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Can we conclude that Al-Jahiz was the first "Afrocentric" The Ethiopians, the Berbers, the Copts, the Nubians, the Zaghawa, the Moors, the people of Sind, the Hindus, the Qamar, the Dabila, the Chinese, and those beyond them...the islands in the seas...are full of blacks...up to Hindustan and China." Would he have been taken serious if he were writing in today's time...This book is wonderful...enjoy
Al-Jahiz (776-869): Superiority Of The Blacks To The Whites
Al-Jahiz (in Arabic الجاحظ) (real name Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Fuqaimi al-Basri) (born in Basra, c. 781 – December 868 or January 869) was a famous Arab scholar, believed to have been an Afro-Arab of East African descent. He was an Arabic prose writer and author of works on Arabic literature, biology, zoology, history, early Islamic philosophy, Islamic psychology, Mu'tazili theology, and politico-religious polemics.
Al-Jahiz (776-869): Al-Fakhar al-Sudan min al-Abyadh (Superiority Of The Blacks To The Whites)
In the name of the Almighty, Merciful God; May God protect and keep you; let He make you obey Him and make you part of his favorites. You mentioned – may Allah protect you from deception – that you read my treatise (kitab) on the refutation of the pure Arabs to those of mixed parentage, the replies of the mixed ones and the answers of their maternal uncles. But I did not mention in it anything about the boasts of the Sudan. So know, - may Allah preserve you – that I postponed that intentionally. And you mentioned that you would like me to write to you the boasts of the Sudan, so I have written what I recall of their boasts. Al-Asma'I said : Al-Fizr, a slave of the Fazara, who had a pierced earlobe is known to have said: Harmony arrives quickly in the creation. Because of that goats stay away from the sheep as long as there are goats around. The lamb avoids the predators, and also does not feel close to the ones with big hoofs. Abu Zaid al-Nahwi recited the following verse: Without harmony, man perishes. Saddad Al-Hariti - with erudite eloquence - tells: “I requested from a black slave of the desert steppe:
-To whom do you belong, O Black one? -To the Lord of Hadr (sedentary settlement), O Bald person.
-Aren't you black? -Aren't you a bald person? -Does truth thus puts you so much in anger? - It is this truth which puts you so much in anger! Do not insult and you will be dreaded; really best is than you give it up completely ". Saddad concludes: “In truth, at the time when I addressed the word to her, I thought to be worth all the inhabitants of Nagd and, at the time when she left me, I had the thought not to be worth my slave”. Al 'Asma' i reports according to 'Isa b. 'Umar these words of Du l-Rumma: “That Al1ah curses the black slave of the family of Such and Such! That she speaks well and that she is eloquent!”. I asked him: “How is the rain which falls at your place?” She answered: “We received as far as we wanted it”.
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Among the Blacks, there is Luqman the Wise-one and it is him which said: “There are three men who are known to us only into three (circumstances): he who preserves his control in anger, the courageous one in the face of danger, the friend when you need him. He gave his son the following advice: If you whish to remain with someone, make him angry before that. You will learn in advance if he is just and good. This is the only quote of him we regularly hear, because he had o to many sayings to chose from. More important then this is that God called him "the Wise" in the Koran as well as his testament to his son. Said ibn Jubair was also black. He got killed by Hajjaj at the age of 49 half a year before Hajjaj himself died at the age of 53. Said was a very pious man highly esteemed for his profound knowledge of the traditions of the prophet Mohamet and a companion of Ibn Abbas. The Hadith-scholars doubt even all Hadith who come from the companions of Ibn Abbas except those of Said ibn Jubair. His father was a marwa of the Asad tribe, and Said himself was a marwa of the Umayads. After he was killed people felt the loss. Also among the blacks was: the Ethiopian, Bilal, of whom Caliph Omar said that he alone was worth a third of all Islam; Afga, the first to die in the holy wars of the Prophet; EI-Migdad, the first to fight in the holy war as a horseman; El Wanshi, who killed the false prophet, Musailima; known as "the Liar". He had the habit to say; I've murdered the best one of all men; meaning Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib, may God's peace rest on him - and I killed the worst out of men, namely Musailima the impostor ". And another Black, Makhul the lawyer. And another Black, Al-Haiqutan the poet, who was higher [then the others] through his personal judgment, his reason and by the size of his insights. It is him who said in connection to friends: “the friend is recognized when one shares intimacy of the heart and when one accompanies one on a journey ". And another Black, Gulaibib, on whom the transmitters said how the Envoy of Allah - How the blessing and the safety of Allah are on him! - left to carry out a raid and after it asked his companions: “Do we not miss somebody?”. They answered: “We seek Such and Such”. Then he left again and asked them [again]; “Do we not miss somebody? “. They answered: “We seek Such and Such”. Then he left again and asked them [again]: “Isn’t there somebody missing? ” 'They answered for the third time: “We do not seek anybody”. The Prophet said: “As for me, I miss Gulaibib. Seek him!”. They went to seek and found him lying in the middle of seven [men], which he in fact had killed. The Prophet - That the blessing and the safety of Allah are on him - said: “He killed seven (men) and they killed him. This man is of me and me of him!” The Hadith specialists adds: “Then the Prophet held him in his arms until one had dug for him a tomb, without him having no other bed than the arms of the Prophet. We do not know if they were able to wash him before the burial.. One of the Blacks was
Faraj, the barber-surgeon, who was so just that he was often called by the judges for council. He was a freedmen of Jafar ibn Sulayman. He served Jafar many years cutting his hair and beard. Jafar had never found him making mistakes in what he did or said. So he decided to test him. If it really turns out his behavior is the result of inner- wisdom, I will make him free, find him a wife, and make him rich. If things turn different, I will have to take other steps. And one day when Faraj was cupping him he asked: slave do you cup yourself to?
-Yes. -And when? -When I need some. -Do you know when you need some? - I know it most of the time, but sometimes it happens to me to make an error. -What do you eat? - In winter of sweetened big Dakbirah and in summer Sikbaga bitter-sweet ". Ga' far b. Sulaiman kept his promises. It is in connection to this that Abu Firun said (Ragaz): “Out of the way, my wife is in front of me, I am a very close friend of Farag the layer of suction cups ". One says: Farag had acquired such a reputation of impartiality, of nobility of heart of piety and religious scruple, that his owners, the descendants of Ga' far and the notable ones of Mirbad required his testimony only for healthy businesses and without dispute ". As for El-Haiqutan, he is the one who wrote the poem used in Yemen when arguing with the Quaresh and Mubar. The same poem the people from Persia and Ethiopia use against the Arabs. When the white poet, Jarir, saw El-Haiqutan in a white robe on a feast day, he remarked, "He looks like the penis of a donkey wrapped in white paper." El-Haiqutan replied to him in a poem in which he said, "Though my hair is wooly and my skin black as coal I am generous and my honor shines. My color does not prevent my being valiant with my sword in battle. Know, you who would boast of your petty glory : The people of the Negus have more reason for glory then you. In the days that Islam was offered to El-Julanda, Ibn Kisra, Harith, Hawdha, the Copts, and Caesar they all refused. Off al the kings only the Negus accepted. As a result his kingdom lasted long, unmovable and prosperous. Loqman was one of them, so to were his son and his mothers son. As well as Abraha, the most renowned king. Abu Yaksum's invasion threatened the existence of your country, and yet, you were as numerous as the grains (of sand), and more still, Like the water birds, when, on them, fall in a deserted country, the bird with the bent claws and gray of color. If another than Allah had wished to push back 'Abraha. You would have noticed. That one which has the most experience of men is closest to the facts. There is no claim to fame, except that you live opposite the Sanctuary, and that you lit fires in its vicinity. If one of your chiefs, concerned his honor, advances (against us), Or we face him, or he turns the back to us and as for what you say, that it is about a divine prophecy, You did not know to protect the Sanctuary surrounded by veils. You claim to be a tribe never subjugated and never paying tribute, But it is simpler to pay a tax than to flee. If a sovereign had wanted to seize it, Then the Himyar and their Maqawil would have come there. One can not stay there neither in summer nor in winter; and its water is far from spouting out as in Guata. There is neither place pleasant to the eye nor hunting ground, but only the trade, and the trade is a disdainful thing. Aren't you (Garir) a puppy (kulaib) and your mother is she not a ewe? Fats sheep are the source of your shame and your vanity. As for the verses: Gulanda, the son of Chosroes, Harit, Hawda, the Copt and the worthy Cesar said no to Islam, then he is referring to the time when the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) wrote to the Bana Julanda, but they refused to listen. As was the case with Chosroes, of Harith ibn Abi Shamir, of Hawdha ibn Ali al-Hanafi, of the Muqawqis, the patriarch of the Copts and ruler of Alexandria, and of the emperor of Byzantium; Caesar. However the Bana Mulanda became Muslim some time later, there where the Negus became Muslim before the conquest of Mecca and so retained his dominions while God took away the treasures (meaning provinces) from the others. The emperor of Byzantium; his diminished empire still exist, but he has been driven from every place where the hoofs of horses can tread. What rests him are bays, the high mountains, the strongest castles, the cold places and the rainy-windery ones. The poet also talks proudly of Loqman and his son. When the poet says: Abu Yaksum invaded the very heart of your country, and this despite the fact that you were as numerous as the grains of sand. He alludes here to the Lord of the Elephant whose army's attacked Mecca to destroy the Ka'ba. The Poet says : You were as numerous as the grains of sand, so why did you flee from him ? None of you withstanding him until he reached Mecca. Mecca is the mother of the cities. The Arabian Peninsula is the homeland of the Arabs and Mecca is one of its towns, but an important and ancient one. Because of that it is considered the mother of the peninsula. That is why with the conquest of conquests is meant the conquest of Mecca. Similarly the Fatiha of the Book is called the Mother of the Book. It happens that the Arabs say of a thing that it is the mother of what it did not generate. Thus the expressions: he hid him on the top (Mother) of his head, of the same; Mother of hell. The host calls his hostess “my hospital Mother”. A Bedouin, having been bitten by flees at a
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woman of which he was the host, says (Ragaz):
O Hospital mother! That your face is saved to me; and that the supreme Master delivers me from your residence and of the bites of flees which - I see it! - will make me die. I spent the night to scratch me, to scratch myself as scrapes itself a scabrous camel, during the rest. Allah - How He is exalted! - clarifies Mecca and the Temple, when He says: “In truth, the first temple [which] was founded for people, is certainly that located at Bakka, [temple] blessed and direction for the world ''. The poet wants to say: when Mecca Mother of the cities, place of the Holy Temple and your claim to fame - was the object of raids, it is you all which were the object of raids. As for the verses of the poet: And as for what you say, it is about a divine prophecy; You did not know to protect the Sanctuary, surrounded by veils. You claim that your people have never been subjugated or paid tribute. But paying that you will find easier then fleeing. This is why the poet Abid ibn al-Abras says: They refused to submit to kings and are free-people. When they hear the call of war they go. What he says means; you say you pay no tribute but paying is easier then fleeing and surrender although you enormously outnumber your enemies. When the poet says: Your country is not nice in winter or summer, nor is there the abundant water like Juatha (in Bahrayn). He means conquering Mecca would never have brought profit, otherwise Yemen and other countries would have. The climate is bad; in winter its people go to Taif; during the heat to Jidda. And nothing in Mecca can compare with the lushness of Juatha. When the poet says: There is no grazing for the male oryx, no hunting either; Only trading places and trade is never a right occupation. He means Mecca has no lush green places, hunting is prohibited. There are only merchants which have no good reputation. He also says that the people of Mecca lack strength and kings refrain from taking their means of living because they would not satisfy a king. Those from Mecca are unable to protect themselves. Because of this the poet Muawiya ibn Aws said: I bought, in a shop, more than one goatskin flask of wine, as swarthy as a man with the dark skin, I folded back the opening of it on the neck, Folded back it resembled a mutilated hand; I carried them to a greedy Arab merchant, or a wine merchant bearing earrings and with cripple Arab. All these verses refer to the Quraysh. They say that the Quraysh are merchants who seek the protection of the Sanctuary, and when they travel, they carry the fruit of the palm tree and the bark of trees, so that they are recognized and that nobody kills them.
The poet says: Are you not a member of the Kulayb tribe? Isn't your mother one of those sheep? Your fat sheep are both your pride and your shame. It is rumored that the Kulayd tribe is having intercourse with their sheep just like the tribes of el-Araj and Sulaym. And the people of the Ashja are rumored to have intercourse with goats. Al-Najashi said: If only one of the tribes of the Quraysh had degraded me other then the goat buggers Sulaym and Ashja. Al Farazdaq said: As long as I live I will never be able to bring as sacrifice the milk sheep that belonged to the Araj. After spending my money I may find the animal gives bird to a boy. Another poet: If you want more money for your female donkey, just tell the Darimi that you sell it. He will kiss its back, but for its dryness, would draw near to its buttocks. The Darimi, when he copulates with the donkey wants his mouth to reach the animals mouth. Abd ibn Rashid said: They are bad people, the best of them are still bad. To the sheep they herd they are the male and the shepherd. When one of their women is made ready for marriage; it will be the spotted sheep that weeps sincerely. This is why Al 'Ahtal said (Kamil); Enjoy your ewes, O Garir. Because your heart encouraged you only with the depravity in loneliness. This is why Al-Haiqutan says: Are not you not a puppy (kulaib) and your mother is she not a ewe? Fat sheep are the source of your shame and your vanity. As for shame, it is about their bad reputation in connection with the ewes. As for their claim to fame: the poet makes it clear that, when they are prevailed of something, it is ewes, if still they would arrive to the camels.
Among the claims to fame of the Blacks, of Zang and Abyssinians, in addition to the fragment of the Al-Haiqutan poem, which we have mentioned, it is necessary to count, after Garir b. Al-Hatafa who had turned against the Banu Taglib in (Kamil): Do not seek really any maternal uncle at [Banu] Taglib, because Zang have maternal uncles nobler than them [Banu Taglib], the verses of Sanih b. Ribah which, in anger, turns to Garir and, against him, glorifies the Zang (Kamil): Why does this animal of the Kulayd talks bad about us? Has he seen he is no match for Hajib and Iqal? Somebody who compares the donkey called Maragha and her son (Jarir) to al Farazdaq is unreal and beyond understanding. If you would meet Zanj in formation for battle, you would see noble heroes. Ask Ibn Amr, when he sought out their spears, did he not find the Zanj spears to be long? They took (killed) the son of Ziyad and they dismount their horses for battle. And when they have dismounted to go to battle, what a battle. They left in their courtyards the horses of war, while you had only sheep and lambs in your corals. Ibn Nadba, a warrior in your
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ranks, was one of us blacks. So was Khufaf, who had many problems to take care of, and the two sons of Zubayba, Antara and Harasa. We don't see other people like that in your ranks . Ask Ibn Jayfar, when he marched against our homeland, How destructive they were when they attacked him. Ans Sulayk, called the lion, or the respected Abbas, When they attack, they all outshine you completely. Among them is also Ibn Khazim ibn Ajla. He surpassed all tribes in courage and honesty. They were all sons of noble women, who were on they turn descendents of noble women. They are the lions who bring up their little ones.
