Abya and the Black Arabs

Some Clarifications
Wesley Muhammad, PhD
2012
we do not only find in Arabiadark-skinned people of non-Arabic origins, but we also have Arab
tribes, Arab poets, Arab heroes of popular sagas who were noted for the black pigmentation of
their bodies.1

I.

Ancient Arabs and the Shades of Blackness

Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Minhj al-Asyt (d. 1475) in his Jawhir al-uqud wa-mun alqudt wal-muwaqqin wal-shuhd [II:574], which is a two volume composition of principles
and models to be followed by judges, notaries and witnesses in drafting legal decisions, has a
section on human complexions in which he reports about the many shades of blackness (and
whiteness) and their technical legal descriptions:
If a persons complexion is intensely black (shadd al-sawd), he is described as hlik. If his/her
blackness has a red hue, he/she is daghmn. If his complexion is lighter than that, he is asam. If the
blackness has a yellow hue, he is aum. If his complexion in dark (kudra), it is described as arbad. If
the complexion is lighter than that (i.e. arbad), it is abya. If there is less of a yellow hue and the
complexion inclines toward black (al-sawd), it is dam. If it is lighter than arbad and darker than
dam, it is shadd al-udma. If it is lighter than dam, it is shadd al-sumra (intensely dark brown). If
lighter than that, it is asmar (dark brown). If lighter still, it is raqq al-sumra [light brown]. If lighter
and inclines towards a fair complexion it is described as light brown [safi al-sumra] with fair-skin
[al-humra] prevailing. It is also described as raqq al-sumra with fairness. If his complexion is very
fair, it is described as (light) sumra rather than abya because white is [associated with] leprosy.
And if a persons complexion is purely white, it is ana. If his abya is a fair skinnedness (shuqra), it
is ashqar. If a persons complexion is lighter than that, it is ashkal. If, with this complexion there is
additional redness, then it is ashqar. If this complexion has freckles, it is anmash. If his complexion is
light, inclining to yellow but without illness, it is asab.2

This enumeration is pregnant with multiple significances. Before exploring those, however,
it is appropriate to site another such enumeration. Shihb al-Dn al-Qarf (d. 1285), probably
the greatest Maliki faqih of his era, wrote the following in his highly influential work, alDhakhra, explaining how document preparers precisely describe human complexions:

Uthman Sayyid-Ahmad Ismail al-Beily, As-Sudan and Bilad as-Sudan in Early and Medieval Arabic
Writing, Majallat Jmi#at al-Qhirah bi al-Kharm 3 (1972) 33-47, 38.
1

Al-Asyt, Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Minhj. (1992) Jawhir al-uqud wa-mun al-qudt wal-muwaqqin walshuhd, 2 vols. (Cairo) II: 574. See further Tariq Berry, A White Complexion According to the Arabs of the Past:
Toward a Better Understanding of the Description of the Prophet Mohamed (saw) (2011), 11-12.
2

The intense, unmixed black color is called hlik with a lm or hnik with a nn. Black (sawd) with a
yellow hue is called aam. The darker version of the color (aam) is called arr and its lighter
version is called afar (yellow). (A shade) with no yellow hue and with a measure of blackness (alsawd) is called dam (dark) and a woman is called dami. Darker than this is called shadd al-udma,
intensely dark. The opposite of this is that which inclines towards fair skinnedness (al-bay wa alumra, lit. whiteness and redness) which is light brown with red, f al-sumra bi umra. Lightness
unmixed with redness is raqq al-sumra. The document scribes do not refer to the (fair-skinned)
appearances as abya because they claim that that is vitiligo Apparent whiteness is called afa
and abya with shuqra (fair skinnedness) is ashqar3

: :
.
( : ; :
)
: :
The first observation to be made is that there are many shades of black, brown and white
acknowledged in Classical Arabic, much more so than in modern Arabic. We noted very black
complexions with red hues (e.g. daghmn) and very black complexions with yellow hues (e.g.
aam). Both of these complexion-types exist in Africa today, as elsewhere. Secondly, abya is
listed as a shade of blackness of some intensity. It seems from al-Asyts placement of abya in
his list which descends from the darkest black to the lightest white, that abya is one of the
relatively dark shades of black with a yellow hue. This is important, and we shall return to this
point later. Both authors also affirm that a fair complexion is not described as abya. Other
points of interest in these listings will be remarked upon below.
To see the Classical world of the Arabs as being limited to a singular type/shade of black
people (i.e. so-called Negros or Zanj), a singular type/shade of brown people (allegedly tan
or swarthy Arabs) and a singular type/shade of white people is not only errant but it precludes
a proper understanding of the self-identifications of the Arabs.
But to better understand this Classical Arabic Shades of Blackness theme and its relevance
to our subject, we need to understand the Classical and Medieval Arabic theory of ethnogeography. Early and Medieval Islamic geography and ethnography divided the world into
seven latitudinal zones and the various climates of these zones were believed to shape the
physiology and temperament of the peoples indigenous to each zone. The middle 4th zone (the
Mediterranean area) was assumed to be the ideal zone with the most balanced and moderate
clime. The people of this area were thus assumed to have the most balanced characteristics. The
further north one goes the progressively colder the climate gets and the progressively whiter
the inhabitants. Zones 5, 6, 7 were thought to be populated by increasingly white inhabitants,
and the apogee is zone 7 with extreme cold and an excessively white population such as the
Slavs. Conversely, the further south of the 4th zone one goes (3, 2, 1) the hotter the climate and
the progressively darker the inhabitants, terminating with the excessively hot equatorial Zone 1
and its excessively burned black inhabitants such as the Zanj and the Nuba.
Ibn Khaldn (d.1405), in his Muqqadima, has an important discussion of the seven zones and
their inhabitants. According to Ibn Khalduns formulation, there are three middle or moderate
zones: 3, 4, and 5. The inhabitants are distinguished by temperate bodies, complexions,
3

