Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry (31 page)

31. `Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha`rani, Kitab Kashf al-Ghumrna, vol. 2 (Cairo, 1370/
1950), p. 154.

32. lbn Maja, Sunan, vol. 1 (Cairo, 1372/1952), p. 597 (Nikah 6); cf. Rotter, Die
Stellung des Negers, p. 132.

33. Muhammad ibn Sa'd, Kitab al-Tahagat al-Kahir, ed. E. Sachau et al., vol. 4,
pt. I (Leiden, 1904-40), p. 134, cited in A. S. Tritton, Muslim Theology (London,
1947), p. 13.

34. A reference to Qur'an, XLIX:13. See above, p. 31. A similar sentiment-hut
without racial implications-is found in the Mishnaic ruling that a learned bastard
ranks above an ignorant high priest. (Horavoth 13a: The Babylonian Talmud, Seder
Nashim, ed. I. Epstein, trans. Israel W. Slotki, vol. 4 [London, 1935], p. 99).

35. Ibn Hazm, Jamharat Ansab al-Arab, ed. E. Levi-Provencal (Cairo, 1948), p.
1. The same author, in a treatise on morals, admonishes his reader with a no doubt
imaginary example: "Even if you were king of all the Muslims you should know that
the king of the Sudan, a wretched black man with bare genitals. and ignorant, has a
wider kingdom than yours" (Kitab al-Akhlaq wa'l-siyar, ed. and trans. [into French]
Nada Tomiche [Beirut, 19611, Arabic text p. 67, trans. p. 86, cited in G. von
Grunebaum, Der Islam in Mittelalter [Zurich-Stuttgart, 19631, pp. 536-37). Ibn Hazm
didn't care for Jews either. His anti-Jewish tract was analyzed by E. Garcia Gomez,
" Polemica religiosa entre Ibn Hazm y Ibn al-Nagrila," Al-Andalus 4 (1936), pp. 1-28,
and, with other similar material, by M. Perlmann, "Eleventh-century Andalusian
authors on the Jews of Granada," Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish
Research 18 (1949), pp. 269ff., esp. 280-84. The Arabic text was published in Cairo in
1380/1960, in a critical edition by Dr. Ihsan `Abbas (Al-Radd `ala 1bn Naghrila al-
Yahudi wa-rasa'il ukhra). Ibn Hazm's case against the Jews is basically religious, but
with recognizable racial overtones.

36. Rotter, Die Stellung des Negers, p. 103; Goldziher, Muhammedanische Stud-
ien, vol. 1, p. 74 (Muslim Studies, vol. 1, p. 75).

37. For examples, see Rotter, Die Stellung des Negers, p. 181.

38. Abu'l-`Ala' al-Ma`arri, Risalat al-ghufran (Cairo, 1321/1903), p. 73; cf. Rotter,
Die .Stellung des Negers, p. 180. In one of his letters (The Letters of Abu'l-Ala' of
Ma arrat al-Nu man, in Anecdota Oxoniensia, ed. and trans. D. S. Margoliouth (Oxford, 1898], text p. 61, trans. p. 67) Abu'l-`Ala' remarks that "names do not prove any
real superiority in their subjects; many a hideous ill-smelling black is called Camphor
or Amber; many an ugly creature has the name 'New Moon' or 'Full Moon.' " In
another letter, the same author, writing to a friend, sends greetings to his black slave
(ghulam). "who, though his skin be black, is more highly esteemed by us than an
untrustworthy white" (text p. 41, trans. p. 50).

39. Ibn Hisham, Surat Rasul Allah, ed. F. Wustenfeld (Gottingen, 1858-59), p.
266; English translation by A. Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad (London, 1955),
pp. 183-84: lbn Sa'd, Kitab al-Tabagat, vol. 1. pt. 2, pp. 120ff.: English translation by
"Uber
S. Moinul Hay and H. K. Ghazanfar, vol. 1 (Karachi, 1967), pp. 484ff.: Vollers.
Rassenfarben," pp. 90-91.

Chapter 5

1. B. Lewis, Islam from the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople, vol. 2, Religion and Society (New York, 1974), p. 211.

