Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry (11 page)

Probably the best known of the early black poets in Arabic was Abu
Dulama (d. ca. 776), a slave who became the court poet-and jester-of the
first Abbasid caliphs. The name means, literally, "Father of Blackness." In his
verses, the acceptance of inferiority is unmistakable. To amuse his master,
Abu Dulama makes fun of his own appearance, of his aged mother, and of his
family:

The Arab anthologists tell us something about the lives of these men.
Several anecdotes show Nusayb ibn Rabah's awareness of his color problem.
In an autobiographical fragment, he remarks that before he went on his first
journey to Egypt, he consulted his sister, a wise woman. She reminded him
that he combined the disadvantages of being black and ridiculous in men's
eyes. He then recited some of his verses, and she was persuaded that their
merits gave him some prospect of success.12

A rather different story tells how Nusayb lunched one day with the
Umayyad Caliph `Abd al-Malik and, after obtaining the caliph's promise of
safety, said to him:

My color is pitch-black, my hair is woolly, my appearance repulsive. I did not
attain the favor which you have vouchsafed me by the honor of my father, or
my mother, or my tribe. I attained it only by my mind and my tongue. I adjure
you by God, 0 Commander of the Faithful, do not cut me off from that by
which I have attained my position with you.13

The point of the story is that the poet chooses an opportunity and uses his wit to
secure immunity from execution. But the passage vividly illustrates the association already accepted at this time of blackness, ugliness, and inferior station.

The same theme occurs in stories of the black poet Da'ud ibn Salm (d. ca.
750), known as Da'ud the Black (al-Adlam) and famous for his ugliness. On
one occasion, it is said, together with an Arab called Zayd Ibn Ja'far, he was
arrested and brought before a judge in Mecca, on a charge of flaunting luxurious clothes. The two accused received very different treatment. The handsome Arab, says the chronicler, was released; the ugly black was flogged.

The judge said: "I can stand this from Ibn Ja'far, but why should I stand it from
you'? Because of your base origin, or your ugly face'? Flog him, boy!-and he
flogged him."14

Another story tells of a misadventure of the famous singer Said ibn Misjah
(d. ca. 705-15), considered the greatest musician of his time. Seeking a lodging in Damascus, he managed to get himself accepted by one of a group of
young men, the others being reluctant. He accompanied them to a singing
girl's house; and when lunch was served he withdrew, saying, "I am a black
man. Some of you may find me offensive. I shall therefore sit and eat apart."
They were embarrassed but arranged for him to take his food (and later his
wine) separately. Then slave girl singers appeared, and Said ibn Misjah
praised their performance. Singers and owners alike were affronted by the
impudence of "this black man" in daring to praise the girls, and he was warned
by the other companions to mend his manners. Later his identity was revealed
and then all vied in seeking the company of the famous singer.'s These episodes show both the nature and the limits of social discrimination against the
dark-skinned.

After the eighth century, there are few identifiable black poets in Arabic
literature, and their blackness is not a significant poetic theme. There were a
few poets in the black lands converted to Islam who composed in Arabic; but
most black African Muslims preferred to use Arabic for scholarship, as European Christians used Latin, and their own languages for poetry. In the central
lands, though the flow of black, as of other, slaves continued into the twentieth century, the school of self-consciously black poets came to an end. Few of
the slaves were sufficiently assimilated or educated to compose poetry in
Arabic, while the few Arabic poets of African or part-African ancestry were
too assimilated to see themselves as black and therefore other."