Sihb al-Dn al-Qarf, al-Dhakhra, ed. Muhammad Hajj 14 vols. (Beirut: Dr al-Gharb al-Islm, 1994) 10:426-427.

character qualities and general conditions. Included in these temperate zones are the Maghrib,
Syria, the two Iraqs, Western India, China, and Spain. Iraq and Syria are in the very center, we
are told, and are thus the most temperate. Zones 6 and 7 includes the European Christian
nations, Eastern Europe, Russia and the lands of the Turks. These are the white lands and Zone
7 is excessively cold, producing excessively white peoples with blue eyes, freckled skin, and
blond hair.4 On the other hand, Ibn Khaldn inform us,
The first and the second zones are excessively hot and blackThe inhabitants of the first and
second zones in the south are called Abyssinians, the Zanj, and the Sudan. These are synonyms to
designate the particular nation that has turned black. The name Abyssinia however is restricted to
those [Sdn] who live opposite Mecca and Yemen, and the name Zanj is restricted to those who
live along the Indian OceanThe black skin common to the inhabitants of the first and second
zones is the result of the air in which they live, and which comes about under the influence of the
greatly increased heat of the south.5

While Abyssinian and Zanj denote particular black peoples of particular areas in the
south, the term Sdn (Blacks) characterizes all of the black skinned peoples of the first two
zones. These nations included: [First Zone] West Africa, Nuba, Ethiopia, Yemen and [Second
Zone] Ghana, Zaghawa, Hijaz and Nejd, Buja lands, Upper and Lower Egypt. What is
important here is that among the Sudanese areas of Zones 1 and 2 are the Arab lands of the
Hijaz, Nejd and Yemen. This is an important acknowledgment by Ibn Khaldn. The native
peoples of Arabia in general and the Islamic areas of the Hijaz and Nejd are among the Sdn or
black-skinned peoples of Zones 1 and 2. However, they are in a more privileged position than
the rest of the Sdn. Because the Arabian Peninsula is surrounded by water on three sides, Ibn
Khaldun argues, the increased humidity of the air made the peninsula to some degree
temperate.6
The black Arabs, unlike most other Sdn, thus benefit from certain qualities of the more
northerly temperate zones: conditions for civilized life; religion; keener minds; perfect forms
and of critical importance here - a clear, unblemished complexion. Some other Sudanese like
the Zanj who are, we are told, burned by the excessive heat and dry air of Zone I, have patchy
and blemished black complexions, while the Arabian Sudanese have clear and blemish-free
complexions due to the more humid air and less excessive heat characteristic of their zone.
The Syrian al-Dimashq (d. 1327) discussed the zones as well in his Nukhbat al-dahr f ajib
al-barr wa l-bahr. He claimed that the peoples of the equatorial region in Zone 1 were burned
by the excessive heat and their complexion and hair are thus aberrant (munarf): their
complexion burned excessively black, shadd al-sawad, and their hair burned to pepper-corn.7
But the Zanj, claims al-Dimashq, are less burned that the Nuba because of their respective
locations within Zone 1. Zone 2 is less excessive in its heat than Zone I, and al-Dimashq situates
there the lands of Sind and India and
those like them from among the dark-skinned peoples who are not as excessively dark as the
(other) Sdn (al-dam dna l-Sdn)Rather, they are labeled dam because the heat of the sun
attain to such a degree that does not burn their heads and hair, nor does it excessively blacken their
Ibn Khaldn, The Muqaddimah; an introduction to history. Translated from the Arabic by Franz Rosenthal 2nd ed. 3
vols. (Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1967) I:60.
5
Ibid., 60-61.
6
Ibid., 59.
7
Al-Dimashq, Nukhbat al-dahr f ajib al-barr wa l-bahr, ed. A. Mehren (Leipzig, 1923) 15-17.
4

skin. Rather, it makes them less dark than al-sawd and this complexion is called al-dakna (i.e. from
dakina to grow dark/blackish; adkan/dukn blackish, dark color)

Unlike Ibn Khaldn and most others, al-Dimashq locates the lands of the Arabs in the third
zone rather than the first and second. He says the peoples of Arabia are described as sumra
brown because they are on the edge of the heat which impacts them. But this is a dark brown,
not the mythic tan white that many commentators assume (see below).
Thus, all blackness is not the same, but it is all black, just as all whiteness was not deemed
the same. But the ideal complexion, according to this theory, was the Arabs complexion and it
was a dark complexion, not a fair complexion, just not as dark as and of a better quality than
(allegedly) other Sudanese or Blacks. Ibn al-Faqh al-Hamadhn, Persian geographer of the 10th
century, in his Kitb al-buldn, quotes apparently an Iraqi Arab describing the chromatic quality
of Iraqi Arabs:
A man of discernment said: The people of Iraq have sound minds, commendable passions,
balanced natures, and high proficiency in every art, together with well-proportioned limbs, wellcompounded humors, and a brown complexion (sumra al-alwn), which is the most apt and proper
complexion. They are those whom the womb has well-backed, and didnt expel them fair-skinned
(ashqar), ruddy (ahab), blanched (amhaq) or leprous colored (mughrab), such as comes from the
wombs of Slav women and others like them of similar light complexion. Nor are they overcooked in
the womb until they are burned, such that the child comes out between black (aswad) and pitchblack (hlik), malodorous, stinking and crinkly-haired, with uneven limbs, deficient minds, and
depraved passions, such as the Zanj, the Ethiopians (Hubsan), and those from among the Sudan
who resemble them. The Iraqis are neither half-baked dough nor burned crust but between the
two.8

