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1992; Berry, 2002].
The most common description of the
Prophet (s.a.w) in Arabic sources of the
ninth century, the date of the earliest
extant Arabic Islamic literature, is
Abyad [Muhammad, 2011: 2 n. 9]. This
term usually means ‘white’ in contexts
not related to human complexion. In the
latter context, however, by antiphrasis
abyad frequently means black [Stewart,
1999: 119; Shivtiel, 1991:336]. But in
Classical Arabic there are several
distinct ‘blacknessess’ or ‘shades of
blackness’ [al-Asyuti, 1992, II: 574; alTha‘lab?, 2006: 81-82]. Abyad is a
particular shade or ‘type’ of blackness.
According to the important Syrian )