The whole question of blackness was discussed in a special essay by Jahiz
of Basra (ca. 776-869), one of the greatest prose writers in classical Arabic
literature and said by some of his biographers to be of partly African descent." Entitled "The Boast of the Blacks against the Whites,"" the essay
purports to be a defense of the dark-skinned peoples-and especially of the
Zanj, the blacks of East Africa-against their detractors, refuting the accusations commonly brought against them and setting forth their qualities and
achievements, with a wealth of poetic illustration. They are strong, brave,
cheerful, and generous-and not, as people say, "because of weakness of
mind, lack of discernment, and ignorance of consequences." Another false
charge is stupidity. To those who ask, "How is it that we have never seen a
Zanji who had the intelligence even of a woman or of a child?" the answer,
says Jahiz, is that the only Zanj they knew were slaves of low origin and from
outlying and backward areas. If they judged by their experience of Indian
slaves, would they have any notion of Indian science, philosophy, and art?
Obviously not-and the same is true of the black lands. Jahiz also defends the
equality of blacks as marriage partners and notes the paradox that discrimination against them first arose after the advent of Islam: At is part of your
ignorance," he makes the blacks say, "that in the time of heathendom [i.e., in
pre-Islamic Arabia] you regarded us as good enough to marry your women,
yet when the justice of Islam came, you considered this wrong." Another
point is that the blacks are more numerous than the whites-certainly true, since Jahiz, along with some other Arabic authors of the ninth and tenth
centuries, includes the Copts, the Berbers, and the inhabitants of India, Southeast Asia, and China. A curious quotation follows: "There are more blacks
than whites, more rocks than mud, more sand than soil, more salt water than
sweet water." In conclusion, Jahiz argues against the common equation of
blackness with ugliness, and insists that black is beautiful-in nature, in the
animal kingdom, and in man. In any case, blackness is not a curse or punishment, as is commonly alleged, but a result of natural conditions:

This exists in all things. Thus we see that locusts and worms on plants are
green, and we see that the louse is black on a young man's head, white if his
hair whitens, red if it is dyed.

Jahiz was a great humorist and satirist, and the reader of his defense of the
blacks may sometimes wonder whether its intention is wholly serious. This
doubt is strengthened if one compares the essay with his remarks about blacks
in his other writings. Despite his putative African ancestry, he expresses-Or
perhaps cites-negative views of the Zanj:

We know that the Zanj are the least intelligent and the least discerning of
mankind, and the least capable of understanding the consequences of actions.19

Like the crow among mankind are the Zanj for they are the worst of men and
the most vicious of creatures in character and temperament.20

They [the Shu`ubiyyaj maintain that eloquence is prized by all people at all
times-even the Zanj, despite their dimness, their boundless stupidity, their
obtuseness, their crude perceptions and their evil dispositions, make long
speeches.21

The last passage gives a clue to what might be Jahiz's purpose. The
Shu`ubiyya were a faction of non-Arab Muslims, mostly Persians, who protested against Arab privilege and superiority in the Islamic Empire and objected to the central position accorded to Arabic culture. A characteristic
form of Shu`ubi polemic was to laud the achievements and capacities of their
own peoples and decry those of the Arabs. Jahiz was a fervent defender of the
Arabs and the Arabic cultural tradition against all comers, and especially
against the Persians, who, alone among the conquered peoples, offered a
serious challenge to Arab supremacy. His defense of the blacks, though in
part intended seriously, may perhaps also be understood as a parody of
Shu`ubiyya tracts, intended to throw ridicule on Persian pretensions by advanc-
2
ing similar arguments on behalf of the lowly and despised Zanj.`2

While however there may be some question about Jahiz's intentions, there
can be none about those of some later writers, who, from the tenth century
onward, produced a series of books offering not indeed a boast but rather a
defense of the black peoples and an answer to the insults and charges leveled
against them. An obvious question that arises is why such an anti-defamation campaign should have been thought necessary. No such defenses have come
down to us from the ancient world, whether Middle Eastern or GrecoRoman, no doubt for the good reason that there were no such accusations to
answer.