We are here explicitly told that the Arab is not fair skinned by any definition of fairskinnedness: ashqar, ahab, amhaq nor mughrab. This is because the womb clearly an indirect
reference to the zonal womb in which they were born has indeed baked them a dark
complexion dark brown - but it did not over bake them and thus burn them as was the case,
supposedly, of the Zanj, (some) Ethiopians and others like these two particular groups of
Blacks. As the Slavs of Zone 7 represent the extremity of whiteness, and the whites of Zones 5
and 6 possess a more moderate whiteness than they, so too the Zanj and some others of Zone 1
represent the extremity of blackness, and the black-skinned peoples of Zones 2 and 3
including the Arabs have a more moderate blackness. Ibn al-Faqh al-Hamadhns informant
defined the moderate blackness as sumra, dark brown (not tan see below) and the excessive, i.e.
burned, blackness as between aswad and hlik. While aswad is the general term for black, in
these gradations it denoted an excessive black. Al-Zabd, in his Tj al-ars min jawhir alqms says that when [the color] becomes exceedingly black (shadd al-sawd) it is [called]
aswad.9 So too does al-Dhahab (d. 1348), in his Siyar alm al-nubal [II:168] make the point:
everyone whose complexion is overwhelmingly black; they call, aswad or shadid-ul-udmah.
Hlik, pitch-black, was the highest degree of blackness in both al-Asyts and al-Qarfs lists.
Thus, the question is not whether or not the Arabs were black. The question is: which of the
various shades of black were they?
Ibn al-Faqh al-Hamadhn, Kitb al-buldn (Beirut: lam al-Kutub, 1996) 199.
Murta al-usayn al-Zabd, Tj al-ars min jawhir al-qms , ed. Abd al-Sattr Amad Farrj, 40.
Vols. (Kuwait: Wizrat al-Irshd wa-al-Anb, 1965-) VIII: 226 s.v. sd
8

9Muammad

II.

The Classical Arabs Self-Identify as Black

Al-Jai (d. 869), probably one of the greatest prose writers in Classical Arabic literature,
authored a work with the remarkable title, Fakhr al-sdn al l-bidan, The Boast of the Black
Over the White. Al- Jai, himself thought to be of partly African descent, wrote this treatise
presumably in response to the tide of anti-black racism growing within the Muslim world,
particularly in Iraq where he wrote and where the largest African slave rebellion occurred.
While extolling the merits of the Blacks vis--vis the Whites, al- Jai writes:
[The Blacks] said: The Blacks are more numerous than the Whites. For all that the Whites can
count among themselves are the Persians, the people of Jibal, the Khurasanis, the Byzantines, the
Franks, the Ibar (Iberians?) and a few more others. The Blacks count the Zanj, the Habash, the
people of Fezzan, the Berbers, the Copts, the Nubians, the Zaghawa, the people of Marw, the
people of Sind, the Indians, the Qumar, the Dubaila, the Chinese, the Masinthe islands between
China and the Zanj coast are full of Blacks[The Blacks] said: The Arabs are from us (wa minn alarab), not from the whites, because their color is closer to ours. The Hindis complexion is more
conspicuous than the Arabs, they are black (wa hum min al-sudn). Since the Prophet (s) said, I was
sent to the Whites (al-amar) and the Blacks (al-aswad), it is common knowledge that the Arabs are
not white-skinned (al-arab laysat bi-umra).10

Al-Jais literary protagonist from among the Sdn makes some noteworthy claims here,
not the least of which are: (1) that the Arabs, by virtue of their complexion, are themselves to be
counted among the Sdn. This we discovered above. And (2) It is common knowledge that
Arabs are not white-skinned. On the basis of these assumptions, the protagonist offers what at
first sight is a very peculiar and unexpected interpretation of the Prophets famous declaration:
I was sent to the White-skinned (al-amar) and the Black-skinned (al-aswad). This is no doubt a
hendiadys meaning all peoples/everyone. Muslim tradition generally interpreted the terms
to mean Arab and non-Arab. Popular representations of Arabs lead us to expect that the
Arabs would be subsumed under the term al-amar, white (lit. red), contra what we find
offered up by al- Jais black protagonist. This expectation is quickly disappointed, however,
when we turn to other Arabic sources.11 Ibn Ab al-add (d. 1258), in his famed Shar nahj albalghah notes regarding this prophetic statement:
He alludes to Arabs by the blacks and the non-Arabs by the reds, for the Arabs call non-Arabs
red due to the fair-complexion that predominates among them. 12

Similarly, Ibn Manr (d. 1311) in his Arabic lexicon, Lisn al-arab, quotes the following
commentary on Muammads claim:
i.e., the Arabs and the non-Arabs, for the predominant complexion of the Arabs is dark brownish
black [al-sumra wa l-udma] and that of the non-Arabs is white [al-baya wa l-umra].13
Al-Jahiz, Fakhr al-sudan ala al-bidan, 216 (Ar.); 22 (Eng.).
K. Vollers, ber Rassenfarben in der arabischen Literatur, Centenario della nascita di Michele Amari 1 (1910) 87
notes regarding this claim of Muhammad: Hier muss al-ahmar die Perser und al-aswad die Araber bezeichnen/Here
al-ahmar must refer to the Persians and al-aswad to the Arabs. See further Ignaz Goldziher, Muslim Studies
(Muhammedanische Studien) 2 vols. (London, Allen & Unwin, 1967-), 1:268 who notes that, in contrast to the Persians
who are described as red or light-skinned (ahmar) the Arabs call themselves black.
12 Ibn Ab al-add Shar nahj al-balghah, ed. Muhammad Abi al-Fadl Ibrahim (Cairo: #Isa al-Babi al-Halabi, 1959)
V:54.
10
11