And so are we nobler then the Kulaib because of our maternal uncles; You, however, you are viler than them under this same report. And the sons of Al-Hubab, here are people who can strike a lance or to nourish you. In winter, when the wind of the North blows. The ibn 'Amr of which we talked is Hafs b. Ziyad b. 'Amr Al 'Ataki; he replaced his father as the head of the Al-Haggag police force, when Ribah Sar az-Zangi seized the area of the Euphrate, Hafq b. Ziyad went then to meet him. Ribah killed them, him and his men, and pillaged his camp. As for Ibn Gaifar, it is an-Nu' man b. Gaifar b. 'Ubad b. Gaifar b. Al
Julanda (or Gulanda); they had made an incursion in Zang territory: The Zang killed them and plundered the camp. Then the poet speaks about the sons of the Zang women, when they draw towards the Zang in bravery and self-esteem. He mentions then Hufaf bin Nadba, 'Abbas b. Mirdas, the two sons of Saddad: 'Antara 'l-Fawaris and his brother Harasa, as well as Sulaik bin as-Salaka. The latter, lions among the men, have the boldest hearts, the most intrepid courage and they passed in proverb. One counts among ( the sons of the Zang women) 'Abd Allah b. Hazim as Sulami, and the sons of Al-Hubab: 'Umair b. Al-Hubab and his brothers. Al Jahhaf ibn Hakim was one of them to. They are also proud of Raban, Bilal's brother, because of his piety also Amir ibn Fuhayra who was at Badr and died a martyrs dead on the day of Bir Mauna, and those present saw him being raised up by God up from the earth to the heaven, so he has no grave among us. Among the blacks is also Yasir's family. They also say: El-Ghandaf who was with Ubayd Allah ibn al Hurr was one of us, he was the most courageous among men. He would attack caravans single-handed. Also a man with proverbial courage was Kabawayh who was with al Mughira ibn al Fizr. Marbah al Ashram ; the young slave of general Abu Bahr was black to. He came here from Syria in the days of Qutayba ibn Muslim. His reputation was so widespread that people tried not to meet him. Also among them was El Maglul and his sons, who though slaves were very generous and wise and were renowned among the people of the dessert about their knowledge of it. Also among us was Aflah, who attacked caravans in Khorassan single handed for twenty years. Malik ibn al-Rayb killed him after he had sodomized him in the middle of the night, when he was to intoxicated and unarmed. The verses of his son testify about this (Tawil): He Malik! If 'Aflah had not been drunk, you would have seen undoubtedly that he is brother of the russet-red lion and even the eclipse! The Blacks continue: coming from Abyssinia, we were Masters of the country of Arabia up to Mecca, and on all the country our law reigned. We put to rout Du Nuwas, killed by the 'Aqyal Himyarites. You, you never dominated our country. Your poet says (Tawil): They ruined Gumdan and threw its roof down. Riyat and his troops, by an impetuous attack, with force. The Abyssinians encircled it at night and threw down a construction built by the 'Aqyal at in remote times, a multitude, of black color, coming from Al-Yaksum, such as the lions of d’as-Sara, which would have been wearing a leopard skin. [Blacks] add: we count among us Kabagila; no one of those who went up the Sulaiman channel and who fought in singular combat did resemble him. They continue: also the forty are ours who revolted, at the time of the qadi Sawwar b. 'Abd Allah, in the area of the Euphrates; they drove out their dwellings the populations of this area and went on to an immense massacre of the inhabitants of Ubulla. The one who did cut the head of Isa ibn Jafar in Oman with a Bahrayni scythe when all were afraid was one of us.
Everybody knows that the Zanj are among the most generous of mortals ; a quality that is found only among noble characters. These people have a natural talent for dancing to the rhythm of the tambourine, without needing to learn it. There are no better singers anywhere in the world, no people more polished and eloquent, and no people less given to insulting language. All other peoples in the world have their stammerers, those who have difficulty in pronouncing certain sounds, and those who cannot express themselves fluently or are downright tongue-tied, except the Zanj. Sometimes some of them recite before their ruler continuously from sunrise to sunset, without needing to turn round or pause in their flow. No other nation can surpass them in bodily strength and physical toughness. One of them will lift huge blocks and carry heavy loads that would be beyond the strength of most Bedouins or members of other races. They are courageous, energetic, and generous, which are the virtues of nobility, and also good-tempered and with little propensity to evil. They are always cheerful, smiling, and devoid of malice, which is a sign of noble character. Some people say that their generosity is due to their stupidity, shortsightedness and lack of foresight, but our reply is that this is a scurvy way of commending generosity and altruism. At that rate the wisest and most intelligent man would be the most stingy and ungenerous. But in fact the Slavs are more stingy than the
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Byzantines, and the latter more intelligent and thoughtful; according to our opponents' argument, the Slavs ought to be more generous and open-handed than the Byzantines. Likewise we see that women have less sense than man and children have less sense than women, but are meaner than they are. If more sense meant greater meanness, then the child should be the most generous of all. Yet in fact we know nothing on earth that is worth than a boy, for he is the most untruthful of mankind, the most calumnious, the nastiest, and the meanest, the least inclined to do good, and the most ruthless. Only gradually does the boy leave these qualities as he gains in sense and gains in good deeds. How then can the lack of sense be the cause of generosity in the Zanj? You have admitted that they are generous, and then you make assertions which are untenable, and we have already shown you the fallacy of your argument according to true reasoning. This opinion would mean that the coward is wiser than the brave man, the treacherous wiser than the loyal, and that the worrier is wiser than the patient man. This is something for which you have no proof. These qualities in man are a gift of God. Sense is a gift, and good character is a gift, and generosity and courage likewise. The Zanj say to the Arabs: You are so ignorant that during the jahiliyya (the times of ignorance ) you regarded us as your equals when it came to marrying Arab women, but with the advent of the justice of Islam you decided this practice was bad. Yet the desert is full of Zanj married to Arab wives, and they have been princes and kings and have safeguarded your rights and sheltered you against your enemies. You even have sayings in your language which vaunt the deeds of our kings--deeds which you often placed above your own; this you would not have done had you not considered them superior to your own. Al Namr ibn Tawlab recited the following poem: Bad luck came over his rule as over Tubba and the great king Abraha, placed him higher then the princes of his own country. Labid ibn Radi'a recited the following: If a person could reach eternity during his lifetime, Abu Yaksum would be among those. This kind of virtue has never been ascribed to anyone before.
The (Zanj) also say: from Labid's verses it becomes also clear that you put our kings higher then your own. Darkness came over those who survived from Muharriq's family. Darkness that had done its work with Tubba and Heraclius, Darkness that had vanquished Abraha, who was living in the palace of Mawkal. So he prefers Abraha , but he would like the other kings to be his equals. The (Zanj) say : The Ethiopian, Akym ibn Akym, was more eloquent than Eli-Ajjaj. It is from him that the Syrians learnt the sciences and also from El Montagi ibn Nabhan, who was a native of Negroland and had a pierced ear. He had come to the Arabian desert as a child and left it with a complete knowledge of Arabic. Hakim ibn Ayash al Kalbi said: Don't feel pride in the maternal uncle from the Asad tribe; because even the Zanj and Nubians are more noble to have as uncles then they. Akym ibn Akym the Abyssinian made the following response: On the day of the battle of Ghumdun we were like lions and on the day of Yathrib we were the stallions of the Arabs. On the fearful day of the elephant the hearts of the Arabs deserted them and they fled on their camels. The negus is one of us; and Dhul Aqsayn is your brother in law. The grandfather of Abraha, the protector of Abu Talib was one of us. I have to forgive Adnan if he makes fun with us ; because what can be said of the genealogy of the Himyari? They are muleteers, assembled from everywhere, gathered as a net gathers fish in the stormy sea. Gumdan, a fortress, ordinary the residence of the king - then Persian - who reigned on Yemen. When Abyssinians seized Yemen, they let remain only of the ruins which 'Utman b. 'Affan - That Allah satisfied with him! - destroyed at the time of the coming of Islam, while saying: “It is necessary to extirpate the vestiges of the gahiliya (the false prophet)”. The fortress comprised a cistern, capped by an asbestos roof, of which Halaf Al 'Ahmar said; and an asbestos cistern, which demolished by the attacking Abyssinian, and his king. About it, Qudama, the wise of the Moslem East and Master in alchemy, has said (Tawil); He lit its fire there; nevertheless fire Would last indefinitely, the cistern does not disappear, because asbestos, even if a fire burned there thousand years, would not heat. Those which launch the naphtha coat themselves with some, when they want to penetrate into the fire. Labid says (Wafir); O friendly, do you not see a flash illuminating the black night, like the flame on the wick of the lamp? I could not find the sleep, while the flash moved away towards Nagd in the motionless night, and when the companions were held dormant on their saddles of wood. Its shoddy cloud illuminated the heavy clouds and there cut out silhouettes of Abyssinians, Armed with small swaths and javelins.
"Labid," he says, "used this imagery because when the Ethiopians, splendid in the blackness of their skins and in the vigor and strength of their superb bodies, attacked with their spears, bows, and arrows they spread an unimaginable terror around them." When Ukaym says : On the day of Yathrib we were the stallions of the Arabs. It is a reference to Musrif ibn Uqba al Murri the general who gave the conquered city (Medina) over to the troops for pillage and the Negroes cohabited with the captured women, which are mentioned in the following verses of Mudar; Ask Musrif El Mwirri the general in question about the morning when he gave the captured virgins over to his weather-beaten Negro soldiers. On this occasion the Zanj fought you, Whites, in spite of your rage. Wahrig defended you
with his Persians, whilst the Ethiopian general commanded in the midst of destruction. It was then the women of your race were enjoyed by a Negro, whose phallus was the size of a donkey's. When the poet says: They are muleteers, assembled from everywhere, gathered as a net gathers fish in the stormy sea. He here accepted what story tellers say about Himyar.-That they used to be muleteers. The Negroes can also be proud of the fact that the single dead person over whom the Prophet ever prayed was their ruler, the Emperor of Ethiopia. He prayed for the Negus, while the Prophet was in Medina, and the tomb of the Negus in Abyssinia. And also: “the Negus is who gave in marriage to the Prophet - That blessing and the safety of Allah be on him! - 'Umm Habiba, girl of Abu Sufyan: he asked Halid b. Sa' id to be the tutor of 'Umm Habiba, offering in the name of the Prophet - How the blessing and the safety of Allah are on him! - a dowry of four hundred dinars. And also: we made you three presents: the civet, the most sweet perfume, most exquisite and noblest; the litter; it is the best defense for the women and best protection for what is sacred for man; the codex: it preserves best its contents and ensure best preservation; it is splendid and most handy. And also: we inspire the most fear in the heart and catch most of the glances (of the onlookers), just as the carriers of black (Abbasid) inspire more fear and fill up more the heart than the carriers of white (Umayyad), in the same way the night inspires more fear than the day. And also: the color black always inspires the most fear. The Arabs, to describe their camels, say: “the black horses are most beautiful and most robust, the black cows best and most beautiful, and their skins are most valuable, most useful and most durable. The black ewes give the fattiest milk and creamy, moreover the dark brown ewes give more milk then the russet-red ewes”. while every stone and hill is dryer and harder the more it is black. The black lion is invincible. The black date is the highest quality. Healthy date palms have black stems. A hadith of the Prophet says : Follow the great black color. The poet al-Ansari says: I'm in debt but I do not have to worry; because I own tall date groves, well pruned and every heavy laden palm seems to have been smeared with the pitch of blood of sacrificed animals.
The Zanj say that the best green is the darkest green. God, may he be exalted said: And besides these there are two gardens. When describing them so as to make people long for them God called them dark green. Ibn Abbas said : they became dark green through irrigation. Black ebony is the most solid and most durable of woods. It s also most expensive , free of disease, best fit for art-work. It is so heavy that of all woods expensive and cheap ones only ebony sinks in the water. Remember that even certain stones do not sink while ebony sinks immediately. A person remains handsome as long as his hair is still black and in paradise everyone will have black hair. The pupils of the eye, too are black and are they not the most precious part of the human body. The most expensive kohl is made of antimony which is black. This is why a hadith of the Prophet states that God will have all the faithful enter paradise hairless (on their body) beardless, and their eyes blackened with kohl. Man doesn’t have anything more useful in him than his liver, which ensures the good operation of the stomach and the digestion of food and the good functioning of the unit maintains the life of the body; however, the liver is black. Man does not have anything more valuable, more expensive in him than the black bile of his heart, a clot of black blood situated in the folds of this internal organ; it holds in this heart the same place as the brain in the head. The woman does not have anything sweeter and more pleasant than her lips, for the kiss; however, they are all the more beautiful as they are as close to the black as possible. Du r-Rumma says (Basit): Sunk are its lips blood-colored and purple, Of the same are her gums, fine and bright her teeth. The most pleasant shade and freshest is the shade [well] black. The poet says (Ragaz): Jet black, similar to the shade projected by the stone. Humaid b. Tawr says (Tawil): We sought the shade of a cave, while our mounts Sought the wood shade shaded on which would fall the evening, trees in the major shades, like Ascetic nuns, who prohibit the wine. Allah created, the night for the rest and recovery, and the day for the profit and the labor. One can also say that black is associated with activity as scorpions and snakes come out at night and bring their poison into the night. This activity counts for most wild animals and also ghosts. All this happens during the night. The blacks say; we also resemble the night like this. They also say : the greatest of siestas that last the longest is in the darkness of the closed door and windows. They also say : no color is deeper and homogeneous then black. A proverb to say that something is very far: You will not see this until tar becomes white and the raven gray-haired. According to the philosophers, black is the accident that fills the area. Musk and amber are the best perfumes. Both are black; as are the hardest rock. Abu Daddil al-Jumahi said the following lines in praise of al Azzaq al Makhzumi who was called Abd Allah ibn Abd Shams ibn al Mughira: My gratefulness to you is boundless; as long as there are rocks in the valley of the Lebanon, you will be the object of praise and precious in value. Just as there is no fault in the Black Stone.