2. See above, pp. 42 and 65.

3. Ibn `Abd Rabbihi, A/-`Iqd al-farMd, vol. 3 (Cairo, 1372/1953), pp. 326-27.
Translations in Lewis, Islam, vol. 2, pp. 201-6. A Qurayhi is a member of Quraysh, the Meccan Arab tribe to which the Prophet belonged. The kunva was a name formed
with Abu ("father of"). Its use, in early Islamic times, was it prerogative of Arabs.

4. Maslama's father was the Caliph 'Abd al-Malik; his mother was a slave girl.
On his career and exclusion, see Eli, s.v. (by H. Lammens); Francesco Gabrieli,
"L'Eroe Omayyade Maslamah ibn 'Abd al-Malik," Rendiconti della classe di scienze
moral,, storiche e filologiche (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei), ser. 8, vol. 5/1-2
(1950), pp. 22-39.

5. For a critical survey of recent theories and literature on the Abbasid revolution, see R. Stephen Humphreys, Islcnnic History: A Framework for Inquiry (Minneapolis, 1988), pp. 99-119.

6. 'Ala' al-Din 'Ali ibn Husam al-Din al-Muttaqi, Kanz al-'Ummal, vol. 6
(Haydarabad, 1312/1894-98), pp. 214-15.

7. See Bernard Lewis, Islam in History (London, 1973), pp. 247-48.

8. Cf. the comments of Ibn al-Mugaffa', "Conseiller" de calife, ed. and trans.
Charles Pellat (Paris, 1976), pp. 37-39.

9. `Abduh Badawi, Al-Shu ard' al-Sud wa-khasa'isuhum fi'i-shi`r al-`arabf (Cairo,
1973), p. 21.

10. H. Lammens, Le Berceau de I'Islam, vol. 1 (Rome, 1914). pp. 298ff.

11. Ibn Habib, Kitab al-Muhabbar, ed. Ilse Lichtenstadter (Haydarabad, 1361/
1942), p. 306.

12. On Shi'ite abuse of 'Umar as al-Adlam-the swarthy or dusky-see I.
Goldziher, "Spottnamen der ersten Chalifen bei den Shi'iten," Wiener Zeitschrift fiir
Kunde des Morgenlandes 15 (1901), pp. 301, 308.

13. See above, pp. 10ff.

14. See above, p. 17.

15. See Frank M. Snowden, Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman
Experience (Cambridge, MA, 1970); idem, Before Color Prejudice: The Ancient View
of Blacks (Cambridge, MA, 1983). There was, however, already in antiquity, an export
trade in "better quality" slaves from East Africa to Egypt and, "rarely," to the East.
This is attested by a Greek geographical text of the first century A.D. (Lionel Casson,
ed. and trans., The Periplus Maris Erythraei [Princeton, NJ, 19891, pp. 55, 59, etc.).

16. See above, p. 25.

17. Al-Baladhuri, Ansab al-Ashraf, ed. Muhammad Hamidullah, vol. 1 (Cairo,
1959), p. 505.

18. Tabari, Ta'rikh, ed. M. J. de Goeje, vol. 1 (Leiden, 1879), p. 3177; cf. G.
Rotter, Die Stellung der Negers (Bonn, 1967). p. 53, n. 2.

19. Jahshiyari, Kitdb al-Wuzara' wa 'l-Kuttab (Cairo, 1938), p. 81; German translation by J. Latz, Das Buch der Wezire and Staatssekretdr ... (Walldorf-Hessen, 1958),
p. 129.

20. Buzurg ibn Shahriyar, Kitab 'Aja'ib al-Hind, ed. P. A. van der Lith (Leiden,
1883-86), pp. 50-60; French translation in Memorial Jean Sauvaget, vol. 1 (Damascus,
1954), pp. 221-27; English translation in Lewis, !slam, vol. 2, pp. 82-87. Similar
sentiments were expressed by black slaves in nineteenth-century Arabia; see C. M.
Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta, 3d ed., vol. 1 (London, 1923), pp. 554-55.