A. Morabia, in his article on color (Lawn) for the Encyclopedia of Islam, observes:
Arab historians applied the designation Ban Afar [q.v. lit. the Yellow Ones] to the Greeks and
the Byzantines, while they called themselves the Blacksand applied the designation the Red
Ones to all non-Arabs.14

Indeed, the Arabs regularly self-identified as black-skinned peoples. Ibn Manr even notes
the opinion that the phrase aswad al-jilda, black-skinned, idiomatically meant khli al-arab,
the pure Arabs, because the color of most of the Arabs is dark (al-udma).15 In other words,
blackness of skin among the Arabs indicated purity of Arab ethnicity. Likewise did the famous
grammarian from the century prior, Muhammad b. Barr al-Adaw (d. 1193) note that an akhar
or black-skinned Arab was a pure Arab (arab ma) with a pure genealogy, because Arabs
describe their color as black (al-aswad).16 Al-Jai thus declared: The Arabs pride themselves
in (their) black color (al-arab tafkhar bi-sawd al-lawn).17 Al-Mubarrad (d. 898), the leading
figure in the Basran grammatical tradition, took this a step further when he claimed:
The Arabs used to take pride in their brown and black complexion (al-sumra wa al-sawd) and they
had a distaste for a white and fair complexion (al-umra wa al-shaqra), and they used to say that
such was the complexion of the non-Arabs.18

Not only were the true Arabs brown and black-skinned and decidedly not a fair-skinned
people, but they disdained the fair skinned complexion that was the distinctive trait of most
non-Arabs within the empire. As al-Jahizs black protagonist affirmed above, it is common
knowledge that the Arabs are not white-skinned (al-arab laysat bi-umra). That a fair

complexion was a distinctly non-Arab trait is equally well documented in the Classical Arabic
sources. Ibn Manzur affirms:
Red (al-amr) refers to non-Arabs due to their fair complexion which predominates among them. And the
Arabs used to say about the non-Arabs with whom white skin was characteristic, such as the Romans,
Persians, and their neighbors: They are red-skinned (al-amr) al-amr means the Persians and
RomansAnd the Arabs attribute white skin to the slaves. 19

White skin in Arab society signaled non-Arab slave-status. The seventh century Arab from
the tribe of Nakh, Shurayk b. #Abd Allh al-Q, could claim that, because it was such a
rare occurrence a fair-skinned Arab (#arab asqar) is something inconceivable (al-mul).20

Ibn Manr, Lisn al-#arab, s.v. IV: 209; ibid. s.v. IV: 245.
EI2 V.2: 700 s.v. Lawn by A. Morabia.
15 Ibn Manr, Lisn al-#arab (Beirut: Dr al-dir - Dr al-Bayrt, 1955-1956) s.v. IV:245f; See also Edward William
Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon (London: Williams & Norgate 1863) I: 756 s.v. .
16 Ibn Manr, Lisn al-#arab, s.v. IV:245. On akhar (lit. green) as black (aswad) see further al-Maward, al-Akm alsulniyya w"al-wilyt al-dniyya, trans. Wafaa H. Wahba, Al-Maward: The Ordinances of Government (Reading:
Garnet Publishing, Ltd, 1996) 190; K. Vollers, ber Rassenfarben in der arabischen Literatur, Centenario della nascita di
Michele Amari 1 (1910) 3.
17 Al-Jai, Fakhr al-sdn #al al-bidan, in Ris"il Al-Jai, 4 vols. (Cairo, 1964) I:207. See also the English translation by
T. Khalidi, The Boast of the Blacks Over the Whites, Islamic Quarterly 25 (1981): 3-26 (17).
18 Apud Ibn Ab al-\add, Shar nahj al-balghah, V:56.
19 Ibn Manr, Lisn al-#arab, s.v. IV: 210.
20 Ibn #Abd Rabbih, al-#Iqd al-fard (Cairo: Maba#at al-Istiqmah, 1940-) VIII:147.
13
14

III.

Swarthy White or African Black?

Common representations, in scholarly literature and popular culture, give the impression
that the distinctive Arab blackness was nothing more than a swarthy whiteness. We have
before demonstrated the error of this Myth of the Swarthy Arab.21 The blackness of the Arabs
was a blackness similar to the Africans blackness (which itself varies). The black protagonist in
al-Jahizs text affirmed explicitly:
Our blackness, O people of the Zanj, is not different from the Blackness of the Banu Sulaym and
other Arab tribes.22

Abu al-Qasim b. Hawqal al-Nasibi, in his Kitb surat al-ard, discusses the Buja, which is an
African nomadic group located between Ethiopia, Egypt, and Nubia. They are counted among
the Sudan. Ibn Hawqal tells us that they are of darker complexion than the Ethiopians.
However, he also tells us that their complexion is similar to that of the Arabs!23 In other words,
the Arabs are considered darker than Ethiopians. Al-Dimashqi tells us: The Ethiopians are
khur and sumr and sd.24 Thus, Ethiopians and Arabs have the same color-range.
The chromatic similarity between black Arabs and black Africans is nicely illustrated in an
anecdote reported by Abl-Faraj al-Ifahn who reports the story of the pitch-black (adlam)
Arab poet al-Sayyid al-imyar (d. 789) a Yemeni like Keresztess tan boy. In this story we are
told that al-Sayyid used to carouse with the young men of the camp, one of whom was as dark
as he. While both boys had extremely dark skin, the other boy had thick nose and lips and thus
had a general Zanj appearance (muzannaj). Al-Sayyid had foul-smelling armpits and as the two
pitch-black Arabs were jesting together one day, al-Sayyid said: You are a Zanj in your nose
and lips! to which the youth replied: And you are a Zanj in your color and armpits! 25 Thus,
the Zanji looking boy pointed out that the pure Yemeni Arab al-Sayyid had like him the
complexion of a Zanji truly black rather than tan complexion.
IV.

