Arabic was Abu Dulama (d. ca. 776), a slave who became the court poet-and jester-of the first Abbasid caliphs. The name means, literally, "Father of Blackness." In his verses, the acceptance of inferiority is unmistakable. To amuse his master, Abu Dulama makes fun of his own appearance, of his aged mother, and of his family:
The Arab anthologists tell us something about the lives of these men. Several anecdotes show Nusayb ibn Rabah's awareness of his color problem. In an autobiographical fragment, he remarks that before he went on his first journey to Egypt, he consulted his sister, a wise woman. She reminded h
im that he combined the disadvantages of being black and ridiculous in men's eyes. He then recited some of his verses, and she was persuaded that their merits gave him some prospect of success.12
A rather different story tells how Nusayb lunched one day with the Umayyad Caliph `Abd al-Malik and, after obtaining the caliph's promise of safety, said to him:
My color is pitch-black, my hair is woolly, my appearance repulsive. I did not attain the favor which you have vouchsafed me by the honor of my father, or my mother, or my tribe. I attained it only by my mind and my tongue. I adjure you by God, 0 Commander of the Faithful, do not cut me off from that by which I have attained my position with you.13
The point of the story is that the poet chooses an opportunity and uses his wit to secure immunity from execution. But the passage vividly illustrates the association already accepted at this time of blackness, ugliness, and inferior station.
The same theme occurs in stories of the black poet Da'ud ibn Salm (d. ca. 750), known as Da'ud the Black (al-Adlam) and famous for his ugliness. On one occasion, it is said, together with an Arab called Zayd Ibn Ja'far, he was arrested and brought before a judge in Mecca, on a charge of flaunting luxurious clothes. The two accused received very different treatment. The handsome Arab, says the chronicler, was released; the ugly black was flogged.
The judge said: "I can stand this from Ibn Ja'far, but why should I stand it from you'? Because of your base origin, or your ugly face'? Flog him, boy!-and he flogged him."14
Another story tells of a misadventure of the famous singer Said ibn Misjah (d. ca. 705-15), considered the greatest musician of his time. Seeking a lodging in Damascus, he managed to get himself accepted by one of a group of young men, the others being reluctant. He accompanied them to a singing girl's house; and when lunch was served he withdrew, saying, "I am a black man. Some of you may find me offensive. I shall therefore sit and eat apart." They were embarrassed but arranged for him to take his food (and later his wine) separately. Then slave girl singers appeared, and Said ibn Misjah praised their performance. Singers and owners alike were affronted by the impudence of "this black man" in daring to praise the girls, and he was warned by the other companions to mend his manners. Later his identity was revealed and then all vied in seeking the company of the famous singer.'s These episodes show both the nature and the limits of social discrimination against the dark-skinned.
After the eighth century, there are few identifiable black poets in Arabic literature, and their blackness is not a significant poetic theme. There were a few poets in the black lands converted to Islam who composed in Arabic; but most black African Muslims preferred to use Arabic for scholarship, as European Christians used Latin, and their own languages for poetry. In the central lands, though the flow of black, as of other, slaves continued into the twentieth century, the school of self-consciously black poets came to an end. Few of the slaves were sufficiently assimilated or educated to compose poetry in Arabic, while the few Arabic poets of African or part-African ancestry were too assimilated to see themselves as black and therefore other."
The whole question of blackness was discussed in a special essay by Jahiz of Basra (ca. 776-869), one of the greatest prose writers in classical Arabic literature and said by some of his biographers to be of partly African descent." Entitled "The Boast of the Blacks against the Whites,"" the essay purports to be a defense of the dark-skinned peoples-and especially of the Zanj, the blacks of East Africa-against their detractors, refuting the accusations commonly brought against them and setting forth their qualities and achievements, with a wealth of poetic illustration. They are strong, brave, cheerful, and generous-and not, as people say, "because of weakness of mind, lack of discernment, and ignorance of consequences." Another false charge is stupidity. To those who ask, "How is it that we have never seen a Zanji who had the intelligence even of a woman or of a child?" the answer, says Jahiz, is that the only Zanj they knew were slaves of low origin and from outlying and backward areas. If they judged by their experience of Indian slaves, would they have any notion of Indian science, philosophy, and art? Obviously not-and the same is true of the black lands. Jahiz also defends the equality of blacks as marriage partners and notes the paradox that discrimination against them first arose after the advent of Islam: At is part of your ignorance," he makes the blacks say, "that in the time of heathendom [i.e., in pre-Islamic Arabia] you regarded us as good enough to marry your women, yet when the justice of Islam came, you considered this wrong." Another point is that the blacks are more numerous than the whites-certainly true, since Jahiz, along with some other Arabic authors of the ninth and tenth centuries, includes the Copts, the Berbers, and the inhabitants of India, Southeast Asia, and China. A curious quotation follows: "There are more blacks than whites, more rocks than mud, more sand than soil, more salt water than sweet water." In conclusion, Jahiz argues against the common equation of blackness with ugliness, and insists that black is beautiful-in nature, in the animal kingdom, and in man. In any case, blackness is not a curse or punishment, as is commonly alleged, but a result of natural conditions:
This exists in all things. Thus we see that locusts and worms on plants are green, and we see that the louse is black on a young man's head, white if his hair whitens, red if it is dyed.
