Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Race and Tribe: Difference between revisions
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Many passages of the Qur'an and the hadith call for the equality of all peoples in Islam. Yet at the same time, Islamic scriptures contain agitation against the Jews which would be considered today to be anti-semitism (covered in a [https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Islamic_Antisemitism separate article]), and the Arabs and their language are given a superior place in the eyes of Allah and the tradition. Derogatory descriptions of black people, Ethiopians in particular, are found in sahih hadiths. Furthermore, overt racism against black people and Arab supremacism - the latter in the form of doctrine - are found in the works of many highly regarded Islamic scholars. All in all the picture of race, ethnicity, and what may be called "race-relations" is a complicated on in the Islamic tradition. | Many passages of the Qur'an and the hadith call for the equality of all peoples in Islam. Yet at the same time, Islamic scriptures contain agitation against the Jews which would be considered today to be anti-semitism (covered in a [https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Islamic_Antisemitism separate article]), and the Arabs and their language are given a superior place in the eyes of Allah and the tradition. Derogatory descriptions of black people, Ethiopians in particular, are found in sahih hadiths. Furthermore, overt racism against black people and Arab supremacism - the latter in the form of doctrine - are found in the works of many highly regarded Islamic scholars. All in all the picture of race, ethnicity, and what may be called "race-relations" is a complicated on in the Islamic tradition. | ||
==Anti-Racism in Islamic | ==Anti-Racism in Islamic scripture== | ||
It is important to take note of the verses and hadiths that discourage racism (though as mentioned in the introduction, Islamic anti-semitism is covered in a separate article). | It is important to take note of the verses and hadiths that discourage racism (though as mentioned in the introduction, Islamic anti-semitism is covered in a separate article). | ||
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Many passages of the Qur'an and the hadith call for the equality of all peoples in Islam. Yet at the same time, Islamic scriptures contain agitation against the Jews which would be considered today to be anti-semitism (covered in a separate article), and the Arabs and their language are given a superior place in the eyes of Allah and the tradition. Derogatory descriptions of black people, Ethiopians in particular, are found in sahih hadiths. Furthermore, overt racism against black people and Arab supremacism - the latter in the form of doctrine - are found in the works of many highly regarded Islamic scholars. All in all the picture of race, ethnicity, and what may be called "race-relations" is a complicated on in the Islamic tradition.
Anti-Racism in Islamic scripture
It is important to take note of the verses and hadiths that discourage racism (though as mentioned in the introduction, Islamic anti-semitism is covered in a separate article).
O mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another. Lo! the noblest of you, in the sight of Allah, is the best in conduct. Lo! Allah is Knower, Aware.
The circumstances of revelation (Asbab al-Nuzul) by Al-Wahidi for this verse says that it was revealed when a person derided another's lineage, and when another person made a racist complaint that a black man (Bilal) had been appointed by Muhammad to make the call to prayer.
(O mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female") [49:13]. Said Ibn 'Abbas: "This was revealed about Thabit ibn Qays when he made a remark about the man who did not make room for him to sit: 'What, the son of so-and-so [referring to his mother]'. The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, said: 'Who mentioned that woman?' Thabit stood up and said: 'I did, O Messenger of Allah!' The Messenger said to him: 'Look at the faces of those present'. And when he looked, he asked him: 'What do you see?' He said: 'I see white, red and black people'. The Prophet said: 'Well, you are not better than any of them unless it be through [the good practice of] religion and God-fearingness'. Allah, exalted is He, then revealed this verse". Muqatil said: "On the day Mecca was conquered, the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, ordered Bilal to climb on the roof of the Ka'bah and perform the call to prayer. 'Attab ibn Asid commented on this: 'Praise be to Allah, that Allah has taken my father to Him and made that he did not see this day'. Al-Harith ibn Hisham said: 'Did Muhammad not find any other caller to prayer except this black raven?' Suhayl ibn 'Amr said: 'Allah willing, he will change him'. Abu Sufyan, on the other hand, said: 'I am not going to make any comment; I am afraid that the Lord of heaven will divulge what I say!' Gabriel, peace be upon him, went to the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, and informed him about what they said. The Prophet summoned them and asked them about what they said and they admitted it. Allah, exalted is He, then revealed this verse warning them against boasting about their lineages and abundance of wealth and against looking down on the poor".
