Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry (30 page)

Chapter 3

1. This would appear to be the original meaning of the Arabic shuub wa-gaba`il.
According to some later commentators, the terms shu`ub and gaba'il denote, respectively, non-Arab and Arab groupings.

2. Ignaz Goldziher, Muhaimnedanische Studien, vol. 1 (Halle, 1888), pp. 103-4,
268-69 (Muslim Studies, vol. I [London, 1967]. pp. 99-100, 243-44): cf. G. E. von
Grunebaum, "The nature of Arab unity before Islam," Arahica 10 (1963), p. 10. On
the interesting question of the classical Arabic terms for colors, see W. Fischer, Farh-
und Form bezeichnungen in der Sprache der altarabischen Dichtung (Wiesbaden, 1965):
Guy and Jacky Ducatez, "Formation des denominations dc couleur et de luminosite en
arabe classique et pre-classique: Essai de periodisation selon une approche linguistique
et anthropologique," Peuples Mediterraneens 10 (1980), pp. 139-72.

3. Sometimes the Greeks and other Europeans are called yellow (asfar). It is not
clear, however, whether this word denotes racial color or has some other significance.
See E12, S.V. "Asfar" (by 1. Goldziher). On the use of red for the Greeks, see Frithiof
Rundgren, "Sillagdun = al-ahamira = al-Rum nebst einigen Bemerkungen zu lbn al-
Sirafis Sarh abyat Isiah al-mantiq," in Donum natalicium H. S. Nyberg Oblatum, ed.
Erik Gren, Bernhard Lewin, Helmer Ringgren, and Stig Wikander (Upsala, 1954),
pp. 135-43.

4. The expedition is referred to in the Qur'an, chapter CV.

5. Abu'l-Faraj al-Isfahani, Kitab al-Aghani, vol. 2 (Bulaq, 1285/1868-69), p.
149. See also R. A. Nicholson, A Literary History of the Arabs (Cambridge, 1938),
p. 155.

6. W. Ahlwardt, ed., The Divans of the Six Ancient Arabic Poets (London, 1870),
p. 32, line 9. See Eh, s.v. "Antara" (by R. Blachere).

7. `Antara, Diwan (Cairo, 1329/1911), p. 196.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibn Qutayba, Kitab al-Shi `r wa'l-Shu `ara', ed. M. J. de Goeje (Leiden, 1904),
p. 146.

10. See above, pp. 18 and 54.

11. These are listed by Muhammad ibn Habib, Kitab al-Muhabbar, ed. Ilse
Lichtenstadter (Haydarabad, 1361/1942), pp. 306-9.

12. E!s.v. (by W. Arafat), where sources are cited.

13. An interesting example of present-day usage of color terms may be seen in the
Republic of the Sudan. The term Sudan in Arabic means "blacks." and is a shortened
form of the medieval Bilad al-.Sudan, "land of the blacks," used loosely of black Africa
as a whole. In the modern Sudan the northerners, Arabic-speaking, Muslim, and lightbrown, are known as "reds while the southerners, deep black, speaking a variety of
Nilotic languages and professing either Christianity or traditional African religions, are
known as "blues."

14. Ibn `Abd al-Hakam, Fuuih Misr, ed. C. C. Torrey (New Haven, CT, 1922), p.
66: cf. G. Rotter, Die Stellueg des Negers (Bonn. 1967), p. 92. This passage is now
available in an English translation by Daniel Pipes ("Black soldiers in early Muslim
armies," International Journal of African Historical Studies 13 [19801, pp. 90-91 ).
`Ubada's concluding remark means no more than that his command includes a large
number of men of swarthy or dark complexion. Pipes's inference, that 'Ubada commanded a separate unit of a thousand Africans, is not supported by any other evidence
in the rich Arabic historiography dealing with this period.