The case against prejudice was succinctly stated by the famous statesman
and man of letters al-Sahib ibn `Abbad (938-95), who remarks that men may
be praised or blamed, rewarded or punished for their deeds, in which they have
choice: "But since God created tallness and shortness and the blackness of the
Zanj and the whiteness of the Greeks, it is not right that men should be blamed
or punished for these qualities, since God neither enjoined nor forbade them. "23

Books written in defense of the blacks in the Islamic Middle Ages were
usually chiefly concerned with the Ethiopians. There are a few such books;
they have survived in only a few copies, and none of them has as yet been
printed. One of the earliest, written by Jamal al-Din Abu'l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi
(d. 1208 A.D.), is entitled The Lightening of the Darkness on the Merits of the
Blacks and the Ethiopians. In this the author attempts to defend both groups
against the various accusations made against them. In a striking passage, he
explains another of his purposes:

I have seen a number of outstanding Ethiopians whose hearts were breaking
because of their black color. So I let them know that respect is based on the
performance of good deeds, and not on beautiful forms. I therefore composed
for them this book, which deals with a good number of Ethiopians and
Blacks. 24

A second work, based in part on the previous one and written by the
famous Egyptian polyhistor Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 1505 A.D.) is The Raising
of the Status of the Ethiopians. Another, by a sixteenth-century author, is
entitled The Colored Brocade on the Good Qualities of Ethiopians. A similar
work in Turkish was written by an Ethiopian protege of the chief black eunuch, who was brought to Istanbul, studied there, and rose to high rank as a
judge in the Ottoman service. There were also other, earlier works of the
same type, but these have not survived.

The books that have come down to us follow the same main pattern. They
discuss the origins of the blacks and deal with the reasons for their blackness,
rejecting hostile myths concerning this. They set forth the good qualities of
blacks and also draw attention to blackness itself as a good quality in certain
plants, stones, and animals. They insist that whites cannot claim superior
merit because of their whiteness but must earn it by piety and good deeds.
Most of them then discuss Ethiopians among the slaves and freedmen of the
Prophet's Companions who fled from Arabia, the words of Ethiopic origin in
the Qur'an and more generally in Arabic, utterances of the Prophet concerning Ethiopians, and the like. There are also collections of anecdotes illustrating good and pious deeds by blacks, though here the usual theme is that
simple piety is better than sophisticated wickedness, with the black used as the
example of simplicity as much as of piety.''

Another type of information on racial attitudes may be found in religious
literature, specifically that which by apt quotation seeks to condemn racial
prejudice and discrimination. During the centuries which followed the death
of the Prophet, pious Muslims collected vast numbers of what are known as
hadiths, that is to say, traditions concerning Muhammad's actions and utterances. A very large proportion of these arc certainly spurious-but this, while
it may nullify their value as evidence of the Prophet's own views, still leaves
them as important evidence on the development of attitudes during the period
in which they were manufactured. A number of these traditions deal with
questions of race and color. There are some which specifically condemn one
or another race. Thus the Prophet is quoted as saying of the Ethiopian:
"When he is hungry he steals, when he is sated he fornicates. "'h This is
undoubtedly spurious, but is also well known in early and modern times as an
Arabic proverb about the Zanj.-" Similar traditions, equally spurious, are
cited disparaging the Persians, the Turks, and other parties to the struggles of
early Islamic history. Sometimes these traditions have an eschatological content, as for example when the Prophet predicts that the Ka'ba, the sanctuary
in Mecca, will be destroyed by "black-skinned, short-shanked men," who will
tear it apart and thus begin the destruction of the world.''

Such traditions are few, and most of them are not regarded as authentic. A
larger body of accepted traditions survives, the general purport of which is to
deplore racial prejudice and to insist on the primacy of piety. One of the
commonest is the phrase ascribed to the Prophet, "I was sent to the red and
the black"-an expression taken to embrace the whole of mankind.' With the
passage in the Qur'an already quoted as point of departure, the manufacturers
of tradition-for these too are almost certainly spurious-have as their purpose to insist that true merit is to be found in piety and good deeds and that
these take precedence over gentle, noble, or even purely Arab birth.