Abya and the White Black Arabs

Now, those familiar with Classical Arabic poetry may be feeling a little uneasy now, as
the above is very much at odds and hard to square with what we learn from such scholars as
Bernard Lewis and #Abduh Badaw. In the latters Al-Shu#ar" al-Sd wa Khas"iuhum f alShi#r al-#Arab (The Black Poets and their Distinctive Characteristics in Arabic Poetry), he
makes the point:
The Arabs hate the black color, and like the white color. They describe anything pleasant (whether
material or psychological) as white. Having a white skin is a matter of pride for a man, and a trait
of beauty to the woman. Whiteness to them is a sign of honor. A man is praised by being described
Wesley Williams, Anyone who says that the Prophet is black should be killed: The De-Arabization of Islam and
the
Transfiguration
of
Muhammad
in
Islamic
Tradition,
pages
17-19
@
http://drwesleywilliams.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Muhammad_Article.170121832.pdf
22
Al-Jahiz, Fakhr al-sudan ala al-bidan, 220.
23
Abu al-Qasim b. Hawqal al-Nasibi, Kitb surat al-ard, apud G. Wiet, Configuration de la Terre (Kitab surat al-Ard), 2
vols. (Beirut: Commission internationale pour la traduction des chefs-doeuvre, 1964) 50 [48],
24
Al-Dimashqi, Nukhbat al-dahr, 274.
25 Abl-Faraj al-Ifahn, Kitb al-Aghn, 20 vols. (Blq, 1285/1868-69) VII:20.
21

as the son of a white woman. Indeed they pride themselves of having white women as concubines.
They call the black poets aghribat al-Arab, the ravens of the Arabs, in simile to that detested black
bird whose blackness is traditionally considered bad omen. 26

David Goldenberg likewise insists that somatic norm preference dictated that neither the
Greeks and Romans nor those people living in the Near East, whether Jews, Samaritans,
Christians, or Muslims, saw darker skin as aesthetically pleasing.27 If, as Ibn Manr and alJais black protagonist claim, early Arabs considered themselves a dark-skinned and black
group, how do we account for this alleged Arab hate of the black color and preference for a
white-skinned somatic norm?
It is our contention that Badaw, Lewis, Goldenberg, and most other writers on the subject
of Race in Islam have profoundly misread the relevant Arabic sources on this point. This
misreading arises from a number of circumstances, including: (1) a less than adequately
nuanced understanding of the Arabic terms abya (white) and aswad (black) when used in
Arabic poetry and the Classical Arabic Islamic sources as descriptions of human complexion
and (2) and inability to disengage the popular Swarthy White myth.
While it is abundantly clear that the ethnic Arabs proudly self-identified as a black-skinned
people and had a distaste for fair skin, it is equally clear that these same Arabs proudly
described themselves as abya, which is the normal term for white. Ibn Manr and al-Zabd
note that such self-descriptions are frequent in Arab poetry, and al-Zabd quotes a verse whose
Arab author affirmed: whiteness (bayd) is our distinction, which our men highly value. How
do we rectify these seeming diametrically opposed self-designations, black and white?
While abya means white when used in relation to non-human objects, in relation to
whiteness of skin [bayd al-jilda], Ibn Manr quotes al-Tahdhb: When Arabs say so-and-so is
white [abya/bay] the meaning is he/she possesses an honor free from defilement and
defect. After further quoting some poetic lines wherein abya is used to describe Arabs, Ibn
Manr (VII:124) says:
and this is found often in (the Arabs) poetry, (but) they dont intend by this (i.e. abya) a white
complexion. Rather, they intended to glorify with it ones noble nature and the freedom of his/her
honor from defilement and deficit. When they say, so-and-so is white of face (abya/bay al-wajh)
they mean the complexions freedom from blemish (al-kalaf) and the dishonorable (i.e. excessive)
blackness (al-sawd shin).

In other words, when abya is used by Arabs regarding Arabs, it means both a noble character
and a blemish-free complexion, but not usually a white or fair complexion. Al-Zabd (: 73)
makes the same point:
Arabs dont say a man is abyad due to white skin. Rather, abyad with them is an appearance free
from blemish. When they mean white skin they say ahmar.

26

#Abduh Badaw, Al-Shu#ar" al-Sd wa Khas"iuhum f al-Shi#r al-#Arab (Cairo: Al-Hai'at al-Misryyat al-'mmah

li'1-Kitb, 1973).
27 David Goldenberg, Early Jewish and Christian Views of Blacks, paper presented to the Collective Degradation:
Slavery and the Construction of Race Fifth Annual Gilder Lehrman Center International Conference at Yale
University, November 7-8, 2003, 10.

