Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry (33 page)

The discoloration of Ham occurs, in rabbinic literature, only in this rare and
curious story in which he is associated with the dog and the raven. It does not occur anywhere else in the Talmud, and it is not linked with the curse of servitude. In the
Babylonian Talmud-and in most of the few midrashic texts that contain the storythere is no explicit reference to any hereditary change of color. Nevertheless, on the
basis of this single, equivocal reference, J. R. Willis has concluded that "though the
`Curse of Ham' had its genesis in the Old Testament, its forcing bed was the Babylonian Talmud" (Slaves and Slavery in Muslim Africa, vol. 1 [London, 1985]. p. 8;
reprinted from "Islamic Africa: reflections on the servile estate," Studia Islamica 52
[1980], p. 194).

The earliest explicit reference to blackness as part of the curse inflicted on Ham for
his offense against his father would appear to be a passage in the Bible commentary
ascribed to the Syrian church father Saint Ephrem of Nisibis, according to whom Noah
said: "Accursed be Canaan, and may God make his face black," whereupon the face of
both Canaan and Ham became black (Paul Lagarde, Materialen zur Kritik and
Geschichte des Pentateuchs, vol. 1 [reprinted Osnobruck and Wiesbaden, 1967], pp.
86-87, cited by M. Grunebaum, Neue Beitrage zur Semitischen Sagenkunde [Leiden,
1893], p. 86). This passage occurs in a late Arabic translation of some passages in Saint
Ephrem's writings, and there may therefore be some question about its authenticity.
No Syriac original for this passage has so far come to light; and the story may well be a
later interpolation in the Arabic version, reflecting the current notions of that time.
The idea also occurs in a later midrash (Bereshit Rabbah, 37, 7; English translation by
H. Freeman, The Midrash Rabbah, vol. 1, Genesis [London, 19771, pp. 292-93),
where, for the first time in a Jewish text, the curse included the words "and therefore
his seed will be ugly and black [mefuham]." Saint Ephrem died in 373 A.D.; the anonymous Bereshit Rabbah was probably compiled in the sixth century A.D., with later
accretions of which this may be one. By that time the Canaanites were no more than a
remote historic memory. Neither version mentions Kush, who in biblical, rabbinic, and
most Christian versions, is the ancestor of the dark-skinned peoples of Africa.

The Qur'an tells the story of Noah and his Ark, and speaks of one of Noah's sons
who had separated himself from his family and therefore perished (XI:42ff.). There is,
however, no reference to Ham or to his curse, whether of servitude or of blackness,
and of course no descendants. The story of Ham appears, however, at an early date in
Islamic literature and is widely cited by historians, commentators, and traditionists.
Their versions vary considerably. While most indicate that Ham offended against his
father Noah, not all specify his offense; and those who do so differ. In some versions,
Noah withholds his blessing from Ham; in others, he curses him. In some versions, the
curse consists only of servitude; in others, of both servitude and blackness. The earliest
explicit statement of the latter (a mention by Jahiz [see above, p. 32] of the idea of
blackness as a curse or punishment may be an allusion to this story) would appear to be
a passage in Ibn Qutayba (828-89), who says:

Wahb ibn Munabbih said: Ham the son of Noah was a white man, with a
handsome face and a fine figure, and Almighty God changed his color and the
color of his descendants in response to his father's curse. He went away,
followed by his sons, and they settled by the shore, where God increased and
multiplied them. They are the blacks. Their food was fish, and they sharpened
their teeth like needles, as the fish stuck to them. Some of his children went to
the West [Maghrib]. Ham begat Kush ibn Ham, Kan'an ibn Ham, and Fut ibn
Ham. Fut settled in India and Sind and their inhabitants are his descendants.
Kush and Kan'an's descendants are the various races of blacks: Nubians, Zanj,
Qaran, Zaghawa, Ethiopians, Copts, and Berbers. (Kitab al-Ma`trrif ed.
Tharwat `Ukasha, 2d ed. [Cairo, 1969], p. 26)

Ibn Qutayba cites as source for this story Wahh ibn Munabbih, to whom many dubious
stories are attributed. Wahb was a South Arabian convert to Islam, according to some,
from Judaism, according to others, from Christianity. As he is also quoted as an
authority on stories about Jesus, the latter seems more likely (see, e.g., Ibn Hisham,
Kitab al-Tijan ft Muluk Himyar [Haydarabad, 1347/1928-29], p. 27). He remains, in
any case, a very problematic figure, and traditions ascribed to him are regarded, in
Islamic religious literature, with reserve. In another version of the story (Muhammad
b. `Abdallah al-Kisa'i, Vita prophetarum, ed. I. Eisenberg [Leiden, 1923], pp. 98-99),
because Shem covered his father's nakedness, his descendants would be prophets and
nobles (sharif), while those of Ham would be bondsmen and bondswomen until the
Day of Judgment. Japhet's descendants would be tyrants (jababira), Chosroes (aka-
sira), and kings (muluk).

