This misconception becomes apparent when you observe the fact that when
most people see an Arab who IS dark skinned i.e. a Sudanese or a black Saudi
or someone from Niger, they automatically assume that he/she is of mixed
origin or has adopted someone else’s culture or language.
Many dark skinned Arabs have been taught to believe this about themselves
also.
This misconception is further reinforced when modern historians or
anthropologists adhere to the notion of a separation of Arabia from the African
continent and give the impression that somehow there has always been a clear
distinction between the two both physically and ethnically.
This second article in a series of three will address these misconceptions,
misinformation and set the record straight as to what and who was referred to
as ‘Arab’ in ancient History using both early authentic Western and Islamic
sources.
“Arabia has, on the whole, an African climate…In the animal kingdom an African
character prevails generally…Islam united Arabia, but also sent its sons to all
parts of the Moslem world and drew to it slaves and foreigners who had
accepted this faith. This must be born in mind when the present Arab type is
considered. It presents examples of the tall and the short, the long-headed and
the broad-headed, the brunette and the blond, the straight-haired and the wavyhaired, evidencing considerable intermixture with Negroid and Aryan elements.”
New International Encyclopedia, Volume I, Second Edition, ed. Frank Moore
Colby and Talcott Williams (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1914) 797.
The above quote basically sums up what and how the original dark skinned
kinky haired Arabs, the predominant ethnic group on the Arabian Peninsula at
the time, were later superseded by a fair skinned straight haired Caucasian
variant shortly after the revelation of the Quran in the 6th century.
Prior, during and shortly after the revelation of The Quran revealed to The
Prophet Mohamed, The Arabian peninsula had been overwhelmingly Negroid in
population.