Now Ibn Manr does quotes Ibn Athr as saying: In this statement is a problem for they
(Arabs) do use abyad for complexions of the people and other things. (IV: 209). But such usage
is clearly the exception, for Ibn Manr himself affirmed that Arabs dont intend by this (i.e.
abyad) a white complexion. Thus, there is no incompatibility between the Arab simultaneous
self-identification as aswad and abyad. As Al-Jahiz affirmed:
The Arabs boast of (their) black color. If it is said, How can this be so, seeing that the Arabs speak
of someone as luminous (azhar), white (abya), and blazing white (agharr)? we would answer:
They are not referring in this context to whiteness of skin (bay al-jilda), but rather to nobility and
purity of character.28

But the evidence indicates that Classical Arab usage of abya to describe their complexion
meant more than just blemish free skin: it meant blemish-free black skin. Morabia, writing in the
Encyclopedia of Islam (s.v. Lawn), notes:
One of the most striking manifestations of the symbolic connotations of colours among the Arabs,
is the phenomenon of opposites (al-addad). We have seen, in studying the semantic value of certain
adjectives of colour, that they were sometimes capable of embracing two diametrically opposite
meanings. This phenomenon is particularly to be noted in the case of white and black...To signify
wine, the Arabs used a number of euphemisms of the type 'the fair drink', 'the golden one',
etc...Even today, in certain parts of the Orient and the Maghrib, in order to avoid pronouncing the
word 'black'...opposites are used. In Morrocco, al-abyad sometimes denotes tar or coal.

In his study of Classical Arabic color terminology Arabist Jeham Allam affirms as well:
color terms often acquire, in certain fixed allocations, a range that goes beyond what they normally
possess, e.g., white in the expression white coffee refers to a deep shade of brownwhen
referring to skin, an Arabic speaker may use [abya] (white) as a euphemism for [aswad]
(black).29

Avihai Shivtiel, in his article The Semantic Field of Colours in Arabic, The Arabist 3-4 (1991)
335-339, documents that white, abyad, is frequently a euphemism for its opposite, black. Thus
Ab l-bayd means Father of the Black rather than Father of the White. Devin J. Stewart,
discussing Color Terms in Egyptian Arabic,30 points out as well that still in modern Egyptian
Arabic by antiphrasis white means black.
in North African dialectsbayd whiteness is used as a euphemism for sawd blackness,
referring to a number of black substances, such as coalIn Egyptian dialect, bayd whiteness is a
euphemism for zift, tar.31

Al-Jai, Fakhr al-sdn #al al-bidan, 207 (Ar.); 17 (Eng.)

Jehan Allam, A Sociolinguistic Study on the Use of Color Terminology in Egyptian Colloquial and Classical Arabic, in
Zeinab Ibrahim, Nagwa Kassabgy and Sabiha Aydelott (edd.), Diversity in Language: Contrastive Studies in English
and Arabic Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (Cairo and New York: The American University on Cairo Press, 2000)
78; Lewis, Race and Slavery, 22.
30 The Language of Color in the Mediterranean, ed. Alexander Borg (Stockholm, Almgvist and Wiksell International,
1999): 105-120.
31 Ibid. 110.
28
29

This perfectly explains the Arab simultaneous self-identification as aswad and abyad. The
complete interchangeability of these terms when applied to Arabs is nicely illustrated by alZabd, : 74:
Regarding the hadith, I give the two treasures to the Amar and the Abya, the two treasures are said
to be gold and silver, and al-amar and al-abya, like al-amar and al-aswad in the other hadith,
means non-Arabs and Arabs.

Referring to the above discussed hadith in which Muhammad is given to say, I was sent to
the Whites (al-amar) and the Blacks (al-aswad), al-Zabd points out that in the Treasures
hadith non-Arabs and Arabs are referred to as amar and abya, and in the Sent hadith as
amar and aswad. Thus while the non-Arabs are consistently (though not absolutely) defined by
a single descriptor, amar=fair skinned/white skinned, Arabs are defined by two alternating
and clearly interchangeable descriptors, aswad=black skinned and abya=blemish-free blackskinned. That abya denotes a blemish-free black complexion is confirmed by al-Dhahabi.

V.

Al-Dhahabis Definition of Abya

According to the important Syrian hadith scholar and historian of Islam, Shms al-Dn
Ab `Abd Allh al-Dhahab (d. 1348), in his Siyar alm al-nubal [II:168]:

:

When Arabs say, so-and-so is white (abyad), they mean a golden brown complexion with a black
appearance (al-hint al-lawn bi-hilya sud).

The Arabic text seems pretty clear here: An abya complexion is one with a black appearance,

, and this is consistent with all that we have shown above regarding the interchangability
of aswad and abya in Arab self-identifications. What, then, do we make of the first part of alDhahabis description,
al-hint al-lawn, wheat colored? How does the so-called
wheat color relate to the black appearance?
Hint is a golden brown color. This conjunction of golden brown hue and an actual blackness
is frequently encountered in Classical Arabic. As Morabia writes: To signify wine, the Arabs
used a number of euphemisms of the type 'the fair drink', 'the golden one', etc. This is indicated
clearly with the Classical Arabic (vs Modern Arabic) term afar, yellow. The verb, ifarra, which
in Modern Standard Arabic means to become yellow, in Classical Arabic also meant to
become black.32 ufra meant both yellowness and blackness.33 The same is true for human
complexions. As Tarriq Berry has pointed out, the 7th century Arab singer from Mecca, Said b.
Misjah (d. ca. 714) is described by Al-Isfahani in his Kitab al-aghani (III: 84-85) as a black (aswad)
Meccan with a fine afar (yellow) complexion. Now, in this regard Wolfdietrich Fishers classic
treatise on the early Arabic color system, Fard-und Formbezeichnungen in der Sprache der
altarabischen Dichtung 1965 is helpful. Fisher documents that in Old Arabic, afar was not only
yellow but also golden dark brown, gelblich Dunkelbraun (pg. 358). The evidence clearly
indicates that abya when used of Arab complexions means a black complexion with a golden
32
33

Allam, Sociolinguistic Study, 82.