Chapter 4

1. These and other poets are discussed, with specimens of their verse, in the great
literary anthology, Abu'l-Faraj al-Isfahani (897-967), Kitab al-Aghani, 20 vols. (Bulaq,
1285/1868-69) ; ibid (Cairo, 1345/1927-)-hereafter Aghani (1868) and Aghaui ( 1927).
For studies in Arabic on the black poets, see `Abduh Badawi, Al-.Shuara'al-Sid wa-
khasa'isuhutn fi'l-.shi'r al 'arabi (Cairo, 1973) ; Muhammad Bagir Fir'awn, "Aghribat alArab," Al-Mawrid 2 (1973), pp. 1 1-13. According to Badawi, "This name [the crows of
the Arabs] was applied to those [Arabic] poets to whom blackness was transmitted by
their slave mothers, and whom at the same time their Arab fathers did not recognize, or
recognized only under constraint from them." The reason for this reluctance, according
to Badawi, was their color, since "the Arabs despised the black color as much as they
loved the white color; they described everything that they admired, material or moral, as
white. A theme in both eulogy and boasting was the whiteness of a man, just as one of
the signs of beauty in a woman was also whiteness. It was also a proof of her nobility. In
the same way, a man could be eulogized as 'the son of a white woman.' Similarly, they
would boast that they had taken white women as captives" (Al-.Shu'ara', p. 1). For
general accounts, see R. Blachere, Histoire de la litterature arabe (Paris, 1952): Fuat
Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, vol. 2 (Leiden, 1975).

2. Dwain, ed. Maymani (Cairo, 1369/1950), p. 26. On Suhaym, often referred to
by Arabic authors as "the slave of the Banu'I-Hashas," see Aghani (1868), vol. 20, pp.
2-9; Blachere, Histoire de la litterature arabe, pp. 318-19; and the German translations
of his poems by O. Rescher, Beitrage zur arabische Poesie, ser. 6, pt. 2 (Istanbul, 195658), pp. 30-50. He was killed and burned by his owners because of his attentions to
their women.

3. Suhaym, Diwan, p. 55; cf. F. Rosenthal, The Muslim Concept of Freedom
(Leiden, 1960), p. 91.

4. Suhaym, Diwan, p. 69.

5. For a detailed study, see U. Rizzitano, "Abu Mingan Nusayb b. Rabah"
Revista degli study orientali 20 (1943), pp. 421-71; idem, "Alcuni frammenti poetici
di ... Nusayb," Rivista degli study orientali 22 (1945), pp. 23-35. Nusayb's full name is
significant. Unlike freemen, slaves are usually known by a single name, without patronymic and without tribal, regional, or other cognomen. Nusayb's patronymic. ibn
Rabah, "son of Rabah" is the same as that of Bilal, the first black Muslim and a
Companion of the Prophet, and is surely a conscious evocation, as is that of Sunayh
ibn Rabah, an earlier black poet. In the same way, converts to Islam were usually
called ibn 'Abdallah or equivalent, adopting the Prophet's patronymic, and not their
physical, infidel father's name. Cf. the similar use of hen Abraham, "son of Abraham," by converts to Judaism.

6. The translation of this line is slightly paraphrased. The poet is playing on the
two associated meanings of the root z-1-m, the one conveying the idea of darkness or
blackness, the other of oppression or wrongdoing.

7. Aghani (1868), vol. 1, pp. 140-41; Aghdni (1927), vol. I. pp. 352-54;
Rizzitano, "Abu Mihgan Nusayb," pp. 453, 456, and frags. 3, 34.

8. An untranslatable play on words. Sabt, used of hair, means "straight" or "lank,"
as contrasted with curly or frizzy. Used of the hand, it means "openhanded, generous."

9. For the story and poem, see Jahiz, "Fakhr al-Sudan," in Rasa'il, ed. 'Ahd alSalam Muhammad Harun, vol. 1 (Cairo, 1965), pp. 182-85; German translation in 0. Rescher, Orientalische Miszellen, vol. 2 (Istanbul, 1926), pp. 149-51. Jahiz relates
a similar story, with an appropriate exchange of insults, concerning Jarir and Sunayh
ibn Rabah. See, further, Badawi, Al-.Shuinrd', pp. 123-25; J. O. Hunwick. "Black
Africans in the Islamic world," Tarikh 5, no. 4 (1978), pp. 35-36.

10. AghanF (1868), vol. 20, p. 25; Badawi, Al-Shu `ara', p. 158.

11. Mohammed Ben Cheneb, Abu Doldma, poete bouffon de la coi:r des premiers
califes ahhassides (Algiers, 1922), pp. 35, 136.