Chapter 6

1. For a discussion of Arabic terms for the alien or outsider, see Bernard Lewis,
The Political Language of Islam (Chicago, 1988), p. 118, n. 5.

2. The fullest critical account of Arab tribal rivalries and of "the war between the
tribes" that convulsed the Umayyad Caliphate is still that of Julius Wellhausen, The
Arab Kingdom and Its Fall (Calcutta, 1927).

3. On the Mawali, see above, pp. 37ff.

4. On the Shu'ubiyya, see Ell, s.v. (by D. B. MacDonald): lgnaz Goldzihcr,
Muhatnmedanische Studien, vol. 1 (Halle, 1888), pp. 147-216 (Muslim Studies [London, 1976], pp. 173-38); H. A. R. Gibb, "The social significance of the Shu'ubiyya,"
in his Studies on the Civilization of Islam (London, 1962), pp. 62-73; above, p. 32.
'Abd al-'Aziz al-DUri (Al-Judhar al-ta'rikhiyya lil-Shu'dbiyVa [Beirut, 1962]) discusses
the medieval Shu'Ubiyya in the light of recent and current Arab experience.

5. On the Shu`ubiyya in Spain, see Ignaz Goldziher, " Su`ubijja unter den Muham-
medanern in Spanien," Nachrichten Ober Angelegenheiten der D.M.G. 53 (1899), pp.
601-20.

6. According to a probably late hadith, the Prophet said: "0 people! The Lord is
one Lord; the father is one father; the religion is one religion. Arabic is neither father
nor mother to any of you, but is a language. Whoever speaks Arabic is an Arab"
(Bernard Lewis, Islam from the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople,
vol. 2, Religion and Society [New York, 1974], p. 196). This is a far cry from the
meticulous distinctions of the age of the conquests.

7. A term commonly used by Qur'an commentators and other Muslim scholars
for these narratives of Jewish and Christian origin is Isra'fliyyat (see EI', s.v. [by G.
Vajda]). In later times the word acquired somewhat negative connotations, and came
to be used in the sense of superstitious fables.

8. See, for example, Mas'Udi, Muruj al-dhahab, ed. Charles Pellat (Beirut,
1965-), vol. 1, pp. 44-45, vol. 2, pp. 244, 266, 276, vol. 4, p. 126; Ya'qubi, Ta'rikh, ed.
T. L. Houtsma, vol. 1 (Leiden, 1883), pp. 12-13; Muhammad b. 'Abdallah al-Kisa'i,
Vita prophetarum, ed. I. Eisenberg (Leiden, 1923), pp. 98-102; Tabari, Ta'rikh, ed.
M. J. Goeje, vol. 1 (Leiden, 1879), pp. 187-216 (English translation by William M.
Brinner, The History of Tabari, vol. 2, Prophets and Patriarchs [New York, 1987]); Ibn
Sa'd, Tabagat, ed. E. Mittwoch (Leiden, 1905), vol. 1, pt. 1, pp. 10-20: al-Tha'labi,
Ara'is al-Majalis (Cairo, 1374/1954), pp. 54-61; Ibn Qutayba, Al-Ma arif, ed. Tharwat
'Ukasha, 2d ed. (Cairo, 1969), pp. 23-28; Ibn Hisham, Kitab al-Tijdn fi MulUk Himyar
(Haydarabad, 1347/1928-29), pp. 24-40.

9. As, for example, in the universal chronicle of Rashid al-Din. On some of the
mythological genealogies, ser Bahaeddin Ogel, Tiirk Mitolojisi (Ankara, 1971), pp.
73, 145ff., 373ff.. 382ff.

10. On the Curse of Ham, see chap. 8, n. 9, pp. 123-25.

11. The Arabic text of this translation is lost, and the hook is known only from it
retranslation into Muslim Persian made in the thirteenth century. The Persian text was
first edited by James Darmesteter in Journal Asiatique in 1894; reedited with important
additional material by Mujtaba Minovi, Nate-i Tansar be Gushnasp (Tehran, 1932);
and translated into English by Mary Boyce, The Letter of Tansar (Rome, 1968). A
retranslation from Persian into Arabic, with valuable annotation, was made by Yahya
al-Khashshab, Kitdb Tansar (Cairo. 1954).