Ibn Manr, Lisn al-#arab, s.v. IV:460 afar (yellow) is black. See also Allam, Sociolinguistic Study, 82.

10

brown/yellow hue. Recall that in al-Asyts classification abya is listed among black
complexions with an afar hue. Thus, my translation of al-Dhahabi is correct:
When Arabs say, so-and-so is white (abyad), they mean a golden brown complexion with
a black appearance (al-hint al-lawn bi-hilya sud).
The golden brown color (hint al-lawn) is no doubt the hue of the black complexion resulting
from the interaction between the luminosity and the black skin. Arab usage distinguished
between whiteness related to redness or white-skinnedness (al-baya al-mushrab bi-umra) and
whiteness related to yellowness or luminance (al-baya al-mushrab bi-ufra). The former (bi-umra)
arises from the blood visible from within the body, and the latter (bi-ufra) arises from gloss and
sheen (aqla wa af#) on the skin.34 According to al-Tha#lab, the whiteness that is praiseworthy is that which associates a persons complexion closer to yellowness (ufra), like the color
of the moon and pearls, then he is azhar, luminous.35 Not unexpectedly Muammad is
described as luminous. The Messenger of Allah was luminous of complexion (azhar al-lawn).36
His face shone with resplendence like that of a full moon and his azhar and abya complexion
had a luster (nr) resembling that of a statue made of clear silver.37 Indeed, according to one
Companion under his cloths the Prophet was like the half-moon in luminance.38
Luminance, rather than a white complexion, is no doubt the significance of these reports
describing Muammad as abya, and this term indicates an golden hue resulting in the
interaction of the Prophets luminosity with his dark skin. Ja#far al-diq (d. 765), the sixth Shiite
Imam, had a black complexion (dam l-lawn),39 but like the Prophet was also described as
possessing a luminous face (azhar al-wajh).40 The same is true of Ja#fars son, Ms al-Kim (d.
183/799), the seventh Imam. He was deep brown (asmar #amq) or black-complexioned (aswad allawn).41 Yet, he too was azhar, luminous, except, we are told, in the high summer. The heat in his
region seems to have robbed him of his bodily sheen and luster, leaving him completely black
(tamm akhar) and pitch black (lik). 42
Abya as al-hint al-lawn bi-hilya sud thus clearly means a black complexion, hilya sud, with
a golden brown hue, al-hint al-lawn, that is a consequences of luminosity interacting with the
black skin. This is consistent with the description of Muhammad in Chinese Muslim literature
as the color of black gold.43

34al-Bjr,

Mawhib al-ladunyah #al al-Sham"il al-Muammadyah, apud al-Tirmidh, al-Sham"il alMuammadyah, 22.
35 Al-Tha#lab, Fiqh al-lugha, 77.
36 Al-Tirmidh, Sham"il al-nab, no. 8; Ibn Sa#d, Kitb al-abaqt al-kabr, I/i:121, 123 (Ar.); 484, 488 (Eng.)
37Al-Tirmidh, Sham"il al-nab, no. 8, 12; Ibn Sa#d, Kitb al-abaqt al-kabr, I/ii:121 (Ar.); 484 (Eng.)
38 Ibn Sa#d, Kitb al-abaqt al-kabr, I/i:127 (Ar.); 495 (Eng.)
39 Ibn al-abbgh, Al-Fusl, 205.
40 Ibn Sharhrshb, Manqib $l Ab lib, 4 vols. (Qum: al-Maba#ah al-#Ilmyah [Tamma al-Kitb], 1959) IV: 281.
41 Ibn al-abbgh, Al-Fusl, 213; Amad b. #Al b. #Inabah, Kitb #umdat al-lib f ansb $l Ab lib (Cairo:
Maktabat al-Thaqfah al-Dnyah, 2001) 156.
42 Ibn Sharhrshb, Manqib, IV:323.
43 See Prophet Muhammad and the Black Arabs: The Witness of Pre-Modern Chinese Sources @
http://drwesleywilliams.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Muhammad_Black_Arabs_China_Site.187112134.pdf

11

VI.

Muhammad the Dark Brown, Not the Tan

The important term here is asmar, which is how the Prophet is described in a number of
reports. Al-Tirmidh (d. 279/892) in his Jmi# al-a reports on the authority of the famous
Companion of the Prophet, Ans b. Mlik:
The Messenger of Allah was of medium stature, neither tall nor short, [with] a beautiful, dark browncomplexioned body (asan al-jism asmar al-lawn). His hair was neither curly nor completely straight and when
he walked he leant forward.44

Ibn Sa#d (d. 230/845) reports this and a similar description of Muammad on the authority of Ibn
#Abbs:
Yazd al-Frisi said: I saw the Messenger of God (s) in a dream during the time Ibn #Abbs [was governor]
over Basra. I said to Ibn #Abbs: I saw the Messenger of Allah (s) in a dream. Ibn #Abbs said: Verily, the
Messenger used to say, Satan cannot assume my form, so he who saw me in a dream, surely had a vision of
me. Can you describe to me what you saw? [Yazd] said: Yes, I [will] describe [him]. He was a man
between two men. His body and flesh were brown and blemish-free with a sheen (asmar il al-bay),45
smiling, eyes with collyrium, features of his face beautiful. His beard was thick from this end to that, and (the
man) pointed to his two temples with his hands. It was so thick that it covered his neck. Thereupon Ibn
#Abbs said: Had you seen him while awake, you could not have described him better than this. 46