The Arabs draw glory from the black color. If an objector advances; “On what is that based, as they say: Such is of a pure white, bursting of whiteness, white and of clear
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ace? We will answer: By this, the Arabs do not mean the whiteness of the skin, but rather the nobility and purity of character. The Hudr (of Banu) Muharib draw glory from their dark color, and people with the black dye are called among Arabs the hudr. As-Sammah b. Dirar says (Tawil): The camels leave in the evening Zarud, and [the setting sun] covered Zubala with the coat of the night. The poet says (Ragaz); Until the moment when the morning draws me from a dark night, Like the valiant knight who takes from the sleeve the well soaked sword. The Arabs qualify the iron as dark, because it is hard, and that it is dark means black. Al-Harit b. Hilliza says (Munsarih): When we force our camels from the branches of palm tree of Bahrain, a race not stopped until Al-Hisau retains them. We then put to defeat the troop of the son of Umm Qatam, The ones with the dark weapons of Persia. Al-Muharibi said the following about his being a member of the Khudr clan. Every man of virtue knows I'm a member of the Khudr clan of the tribe of Qays. Not easily to command; not enduring any injustice, and mentally sharp. The clan of Mughira are the Khudr of the tribe of Makhzum . Al Makhzumi spoke the following lines, which were also from al-Fadl ibn al-Abbas al Lihbi: I am the famous Al Akhdar, very well known The dark one in the land of the Arabs. Those finding me in a contest as adversary, find a noble man. The one who fills the bucket to the knot in the rope. The Khudr of the Ghassan tribe are the royal house of Jafna. Al Ghassani said: According to Al Hakam I'm a descendent from the royal Khudr. Of those who paid the blood money to those of Baris. Some poet; maybe Hassan mentions the Khudr of the Ukaym tribe; saying; You are not from the nobles of the clan Hashim, neither from the Jumah, Khudri, and the other powerful. The ten sons of Abd el Mottalib the grandfather of Mohammed were all black and strong. The Amir ibn al Tufayl said that the Kaba was well guarded when he saw them on black camels going around the Kaba. Ibn Abbas was black and very tall. Those of Abu Talib's family , who are the most noble of men, are more or less black.
The Zanj say: The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said: I was send to the red and the black. And everybody knows that the Zanj, Abyssinians and Nubians or surely not white or red but definitely black. We know that Allah, the Most Powerful and Exalted, sent His Prophet (to the people), all of them: Arabs and non-Arabs (ajam) alike. And if he (Muhammad) said: I was sent to the ruddy (Al-ahmar) and the dark-skinned (al-aswad), then in his view we are neither ruddy nor light-skinned (bid); so he was sent to us. Indeed, his use of the dark-skinned refers to us, as the people (of our community) are in one of these categories (i.e. either ruddy or dark-skinned). Therefore, if the Arabs are ruddy, then they belong to the Byzantines (Rum), Slaves (Saqaliba), Persians and Khurasanis. But if they belong to the dark-skinned peoples, then they are a sub-category of our stock. So they are called medium-complexioned and brownish-black (sumr sud) when they are classified with us, as the Arabs use the masculine gender to refer to a group consisting of females and males and if the Prophet – may Allah be pleased with him – knew that the Zanj, Ethiopians and Nubians were not ruddy or light-skinned, rather dark-skinned, and that Allah Most High sent him to the dark-skinned and the ruddy, then surely he made us and the Arabs equals. Hence, we are the only dark-skinned people. If the appellation dark-skinned applies to us, then we are the pure Sudan, and the Arabs only resemble us. Therefore we are the first people to whom he was missioned. Thus the appellation of the Arabs is predicated on ours, since we alone are designated dark-skinned, and they are not so designated unless they are part of us. The Zanj also say: The Arabs think that the more people the better but we are the most numerous on this world, and have the most children. You can say there are two kinds of people among us (among the Zanj) the ants and the dogs. Trying to measure the amount of Arabs with the amount of ants you will see the ants are more numerous. Well then still add the dogs to that amount. You really have to add on the people of Abyssinia, Nubia, Fazzan, Marawa, Zaghawa and all the other black tribes. Qahtan is far from Adman. We are closer kin to the Abyssinians and our mothers are closer kin then those of Adnan are to Qahtan. When talking about languages the one from Ajuz of the Hawazin tribe is very different. Languages can be very different but still have the same origin; or have different origins but resemble each other anyhow. The language in the different regions of Khurasan differ as well as those of Jibal and Faris it all depends on the region but they have the same origin.. They say: You have never seen the genuine Zanj. You have only seen captives who came from the coasts and forests and valleys of Qanbuluh, from our menials, our lower orders, and our slaves. The people of Qanbaluh have neither beauty nor intelligence. Qanbaluh is the name of the place by which your ships anchor.
The natives in the Bilad Zanj are in both Qambalu (Pemba) and Lunjuya (Unguja), just as Arabs are the descendants of Adnan and Qahtan in the Middle East. You have yet to see a member of the Langawiya kind, either from the coast (al-Sawahil), or from the interior (al-Jouf). If you would meet these, you would forget the issue of fair looks and perfection. Now if you refuse to believe this, saying that you have yet to meet a Zanji with the brains even of a boy or a woman, we would reply to you, have you ever met among the enslaved of India and Sindh individuals with brains, education,
culture and manners so as to expect these same qualities in what has fallen to you from among the Zanj. Yet you know how much there is in India of mathematics, astronomy, medical science, turnery and woodwork, painting, and many other wonderful crafts. How does it happen that among the many Indian captives you have made there has never been one of this quality, or even a tenth of this quality? If you say, People of standing, intelligence and knowledge only live in the centre, near the seat of government; these are hangers-on uncouth types, peasants, people of the coast and swamps and forests and islands, plowmen and fishermen, we answer you; the same is true of those who you see and those you do not see of us. Our answer to you is as your answer to us. They say; If a Zanji and a Zanji women marry and their children remain after puberty in Iraq, they come to rule the roost thanks to their numbers, endurance, knowledge, and efficiency. On the other hand, the child of an Indian and an Indian woman, or of a Greek and a Greek woman, or of a Khurasani and a Khurasani women remain among you and in your country in the same condition as their fathers and mothers. The child of two Zanji parents does not remain thus after puberty, so that we do not find, among ten thousand, one who does what we said, except when a Zanji mates with a non-Zanji woman or a Zanji women with a non-Zanji man. Were it not for the fact that neither the Zanji man nor the Zanji women has much desire for people of other races, we would see an abundant progeny for Zanji men, while Zanji women hardly respond to non-Zanji men. They say: Likewise, you whites are not very active in seeking progeny from Zanji women, and the Zanji women falls pregnant more swiftly to a Zanji than to a white man. They say; it hardly ever happens among you that a man has a hundred children sprung from his loins, unless it is a Caliph, and then it is because of the large number of his women. You don’t find this among the rest of you. Among the Zanj so large a progeny would not be considered remarkable, for there are many such in their country. A Zanji woman bears about 50 times in about 50 years, each bird being twins, so that there are more then ninety. For it is said that women do not bear children when they reach 60, except for what is told of the women of Quraysh in particular.
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The Zanj are the most eager of all God’s creatures for their women, and so also their women for them. They are also better compared to other women. Please think about what we have said. We have used facts from history as arguments and explained or quoted poetry from Arabs and others. Al Farazdaq was the one specialist of women and he had tried all races and remained unsatisfied. So he finally married Umm Makkiya the Zanj women and stayed with her. Forgetting all others because of her qualities. He made the following verse: He quotes Arab poet Farazdaq (d730) How many a tender daughter of the Zanj walks about with a hotly burning oven as broad as a drinking bowl. Dananir the daughter of Kabawayh al Zanji lived with Asha Sulaym. She was extremely black. Once she dyed her hands with henna and her eyes with black kohl. He made the following verse of it. She dyes the palm of her hands, palms as if clipped off from her forearm. She dyes the henna with her black color. She seems with the kohl in her pencil, as if she is applying kohl to her eyes with part of her skin. She answered with the following poem: Uglier than my color is the blackness of his arse. Contrasting with his skin, which is like palm pith or even whiter. In the streets they started calling him black and the street kids yelled it and he divorced her. The day of their wedding he had said: Dinars are of poor metal; and her response was: A white head is worse then my black color. The worst however are gray eyebrows. He kept quiet for some time and then attacked again. When she finally brought disgrace on him he divorced her. They say; If white men look on black women without desire, so too do black men look on white women without desire, for passions are habits and mostly convention. Thus, for the people of Basra, the most desirable women are Indians, the daughters of Indian women and Ghuris; for the Yemenis the most desirable women are Ethiopians and the daughters of Ethiopian women; for the Syrians the most desirable women are Greeks and the daughters of Greek women. Each people has a taste for the women whom they import as slaves and captives, apart from the exceptions, and no inferences can be drawn from exceptions.
The Negroes also have the sweetest breath and the greatest amount of saliva being in this respect like the dog as compared with other animals. The Zanj say: Black delights the eye. When the eyes hurt a common prescription is sitting in the dark with a rag over the eyes. Good eyesight is the most precious thing for a person. They say : The blacks are more numerous than the whites. The whites at most consist of the people of Persia, Jibal, and Khurasan, the Greeks, Slavs, Franks, and Avars, and some few others, not very numerous; the blacks include the Zanj, Ethiopians, the people of Fazzan, the Berbers, the Copts, and Nubians, the people of Zaghawa, Marw, Sind and India, Qamar and Dabila, China, and Masin... the islands in the seas between China and Africa are full of blacks, such as Ceylon, Kalah, Amal, Zabij, and their islands, as far as India, China, Kabul, and those shores.
They say; Al-Ishtiyan the blind man used to say; There are more blacks than whites, more
rocks than mud, more sand than soil, more saltwater than sweet water. They say; The Arabs belong with us and not with the whites, because their color is nearer to ours. The Indians are more bronzed than the Arabs, and they belong to the blacks. For the Prophet, God bless and save him, said; I was sent to the red and the black, and everyone knows that the Arabs are not red, as we already have stated above. He said; This advantage belongs to us and to the Arabs, as against the whites, if the Arabs want it. If they do not want it, then the advantage is ours alone against all the rest. The Zanj also say: If we are more numerous because of Zabaj alone we would still be far superior to you because of our merit. If it happens that the king of Zabaj has problems with the citizens, and they don't pay their taxes, he sends his army of thousands of people not with orders to beat and fight them. He does give orders for his soldiers to settle between them till they pay them. His army is bothering the people so badly by taking food and clothing from them that it is easier to pay the taxes. If they still don't pay he sends more regiments. The local rulers always wind up paying for fear he and his people will finally be destroyed by the army.
Once a king of Zabay reached an estuary which is several parasangs long and wide. In his camp he heard a women crying. He interrupted his meal to go and ask what had happened. He was told that the son of the women was eaten by a crocodile in the swamp. The king got angry because a creature existed that just like him took the right to decide on live or dead of his people. He dived into the water, all his soldiers followed him. They finished every single crocodile in the place with their hands. The people of Zabay alone are half of the population on earth. On the ends of the inhabited world all are black people. These ends are more populated then the central area, just like the circumference of a windmill in the wind is bigger than the pivot of that windmill. It is like the balcony of a house; it is narrow but as it goes all around the house its total area is bigger then the house itself. After the land of Zabay there are no more white people as we have reached there the periphery of the world where all are black. This is a proof that we are more numerous then the whites and we have the right to be proud of it. One of the white poets said: You are not more then they in number and glory belongs to those bigger in number. The Zanj also say: The Copts too are blacks. Abraham the friend of God married one of them and so was born a big prophet the ancestor of the Arabs; Ismael. The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) also married one of them and Ibrahim was born. The angel Gabriel when addressing the prophet called him father of Ibrahim. The Zanj also say: The Black Stone is from paradise. The darker a piece of copper the more it is worth.
To those who despise the color black, we would reply that the excessive lanky, thin, and reddish hair of the Franks, Greeks, and Slavs, the redness of their locks and beards, the whiteness of their eyelashes, are uglier and more loathsome. There are no albinos among blacks, but only among you. The Zanj also say : We also have philosophers from among us as well as theologians and we have fine manners. God may he be exalted , did not make them black in order to disfigure them; rather it is their environment that made them so. The best evidence of this is that there are black tribes among the Arabs, such as the Banu Sulaim bin Mansur, and that all the peoples settled in the Harra, besides the Banu Sulaim are black. These tribes take slaves from among the Ashban to mend their flocks and for irrigation work, manual labor, and domestic service, and they take their wives from among the Byzantines; and yet it takes less than three generations for the Harra region to give them all the complexion of the Banu Sulaim. This region is such that the gazelles, ostriches, insects, wolves, foxes, sheep, asses, horses and birds that live there are all black. White and black are the results of environment, the natural properties of water and soil, distance from the sun, and intensity of heat. There is no question of metamorphosis, or of punishment, disfigurement or favor meted out by Allah. Besides, the land of the Banu Sulaim has much in common with the land of the Turks, where the camels, beasts of burden, and everything belonging to these people is similar in appearance: everything of theirs has a Turkish look. The soldiers of the frontier garrisons on this side of the Awsim sometimes come across Byzantine sheep mixed up with sheep belonging to the local inhabitants, but they have no difficulty in distinguishing the Byzantine flocks from the Syrian by their Byzantinity. When one comes across the descendents of Bedouin men and women who have ended up in Kurasan it is immediately apparent that they are the barbarians of these parts.
This exists in all things. Thus we see that locusts and worms on plants are green, and we see that the louse is black on a young man’s head, white if his hair whitens, red if it is dyed. Our blackness, O people of the Zanj, is not different from the blackness of the Banu Sulaym and other Arab tribes we have mentioned. And the very blackness of the Zanj is like the total whiteness of the white men.
The same rules apply to the brown color of the children of mixed marriages, also on their appearance, their habits in eating and desires. A poet when talking about Usaylim ibn al Alnaf al Asadi mentioned the blackness of the people of Yemen. There is Usaylim, easily noticed by those searching . He belongs to the elite chiefs through his line of descent. Others then in fear of his royal birth clap their hands. Black musk is applied to his hair as well as perfumed oil. If the black Yemenites would make him a woolen cloak, they have to make it thin and wide. A slave of the Bana Jada; being laughed at because of his black color said: They ridicule me because of my black color. I answered that only very stupid men can do so. Because as much as my skin is black I am in character white. I help friends in their needs as well as women traveling in their litters. When I have to face a fight (litt: the lance) I am called father of Saraq. The wife of Amr ibn Sha treated Irar ibn Amr badly. Because he was the son of a black women. Because of this he said the following on the children of Abyssinian and Zanj women: Did she not notice that I'm grown up and humble, so that I do not answer anger with anger? Like the courageous I bow in silence. If a courageous man would find it proper he would bite deeply. Her aim was to humiliate Irar and those wanting to do so are very unjust. Although he is dark, he has a very good figure If you really are like me and have principles, then be for him like the date butter which smoothens the skin. If not get away even by horse, with provisions for 5 days without rest stops. As regards the Indians, they are among the leaders in astronomy, mathematics in particular, they have Indian numerals, and medicine; they alone possess the secrets of the latter, and use them to practice some remarkable forms of treatment. They have the art of carving statues and painted figures. They possess the game of chess, which is the noblest of games and requires more judgment and intelligence than any other. They make Kedah swords, and excel in their use. They have splendid music, including that of the kankala, an instrument with a single string mounted on a gourd, which takes the place of the many stringed lute and cymbals. They know a number of sprightly dances.