In a hadith graded sahih by al-Albani[1], Muhammad said the following during the farewell pilgrimage (the word translated "righteousness" is taqwa - piety or reliosity):
Abu Nadrah reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said during the middle of the day at the end of the pilgrimage,“O people, your Lord is one and your father Adam is one. There is no virtue of an Arab over a foreigner nor a foreigner over an Arab, and neither white skin over black skin nor black skin over white skin, except by righteousness. Have I not delivered the message?” They said, “The Messenger of Allah has delivered the message.”
In a sahih hadith Muhammad criticizes boasting and reviling based on ancestry, which could be interpreted to apply to tribe and even ethnicity.
Abu Malik al-Ash'ari reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying:
Among my people there are four characteristics belonging to pre-Islamic period which they do not abandon: boasting of high rank, reviling other peoples' genealogies, seeking rain by stars, and walling. And he (further) said: If the wailing woman does not repent before she dies, she will be made to stand on the Day of Resurrection wearing a garment of pitch and a chemise of mange.
Unfortunately as we shall see in the following sections, such sentiments are somewhat undermined by some other sahih hadiths where we find prejudice against some Arab groups, and black people are used as negative imagery. In addition, many classical and modern Islamic scholars of high repute are guilty of promoting explicitly racist attitudes.
Islamic scholars and writers on black people
Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) was, among other things, an Islamic jurist, Islamic lawyer, Islamic scholar, Islamic theologian, and hafiz
"Therefore, the Negro nation are, as a rule, submissive to slavery, because [Negroes] have little [that is essentially] human and have attributes that are quite similar to those of dumb animals, as we have stated."[2]
Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, 14th century
"beyond [known peoples of black West Africa] to the south there is no civilization in the proper sense. There are only humans who are closer to dumb animals than to rational beings. They live in thickets and caves, and eat herbs and unprepared grain. They frequently eat each other. They cannot be considered human beings."[2]
Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah
Ibn Sina or Avicenna (980-1037), was, among other things, a Hafiz, Islamic psychologist, Islamic scholar, and Islamic theologian - many said.
[Blacks are] people who are by their very nature slaves.[3]
Quoted in “Blasphemy Before God: The Darkness of Racism In Muslim Culture” by Adam Misbah aI-Haqq
Ibn Qutaybah (828-889), was a renowned Islamic scholar from Kufa, Iraq
They [the Zanj, that is, blacks] are ugly and misshapen, because they live in a hot country. The heat overcrooks them in the womb, and curls their hair.
Bernard Lewis, "Ventures in Ethnology", Race and Slavery in the Middle East: A Historical Enquiry, Oxford University Press, pp. 43-50, ISBN 978-0-19-506283-0, 1990
Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī (1201-1274), was a Shia Muslim Scholar and Grand Ayatollah
"If (all types of men) are taken, from the first, and one placed after another, like the Negro from Zanzibar, in the Southern-most countries, the Negro does not differ from an animal in anything except the fact that his hands have been lifted from the earth -in no other peculiarity or property - except for what God wished. Many have seen that the ape is more capable of being trained than the Negro, and more intelligent."[2]
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Tasawwurat (Rawdat al-taslim):
[The Zanj (African) differ from animals only in that] their two hands are lifted above the ground,... Many have observed that the ape is more teachable and more intelligent than the Zanj.[3]
Al-Muqaddasi (945/946-1000) was a medieval Muslim geographer
"Of the neighbors of the Bujja, Maqdisi had heard that "there is no marriage among them; the child does not know his father, and they eat people -- but God knows best. As for the Zanj, they are people of black color, flat noses, kinky hair, and little understanding or intelligence."[2]
Al-Muqaddasi (fl. 966), Kitab al-Bad' wah-tarikh, vol.4
Al-Masudi (896-956), was a Muslim historian and geographer, known as the "Herodotus of the Arabs."[4]
"Galen says that merriment dominates the black man because of his defective brain, whence also the weakness of his intelligence."[2]
Al-Masudi, Muruj al-dhahab
“[quoting another source in agreement:] Do not intermarry with the sons of Ham [blacks] for they are the distorted among God’s creatures . . .”