12. AghanF (1868), vol. 1, p. 130; AghanF (1927), vol. I , p. 325; Rizzitano, "Abu
Mingan Nusayb," p. 431.

13. Aghani (1868), vol. 1, p. 136; Aghani (1927), vol. 1, p. 341; Rizzitano, "Abu
Milan Nusayb," p. 439: G. Rotter, Die Stellung des Negers (Bonn, 1967), pp. 89-90.

14. AghanF (1868), vol. 5, p. 137; Aghdni (1927), vol. 6, p. 10.

15. Aghani (1868), vol. 3, p. 87; Aghani (1927), vol. 3, pp. 282-83; R. Levy, The
Social Structure of Islam (Cambridge, 1957), pp. 62-63; Rotter, Die Stellung des Negers,
pp. 80-90. On the musician Ibn Misjah, see H. G. Farmer, A History of Arabian Music
(London, 1929), pp. 77-78, and Eh, s.v. "Ibn Misdjah" (by J. W. Fuck). Part of the text
is translated in Graham W. Irwin, ed.. Africans Abroad (New York, 1977), pp. 58-59.

16. One of the most notable among them was Dhu'l-Nun al-Misri, born in Upper
Egypt in about 796 A.D. He is known as al-Misri, the Egyptian. because of his Egyptian
birth; but his parents were Nubian, and his father is said to have been a freed slave.
Dhu'l-Nun traveled and studied extensively and at one time was arrested and imprisoned in Baghdad but was released by the order of the caliph. He returned to Egypt,
where he died in 861 A.D. He is known as "the head of the Sufis" and is regarded as a
founder of the Sufi school of Islamic mysticism. Some hooks on magic and alchemy are
attributed to him but are probably not authentic. A number of his prayers and some of
his poems are preserved by other writers; and it is on these and on his disciples that we
must rely, in the main, for knowledge of his mystical doctrines. He is said to have been
the first to formulate the characteristic Sufi doctrine of the ecstatic states, the stations
on the mystic way toward Gnosis, the true knowledge of God. Interestingly, he is
credited with having named music as a means to this end: "Music is a divine influence
which stirs the heart to see God; those who listen to it spiritually strain to God, and
those who listen to it sensually fall into unbelief" (cited in R. A. Nicholson, The
Mystics of Islam [London, 1914], p. 65). Like other Sufis, Dhu'l-Nun preached the
merits of penitence, renunciation, self-discipline, and sincerity and saw in affliction
and solitude aids toward spiritual progress. He was among the first to use the language
of passionate love in his religious poems, thus helping to establish what became a
major feature of the Sufi tradition not only in Arabic but also-indeed, more-in
Persian, Turkish, and other Islamic languages.

17. On Jahiz, see C. Pellat, Le Milieu hasrien et la formation de Gdhiz (Paris, 1953);
idem, The Life and Works of Jahiz (London, 1969); Eh S.V. "Djahiz" (by C. Pellat).

18. First edited by G. van Vloten, in Jahiz, Tria opuscula, auctore al-Djahiz (Leiden, 1903), pp. 58-85; reedited by `Abd al-Salam Muhammad Harun, in Jahiz, Rasa'il
al-Jahiz, vol. I (Cairo, 1385/1965), pp. 173-226; German translation by Rescher, Orientalische Miszellen, vol. 2, pp. 146-86; cf. Pellat, Life and Works of Jahiz, pp. 195-98;
abridged English translation in B. Lewis, Islam from the Prophet Muhammad to the
Capture of Constantinople, vol. 2, Religion and Society (New York, 1974), pp. 210-16.
The word Zanj refers strictly to the natives of East Africa-south of Ethiopia-and
thence more generally to Bantu-speaking Africans. See above, p. 50.

19. Jahiz, Kitab al-Bukhala' (Damascus, 1357/1938), p. 253; French translation by
C. Pellat, Le Livre des avares (Paris, 1951), p. 232.

20. Jahiz, Kitab al-Hayawan, vol. 2 (Cairo, 1356/1938), p. 314; cf. Rotter, Die
Stellung des Negers, p. 100.

21. Jahiz, AI-Bayan wa'l-tabyin, vol. 3 (Cairo, 1380/1960), pp. 12-13.

22. Cf. Rotter, Die Stellung des Negers, pp. 98ff.

23. AI-Sahib ibn `Abbad, Al-Tadhkira fi 'l-Usul al-Khamsa, in Muhammad Al
Yasin, ed., Nafa'is al-Makhtutat, 2d ser. (Baghdad, 1373/1954), p. 91.