These Islamic versions depart in two significant respects from the biblical and
rabbinic versions: first, that Ham, who is stricken by the curse, is presented primarily
as the ancestor of the dark-skinned peoples; second, that the curse consists of the
double burden of servitude and blackness. The curse of Ham also figures in medieval
popular romances about the Arab expansion in Africa, notably the story of Sayf ibn
Dhi Yazan, telling how he led the Muslim Arabs to victory against the infidel Ethiopians and blacks (Sirat Saif ibn Dhi Yazan [Cairo, 1322/1904-5], and other editions).

As noted above, this story was by no means generally accepted by Muslim authors,
and it was refuted in socio-historical terms by Ibn Khaldun and with legal arguments by
Ahmad Baba of Timbuktu. But the curse was too useful to disappear. The enslavement and displacement of vast numbers of blacks continued-and indeed increased
after the gradual extinction of the traffic in white slaves from the North. For the sellers
and buyers of black slaves, the curse of Ham provided both an explanation and a
justification. When sugar and cotton and the black slave to cultivate them were transplanted, via the Iberian Peninsula and the Atlantic islands, to the new lands in the
Americas, the moral problem and the mythical solution came with them, and Christian
defenders of black slavery found justification in this amended version of the biblical
tale. A whole literature appeared to reassure pious Christian slaveowners of the moral
rightness and biblical sanction of the enslavement of the blacks. More recently, a
similar school of para-scholarly literature has emerged, the purpose of which, this
time, is to shift the blame for the enslavement of black Africans from Islam and
Christendom to the Jews. For a discussion, see Ephraim Isaac, "Genesis, Judaism, and
the 'Sons of Ham,' " Slavery and Abolition 1 (1980), pp. 3-17. also published, in a
slightly different version, in Willis, Slaves and Slavery, vol. 1, pp. 75-91; Ephraim
Isaac, "Concept biblique et rabbinique de la malediction de Noe," Service international
de documentation judeo-chretienne 11, no. 2 (1978), pp. 16-35. On the whole question
of the use of the Curse of Ham story, see David Brion Davis, Slavery and Human
Progress (New York and Oxford, 1984), pp. 86-87, 337, n. 144. The Jewish sources will
be examined in detail and in depth in a forthcoming study by David Goldenberg, to
whom I am indebted for some of the information cited above.

10. See, for example, E. W. Lane. An Arabic English Lexicon, vol. 1, pt. 5
(London, 1874), p. 1935a:.. Abd is now generally applied to a male black slave; and
mamluk to a male white slave." J. B. Belot, Vocabulaire arahe-fran4ais (Beirut. 1893).
p. 469. defines 'abd as "Homme. Esclave, serf. serviteur. Negre"; E. A. Elias, Elias'
Modern Dictionary, Arabic-English, 2d ed. (Cairo, 1925), p. 369, as "Slave, bondman;
bondsman. Man. Negro, black": Vocabulario Araho-Italiano, vol. 2 (Rome. 1969), p.
879, as "Schiavo, servo, servitode; negro (adibito a lavori servili)"; cf. Kh. K. Baranov,
Arahsko-Russkiv slovar (Moscow, 1957), p. 629: " ahid: negri." See also Simone Delesalle and Lucette Valensi, "Le Mot 'Negre' dans les dictionnaires francais
d'ancien regime: histoire et lexicographic," Langue francaise 15 (1972), pp. 79-104.
From stories in Kitab al-Aghanf, Abu'l-Faraj al-Isfahani (20 vols. [Bulaq, 1285/186869]; ibid. [Cairo, 1927]-hereafter Aghanf [ 1868] and Aghanf [1927]) e.g., in the pages
devoted to Nusayb, it is clear that black slaves, even after being manumitted, were still
referred to as 'abd. On the use of 'abd in medieval Egypt, see S. D. Goitein, "Slaves
and slavegirls in the Cairo Geniza records," Arabica 9 (1962), p. 2; idem, A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza, vol. 1, Economic Foundations (Berkeley and Los Angeles,
1967), p. 131. For a striking modern example of this usage, see L. C. Brown, "Color in
North Africa," p. 471. This ethnic connotation of 'abd does not seem to have been
carried over from Arabic into Persian or Turkish. Ironically, in Ottoman Turkish and
also in late Greek and in Russian, the word "Arab" acquires the meaning of black man
or blackamoor and is applied to Negroes and Ethiopians. Some Turkish authors distinguish between kara Arab, "black Arab," and ak Arab, "white Arab," the former
referring to the black peoples of Africa, the latter to the Arabs properly so called.

11. R. Dozy, Supplement aux dictionnaires arabes, 2d ed., vol. 1 (Paris, 1927), p.
355b, where other sources are cited. In classical Arabic usage, however, the word
khadim does not, as has sometimes been stated, connote blackness. Its normal meaning is "eunuch," irrespective of race or color. See D. Ayalon, "On the eunuchs in
Islam," Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 1 (1979), pp. 88-89. There are numerous other terms for "slave" in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and other languages. Common
euphemisms include fata and ghulam, both meaning "youth" or "young man"; usta or
ustadh (lit. "master") for a eunuch; jariya (lit. "runner") for a slave girl. Raqfq and
wasif are common Arabic terms for "slave"; the abstract form of the first-named, riqq,
is the commonest term for slavery. Persian and Turkish use the Arabic terms and add
some others-Persian banda (lit. "bondman") and keniz ("slavewoman"). The Turkish
terms are kul and kole, but the former came to be used, in a quasi-metaphorical sense,
for the officers and other members of the sultan's household and establishment. By the
nineteenth century, the common Turkish term was esir, from an Arabic word meaning
"captive."