To them belong the variety of arts from sword fighters to magicians and fumigators and medical skills. They posses a script capable of expressing the sounds of all languages as well as many numerals. They have a great deal of poetry, many long treatises, and a deep understanding of philosophy and letters; the book Kalila wa-Dimna originated with them. They are intelligent and courageous, and have more good qualities than the Chinese. Their sound judgment and sensible habits led them to invent pins, cork and toothpicks, the drape of clothes and the dyeing of hair. They are handsome, attractive and forbearing, their women are proverbial, and their country produces the matchless Indian aloes which are supplied to kings. They were the originators of the science of fikr by which a poison can be counteracted after it has been used, and of astronomical reckoning, subsequently adopted by the rest of the world. When Adam descended from Paradise, it was to their land that he made his way.
The Zanj also say : Among our good qualities are our good singers. As you can find among the slave girls from Sind. Also nobody is a better cook then the black slaves from Sind. Also moneychangers will never entrust their money then to those from Sind or their descendents as they are found to be better in those affairs, more alert and worthy of thrusting . One hardly ever finds a Greek or a Khorassan in a position of trust in a bank. When the bankers of Basra saw the excellent affairs that Faraj Abu Kub, a Sindi, had negotiated for his master, each of them took a Sindi assistant. They all wanted to make the profit his master had made. Caliph Sultan Abdelmalik ibn Mcrwan often said, "El Adgham is a master among all the Orientals." This El Adgham is also mentioned by Abdullar ibn Khnazim, who calls him, "An Ethiopian, a black son of Ethiopia. And this is all that came to my mind about what the blacks could be proud about. In former books we wrote of the pride of the Qahtan and later on if God whishes I will write on the pride of the Adnam against the Qahtan in much of what they said.
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Jahiz is simply quoting what he heard from some Zanj people. This is why he says throughout the whole thing "the Zanj say". Nor does Jahiz have any special feelings for the Sudan because this seems to be simply an after thought "But I did not mention in it anything about the boasts of the Sudan."
In the introduction:
quote:In the name of the Almighty, Merciful God; May God protect and keep you; let He make you obey Him and make you part of his favorites. You mentioned – may Allah protect you from deception – that you read my treatise (kitab) on the refutation of the pure Arabs to those of mixed parentage, the replies of the mixed ones and the answers of their maternal uncles. But I did not mention in it anything about the boasts of the Sudan. So know, -may Allah preserve you – that I postponed that intentionally. And you mentioned that youwould like me to write to you the boasts of the Sudan, so I have written what I recall of their boasts.
At the ending:
quote: And this is all that came to my mind about what the blacks could be proud about. In former books we wrote of the pride of the Qahtan and later on if God whishes I will write on the pride of the Adnam against the Qahtan in much of what they said.
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I've heard other people attribute these ideas to Jahiz because of this. However, Jahiz may have goten these ideas came from other Zanji philosophers and theologians.
quote:The Zanj also say : We also have philosophers from among us as well as theologians and we have fine manners. God may he be exalted, did not make them black in order to disfigure them; rather it is their environment that made them so. The best evidence of this is that there are black tribes among the Arabs, such as the Banu Sulaim bin Mansur, and that all the peoples settled in the Harra, besides the Banu Sulaim are black. These tribes take slaves from among the Ashban to mend their flocks and for irrigation work, manual labor, and domestic service, and they take their wives from among the Byzantines; and yet it takes less than three generations for the Harra region to give them all the complexion of the Banu Sulaim. This region is such that the gazelles, ostriches, insects, wolves, foxes, sheep, asses, horses and birds that live there are all black. White and black are the results of environment, the natural properties of water and soil, distance from the sun, and intensity of heat.
quote:The beauty, plastic power and richness of Bantu languages delight and amaze all. They possess almost limitless flexibility, pliancy and softness. Their grammatical principles are founded on the most philosophical and systematic basis. Their vocabularies are susceptible of infinite expansion. They can express even delicate shades of thought and feeling. Perhaps no other languages are capable of greater definiteness and precision. Grout doubts whether Zulu — the purest type of a Bantu dialect, the lordly language of the south, the speech of a conquering and superior race — is surpassed in forming derivatives by German or Greek. Livingstone characterized as witnesses to the poverty of their own attainments men who complain of the poverty of Bantu languages. Bentley, after referring to the flexibility, fulness, subtlety of idea and nicety of expression in Kongoan, accredits this wealth of forms and ideas to the Bantu family in bulk.
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Lets examine this...I agree that this is not the opinion of Al-Jahiz but he seems to agree to some degree that in his presentation he holds the claims of the Zanj to some value.. The whites at most consist of the people of Persia, Jibal, and Khurasan, the Greeks, Slavs, Franks, and Avars, and some few others, not very numerous; the blacks include the Zanj, Ethiopians, the people of Fazzan, the Berbers, the Copts, and Nubians, the people of Zaghawa, Marw, Sind and India, Qamar and Dabila, China, and Masin... the islands in the seas between China and Africa are full of blacks, such as Ceylon, Kalah, Amal, Zabij, and their islands, as far as India, China, Kabul, and those shores. I will later try to post photos of the said people...
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quote:You mentioned – may Allah protect you from deception – that you read my treatise (kitab) on the refutation of the pure Arabs to those of mixed parentage, the replies of the mixed ones and the answers of their maternal uncles. But I did not mention in it anything about the boasts of the Sudan. So know, - may Allah preserve you – that I postponed that intentionally. And you mentioned that you would like me to write to you the boasts of the Sudan, so I have written what I recall of their boasts.
I think alot of people are confused as to the specific detailed meanings of his intro. you have to interpret what he says in the context of his time and the understanding of an arab. Alot of people are throwing terms that didnt have existance at the time like calling him an afro-centrist. I ask how is this possible. Nobody called themselves african or thought of themselves as such. You were either, and i repeat because people love to toss the overall fad at the time out of the window, an arab or a non-arab. especially in areas where arabs lived. In those days and especially in those days people who practiced islaam to the point of speaking, reading , and writing arabic considered themselves arabs. Have you ever wondered why the western sudanic scholars referred to maghribi and masri merchants as bedhaan. U see this even in mauritania. They were are all arabs. the since of being an arab was like that of one being an american. U have multiple nations in one nation. the muslims paracticed this way before anything called the west. he says
quote:you read my treatise (kitab) on the refutation of the pure Arabs to those of mixed parentage, the replies of the mixed ones and the answers of their maternal uncles. But I did not mention in it anything about the boasts of the Sudan
question [b]WHY[/] would he mention anything about dark-skinned people in a treatise thats purely about pure arabs and mixed arabs. makes no sense to a westerner whose origins and mentality is that of the western world. You have to go to arab scholars and i repeat arab scholars to find the pure context of what this is all about. other than that u will be no different than the euro-anthropologist and historians who go to these lands to write about something they dont practice. The reason he left out the boast of teh blacks and whites is the fact of his inclusion of teh zanj and other black nations. He was trying to say that the arabs are not the only black nations and mentioned in his quote of the noble prophet muhammad(saw) " i was sent to every black and red " In arabia in his time he is not talking to persians or ethiopians or french. he is talikng to ARABS in THEIR language and THEIR time. It is known amongst scholars and students oif teh language that red and black coupled together specifically means arab and ajam. They referred to their dark color contrast the whiteness of non arabs henceforth darkness was a signature of arabness. not afrocentricity but arabness. He was talking of pedigree only concerning aribat and hijaan (pure & mixed) and wanted to expand the issue of color, not everything is from africa. He focuses only on color. he didnt want to mix issues of lineage and color because every black was not an arab by lineage. It just so happened to be that blackness is a part of arabness and arabness is a part of the black nations. Look carefully. in the arab world of then, the so-called "africa nations" were called black nations , but were included with peoples outside the continent.
-------------------- لا اله الا الله و محمد الرسول الله Posts: 495 | From: anchorage, alaska | Registered: Feb 2007
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quote:You mentioned – may Allah protect you from deception – that you read my treatise (kitab) on the refutation of the pure Arabs to those of mixed parentage, the replies of the mixed ones and the answers of their maternal uncles. But I did not mention in it anything about the boasts of the Sudan. So know, - may Allah preserve you – that I postponed that intentionally. And you mentioned that you would like me to write to you the boasts of the Sudan, so I have written what I recall of their boasts.
I think alot of people are confused as to the specific detailed meanings of his intro. you have to interpret what he says in the context of his time and the understanding of an arab. Alot of people are throwing terms that didnt have existance at the time like calling him an afro-centrist. I ask how is this possible. Nobody called themselves african or thought of themselves as such. You were either, and i repeat because people love to toss the overall fad at the time out of the window, an arab or a non-arab. especially in areas where arabs lived. In those days and especially in those days people who practiced islaam to the point of speaking, reading , and writing arabic considered themselves arabs. Have you ever wondered why the western sudanic scholars referred to maghribi and masri merchants as bedhaan. U see this even in mauritania. They were are all arabs. the since of being an arab was like that of one being an american. U have multiple nations in one nation. the muslims paracticed this way before anything called the west. he says
quote:you read my treatise (kitab) on the refutation of the pure Arabs to those of mixed parentage, the replies of the mixed ones and the answers of their maternal uncles. But I did not mention in it anything about the boasts of the Sudan
question WHY[/] would he mention anything about dark-skinned people in a treatise thats purely about pure arabs and mixed arabs. makes no sense to a westerner whose origins and mentality is that of the western world. You have to go to arab scholars and i repeat arab scholars to find the pure context of what this is all about. other than that u will be no different than the euro-anthropologist and historians who go to these lands to write about something they dont practice. The reason he left out the boast of teh blacks and whites is the fact of his inclusion of teh zanj and other black nations. He was trying to say that the arabs are not the only black nations and mentioned in his quote of the noble prophet muhammad(saw) " i was sent to every black and red " In arabia in his time he is not talking to persians or ethiopians or french. he is talikng to ARABS in THEIR language and THEIR time. It is known amongst scholars and students oif teh language that red and black coupled together specifically means arab and ajam. They referred to their dark color contrast the whiteness of non arabs henceforth darkness was a signature of arabness. not afrocentricity but arabness. He was talking of pedigree only concerning aribat and hijaan (pure & mixed) and wanted to expand the issue of color, not everything is from africa. He focuses only on color. he didnt want to mix issues of lineage and color because every black was not an arab by lineage. It just so happened to be that blackness is a part of arabness and arabness is a part of the black nations. Look carefully. in the arab world of then, the so-called "africa nations" were called black nations , but were included with peoples outside the continent.
I understand what you are saying...and I am in no way, shape, or form putting the label of "Afrocentric" on Al-Jahiz. I was simply asking thatif Jahiz was alive today would he had been taken serious if he made a book that upholds the idea that says... the blacks include the Zanj, Ethiopians, the people of Fazzan, the Berbers, the Copts, and Nubians, the people of Zaghawa, Marw, Sind and India, Qamar and Dabila, China, and Masin... the islands in the seas between China and Africa are full of blacks, such as Ceylon, Kalah, Amal, Zabij, and their islands, as far as India, China, Kabul, and those shores. ...Now Im not saying this is the opinion of Al-Jahiz Im just saying he obviously up hold this idea...and yes we know that all the nations he named has "Black" people..
I also understand that he is making this kitab toward an Arab audience...ne mentions in his Kitab.... [b]A poet when talking about Usaylim ibn al Alnaf al Asadi mentioned the blackness of the people of Yemen.
As regards the Indians, they are among the leaders in astronomy, mathematics in particular, they have Indian numerals, and medicine; they alone possess the secrets of the latter, and use them to practice some remarkable forms of treatment. They have the art of carving statues and painted figures. They possess the game of chess, which is the noblest of games and requires more judgment and intelligence than any other. They make Kedah swords, and excel in their use. They have splendid music, including that of the kankala, an instrument with a single string mounted on a gourd, which takes the place of the many stringed lute and cymbals. They know a number of sprightly dances. also... God may he be exalted , did not make them black in order to disfigure them; rather it is their environment that made them so. The best evidence of this is that there are black tribes among the Arabs, such as the Banu Sulaim bin Mansur, and that all the peoples settled in the Harra, besides the Banu Sulaim are black. These tribes take slaves from among the Ashban to mend their flocks and for irrigation work, manual labor, and domestic service, and they take their wives from among the Byzantines; and yet it takes less than three generations for the Harra region to give them all the complexion of the Banu Sulaim.Posts: 8804 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007
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This thread deserves a bump. The Swahili/Zanj people are such a understudied people.
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^^^Yes they are, when I get time Im gonna try to make the above a bit more readable
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Al-Jahiz (776-869): Superiority Of The Blacks To The Whites
quote:Al-Jahiz (in Arabic الجاحظ) (real name Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Fuqaimi al-Basri) (born in Basra, c. 781 – December 868 or January 869) was a famous Arab scholar, believed to have been an Afro-Arab of East African descent. He was an Arabic prose writer and author of works on Arabic literature, biology, zoology, history, early Islamic philosophy, Islamic psychology, Mu'tazili theology, and politico-religious polemics.
quote:Al-Jahiz (776-869): Al-Fakhar al-Sudan min al-Abyadh (Superiority Of The Blacks To The Whites)
In the name of the Almighty, Merciful God; May God protect and keep you; let He make you obey Him and make you part of his favorites.
You mentioned – may Allah protect you from deception – that you read my treatise (kitab) on the refutation of the pure Arabs to those of mixed parentage, the replies of the mixed ones and the answers of their maternal uncles. But I did not mention in it anything about the boasts of the Sudan. So know, - may Allah preserve you – that I postponed that intentionally. And you mentioned that you would like me to write to you the boasts of the Sudan, so I have written what I recall of their boasts.
Al-Asma'I said : Al-Fizr, a slave of the Fazara, who had a pierced earlobe is known to have said: Harmony arrives quickly in the creation. Because of that goats stay away from the sheep as long as there are goats around. The lamb avoids the predators, and also does not feel close to the ones with big hoofs.
Abu Zaid al-Nahwi recited the following verse: Without harmony, man perishes. Saddad Al-Hariti - with erudite eloquence - tells: “I requested from a black slave of the desert steppe:
-To whom do you belong, O Black one? -To the Lord of Hadr (sedentary settlement), O Bald person. -Aren't you black? -Aren't you a bald person? -Does truth thus puts you so much in anger? - It is this truth which puts you so much in anger! Do not insult and you will be dreaded; really best is than you give it up completely ".