24. Translated by E. van Donzel in his article "Ibn al-Jawzi on Ethiopians in
Baghdad," in The Islamic World from Classical to Modern Times, ed. C. E. Bosworth,
Charles Issawi, Roger Savory, and A. L. Udovitch (Princeton, NJ, 1989), p. 113.

25. On this literature, see Rotter, Die Stellung des Negers, pp. 10-20: Akbar
Muhammad, "The image of Africans in Arabic literature: Some unpublished manuscripts," in Slaves and Slavery in Modern Africa, ed. J. R. Willis, vol. 2 (London,
1985), pp. 47-74. The examples cited are Jamal al-Din Abu' I-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi (d.
1208), Tanwir al-Ghabash fi fadl al-SUddn wa'1-Habash, New Haven, Yale University
Library, Landberg 197; Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 1505), Raf' Sha'n al-Hubshan, London, British Museum, Or. 4634; Muhammad al-Nu`man ibn Muhammad ibn `Arraq
(sixteenth century), Kitdb Kanz al-Zinad al-Wari ft` Dhikr Abna' al-Saran, Leiden,
University library, De Goeje no. MMDLXI; Muhammad ibn `Abd al-Bagt al-Bukhari
al-Makki (sixteenth century), Al-Tiraz al-Mangdsh fi Mahdsin al-Hubush, Baghdad,
Waqf collection, no. 3031. None of these works has yet been printed. The first three
chapters of the Tiraz have been published in German translation (M. Weisweiler,
Buntes Prachtgewand [Hanover, 1924]). The Turkish text cited (Rdfi` al-Ghubush fi
Fada'il al-Hubush, Ms. Fatih 4360) was written by one `Ali ibn `Abd al-Ra'uf al-
Habashi (d. 1623-24) (see Istanbul Kiitiipaneleri Tarih-Cografya yazmalari kataloglart,
i, Turkce tarih yazmalart, pt. 3 [Istanbul, 1945], p. 321).

26. Aghani (1868), vol. 1, p. 32; Aghani (1927), vol. 1, p. 65; cf. Ignaz Goldziher,
Muhammedanische Studien, vol. 1 (Halle, 1888), p. 270 (Muslim Studies, vol. 1 [London, 1967], p. 245).

27. "Ka'I-Zanji in ja`a saraqa wa'in shabi`a zana" (Maydani, Amthal al`Arab, vol.
2, Arabum proverbia, ed. G. Freytag [Bonn, 1839], p. 404). The hadith as cited also
allows the Ethiopians two good qualities-skill at providing food and fortitude in
adversity. The proverb makes no such allowance.

28. Hava Lazarus-Yafeh, Some Religious Aspects of Islam (Leiden, 1981), p. 30,
citing Al-Bukhari, Sahih, ed. L. Krehl (Leiden, 1862-68). vol. 1, bk. 25, pp. 403ff.
(Bab Hadm al-Ka`ba).

29. Cf. Goldziher, Muhammedanische Studien, vol. 1, p. 269 (Muslim Studies, vol.
1, p. 344); K. Vollers, "Ober Rassenfarben in der arabischen Literatur," in Centenario
delta nascita di Michele Amari, vol. 1 (Palermo, 1910), p. 87.

30. A. J. Wensinck, ed., Concordance et indices de la tradition musulmane, vol. 1
(Leiden, 1936-69), p. 327, where further references are given. See, e.g., Muttaqi,
Kanz al-`Ummal, vol. 3 (Haydarabad, 1313/1895-96), p. 197, where this and similar
traditions are cited, and Tabari, Ta'rikh, ed. M. J. de Goeje, vol. 1 (Leiden, 1879), pp.
2861-62. Cf. S. D. Goitein, Studies in Islamic History and Institutions (Leiden, 1966),
pp. 203-4; G. E. von Grunebaum, Medieval Islam, 2d ed. (Chicago, 1953) p. 209;
Rotter, Die Stellung des Negers, pp. 94-95. For some modern examples from Morocco, see Lawrence Rosen, Bargaining for Reality: The Constitution of Social Relations in a Muslim Community (Chicago, 1984), p. 178: "Even a woman can understand
the Qur'an.... Even a black man can be learned."