Bernard Lewis, "Equality and Marriage", Race and Slavery in the Middle East: A Historical Enquiry, Oxford University Press, pp. 85-92, ISBN 978-0-19-506283-0, 1990
[The Zanj have:] black complexion, kinky hair, flat nose[s], thick lips, slender hands and feet, fetid odor, limited intelligence, extreme exuberance, [and] cannibalistic customs.
Alexandre Popovic, The Revolt of African Slaves in Iraq in the 3rd/9th Century, Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, p. 16, 1999
Ibn al-Faqih (9th century) was a Muslim historian and geographer
"A man of discernment said: The people of Iraq ... do not come out with something between blonde, buff and blanched coloring, such as the infants dropped from the wombs of the women of the Slavs and others of similar light complexion; nor are they overdone in the womb until they are burned, so that the child comes out something between black, murky, malodorous, stinking, and crinkly-haired, with uneven limbs, deficient minds, and depraved passions, such as the Zanj, the Somali, and other blacks who resemble them. The Iraqis are neither half-baked dough nor burned crust but between the two."[2]
Ibn al-Faqih al-Hamadani, Mukhtasar Kitab al-Buldan, 903 AD
Abu Rayhan al-Biruni (973-1048), was an Islamic scholar and polymath
"The Zanj are so uncivilized that they have no notion of a natural death. If a man dies a natural death, they think he was poisoned. Every death is suspicious with them, if a man has not been killed by a weapon."[2]
Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, India, 1030 AD
Hudud al-`Alam is a book dedicated to Abu l-Ḥārith Muḥammad b. Aḥmad, a ruler of the local Farighunid dynasty.
"Their [Zanj] nature is that of wild animals. They are extremely black." "Among themselves [the Sudan] there are people who steal each other's children and sell them to the merchants when the latter arrive."[2]
Hudud al-`Alam, 982 AD
"[inhabitants of sub-Saharan African countries] are people distant from the standards of humanity" "Their nature is that of wild animals..."[2]
Hudud al-`alam, 982 AD
"As regards southern countries, all their inhabitants are black on account of the heat of their climate... Most of them go naked... In all their lands and provinces, gold is found.... They are people distant from the standards of humanity."[2]
Hudud al-`Alam, 982 AD
Al Jahiz (781–869), was a famous Muslim scholar
"Like the crow among mankind are the Zanj [African Blacks] for they are the worst of men and the most vicious of creatures in character and temperament."[2]
Jahiz, Kitab al-Hayawan, vol. 2
"We know that the Zanj (blacks) are the least intelligent and the least discerning of mankind, and the least capable of understanding the consequences of actions."[2]
Jahiz, Kitab al-Bukhala (The Book of Misers)
"They [the Shu`ubiyya] 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."[2]
Jahiz, Al-Bayan wa`l-tabyin, vol. 3
Ibn Abi Zayd (922–996), was a Maliki scholar from Al-Qayrawan in Tunisia.
It is disliked to trade in the land of the enemy or the land of the blacks. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said, "Travel is a portion of punishment."[5]
al-Ibshihi (1388–1446), Egyptian scholar who wrote an encyclopedia covering Islamic law, theology, mysticism, and some other topics.
Is there anything more vile than black slaves, of less good and more evil than they'? As for the mulatto, if you show kindness to one of them all your life and in every way, he will not be grateful; and it will be as if you had done nothing for him. The better you treat him, the more insolent he will he; the worse you treat him, the more humble and submissive. I have tried this many times, and how well the poet says: ‘If you honor the honorable you possess him / If you honor the ignoble, he will be insolent.’ It is said that when the [black] slave is sated, he fornicates, when he is hungry, he steals. My grandfather on my mother's side used to say: The worst use of money is bringing up slaves, and mulattoes are even worse and wickeder than Zanj, for the mulatto does not know his father, while the Zanji often knows both parents. It is said of the mulatto that he is like a mule, because he is a mongrel. . . . Do not trust a mulatto, for there is rarely any good in him
Shihab al-Din al-Ibshihi, al-Mustatraf fi Kul Fan Mustatraf, al-Maktaba al-Shamila, p. 328, https://app.turath.io/book/23802; translated in Bernard Lewis, "Image and Stereotype", Race and Slavery in the Middle East: A Historical Enquiry, Oxford University Press, pp. 92-99, ISBN 978-0-19-506283-0, 1990
Shams al-Dīn Muhammad b. Abī Talib al-Dimashqī (1256-1327), Damascene Imam who wrote on many topics.