Saddad concludes: “In truth, at the time when I addressed the word to her, I thought to be worth all the inhabitants of Nagd and, at the time when she left me, I had the thought not to be worth my slave”. Al 'Asma' i reports according to 'Isa b. 'Umar these words of Du l-Rumma: “That Al1ah curses the black slave of the family of Such and Such! That she speaks well and that she is eloquent!”. I asked him: “How is the rain which falls at your place?” She answered: “We received as far as we wanted it”.
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quote:Among the Blacks, there is Luqman the Wise-one and it is him which said: “There are three men who are known to us only into three (circumstances): he who preserves his control in anger, the courageous one in the face of danger, the friend when you need him. He gave his son the following advice: If you wish to remain with someone, make him angry before that.
You will learn in advance if he is just and good. This is the only quote of him we regularly hear, because he had o to many sayings to chose from. More important then this is that God called him "the Wise" in the Koran as well as his testament to his son.
Said ibn Jubair was also black. He got killed by Hajjaj at the age of 49 half a year before Hajjaj himself died at the age of 53. Said was a very pious man highly esteemed for his profound knowledge of the traditions of the prophet Mohamet and a companion of Ibn Abbas.
The Hadith-scholars doubt even all Hadith who come from the companions of Ibn Abbas except those of Said ibn Jubair. His father was a marwa of the Asad tribe, and Said himself was a marwa of the Umayads. After he was killed people felt the loss.
Also among the blacks was: the Ethiopian, Bilal, of whom Caliph Omar said that he alone was worth a third of all Islam;
Afga, the first to die in the holy wars of the Prophet; EI-Migdad, the first to fight in the holy war as a horseman; El Wanshi, who killed the false prophet, Musailima; known as "the Liar". He had the habit to say; I've murdered the best one of all men; meaning Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib, may God's peace rest on him - and I killed the worst out of men, namely Musailima the impostor ".
And another Black, Makhul the lawyer. And another Black, Al-Haiqutan the poet, who was higher [then the others] through his personal judgment, his reason and by the size of his insights. It is him who said in connection to friends: “the friend is recognized when one shares intimacy of the heart and when one accompanies one on a journey ".
And another Black, Gulaibib, on whom the transmitters said how the Envoy of Allah - How the blessing and the safety of Allah are on him!-left to carry out a raid and after it asked his companions: “Do we not miss somebody?”. They answered: “We seek Such and Such”. Then he left again and asked them [again]; “Do we not miss somebody? “. They answered: “We seek Such and Such”. Then he left again and asked them [again]: “Isn’t there somebody missing? ” 'They answered for the third time: “We do not seek anybody”. The Prophet said: “As for me, I miss Gulaibib. Seek him!”. They went to seek and found him lying in the middle of seven [men], which he in fact had killed. The Prophet - That the blessing and the safety of Allah are on him - said: “He killed seven (men) and they killed him. This man is of me and me of him!” The Hadith specialists adds: “Then the Prophet held him in his arms until one had dug for him a tomb, without him having no other bed than the arms of the Prophet. We do not know if they were able to wash him before the burial..
One of the Blacks was Faraj, the barber-surgeon, who was so just that he was often called by the judges for council. He was a freedmen of Jafar ibn Sulayman. He served Jafar many years cutting his hair and beard. Jafar had never found him making mistakes in what he did or said. So he decided to test him. If it really turns out his behavior is the result of inner- wisdom, I will make him free, find him a wife, and make him rich. If things turn different, I will have to take other steps.
And one day when Faraj was cupping him he asked: slave do you cup yourself to? -Yes. -And when? -When I need some. -Do you know when you need some? - I know it most of the time, but sometimes it happens to me to make an error. -What do you eat? - In winter of sweetened big Dakbirah and in summer Sikbaga bitter-sweet ".
Ga' far b. Sulaiman kept his promises. It is in connection to this that Abu Firun said (Ragaz): “Out of the way, my wife is in front of me, I am a very close friend of Farag the layer of suction cups ". One says: Farag had acquired such a reputation of impartiality, of nobility of heart of piety and religious scruple, that his owners, the descendants of Ga' far and the notable ones of Mirbad required his testimony only for healthy businesses and without dispute ".
As for El-Haiqutan, he is the one who wrote the poem used in Yemen when arguing with the Quaresh and Mubar. The same poem the people from Persia and Ethiopia use against the Arabs.
When the white poet, Jarir, saw El-Haiqutan in a white robe on a feast day, he remarked, "He looks like the penis of a donkey wrapped in white paper."
El-Haiqutan replied to him in a poem in which he said, "Though my hair is wooly and my skin black as coal I am generous and my honor shines. My color does not prevent my being valiant with my sword in battle. Know, you who would boast of your petty glory : The people of the Negus have more reason for glory then you.
In the days that Islam was offered to El-Julanda, Ibn Kisra, Harith, Hawdha, the Copts, and Caesar they all refused. Off all the kings only the Negus accepted. As a result his kingdom lasted long, unmovable and prosperous. Loqman was one of them, so to were his son and his mothers son. As well as Abraha, the most renowned king. Abu Yaksum's invasion threatened the existence of your country, and yet, you were as numerous as the grains (of sand), and more still, Like the water birds, when, on them, fall in a deserted country, the bird with the bent claws and gray of color. If another than Allah had wished to push back 'Abraha.
You would have noticed. That one which has the most experience of men is closest to the facts. There is no claim to fame, except that you live opposite the Sanctuary, and that you lit fires in its vicinity. If one of your chiefs, concerned his honor, advances (against us), Or we face him, or he turns the back to us and as for what you say, that it is about a divine prophecy, You did not know to protect the Sanctuary surrounded by veils.
You claim to be a tribe never subjugated and never paying tribute, But it is simpler to pay a tax than to flee. If a sovereign had wanted to seize it, Then the Himyar and their Maqawil would have come there. One can not stay there neither in summer nor in winter; and its water is far from spouting out as in Guata. There is neither place pleasant to the eye nor hunting ground, but only the trade, and the trade is a disdainful thing. Aren't you (Garir) a puppy (kulaib) and your mother is she not a ewe? Fats sheep are the source of your shame and your vanity. As for the verses: Gulanda, the son of Chosroes, Harit, Hawda, the Copt and the worthy Cesar said no to Islam, then he is referring to the time when the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) wrote to the Bana Julanda, but they refused to listen. As was the case with Chosroes, of Harith ibn Abi Shamir, of Hawdha ibn Ali al-Hanafi, of the Muqawqis, the patriarch of the Copts and ruler of Alexandria, and of the emperor of Byzantium; Caesar.
However the Bana Mulanda became Muslim some time later, there where the Negus became Muslim before the conquest of Mecca and so retained his dominions while God took away the treasures (meaning provinces) from the others.
The emperor of Byzantium; his diminished empire still exist, but he has been driven from every place where the hoofs of horses can tread. What rests him are bays, the high mountains, the strongest castles, the cold places and the rainy-windery ones. The poet also talks proudly of Loqman and his son. When the poet says: Abu Yaksum invaded the very heart of your country, and this despite the fact that you were as numerous as the grains of sand. He alludes here to the Lord of the Elephant whose army's attacked Mecca to destroy the Ka'ba.
The Poet says : You were as numerous as the grains of sand, so why did you flee from him ? None of you withstanding him until he reached Mecca. Mecca is the mother of the cities. The Arabian Peninsula is the homeland of the Arabs and Mecca is one of its towns, but an important and ancient one. Because of that it is considered the mother of the peninsula.
That is why with the conquest of conquests is meant the conquest of Mecca. Similarly the Fatiha of the Book is called the Mother of the Book. It happens that the Arabs say of a thing that it is the mother of what it did not generate. Thus the expressions: he hid him on the top (Mother) of his head, of the same; Mother of hell.
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quote:The host calls his hostess “my hospital Mother”. A Bedouin, having been bitten by flees at a woman of which he was the host, says (Ragaz):
O Hospital mother! That your face is saved to me; and that the supreme Master delivers me from your residence and of the bites of flees which - I see it! - will make me die. I spent the night to scratch me, to scratch myself as scrapes itself a scabrous camel, during the rest. Allah - How He is exalted! - clarifies Mecca and the Temple, when He says: “In truth, the first temple [which] was founded for people, is certainly that located at Bakka,[temple] blessed and direction for the world ''. The poet wants to say: when Mecca Mother of the cities, place of the Holy Temple and your claim to fame - was the object of raids, it is you all which were the object of raids. As for the verses of the poet: And as for what you say, it is about a divine prophecy; You did not know to protect the Sanctuary, surrounded by veils.
You claim that your people have never been subjugated or paid tribute. But paying that you will find easier then fleeing. This is why the poet Abid ibn al-Abras says: They refused to submit to kings and are free-people. When they hear the call of war they go.
What he says means; you say you pay no tribute but paying is easier then fleeing and surrender although you enormously outnumber your enemies.
When the poet says: Your country is not nice in winter or summer, nor is there the abundant water like Juatha (in Bahrayn). He means conquering Mecca would never have brought profit, otherwise Yemen and other countries would have. The climate is bad; in winter its people go to Taif; during the heat to Jidda. And nothing in Mecca can compare with the lushness of Juatha.
When the poet says: There is no grazing for the male oryx, no hunting either; Only trading places and trade is never a right occupation. He means Mecca has no lush green places, hunting is prohibited.
There are only merchants which have no good reputation. He also says that the people of Mecca lack strength and kings refrain from taking their means of living because they would not satisfy a king. Those from Mecca are unable to protect themselves.
Because of this the poet Muawiya ibn Aws said: I bought, in a shop, more than one goatskin flask of wine, as swarthy as a man with the dark skin, I folded back the opening of it on the neck, Folded back it resembled a mutilated hand; I carried them to a greedy Arab merchant, or a wine merchant bearing earrings and with cripple Arab. All these verses refer to the Quraysh.
They say that the Quraysh are merchants who seek the protection of the Sanctuary, and when they travel, they carry the fruit of the palm tree and the bark of trees, so that they are recognized and that nobody kills them.
The poet says: Are you not a member of the Kulayb tribe? Isn't your mother one of those sheep? Your fat sheep are both your pride and your shame. It is rumored that the Kulayd tribe is having intercourse with their sheep just like the tribes of el-Araj and Sulaym. And the people of the Ashja are rumored to have intercourse with goats. Al-Najashi said: If only one of the tribes of the Quraysh had degraded me other then the goat buggers Sulaym and Ashja.
Al Farazdaq said: As long as I live I will never be able to bring as sacrifice the milk sheep that belonged to the Araj. After spending my money Imay find the animal gives bird to a boy.
Another poet: If you want more money for your female donkey, just tell the Darimi that you sell it. He will kiss its back, but for its dryness, would draw near to its buttocks. The Darimi, when he copulates with the donkey wants his mouth to reach the animals mouth.
Abd ibn Rashid said: They are bad people, the best of them are still bad. To the sheep they herd they are the male and the shepherd. When one of their women is made ready for marriage; it will be the spotted sheep that weeps sincerely. This is why Al 'Ahtal said (Kamil); Enjoy your ewes, O Garir. Because your heart encouraged you only with the depravity in loneliness. This is why Al-Haiqutan says: Are not you not a puppy(kulaib) and your mother is she not a ewe? Fat sheep are the source of your shame and your vanity. As for shame, it is about their bad reputation in connection with the ewes.
As for their claim to fame: the poet makes it clear that, when they are prevailed of something, it is ewes, if still they would arrive to the camels.
Among the claims to fame of the Blacks, of Zang and Abyssinians, in addition to the fragment of the Al-Haiqutan poem, which we have mentioned, it is necessary to count, after Garir b. Al-Hatafa who had turned against the Banu Taglib in (Kamil): Do not seek really any maternal uncle at [Banu] Taglib, because Zang have maternal uncles nobler than them [Banu Taglib], the verses of Sanih b. Ribah which, in anger, turns to Garir and, against him, glorifies the Zang (Kamil): Why does this animal of the Kulayd talks bad about us? Has he seen he is no match for Hajib and Iqal? Somebody who compares the donkey called Maragha and her son (Jarir) to al Farazdaq is unreal and beyond understanding.
If you would meet Zanj in formation for battle, you would see noble heroes. Ask Ibn Amr, when he sought out their spears, did he not find the Zanj spears to be long? They took(killed) the son of Ziyad and they dismount their horses for battle. And when they have dismounted to go to battle, what a battle. They left in their courtyards the horses of war, while you had only sheep and lambs in your corals.
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quote:Ibn Nadba, a warrior in your ranks, was one of us blacks. So was Khufaf, who had many problems to take care of, and the two sons of Zubayba, Antara and Harasa. We don't see other people like that in your ranks.
Ask Ibn Jayfar, when he marched against our homeland, How destructive they were when they attacked him.Ans Sulayk, called the lion, or the respected Abbas, When they attack, they all outshine you completely.
Among them is also Ibn Khazim ibn Ajla. He surpassed all tribes in courage and honesty. They were all sons of noble women, who were on they turn descendents of noble women. They are the lions who bring up their little ones.
And so are we nobler then the Kulaib because of our maternal uncles; You, however, you are viler than them under this same report. And the sons of Al-Hubab, here are people who can strike a lance or to nourish you. In winter, when the wind of the North blows. The ibn 'Amr of which we talked is Hafs b. Ziyad b. 'Amr Al 'Ataki; he replaced his father ascthe head of the Al-Haggag police force, when Ribah Sar az-Zangi seized the area of the Euphrate, Hafq b. Ziyad went then to meet him. Ribah killed them, him and his men, and pillaged his camp. As for Ibn Gaifar, it is an-Nu' man b. Gaifar b. 'Ubad b. Gaifar b. Al Julanda (or Gulanda); they had made an incursion in Zang territory: The Zang killed them and plundered the camp.
Then the poet speaks about the sons of the Zang women, when they draw towards the Zang in bravery and self-esteem.
He mentions then Hufaf bin Nadba, 'Abbas b. Mirdas, the two sons of Saddad: 'Antara 'l-Fawaris and his brother Harasa, as well as Sulaik bin as-Salaka. The latter, lions among the men, have the boldest hearts, the most intrepid courage and they passed in proverb. One counts among ( the sons of the Zang women) 'Abd Allah b. Hazim as Sulami, and the sons of Al-Hubab: 'Umair b. Al-Hubab and his brothers. Al Jahhaf ibn Hakim was one of them to. They are also proud of Raban, Bilal's brother, because of his piety also Amir ibn Fuhayra who was at Badr and died a martyrs dead on the day of Bir Mauna, and those present saw him being raised up by God upfrom the earth to the heaven, so he has no grave among us.