Jahiz was a great humorist and satirist, and the reader of his defense of the blacks may sometimes wonder whether its intention is wholly serious. This doubt is strengthened if one compares the essay with his remarks about blacks in his other writings. Despite his putative African ancestry, he expresses-Or perhaps cites-negative views of the Zanj:
We know that the Zanj are the least intelligent and the least discerning of mankind, and the least capable of understanding the consequences of actions.19
Like the crow among mankind are the Zanj for they are the worst of men and the most vicious of creatures in character and temperament.20
They [the Shu`ubiyyaj maintain that eloquence is prized by all people at all times-even the Zanj, despite their dimness, their boundless stupidity, their obtuseness, their crude perceptions and their evil dispositions, make long speeches.21
The last passage gives a clue to what might be Jahiz's purpose. The Shu`ubiyya were a faction of non-Arab Muslims, mostly Persians, who protested against Arab privilege and superiority in the Islamic Empire and objected to the central position accorded to Arabic culture. A characteristic form of Shu`ubi polemic was to laud the achievements and capacities of their own peoples and decry those of the Arabs. Jahiz was a fervent defender of the Arabs and the Arabic cultural tradition against all comers, and especially against the Persians, who, alone among the conquered peoples, offered a serious challenge to Arab supremacy. His defense of the blacks, though in part intended seriously, may perhaps also be understood as a parody of Shu`ubiyya tracts, intended to throw ridicule on Persian pretensions by advanc- 2 ing similar arguments on behalf of the lowly and despised Zanj.`2
While however there may be some question about Jahiz's intentions, there can be none about those of some later writers, who, from the tenth century onward, produced a series of books offering not indeed a boast but rather a defense of the black peoples and an answer to the insults and charges leveled against them. An obvious question that arises is why such an anti-defamation campaign should have been thought necessary. No such defenses have come down to us from the ancient world, whether Middle Eastern or GrecoRoman, no doubt for the good reason that there were no such accusations to answer.
The case against prejudice was succinctly stated by the famous statesman and man of letters al-Sahib ibn `Abbad (938-95), who remarks that men may be praised or blamed, rewarded or punished for their deeds, in which they have choice: "But since God created tallness and shortness and the blackness of the Zanj and the whiteness of the Greeks, it is not right that men should be blamed or punished for these qualities, since God neither enjoined nor forbade them. "23
Books written in defense of the blacks in the Islamic Middle Ages were usually c
hiefly concerned with the Ethiopians. There are a few such books; they have survived in only a few copies, and none of them has as yet been printed. One of the earliest, written by Jamal al-Din Abu'l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1208 A.D.), is entitled The Lightening of the Darkness on the Merits of the Blacks and the Ethiopians. In this the author attempts to defend both groups against the various accusations made against them. In a striking passage, he explains another of his purposes:
I have seen a number of outstanding Ethiopians whose hearts were breaking because of their black color. So I let them know that respect is based on the performance of good deeds, and not on beautiful forms. I therefore composed for them this book, which deals with a good number of Ethiopians and Blacks. 24
A second work, based in part on the previous one and written by the famous Egyptian polyhistor Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 1505 A.D.) is The Raising of the Status of the Ethiopians. Another, by a sixteenth-century author, is entitled The Colored Brocade on the Good Qualities of Ethiopians. A similar work in Turkish was written by an Ethiopian protege of the chief black eunuch, who was brought to Istanbul, studied there, and rose to high rank as a judge in the Ottoman service. There were also other, earlier works of the same type, but these have not survived.
The books that have come down to us follow the same main pattern. They discuss the origins of the blacks and deal with the reasons for their blackness, rejecting hostile myths concerning this. They set forth the good qualities of blacks and also draw attention to blackness itself as a good quality in certain plants, stones, and animals. They insist that whites cannot claim superior merit because of their whiteness but must earn it by piety and good deeds. Most of them then discuss Ethiopians among the slaves and freedmen of the Prophet's Companions who fled from Arabia, the words of Ethiopic origin in the Qur'an and more generally in Arabic, utterances of the Prophet concerning Ethiopians, and the like. There are also collections of anecdotes illustrating good and pious deeds by blacks, though here the usual theme is that simple piety is better than sophisticated wickedness, with the black used as the example of simplicity as much as of piety.''