The equatorial region is inhabited by communities of blacks who are to be numbered among the savages and beasts. Their complexions and hair are burnt and they are physically and morally deviant. Their brains almost boil from the sun's excessive heat.. . . The human being who dwells there is a crude fellow, with a very black complexion, and burnt hair, unruly, with stinking sweat, and an abnormal constitution, most closely resembling in his moral qualities a savage, or animals.
A. Mehren, ed, (1923), Nukhbat al-Dahr fi Ajaib al-Barr wal-Bahr, Leipzig: Harassowitz, pp. 15-17, 1923; translated in John Hunwick, West Africa, Islam, and the Arab World, Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, p. 81, 2006
Ibn Battuta (1304-1369) Muslim scholar and traveler who wrote about his journeys across the world.
[Writing about West Africans:] When I saw it [their reception gift] I laughed, and was long astonished at their feeble intellect and their respect for mean things.
Ibn Battuta in J.F.P. Hopkins; Nehemia Levtzion, eds, (1981), Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History, Cambridge University Press, p. 298, 1981
Al-Idrisi (1100-1165), Muslim geographer, writer, scientist, cartographer from Almoravid Spain.
[The Zanj, that is, blacks] are in great fear and awe of the Arabs, so much so that when they see an Arab trader or traveler they bow down and treat him with great respect [such that the Arab can] lure them with dates, and lead them from place to place, until they seize them, take them out of the country, and transport them to their own countries . . . [They] lack of knowledge and [have] defective minds . . .
Bernard Lewis, "The Discovery of Africa", Race and Slavery in the Middle East: A Historical Enquiry, Oxford University Press, pp. 50-54, ISBN 978-0-19-506283-0, 1990
Said al-Andalusi (1029-1070) was an Arab qadhi (Islamic judge) living in al-Andalus, Spain who wrote on the history of science and philosophy.
[The southern ‘barbarians’] are more like beasts than like men . . . For those who live furthest to the north between the last of the seven climates and the limits of the inhabited world, the excessive distance of the sun in relation to the zenith line makes the air cold and the atmosphere thick. Their temperaments are therefore frigid, their humors raw, their bellies gross, their color pale, their hair long and lank. Thus they lack keenness of understanding and clarity of intelligence, and are overcome by ignorance and dullness, lack of discernment, and stupidity. Such are the Slavs, the Bulgars, and their neighbors. For those peoples on the other hand who live near and beyond the equinoctial line to the limit of the inhabited world in the south, the long presence of the sun at the zenith makes the air hot and the atmosphere thin. Because of this their temperaments become hot and their humors fiery, their color black and their hair woolly. Thus they lack self-control and steadiness of mind and are overcome by fickleness, foolishness, and ignorance. Such are the blacks, who live at the extremity of the land of Ethiopia, the Nubians, the Zanj and the like. . . . [they are the only people] who diverge from this human order and depart from this rational association are some dwellers in the steppes and inhabitants of the deserts and wilderness, such as the rabble of Bujja, the savages of Ghana, the scum of the Zanj, and their like.
Bernard Lewis, "Ventures in Ethnology", Race and Slavery in the Middle East: A Historical Enquiry, Oxford University Press, pp. 43-50, ISBN 978-0-19-506283-0, 1990
Ibn Hazm (994-1064) was an Andalusian polymath who wrote on history, Islamic law, Islamic theology, philosophy, and is especially well regarded for his study of the hadiths.
God has decreed that the most devout is the noblest even if he be a Negress’s bastard, and that the sinner and unbeliever is at the lowest level even if he be the son of prophets.
Bernard Lewis, "Prejudice and Piety, Literature and Law", Race and Slavery in the Middle East: A Historical Enquiry, Oxford University Press, pp. 28-37, ISBN 978-0-19-506283-0, 1990
al-Kirmani (996-1021) was a famous Persian Ismaili theologian and philosopher.
In a philosophical work, he dismisses "the Turks, Zanj, Berbers, and their like" as "by their nature" without interest in the pursuit of intellectual knowledge and without desire to understand religious truth.