12. For examples, see A. Mez, Die Renaissance des ]slams (Heidelberg, 1922), pp.
153-54 (in English, The Renaissance of Islam [London, 1937], pp. 157-58); E. Ashtor,
Histoire des prix et des salaries dans !'orient medieval (Paris, 1969), pp. 57ff., 88 ff., 1 11,
208ff., 258. 360ff., 437ff., 463, 498ff. There may be exceptions. According to the tenthcentury Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus (De administrando imperio,
ed. Gy. Moravcsik, trans. R. J. H. Jenkins [Budapest, 1949], p. 94), the daily tribute
paid to the Byzantine emperor by the Caliph `Abd al-Malik included, as well as money,
"one purebred horse and one black slave" (the Greek Aethiops was not limited to
Ethiopians stricto sensu.) The collocation of these two items would seem to imply that a
black slave, like a purebred horse, was rare and precious. at least in Byzantine eyes, and
that both were seen as valued products of the caliph's realm. According to the same
source (p. 86), an earlier agreement between the emperor and Mu`awiya provided for
the annual delivery of fifty purebred horses but makes no reference to black slaves.

13. Jahiz, Rasa'il al-Jahiz, ed. `Abd al-Salam Muhammad Harun, vol. 2 (Cairo,
1385/1965), p. 177: edition and translation by A. F. L. Beeston. The Epistle on Singing
Girls by Jahiz (Warminster, England, 1980). German translation in O. Rescher, Excerpte and Ubersetzungen aus der Schriften des Philologen Gahiz (Stuttgart, 1931), p.
98; cf. G. Rotter, Die Stellung der Negers (Bonn, 1967), pp. 58-59, and C. Pellat. The
Life and Works of Jahiz (London, 1969), pp. 259ff.

14. Aghani (1868), vol. 5, p. 9; Aghant (1927), vol. 5, pp. 164f.

15. Ibn Butlan, Risdla, p. 352; Bernard Lewis, Islam from the Prophet Muhammad
to the Capture of Constantinople, vol. 2, Religion and Society (New York, 1974), pp.
247ff.

16. Ya'qubi, Kitab al-Buldan, ed. M. J. de Goeje, 2d ed., Bibliotheca geographorum arabicorum, vol. 7 (Leiden, 1892), p. 334: French translation by G. Wiet,
Les Pays (Cairo, 1937), p. 190; L. E. Kubbel and V. V. Matveev, eds., Arahskiye
istoeniki VIII-X vekov po etnografii i istorii Afriki yuineye Sakhari (Moscow and
Leningrad, 1960), p. 41.

17. Ibn Battuta, Voyages (Tuhfat al-nuzzar), ed. and trans. C. Defremery and B.
R. Sanguinetti, vol. 4 (Paris, 1969), p. 441; English version in Ibn Battuta, Travels in
Asia and Africa, 1325-1354, trans. H. A. R. Gibb (London, 1929), p. 336, and in N.
Levtzion and J. F. P. Hopkins, Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African
History, trans. J. F. P. Hopkins (Cambridge, 1981), p. 302.

18. The slave revolt of the Zanj in Iraq was first studied by T. Noldeke in his
Orientalische Skizzen (Berlin, 1892), pp. 153-84; in English, Sketches from Eastern
History, trans. John Sutherland Black (London, 1892), pp. 146-75. Later literature
includes an Arabic monograph (Faysal al-Samir, Thawrat al-Zanj [Baghdad, 1954]); a
critical analysis of the Arabic sources (Heinz Halm, Die Traditionen des "Herrn des
Zang": Eine Quellenkritische Untersuchung [Bonn, 1967]); and a comprehensive study
(A. Popovic, La Revolte des esclaves en Iraq au iiie/ixe siecle [Paris, 1976]). For an
analysis of the place of the Zanj rebellion in the larger context of opposition movements, see Faruq 'Umar, Al-Khilafa a!- Abhasiyya fi Asr al-Fawda a! Askariyya
(Baghdad, 1974), pp. 106-18. Ghada Hashem Talhami ("The Zanj Rebellion reconsidered," International Journal of African Historical Studies 10, no. 3 [1977], pp. 443-61)
attempts to prove, mainly on the basis of modern secondary literature in English and
Arabic, that in classical Abbasid usage the term "Zanj" did not denote a specific place
or people and that the Arab slave trade in East Africa is largely the invention of
English and French writers concerned to defend their own colonial records. On the use
of the term "Zanj," see above, pp. 50ff. On the East African slave trade, see
UNESCO, African Slave Trade (Paris, 1979). The major Western studies on the revolt
of the Zanj were written by two Germans and a Yugoslav.