Among the blacks is also Yasir's family. They also say: El-Ghandaf who was with Ubayd Allah ibn al Hurr was one of us,[b] he was the most courageous among men. He would attack caravans single-handed.
Also a man with proverbial courage was Kabawayh who was with al Mughira ibn al Fizr. Marbah al Ashram ; [b]the young slave of general Abu Bahr was black to. He came here from Syria in the days of Qutayba ibn Muslim. His reputation was so widespread that people tried not to meet him. Also among them was El Maglul and his sons, who though slaves were very generous and wise and were renowned among the people of the dessert about their knowledge of it.
Also among us was Aflah, who attacked caravans in Khorassan single handed for twenty years.[b] Malik ibn al-Rayb killed him after he had sodomized him in the middle of the night, when he was to intoxicated and unarmed.
The verses of his son testify about this (Tawil): He Malik! If 'Aflah had not been drunk, you would have seen undoubtedly that he is brother of the russet-red lion and even the eclipse!
The Blacks continue: [b]coming from Abyssinia, we were Masters of the country of Arabia up to Mecca, and on all the country our law reigned. We put to rout Du Nuwas, killed by the 'Aqyal Himyarites. You, you never dominated our country.
Your poet says (Tawil): They ruined Gumdan and threw its roof down. Riyat and his troops, by an impetuous attack, with force. The Abyssinians encircled it at night and threw down a construction built by the 'Aqyal at in remote times, a multitude, of black color, coming from Al-Yaksum, such as the lions of d’as-Sara, which would have been wearing a leopard skin.
[Blacks] add: we count among us Kabagila; no one of those who went up the Sulaiman channel and who fought in singular combat did resemble him. They continue: also the forty are ours who revolted, at the timeof the qadi Sawwar b. 'Abd Allah, in the area of the Euphrates; they drove out their dwellings the populations of this area and went on to an immense massacre of the inhabitants of Ubulla. The one who did cut the head of Isa ibn Jafar in Oman with a Bahrayni scythe when all were afraid was one of us.
Everybody knows that the Zanj are among the most generous of mortals ; a quality that is found only among noble characters. These people have a natural talent for dancing to the rhythm of the tambourine, without needing to learn it. There are no better singers anywhere in the world, no people more polished and eloquent, and no people less given to insulting language.
All other peoples in the world have their stammerers, those who have difficulty in pronouncing certain sounds, and those who cannot express themselves fluently or are downright tongue-tied, except the Zanj. Sometimes some of them recite before their ruler continuously from sunrise to sunset, without needing to turn round or pause in their flow.
No other nation can surpass them in bodily strength and physical toughness. One of them will lift huge blocks and carry heavy loads that would be beyond the strength of most Bedouins or members of other races.
They are courageous, energetic, and generous, which are the virtues of nobility, and also good-tempered and with little propensity to evil. They are always cheerful, smiling, and devoid of malice, which is a sign of noble character. Some people say that their generosity is due to their stupidity,shortsightedness and lack of foresight, but our reply is that this is a scurvy way of commending generosity and altruism. At that rate the wisest and most intelligent man would be the most stingy and ungenerous.
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quote:But in fact the Slavs are more stingy than the Byzantines, and the latter more intelligent and thoughtful; according to our opponents' argument, the Slavs ought to be more generous and open-handed than the Byzantines. Likewise we see that women have less sense than man and children have less sense than women, but are meaner than they are.
If more sense meant greater meanness, then the child should be the most generous of all. Yet in fact we know nothing on earth that is worth than a boy,for he is the most untruthful of mankind, the most calumnious, the nastiest, and the meanest, the least inclined to do good, and the most ruthless.
Only gradually does the boy leave these qualities as he gains in sense and gains in good deeds. How then can the lack of sense be the cause of generosity in the Zanj? You have admitted that they are generous, and then you make assertions which are untenable, and we have already shown you the fallacy of your argument according to true reasoning.
This opinion would mean that the coward is wiser than the brave man, the treacherous wiser than the loyal, and that the worrier is wiser than the patient man. This is something for which you have no proof. These qualities in man are a gift of God. Sense is a gift, and good character is a gift, and generosity and courage likewise.
The Zanj say to the Arabs: You are so ignorant that during the jahiliyya (the times of ignorance ) you regarded us as your equals when it came to marrying Arab women, but with the advent of the justice of Islam you decided this practice was bad. Yet the desert is full of Zanj married to Arab wives, and they have been princes and kings and have safeguarded your rights and sheltered you against your enemies.
You even have sayings in your language which vaunt the deeds of our kings--deeds which you often placed above your own; this you would not have done had you not considered them superior to your own.
Al Namr ibn Tawlab recited the following poem: Bad luck came over his rule as over Tubba and the great king Abraha, placed him higher then the princes of his own country.
Labid ibn Radi'a recited the following: If a person could reach eternity during his lifetime, Abu Yaksum would be among those. This kind of virtue has never been ascribed to anyone before.
The(Zanj)also say: from Labid's verses it becomes also clear that you put our kings higher then your own. Darkness came over those who survived from Muharriq's family. Darkness that had done its work with Tubba and Heraclius, Darkness that had vanquished Abraha, who was living in the palace of Mawkal. So he prefers Abraha, but he would like the other kings to be his equals.
The (Zanj) say:The Ethiopian, Akym ibn Akym, was more eloquent than Eli-Ajjaj. It is from him that the Syrians learnt the sciences and also from El Montagi ibn Nabhan, who was a native of Negroland and had a pierced ear. He had come to the Arabian desert as a child and left it with a complete knowledge of Arabic.
Hakim ibn Ayash al Kalbi said: Don't feel pride in the maternal uncle from the Asad tribe; because even the Zanj and Nubians are more noble to have as uncles then they.
Akym ibn Akym the Abyssinian made the following response: On the day of the battle of Ghumdun we were like lions and on the day of Yathrib we were the stallions of the Arabs. On the fearful day of the elephant the hearts of the Arabs deserted them and they fled on their camels. The negus is one of us; and Dhul Aqsayn is your brother in law. The grandfather of Abraha, the protector of Abu Talib was one of us.
I have to forgive Adnan if he makes fun with us ; because what can be said of the genealogy of the Himyari? They are muleteers, assembled from everywhere, gathered as a net gathers fish in the stormy sea. Gumdan, a fortress, ordinary the residence of the king - then Persian - who reigned on Yemen. When Abyssinians seized Yemen, they let remain only of the ruins which 'Utman b. 'Affan - That Allah satisfied with him!- destroyed at the time of the coming of Islam, while saying: “It is necessary to extirpate the vestiges of the gahiliya (the false prophet)”.
The fortress comprised a cistern, capped by an asbestos roof, of which Halaf Al'Ahmar said; and an asbestos cistern, which demolished by the attacking Abyssinian, and his king.
About it, Qudama,nthe wise of the Moslem East and Master in alchemy, has said (Tawil); He lit its fire there; nevertheless fire Would last indefinitely, the cistern does not disappear, because asbestos, even if a fire burned there thousand years, would not heat.
Those which launch the naphtha coat themselves with some, when they want to penetrate into the fire. Labid says(Wafir); O friendly, do you not see a flash illuminating the black night, like the flame on the wick of the lamp? I could not find the sleep, while the flash moved away towards Nagd in the motionless night, and when the companions were held dormant on their saddles of wood. Its shoddy cloud illuminated the heavy clouds and there cut out silhouettes of Abyssinians, Armed with small swaths and javelins.
"Labid," he says, "used this imagery because when the Ethiopians, splendid in the blackness of their skins and in the vigor and strength of their superb bodies, attacked with their spears, bows, and arrows they spread an unimaginable terror around them."
When Ukaym says : On the day of Yathrib we were the stallions of the Arabs. It is a reference to Musrif ibn Uqba al Murri the general who gave the conquered city (Medina) over to the troops for pillage and the Negroes cohabited with the captured women, which are mentioned in the following verses of Mudar; Ask Musrif El Mwirri the general in question about the morning when he gave the captured virgins over to his weather-beaten Negro soldiers. On this occasion the Zanj fought you, Whites, in spite of your rage. Wahrig defended you with his Persians, whilst the Ethiopian general commanded in the midst of destruction. It was then the women of your race were enjoyed by a Negro, whose phallus was the size of a donkey's.
When the poet says: They are muleteers, assembled from everywhere, gathered as a net gathers fish in the stormy sea. He here accepted what story tellers say about Himyar.-That they used to be muleteers. The Negroes can also be proud of the fact that the single dead person over whom the Prophet ever prayed was their ruler, the Emperor of Ethiopia. He prayed for the Negus, while the Prophet was in Medina, and the tomb of the Negus in Abyssinia. And also: “the Negus is who gave in marriage to the Prophet - That blessing and the safety of Allah be on him! - 'Umm Habiba, girl of Abu Sufyan: he asked Halid b. Sa' id to be the tutor of 'Umm Habiba, offering in the name of the Prophet - How the blessing and the safety of Allah are on him! -a dowry of four hundred dinars.
And also:we made you three presents: the civet, the most sweet perfume, most exquisite and noblest; the litter; it is the best defense for the women and best protection for what is sacred for man; the codex: it preserves best its contents and ensure best preservation; it is splendid and most handy. And also: we inspire the most fear in the heart and catch most of the glances (of the onlookers), just as the carriers of black(Abbasid) inspire more fear and fill up more the heart than the carriers of white (Umayyad), in the same way the night inspires more fear than the day. And also: the color black always inspires the most fear.
The Arabs, to describe their camels, say: “the black horses are most beautiful and most robust, the black cows best and most beautiful, and their skins are most valuable, most useful and most durable. The black ewes give the fattiest milk and creamy, moreover the dark brown ewes give more milk then the russet-red ewes”. while every stone and hill is dryer and harder the more it is black. The black lion is invincible. The black date is the highest quality. Healthy date palms have black stems.
A hadith of the Prophet says : Follow the great black color. The poet al-Ansari says: I'm in debt but I do not have to worry; because I own tall date groves, well pruned and every heavy laden palm seems to have been smeared with the pitch of blood of sacrificed animals.
The Zanj say that the best green is the darkest green. God, may he be exalted said: And besides these there are two gardens.
When describing them so as to make people long for them God called them dark green. Ibn Abbas said: they became dark green through irrigation. Black ebony is the most solid and most durable of woods. It s also most expensive, free of disease, best fit for art-work. It is so heavy that of all woods expensive and cheap ones only ebony sinks in the water. Remember that even certain stones do not sink while ebony sinks immediately.
A person remains handsome as long as his hair is still black and in paradise everyone will have black hair. The pupils of the eye, too are black and are they not the most precious part of the human body. The most expensive kohl is made of antimony which is black.
This is why a hadith of the Prophet states that God will have all the faithful enter paradise hairless (on their body) beardless, and their eyes blackened with kohl. Man doesn’t have anything more useful in him than his liver, which ensures the good operation of the stomach and the digestion of food and the good functioning of the unit maintains the life of the body; however, the liver is black.
Man does not have anything more valuable, more expensive in him than the black bile of his heart, a clot of black blood situated in the folds of this internal organ; it holds in this heart the same place as the brain in the head.
The woman does not have anything sweeter and more pleasant than her lips, for the kiss; however, they are all the more beautiful as they are as close to the black as possible. Du r-Rumma says(Basit): Sunk are its lips blood-colored and purple, Of the same are her gums, fine and bright her teeth. The most pleasant shade and freshest is the shade [well] black. The poet says (Ragaz): Jet black, similar to the shade projected by the stone. Humaid b. Tawr says (Tawil): We sought the shade of a cave, while our mounts Sought the wood shade shaded on which would fall the evening, trees in the major shades, like Ascetic nuns, who prohibit the wine. Allah created, the night for the rest and recovery, and the day for the profit and the labor. One can also say that black is associated with activity as scorpions and snakes come out at night and bring their poison into the night.
This activity counts formost wild animals and also ghosts. All this happens during the night. The blacks say; we also resemble the night like this. They also say : the greatest of siestas that last the longest is in the darkness of the closed door and windows. They also say : no color is deeper and homogeneous then black. A proverb to say that something is very far: You will not see this until tar becomes white and the raven gray-haired.
According to the philosophers, black is the accident that fills the area. Musk and amber are the best perfumes. Both are black; as are the hardest rock. Abu Daddil al-Jumahi said the following lines in praise of al Azzaq al Makhzumi who was called Abd Allah ibn Abd Shams ibn al Mughira: My gratefulness to you is boundless; as long as there are rocks in the valley of the Lebanon, you will be the object of praise and precious in value. Just as there is no fault in the Black Stone.
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quote:The Arabs draw glory from the black color. If an objector advances; “On what is that based, as they say: Such is of a pure white, bursting of whiteness, white and of clear face?
We will answer: By this, the Arabs do not mean the whiteness of the skin, but rather the nobility and purity of character. The Hudr (of Banu) Muharib draw glory from their dark color, and people with the black dye are called among Arabs the hudr. As-Sammah b. Dirar says (Tawil): The camels leave in the evening Zarud, and [the setting sun] covered Zubala with the coat of the night. The poet says(Ragaz); Until the moment when the morning draws me from a dark night, Like the valiant knight who takes from the sleeve the well soaked sword.
The Arabs qualify the iron as dark, because it is hard, and that it is dark means black. Al-Harit b. Hilliza says (Munsarih): When we force our camels from the branches of palm tree of Bahrain, a race not stopped until Al-Hisau retains them. We then put to defeat the troop of the son of Umm Qatam, The ones with the dark weapons of Persia. Al-Muharibi said the following about his being a member of the Khudr clan. Every man of virtue knows I'm a member of the Khudr clan of the tribe of Qays.
Not easily to command; not enduring any injustice, and mentally sharp. The clan of Mughira are the Khudr of the tribe of Makhzum.
Al Makhzumi spoke the following lines, which were also from al-Fadl ibn al-Abbas al Lihbi: I am the famous Al Akhdar, very well known as The dark one in the land of the Arabs. Those finding me in a contest as adversary, find a noble man. The one who fills the bucket to the knot in the rope.
The Khudr of the Ghassan tribe are the royal house of Jafna. Al Ghassani said: According to Al Hakam I'm a descendent from the royal Khudr. Of those who paid the blood money to those of Baris. Some poet; maybe Hassan mentions the Khudr of the Ukaym tribe; saying; You are not from the nobles of the clan Hashim, neither from the Jumah, Khudri, and the other powerful.
The ten sons of Abd el Mottalib the grandfather of Mohammed were all black and strong. The Amir ibn al Tufayl said that the Kaba was well guarded when he saw them on black camels going around the Kaba. Ibn Abbas was black and very tall.
Those of Abu Talib's family , who are the most noble of men, are more or less black.