Bernard Lewis, "In Black and White", Race and Slavery in the Middle East: A Historical Enquiry, Oxford University Press, pp. 54-62, ISBN 978-0-19-506283-0, 1990
al-Mutannabi (915-965) was a famous Abbasid court poet from Iraq and one of the most influential poets in the history of Arabic.
The slave is no brother to the godly freeman. / even though he be born in the clothes of the free. // Do not buy a slave without buying a stick with him, / for slaves are filthy and scant of good. // I never thought I should live to see the day when a / dog would do me evil and be praised in the bargain, // nor did I imagin that true men would have ceased to exist, / and that the like of the father of bounty, / would still be here, // and that that negro with his pierced camel’s lip / would be obeyed by those cowardly hirelings . . . // . . . Who ever taught the eunuch negro nobility? His / “white” people, or his royal ancestors? // or his ear bleeding in the hand of the slave-broker? / or his worth, seeing that for two farthings / he would be rejected? // wretched Kafur is the most deserving of the base / to be excused in regard to every baseness – / and sometimes excusing is a reproach – / and that is because white stallions are incapable / of gentility, so how about black eunuchs?
Bernard Lewis, "In Black and White", Race and Slavery in the Middle East: A Historical Enquiry, Oxford University Press, pp. 54-62, ISBN 978-0-19-506283-0, 1990
More stupid than a slave or his mate is he who makes / the slave his master . . . // . . . One who holds you by his word is unlike one who holds / you in his jail – // The morality of the [black] slave is bounded by his / stinking pudenda and his teeth. // He does not keep his engagements of today, nor remember / what he said yesterday . . . // . . . Hope for no good from a man over whose head the / slaver’s hand has passed, // And, if you are in doubt about his person or / condition, look to his race. // One who is vile in his coat, was usually vile / in his caul. // He who makes his way beyond his merits, still cannot / get away from his root.
Bernard Lewis, "In Black and White", Race and Slavery in the Middle East: A Historical Enquiry, Oxford University Press, pp. 54-62, ISBN 978-0-19-506283-0, 1990
Qadi Iyad (108301149) was one of the most famous Maliki jurists, also an Imam and qadi in Granada under the Almoravid dynasty.
[Qadi Iyad repeats this twice:] Ahmad b. Abi Sulayman, the companion of Sahnun, said, 'Anyone who says that the Prophet was black (aswad) should be killed.'
Qadi Iyad, al-Shifa bi-ta'rif huquq al-Mustafa, 2, al-Maktaba al-Shamila, p. 217, 234, https://app.turath.io/book/1753; translated in Aisha Abdarrahman Bewley, ed, (2004), Ash-Shifa of Qadi 'Iyad, Scotland, pp. 375, 387, 2004, https://archive.org/details/MuhammadMessengerOfAllahAshShifaOfQadiIyad
Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani (897-967) was an Arab litterateur, genealogist, poet, and musicologist.
[Retelling an anecdote about "an Arab poet known as al-Sayyid al-Himyari (723-89)":] The Sayyid was my neighbor, and he was very dark. He used to carouse with the young men of the camp, one of whom was as dark as he was, with a thick nose and lips, and a Negroid [muzannajj] appearance. The Sayyid had the foulest smelling armpits of anybody. They were jesting together one day, and the Sayyid said to him: "You are a Zanji in your nose and your lips!" whereat the youth replied to the Sayyid: "And you are a Zanji in your color and armpits!"
Bernard Lewis, "Image and Stereotype", Race and Slavery in the Middle East: A Historical Enquiry, Oxford University Press, pp. 92-99, ISBN 978-0-19-506283-0, 1990
See Also
- Race and Tribe in Islam
- Category:Race
- Muhammad (Primary Sources) - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Muhammad (Primary Sources)
Reference
- ↑ Islamqa.info
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 West Asian views on black Africans during the medieval era
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Comparative Digests Racism Arab and European Compared - Nathaniel Turner
- ↑ Ter-Ghevondyan, Aram N.. Արաբական Ամիրայությունները Բագրատունյաց Հայաստանում (The Arab Emirates in Bagratuni Armenia). Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences. p. 15, 1965.
- ↑ The Risala of 'Abdullah ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani/ 43.16 Trading abroad - A Treatise on Maliki Fiqh (Including commentary from ath-Thamr ad-Dani by al-Azhari)(310/922 - 386/996)