Asmar is most often translated here as tan white, which is surely wrong. K. Vollers no
biubt got it right in his important study of race and color in Arabic literature, ber
Rassenfarben in der arabischen Literatur, Centenario della nascita di Michele Amari 1 (1910):
88, where he affirms that asmar means dark brown, dunkle Brune. Dark brown is the normal

connotation of this term as evidenced by other formations from the same root: samar
darkness, night; al-grra al-samr the black continent (Africa)47. In the context of human
complexions sumra /asmar has been associated with khura, dam, aswad, i.e. black.48 Linguistic
scholar Ab Manr al-Tha#lab (d. 427/1036), enumerating the different classifications of
human blackness (f tartb sawd al-insn), explains:
his maximum [blackness] (alhu) is less than sawad (black), then he is asmar (brown). If his blackness is greater
with yellow enhancing it then he is aham. If his blackness exceeds al-sumra then he is dam. If it exceeds that,
then it is asam. If his blackness is intense, then he is adlam.49

Sunan al-Tirmidh (Hims: Maktabat Dr al-Da#wah, 1965-) VI:69 no. 1754; Al-Tirmidh, al-Sham"il al-Nab, no. 2.
This or a related report is found as well in Ibn Sa#d, Kitb al-abaqt al-kabr, I/i, 123 (Ar.); 488 (Eng); Amad b. \anbal,
Musnad (Riyad: Bayt al-Afkr al-Dawlyah, 1998) III: 969 no. 13854; al-Bayhaq, Dal"il al-nubuwwah, I:203; Ibn Kathr,
al-Bidyah wa-"l-Nihyah, VI: 13.
45 On al-bay see below.
46 Ibn Sa#d, Kitb al-abaqt al-kabr, I/i,125 (Ar.); 492 (Eng).
47 J M. Cowan (ed.), Hans Wehr Arabic-English Dictionary 4th edition (Ithica: Spoken Language Services, Inc., 1994) 500
s.v. .
48 Ibn Manr, Lisn al-#arab, s.v. IV: 245; s.v. IV:376: al-udma is al-sumra, and al-dam among people in al-asmar.
See also Ibn Ab al-\add, Shar nahj al-balghah, V:56. Lanes note, Lexicon, I: 1425 s.v. : tawnylike the various
hues of wheat does not accurately capture the chromatic implications of this term. See also Hidayet Hosains translation of Anas
b. Mliks report as found in Tirmidhs al-Sham"il (#2): his complexion was tawny: Hidayet Hosain, Translation of AshShamail of Tirmizi, Islamic Culture 7 (1933): 397. Vollers dunkle Brune is more accurate: Rassenfarben, 88.
49 al-Tha#lab, Fiqh al-lugha, 82.
44

12

This suggests a hierarchy of intensifying blackness: asmar / sumra sawad/dam

aham asam adlam. It also implies that, while at the bottom of the hierarchy, asmar /
sumra still falls within the category black. Ibn Manr reports that al-sumra [is] a degree
between white (al-bay) and black (al-aswad), and it is that in the context of human
complexions, camels, etc.50 According to Ibn Athr, al-sumras blackness predominates over
its whiteness (al-sumra alladh yaghlibu sawduhu #al bayihi),51 and al-Taftzn (d.
792/1390) reports in his al-Tahdhd: al-sumrais a color inclining to a faint blackness
(sawadin khafiyin), as in the description of the Prophet: he was brown complexioned (kna asmar
al-lawn)52 Asmar/sumra is therefore a (dark) brown complexion.
Ab al-Husayn Ahmad b. Fris b. Zakarya, (d. 1004), one of the masters of language and
literature born in Caspian, affirms:
samar al-sn, al-mm, and al-r, (has) a single origin showing the opposite of whiteness (al-bayd) in
color. From that the color-term sumra derives and its origin is the saying of the Arabs, the samar and
qamar did not come to you, the qamar being the moon and the samar being the blackness of the night
and from that sumra is named.53

This semantic value of asmar as a dark brown continues today. Devin J. Stewart, in Color
Terms in Egyptian Arabic, reports that asmar and abyad are used for black objects in Egyptian
Arabic, and that asmar/sumra as well as iswid/sda (=aswad/sd) are used to describe darkskinned males with so-called Negroid features.54
An important study in this regard is that done by Alexander Borg, Linguistic and
ethnographic observations on the color categories of the Negev Bedouin.55 Borg studied the
color system of the Arab Bedouin of the Negev region in Israel. He notes that this color system
has preserved the old semantic values.
The Bedouin color paradigm possesses an archaic and conservative semantic domain.In
effectover a rather extensive period of 1500-odd years intervening between the pre-Islamic
period and the present day, the diachronic process that yielded [Negev Arabic] has occasioned
only minimal change at the level of basic categorization of the color continuum. 56

In Negev Arabic, Borg informs us, there are three near-synonyms for the black category: azraq
(blue), asmar, and aswad (p. 129). He affirms:
In [Negev Arabic] as in other Arabic vernaculars, asmar is the usual designation for dark skin short of
(true) black.

Ibn Manr, Lisn al-#arab, s.v. IV:376.

Ibn Manr, Lisn al-#arab, s.v. IV:376.
52 Ibn Manr, Lisn al-#arab, s.v. IV:376.
53
Mujam maqys al-lugha 6 vols. ed. Abd al-Salam Muhammad (Egypt: Mustaf al-Bb al-Halab, 1969-72).
54
107, 116.
55
In The Language of Color in the Mediterranean, ed. Alexander Borg (Stockholm, Almgvist and Wiksell
International, 1999): 121-147.
56
122.
50
51

13