Part of the reason for this distaste is that
the slaves at the time were largely from
pale-skinned peoples, such that aÈmar
“red” came to mean “slave” back then,
just as abid “servant/slave” means black
today in the now white Muslim world.
As Dana Marniche observes: Anyone
familiar with the Arabic writings of the
Syrian, Iraqi and Iranian historians up
until the 14th century knows that this is
also their description of the early ‘pure’
Arab clans of the Arabian Peninsula,
i.e.“blacker than the blackest ink – no
shred of white on them except their
teeth.”
The irony of history is that early Arabicspeaking historians and linguists made a
distinction between the Arabs in Arabia
and the fair-skinned peoples to the
north; and contrary to what may be fact
in our day, in the days of early Islam,
those called ‘Arabs’ looked down
condescendingly on fair-skinned
populations and commonly used the
phrase ‘fair skinned as a slave’ when
describing individuals in tribes in the
peninsula that were pale in
complexion…Of course, today due
mainly to slavery and conversion of
peoples to the ‘Arab’ nationality, the
opposite is thought to be true by many
in the West.
A red or pale-skinned Muhammad
would thus have been a profound
oddity in 7th century Arabia and
would have had little chance of
success amongst the proud, black
Meccans and Medinese.
The Meccan objectors to his message
accused him of some of everything, but
never of being a non-Arab! There is
absolutely no reason to believe he was
pale-skinned other than much later
representations that coincide with a
major demographic change in the
Muslim world, a change that brought
with it a strong anti-black ideology.
FOOTNOTES
1 Abu-Bakr, Islam’s Black Legacy, Chapter 1. See
also Rogers, Sex and Race, I: 95 who states that
“Mohamet, himself, was to all accounts a
Negro.” Ben-Jochannon too accepted that
Muhammad was “in the family of the Black
Race”. African Origins, 237.
2 Abu-Bakr, Islam’s Black Legacy, 1.
3 Robert F. Spencer, “The Arabian Matriarchate:
An Old Controversy,” Southwestern Journal of
Anthropology 8 (Winter, 1952) 488.
4 Al-JaÈií, Fakhr al-sådan ala al-bidan, in Risa"il
Al-JaÈií, 4 vols. (1964/1384) I:209.
5 See below.
6 al-Dhahabī, Siyar, V:253
7 Al-Suyåãī, Tārikh al-khulafā (Cairo: Dar al-Fikr
al-Arabi, 1975) 186. On shadīd al-udma as ‘jetblack’ see Berry, Unknown, 54.
8 Ibn Sad, al-Tabaqāt al-kubrā (Beirut: Dar
Sādir) 8:25. On Ali as short and dark brown see
Henry Stubbe, An Account of the Rise and
Progress of Muhammadanism (1911) XX; I.M.N.
al-Jubouri, History of Islamic Philosophy – With
View of Greek Philosophy and
Early History of Islam (2004), 155; Philip K Hitti,
History of the Arabs, 10th edition (London:
Macmillan Education Ltd, 1970) 183.
9 Ibn Maníår, Lisan al-arab, s.v. اخضرIV:245f.
10 Ibn Maníår, Lisan al-arab.