The Zanj say:The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said: I was send to the red and the black. And everybody knows that the Zanj, Abyssinians and Nubians or surely not white or red but definitely black.
We know that Allah, the Most Powerful and Exalted, sent His Prophet (to the people), all of them: Arabs and non-Arabs (ajam) alike. And if he(Muhammad) said: I was sent to the ruddy (Al-ahmar) and the dark-skinned (al-aswad), then in his view we are neither ruddy nor light-skinned (bid); so he was sent to us. Indeed, his use of the dark-skinned refers to us, as the people (of our community) are in one of these categories (i.e. either ruddy or dark-skinned). Therefore, if the Arabs are ruddy, then they belong to the Byzantines(Rum), Slaves (Saqaliba), Persians and Khurasanis.
But if they belong to the dark-skinned peoples, then they are a sub-category of our stock. So they are called medium-complexioned and brownish-black (sumr sud) when they are classified with us, as the Arabs use the masculine gender to refer to a group consisting of females and males and if the Prophet – may Allah be pleased with him – knew that {b]the Zanj, Ethiopians and Nubians were not ruddy or light-skinned, rather dark-skinned,[/b] and that Allah Most High sent him to the dark-skinned and the ruddy, then surely he made us and the Arabs equals.
Hence, we are the only dark-skinned people. If the appellation dark-skinned applies to us, then we are the pure Sudan, and the Arabs only resemble us.
Therefore we are the first people to whom he was missioned. Thus the appellation of the Arabs is predicated on ours, since we alone are designated dark-skinned, and they are not so designated unless they are part of us.
The Zanj also say: The Arabs think that the more people the better but we are the most numerous on this world, and have the most children.
You can say there are two kinds of people among us(among the Zanj) the ants and the dogs. Trying to measure the amount of Arabs with the amount of ants you will see the ants are more numerous. Well then still add the dogs to that amount. You really have to add on the people of Abyssinia, Nubia, Fazzan, Marawa, Zaghawa and all the other black tribes. Qahtan is far from Adman. We are closer kin to the Abyssinians and our mothers are closerkin then those of Adnan are to Qahtan. When talking about languages the one from Ajuz of the Hawazin tribe is very different. Languages can be very different but still have the same origin; or have different origins but resemble each other anyhow.
The language in the different regions of Khurasan differ as well as those of Jibal and Faris it all depends on the region but they have the same origin..
They say: You have never seen the genuine Zanj. You have only seen captives who came from the coasts and forests and valleys of Qanbuluh, from our menials, our lower orders, and ourslaves. The people of Qanbaluh have neither beauty nor intelligence. Qanbaluh is the name of the place by which your ships anchor.
The natives in the Bilad Zanj are in both Qambalu (Pemba) and Lunjuya (Unguja), just as Arabs are the descendants of Adnan and Qahtan in the Middle East. You have yet to see a member of the Langawiya kind, either from the coast (al-Sawahil), or from the interior (al-Jouf). If you would meet these, you would forget the issue of fair looks and perfection.
Now if you refuse to believe this, saying that you have yet to meet a Zanji with the brains even of a boy or a woman, we would reply to you, have you ever met among the enslaved of India and Sindh individuals with brains, education, culture and manners so as to expect these same qualities in what has fallen to you from among the Zanj. Yet you know how much there is in India of mathematics, astronomy, medical science, turnery and woodwork, painting, and many other wonderful crafts.
How does it happen that among the many Indian captives you have made there has never been one of this quality, or even a tenth of this quality? If you say, People of standing, intelligence and knowledge only live in the centre, near the seat of government; these are hangers-on uncouth types, peasants, people of the coast and swamps and forests and islands, plowmen and fishermen, we answer you; the same is true of those who you see and those you do not see of us.
Our answer to you is as your answer to us. They say; If a Zanji and a Zanji women marry and their children remain after puberty in Iraq, they come to rule the roost thanks to their numbers, endurance, knowledge, and efficiency. On the other hand, the child of an Indian and an Indian woman, or of a Greek and a Greek woman, or of a Khurasani and a Khurasani women remain among you and in your country in the same condition as their fathers and mothers.
The child of two Zanji parents does not remain thus after puberty, so that we do not find, among ten thousand, one who does what we said, except when a Zanji mates with a non-Zanji woman or a Zanji women with a non-Zanji man. Were it not for the fact that neither the Zanji man nor the Zanji women has much desire for people of other races, we would see an abundant progeny for Zanji men, while Zanji women hardly respond to non-Zanji men.
They say: Likewise, you whites are not very active in seeking progeny from Zanji women, and the Zanji women falls pregnant more swiftly to a Zanji than to a white man. They say; it hardly ever happens among you that a man has a hundred children sprung from his loins, unless it is a Caliph, and then it is because of the large number of his women. You don’t find this among the rest of you.
Among the Zanj so large a progeny would not be considered remarkable, for there are many such in their country. A Zanji woman bears about 50 times in about 50 years, each bird being twins, so that there are more then ninety. For it is said that women do not bear children when they reach 60, except for what is told of the women of Quraysh in particular.
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quote:The Zanj are the most eager of all God’s creatures for their women, and so also their women for them. They are also better compared to other women.
Please think about what we have said. We have used facts from history as arguments and explained or quoted poetry from Arabs and others. Al Farazdaq was the one specialist of women and he had tried all races and remained unsatisfied. So he finally married Umm Makkiya the Zanj women and stayed with her. Forgetting all others because of her qualities.
He made the following verse: He quotes Arab poet Farazdaq (d730) How many a tender daughter of the Zanj walks about with a hotly burning oven as broad as a drinking bowl. Dananir the daughter of Kabawayh al Zanji lived with Asha Sulaym. She was extremely black. Once she dyed her hands with henna and her eyes with black kohl. He made the following verse of it. She dyes the palm of her hands, palms as if clipped off from her forearm. She dyes the henna with her black color. She seems with the kohl in her pencil, as if she is applying kohl to her eyes with part of her skin. She answered with the following poem: Uglier than my color is the blackness of his arse.
Contrasting with his skin, which is like palm pith oreven whiter. In the streets they started calling him black and the street kids yelled it and he divorced her. The day of their wedding he had said: Dinars are of poor metal; and her response was: A white head is worse then my black color. The worst however are gray eyebrows. He kept quiet for some time and then attacked again. When she finally brought disgrace on him he divorced her.
They say; If white men look on black women without desire, so too do black men look on white women without desire, for passions are habits and mostly convention. Thus, for the people of Basra, the most desirable women are Indians, the daughters of Indian women and Ghuris; for the Yemenis the most desirable women are Ethiopians and the daughters of Ethiopian women; for the Syrians the most desirable women are Greeks and the daughters of Greek women. Each people has a taste for the women whom they import as slaves and captives, apart from the exceptions, and no inferences can be drawn from exceptions.
The Negroes also have the sweetest breath and the greatest amount of saliva being in this respect like the dog as compared with other animals.
The Zanj say: Black delights the eye. When the eyes hurt a common prescription is sitting in the dark with a rag over the eyes. Good eyesight is the most precious thing for a person.
b]They say:[/b] The blacks are more numerous than the whites. The whites at most consist of the people of Persia, Jibal, and Khurasan, the Greeks, Slavs, Franks, and Avars, and some few others, not very numerous; the blacks include the Zanj, Ethiopians, the people of Fazzan, the Berbers, the Copts, and Nubians, the people of Zaghawa, Marw, Sind and India, Qamar and Dabila, China, and Masin, the islands in the seas between China and Africa are full of blacks, such as Ceylon, Kalah, Amal, Zabij, and their islands, as far as India, China, Kabul, and those shores.
b]They say;[/b] Al-Ishtiyan the blind man used to say; There are more blacks than whites, more rocks than mud, more sand than soil, more saltwater than sweet water.
They say; The Arabs belong with us and not with the whites, because their color is nearer to ours.
The Indians are more bronzed than the Arabs, and they belong to the blacks. For the Prophet, God bless and save him, said; I was sent to the red and the black, and everyone knows that the Arabs are not red, as we already have stated above. He said; This advantage belongs to us and to the Arabs, as against the whites, if the Arabs want it. If they do not want it, then the advantage is ours alone against all the rest.
The Zanj also say: If we are more numerous because of Zabaj alone we would still be far superior to you becauseof our merit. If it happens that the king of Zabaj has problems with the citizens, and they don't pay their taxes, he sends his army of thousands of people not with orders to beat and fight them.
He does give orders for his soldiers to settle between them till they pay them. His army is bothering the people so badly by taking food and clothing from them that it is easier to pay the taxes. If they still don't pay he sends more regiments. The local rulers always wind up paying for fear he and his people will finally be destroyed by the army.
Once a king of Zabay reached an estuary which is several parasangs long and wide. In his camp he heard a women crying. He interrupted his meal to go and ask what had happened. He was told that the son of the women was eaten by a crocodile in the swamp. The king got angry because a creature existed that just like him took the right to decide on live or dead of his people. He dived into the water, all his soldiers followed him.
They finished every single crocodile in the place with their hands. The people of Zabay alone are half of the population on earth. On the ends of the inhabited world all are black people. These ends are more populated then the central area, just like the circumference of a windmill in the wind is bigger than the pivot of that windmill. It is like the balcony of a house; it is narrow but as it goes all around the house its total area is bigger then the house itself. After the land of Zabay there are no more white people as we have reached there the periphery of the world where all are black. This is a proof that we are more numerous then the whites and we have the right to be proud of it.
One of the white poets said: You are not more then they in number and glory belongs to those bigger in number. The Zanj also say: The Copts too are blacks. Abraham the friend of God married one of them and so was born a big prophet the ancestor of the Arabs; Ismael. The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) also married one of them and Ibrahim was born. The angel Gabriel when addressing the prophet called him father of Ibrahim.
The Zanj also say: The Black Stone is from paradise. The darker a piece of copper the more it is worth.
To those who despise the color black, we would reply that the excessive lanky, thin, and reddish hair of the Franks, Greeks, and Slavs, the redness of their locks and beards, the whiteness of their eyelashes, are uglier and more loathsome. There are no albinos among blacks, but only among you.
The Zanj also say: We also have philosophers from among us as well as theologians and we have fine manners. God may he be exalted did not make them black in order to disfigure them; rather it is their environment that made them so.
The best evidence of this is that there are black tribes among the Arabs, such as the Banu Sulaim bin Mansur, and that all the peoples settled in the Harra, besides the Banu Sulaim are black.
These tribes take slaves from among the Ashban to mend their flocks anfor irrigation work, manual labor, and domestic service, and they take their wives from among the Byzantines; and yet it takes less than three generations for the Harra region to give them all the complexion of the Banu Sulaim. This region is such that the gazelles, ostriches, insects, wolves, foxes, sheep, asses,horses and birds that live there are all black.
White and black are the results of environment, the natural properties of water and soil, distance from the sun, and intensity of heat. There is no question of metamorphosis, or of punishment, disfigurement or favor meted out by Allah.
Besides, the land of the Banu Sulaim has much in common with the land of the Turks, where the camels, beasts of burden, and everything belonging to these people is similar in appearance: everything of theirs has a Turkish look. The soldiers of the frontier garrisons on this side of the Awsim sometimes come across Byzantine sheep mixed up with sheep belonging to the local inhabitants, but they have no difficulty in distinguishing the Byzantine flocks from the Syrian by their Byzantinity. When one comes across the descendents of Bedouin men and women who have ended up in Kurasan it is immediately apparent that they are the barbarians of these parts.
This exists in all things. Thus we see that locusts and worms on plants are green, and we see that the louse is black on a young man’s head, white if his hair whitens, red if it is dyed.
Our blackness, O people of the Zanj, is not different from the blackness of the Banu Sulaym and other Arab tribes we have mentioned. And the very blackness of the Zanj is like the total whiteness of the white men.
The same rules apply to the brown color of the children of mixed marriages, also on their appearance, their habits in eating and desires. A poet when talking about Usaylim ibn al Alnaf al Asadi mentioned the blackness of the people of Yemen. There is Usaylim, easily noticed by those searching. He belongs to the elite chiefs through his line of descent.
Others then in fear of his royal birth clap their hands. Black musk is applied to his hair as well as perfumed oil. If the black Yemenites would make him a woolen cloak, they have to make it thin and wide. A slave of the Bana Jada; being laughed at because of his black color said: They ridicule me because of my black color. I answered that only very stupid men can do so. Because as much as my skin is black I am in character white. I help friends in their needs as well as women traveling in their litters. When I have to face a fight (litt: the lance) I am called father of Saraq. The wife of Amr ibn Sha treated Iraribn Amr badly. Because he was the son of a black women.
Because of this he said the following on the children of Abyssinian and Zanj women: Did she not notice that I'm grownup and humble, so that I do not answer anger with anger? Like the courageous I bow in silence. If a courageous man would find it proper he would bite deeply. Her aim was to humiliate Irar and those wanting to do so are very unjust. Although he is dark, he has a very good figure If you really are like me and have principles, then be for him like the date butter which smoothens the skin. If not get away even by horse, with provisions for 5 days without rest stops.
As regards the Indians, they are among the leaders in astronomy, mathematics in particular, they have Indian numerals, and medicine; they alonepossess the secrets of the latter, and use them to practice some remarkable forms of treatment.
They have the art of carving statues and painted figures. They possess the game of chess, which is the noblest of games and requires more judgment and intelligence than any other.
They make Kedah swords, and excel in their use. They have splendid music, including that of the kankala, an instrument with a single string mounted on a gourd, which takes the place of the many stringed lute and cymbals. They know a number of sprightly dances.
To them belong the variety of arts from sword fighters to magicians and fumigators and medical skills. They posses a script capable of expressing the sounds of all languages as well as many numerals. They have a great deal of poetry, many long treatises, and a deep understanding of philosophy and letters; the book Kalila wa-Dimna originated with them.
They are intelligent and courageous, and have more good qualities than the Chinese. Their sound judgment and sensible habits led them to invent pins, cork and toothpicks, the drape of clothes and the dyeing of hair. They are handsome, attractive and forbearing, their women are proverbial, and their country produces the matchless Indian aloes which are supplied to kings.
They were the originators of the science of fikr by which a poison can be counteracted after it has been used, and of astronomical reckoning, subsequently adopted by the rest of the world. When Adam descended from Paradise, it was to their land that he made his way.
The Zanj also say: Among our good qualities are our good singers. As you can find among the slave girls from Sind. Also nobody is a better cook then the black slaves from Sind.
Also moneychangers will never entrust their money then to those from Sind or their descendents as they are found to be better in those affairs, more alert and worthy of thrusting .