12. Minovi, Name-i Tansar, p. 41: Boyce, Letter of Tansar, p. 64. In Minovi's
annotations to this passage (pp. 64-66), he remarks that while the ancient Persians
respected the Byzantines, Indians, and Turks, they despised the Arabs as barbarians
who ate lizards and drank camel's milk. Curiously, he documents this only with quotations from Arabic authors, who tell the story in order to rebut Persian accusations.

13. Ibn al-Faqih al-Hamadani, Mukhtasar Kitab al-Buldan, ed. M. J. de Gocje. vol. 5, Bibliotheca geographorum arahicorum (Leiden. 1885), p. 162. Avicenna, in a
mnemonic medical poem, has these lines on human colors:

14. Ibn Qutayba, Al-Ma arif ed. Tharwat `Ukasha, 2d ed. (Cairo 1969), p. 26.

15. Jahiz, Kitab al-Hayawan, vol. 2 (Cairo, 1356/1938), p. 314.

16. Jahiz's essay on the Turks was first edited by G. van Vloten in Jahiz, Tria
opuscula, auctore al-Djahiz (Leiden, 1903) and reedited by `Abd al-Salam Muhammad
Harun in Jahiz, Rasd'il al-Jahiz, vol. 1 (Cairo, 1385/1965). An English translation was
published by C. T. Harley Walker, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1915), pp.
631-97. For discussions, see Francesco Gabrieli, "La Risala di al-Gahiz sui Turchi,"
Rivista degli studi orientali 32 (1957), pp. 477-83; Ramazan Sesen, Hilafet Ordusunun
Menkibeleri ve Tiirklerin Faziletleri (including a Turkish translation) (Ankara, 1967).
On the essay in defense of the blacks, see above, pp. 31-32.

17. See Susanne Enderwitz, Gesellschaftliche Rang and ethnische Legitimation:
Der arabischer Schriftsteller Abu `Utman al-Gahiz (gent 868) fiber die Afrikaner, Perser
and Araber in der islamischen Gesellschaft (Freiburg, 1979).

18. Notably Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi, Kitab al-lrntd' sva'l-Mu'anasa, ed. Ahmad
Amin and Ahmad al-Zayn, vol. 1 (Cairo, 1939), pp. 70-93, 211-13: abridged translation in Marc Berge, "Merites respectifs des nations," Arahica 19 (1972), pp. 165-73,
and in Joel L. Kraemer, Philosophy in the Renaissance of Islam: Abu Sulaymdn al-
Siji.stdni and His Circle (Leiden, 1986), pp. 147-48, where the essay is situated in the
intellectual context of the time.

19. Cf. the remarks of Ibn Sina, above, p. 55.

20. "Managib al-Turk," in Jahiz, Rasd'il, ed. `Abd al-Salam Harun, vol. I (Cairo,
1965), pp. 66ff.; cf. Kraemer, Philosophy, p. 146.

21. Cited by Abu Hayyan aI-Tawhidi. Al-Mugabasat, ed. Hasan al-Sandubi
(Cairo, 1929), p. 260; translation in Kraemer, Philosophy, p. 146, where other such
dicta are cited.

22. The evolution of Arab attitudes toward the Turks-first their slaves and then
their masters-was examined in two important studies by Ulrich W. Haarman: "Ideology and history, identity and alterity: The Arab image of the Turk from the 'Abbasids
to modern Egypt," International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 20 (1988), pp. 17596, and "Rather the injustice of Turks than the righteousness of the Arabs-changing
'Ulama' attitudes towards Mamluk rule in the late fifteenth century," Studia Islanuca
68 (1988), pp. 61-77.

23. Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddima, ed. Etienne Quatremere, vol. 1 (Paris, 1858), p.
155; translations in Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, trans. F. Rosenthal (New York,
1956), p. 174, and in C. Issawi, An Arab Philosophy of History (London, 1950), p. 46.