The Mahdi Times May 2014 Issue | Page 55

"He (Al Fadl ibn Al Abbas) says 'I am pure' because the color of the Arabs is dark". Ibn Mandour further says, "It is said that he (Al Fadl) meant that he is from the purest of the Arabs because most Arabs are black-skinned". Ibn Berry, the well-known Arab grammarian of the 12th century AD, explains Al Fadl ibn Al Abbas's words by saying, "...He means by this that his genealogy is pure and that he is a pure Arab because the Arabs describe their color as black and they describe the color of the non-Arab Persians as red". Al-Mubarrad says, "What he means by 'I am the green one' is that he is the darkskinned one - the black-skinned one. The Arabs used to take pride in dark skin black skin and they used to despise light skin and they said that light skin is the color of the Persians." Miskeen Al Darimi was a well-known, pure-blooded Arab poet of the 7th century AD. Miskeen is his nickname, but his real name is Rabee' the son of 'Amir the son of Unaif the son of Shaarih the son of 'Amru the son of Zaid the son of Abdullah the son of 'Uds the son of Darim the son of Malik the son of Handhala the son of Zaid Manah the son of Tamim the son of Murr the son of Udd the son of Taabikha the son of Yaas the son of Mudar the son of Nizar the son Ma'add the son of Adnan. It's a known fact that Miskeen was black-skinned "I am Miskeen, for those who know me. My colour is green (very dark skinned), the complexion of the Arabs." ِْ ْ‫وأَنا األَخضرُ، من َيعْ رفني؟ أَخضر الج ْلدَ ة في بيت العرب‬ ِ ِ ُ َ ْ َ َ ِ َ ْ • The Arabs often used the word ‘green’ at times when they wanted to refer to things or people with a dark colour The Prophet Mohamed was reported to have said;