One hardly ever finds a Greek or a Khorassan in a position of trust in a bank. When the bankers of Basra saw the excellent affairs that Faraj Abu Kub, a Sindi, had negotiated for his master, each of them took a Sindi assistant. They all wanted to make the profit his master had made. Caliph Sultan Abdelmalik ibn Mcrwan often said, "El Adgham is a master among all the Orientals." This El Adgham is also mentioned by Abdullar ibn Khnazim, who calls him, "An Ethiopian, a black son of Ethiopia. And this is all that came to my mind about what the blacks could be proud about.
In former books we wrote of the pride of the Qahtan and later on if God whishes I will write on the pride of the Adnam against the Qahtan in much of what they said.
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Parts like this part give us clues like I said in our discussion on the other site.
quote:b]They say:[/b] The blacks are more numerous than the whites. The whites at most consist of the people of Persia, Jibal, and Khurasan, the Greeks, Slavs, Franks, and Avars, and some few others, not very numerous; the blacks include the Zanj, Ethiopians, the people of Fazzan, the Berbers, the Copts, and Nubians, the people of Zaghawa, Marw, Sind and India, Qamar and Dabila, China, and Masin, the islands in the seas between China and Africa are full of blacks, such as Ceylon, Kalah, Amal, Zabij, and their islands, as far as India, China, Kabul, and those shores.
Is he talking about Black settlements from Africa or aboriginal Asian populations that are Black? Could he also possibly be talking about Australia where those Kilwa coins were found? Here are where things get interesting... The coins are saud to be 1,000 years ago and that correlates with the Zanj period. Of course the coins could've went there at a much later period as currencies can last a long time. Especially coins. However, would coins last all the way until the Portuguese era? More importantly I read before that Kilwa coins were only valuable inside Kilwa.
Furthermore... Like I said the coins correlate with the Zanj era and we know they settled Iraq and India. However, what are these islands? Ceylon, Kalah, Amal, Zabij?
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posted
Ceylon=Sri Lanka Zabij is either Sumatra or Java or Both Kalah I think if I remember correctly is Malaysia Amal I have no clue
quote:Originally posted by Askia_The_Great: @Jari
Parts like this part give us clues like I said in our discussion on the other site.
quote:b]They say:[/b] The blacks are more numerous than the whites. The whites at most consist of the people of Persia, Jibal, and Khurasan, the Greeks, Slavs, Franks, and Avars, and some few others, not very numerous; the blacks include the Zanj, Ethiopians, the people of Fazzan, the Berbers, the Copts, and Nubians, the people of Zaghawa, Marw, Sind and India, Qamar and Dabila, China, and Masin, the islands in the seas between China and Africa are full of blacks, such as Ceylon, Kalah, Amal, Zabij, and their islands, as far as India, China, Kabul, and those shores.
Is he talking about Black settlements from Africa or aboriginal Asian populations that are Black? Could he also possibly be talking about Australia where those Kilwa coins were found? Here are where things get interesting... The coins are saud to be 1,000 years ago and that correlates with the Zanj period. Of course the coins could've went there at a much later period as currencies can last a long time. Especially coins. However, would coins last all the way until the Portuguese era? More importantly I read before that Kilwa coins were only valuable inside Kilwa.
Furthermore... Like I said the coins correlate with the Zanj era and we know they settled Iraq and India. However, what are these islands? Ceylon, Kalah, Amal, Zabij?
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quote:Originally posted by -Just Call Me Jari-: Ceylon=Sri Lanka Zabij is either Sumatra or Java or Both Kalah I think if I remember correctly is Malaysia Amal I have no clue
quote:Originally posted by Askia_The_Great: @Jari
Parts like this part give us clues like I said in our discussion on the other site.
quote:b]They say:[/b] The blacks are more numerous than the whites. The whites at most consist of the people of Persia, Jibal, and Khurasan, the Greeks, Slavs, Franks, and Avars, and some few others, not very numerous; the blacks include the Zanj, Ethiopians, the people of Fazzan, the Berbers, the Copts, and Nubians, the people of Zaghawa, Marw, Sind and India, Qamar and Dabila, China, and Masin, the islands in the seas between China and Africa are full of blacks, such as Ceylon, Kalah, Amal, Zabij, and their islands, as far as India, China, Kabul, and those shores.
Is he talking about Black settlements from Africa or aboriginal Asian populations that are Black? Could he also possibly be talking about Australia where those Kilwa coins were found? Here are where things get interesting... The coins are saud to be 1,000 years ago and that correlates with the Zanj period. Of course the coins could've went there at a much later period as currencies can last a long time. Especially coins. However, would coins last all the way until the Portuguese era? More importantly I read before that Kilwa coins were only valuable inside Kilwa.
Furthermore... Like I said the coins correlate with the Zanj era and we know they settled Iraq and India. However, what are these islands? Ceylon, Kalah, Amal, Zabij?
Then he most likely meant Black aboriginal Asians.
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Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
posted
The boasts of the Zanj recorded by Al-Jahi are Afrocentric by any measure, sometimes Blackcentric though without a lot of extremism. No Euros are claimed among the blacks who, apparently, all are circum Indian Ocean peoples per 9th century Kenya/taNzania folk of the Arabian Peninsula.
posted
Yes the Nigritos, the Aeta, the Aboriginees of Austrialia, the Dravidians etc. people who often are on par or darker than various African groups in Darkness of skin.
The question is, were there any colonies of Zanj in S.E Asia. We know the Zanj were present on the Indian Subcontinent.
quote:Originally posted by Askia_The_Great:
quote:Originally posted by -Just Call Me Jari-: Ceylon=Sri Lanka Zabij is either Sumatra or Java or Both Kalah I think if I remember correctly is Malaysia Amal I have no clue
quote:Originally posted by Askia_The_Great: @Jari
Parts like this part give us clues like I said in our discussion on the other site.
quote:b]They say:[/b] The blacks are more numerous than the whites. The whites at most consist of the people of Persia, Jibal, and Khurasan, the Greeks, Slavs, Franks, and Avars, and some few others, not very numerous; the blacks include the Zanj, Ethiopians, the people of Fazzan, the Berbers, the Copts, and Nubians, the people of Zaghawa, Marw, Sind and India, Qamar and Dabila, China, and Masin, the islands in the seas between China and Africa are full of blacks, such as Ceylon, Kalah, Amal, Zabij, and their islands, as far as India, China, Kabul, and those shores.
Is he talking about Black settlements from Africa or aboriginal Asian populations that are Black? Could he also possibly be talking about Australia where those Kilwa coins were found? Here are where things get interesting... The coins are saud to be 1,000 years ago and that correlates with the Zanj period. Of course the coins could've went there at a much later period as currencies can last a long time. Especially coins. However, would coins last all the way until the Portuguese era? More importantly I read before that Kilwa coins were only valuable inside Kilwa.
Furthermore... Like I said the coins correlate with the Zanj era and we know they settled Iraq and India. However, what are these islands? Ceylon, Kalah, Amal, Zabij?
Then he most likely meant Black aboriginal Asians.
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posted
Interestingly when the Zanj claim the Copts they are claiming all of the Egyptians as black or a stock of Zanj
quote:The Zanj also say: The Copts too are blacks. Abraham the friend of God married one of them and so was born a big prophet the ancestor of the Arabs; Ismael.
So basically "black Egypt" has been an part of African identity as far back as the 9th century when Al-Jahiz composed this Kitab.
quote:Originally posted by Tukuler: The boasts of the Zanj recorded by Al-Jahi are Afrocentric by any measure, sometimes Blackcentric though without a lot of extremism. No Euros are claimed among the blacks who, apparently, all are circum Indian Ocean peoples per 9th century Kenya/taNzania folk of the Arabian Peninsula.
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quote:Originally posted by Jari-Ankhamun: [QB] Can we conclude that Al-Jahiz was the first "Afrocentric" The Ethiopians, the Berbers, the Copts, the Nubians, the Zaghawa, the Moors, the people of Sind, the Hindus, the Qamar, the Dabila, the Chinese, and those beyond them...the islands in the seas...are full of blacks...up to Hindustan and China." Would he have been taken serious if he were writing in today's time...This book is wonderful...enjoy
Al-Jahiz (776-869): Superiority Of The Blacks To The Whites
Is the idea that blacks are superior to whites Afrocentric?
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Everybody knows that the Zanj are among the most generous of mortals ; a quality that is found only among noble characters. These people have a natural talent for dancing to the rhythm of the tambourine, without needing to learn it. There are no better singers anywhere in the world, no people more polished and eloquent, and no people less given to insulting language.
All other peoples in the world have their stammerers, those who have difficulty in pronouncing certain sounds, and those who cannot express themselves fluently or are downright tongue-tied, except the Zanj. Sometimes some of them recite before their ruler continuously from sunrise to sunset, without needing to turn round or pause in their flow.
No other nation can surpass them in bodily strength and physical toughness. One of them will lift huge blocks and carry heavy loads that would be beyond the strength of most Bedouins or members of other races.
They are courageous, energetic, and generous, which are the virtues of nobility, and also good-tempered and with little propensity to evil. They are always cheerful, smiling, and devoid of malice, which is a sign of noble character. Some people say that their generosity is due to their stupidity, shortsightedness and lack of foresight, but our reply is that this is a scurvy way of commending generosity and altruism. At that rate the wisest and most intelligent man would be the most stingy and ungenerous.
This has a vibe of the stereotypical
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quote:Originally posted by Jari-Ankhamun: Can we conclude that Al-Jahiz was the first "Afrocentric"
perhaps not if this quote is correct
.
.
Kitab al Akhbar by Al-Jahiz (Book of the New) quoted by Nashwan Al-Himyari (d. 1178) Sharh Risalat al-Hur al-in Cairo 1367 (pp 227, 1948)
(excerpt on Byzantines quoting Al-Jahiz)
Having become interested in the Byzantine, we found that they were doctors, philosophers, and astronomers. They are familiar with the principles of music, are able to create Roman(weights and measures) and know the world of books. They are excellent painters........ They possess an architecture different from any other.... It is unarguable that they have beauty, are familiar with arithmetic, astrology, and calligraphy, and that they possess courage and a variety of great talents. The Blacks and similar peoples have less intelligence because they lack these qualities.
--The Classical Heritage in Islam By Franz Rosenthal, 1965 _____________________________________
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posted
Is the franz Rosenthal the translator? Because the other translations don't seem as racially abusive.
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quote:Originally posted by Thereal: Is the franz Rosenthal the translator? Because the other translations don't seem as racially abusive.
Al-Jahiz is thought to have written at least 200 books but 30 have survived.
: Al-Fakhar al-Sudan min al-Abyadh (the Prides of Blacks over the Whites)
^ This is only one of them and very short compared to modern day books
So when you talk about "other translations" the quote I posted is not from the Prides of Blacks over the Whites it is quoted from a different book of his _____________________________________
One of his most famous books is
Kitab al-Hayawan (Book of the Animals)
also
Kitab al-Bukhala (Book of Misers) also (Avarice & the Avaricious)
and
Kitab al-Bayan wa al-Tabyin (The Book of eloquence and demonstration)
________________________________
Franz Rosenthal ( 1914 – 2003) was a professor of Semitic languages at Yale from 1956 to 1967 and Sterling Professor Emeritus of Arabic, scholar of Arabic literature and Islam at Yale from 1967 to 1985. He became a US citizen in 1943 and during the war worked on translations from Arabic for the Office of Strategic Services in Washington, D.C. Following the war, His publications range from a monograph on Humor in Early Islam to a three-volume annotated translation of the Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun to a Grammar of Biblical Aramaic. For his translation of the Muqaddimah, he traveled to Istanbul and studied the manuscript there, among them Ibn Khaldun's autographed copy. His 1952 History of Muslim Historiography was the first study of this enormous subject. He wrote extensively on Islamic civilization, including The Muslim Concept of Freedom, The Classical Heritage in Islam, The Herb: Hashish versus Medieval Muslim Society, Gambling in Islam, On Suicide in Islam and Sweeter Than Hope: Complaint and Hope in Medieval Islam, Knowledge Triumphant: The Concept of Knowledge in Medieval Islam (Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1970), as well as three volumes of collected essays and two volumes of translations from the Arabic text of the history of the medieval Persian historian al-Tabari, Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk (History of the Prophets and Kings). Rosenthal continued to publish in German and in English. His books have been translated into Arabic, Russian, and Turkish.
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Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
posted
al-Jahiz was no Afrocentric. How much does he tell us about Africa? The boasts he records are made by the Zanj community. He also recorded merits of Turks of all people. Why he did either??? EDIT He was paid by a Turk to write Risāla fī manāqib al-atrāk wa-'āmmat jund al-khilāfa.
Al Jahiz (d. 868 A.D.) (over 400 years before the Ottoman Turks)
_________________________________
The writer al-Jahiz lived in the cosmopolitan city of Baghdad, the capital of the Muslim empire of the Abbasids. Al-Jahiz wrote about many subjects, including the Turkish soldiers who were gaining a presence in Baghdad. The Turks were a nomadic people from the northeastern edge of the empire. Known for their amazing military skills, the Turks first came into the Abbasid empire as soldier-slaves.
(excerpt, leaving out first section describing Turkic military horseman talents)
National Characteristics [of the Turks Relative to Other Peoples]
Know that every nation, people, generation or tribe that shows itself outstanding in craftsmanship or preeminent in eloquence, the various branches of learning, the establishment of empires or the art of war, only attains the peak of perfection because God has steered it in that direction and given it the means and the special aptitudes appropriate to those activities. Peoples of varying habits of thought, different opinions and dissimilar characters cannot attain perfection unless they fulfill the conditions needed to carry on an activity, and have a natural aptitude for it. Good examples are the Chinese in craftsmanship, the Greeks in philosophy and literature, the Arabs infields that we mean to deal with in their proper place...and the Turks in the art of war....The Chinese for their part are specialists in smelting, casting and metalworking, in fine colors, in sculpture, weaving and drawing; they are very skillful with their hands, whatever the medium, the technique or the cost of the materials. The Greeks are theoreticians rather than practitioners, while the Chinese are practitioners rather than theoreticians; the former are thinkers,the latter doers.The Arabs, again, were not merchants, artisans, physicians, farmers—for that would have degraded them—mathematicians or fruit-farmers—for they wished to escape the humiliation of the tax; nor were they out to earn or amass money, hoard possessions or lay hands on other people’s;they were not of those who make their living with a pair of scales;...they were not poor enough to be indifferent to learning, pursued neither wealth, that breeds foolishness, nor good fortune, that begets apathy, and never tolerated humiliation, which was dishonor and death to their souls. They dwelt in the plains, and grew up in contemplation of the desert. They knew neither damp nor rising mist, neither fog nor foul air, nor a horizon bounded by walls. When these keen minds and clear brains turned to poetry, fine language, eloquence and oratory, to physiognomy and astrology,genealogy, navigation by the stars and by marks on the ground,...to horse-breeding, weaponry and engines of war, to memorizing all that they heard, pondering on everything that caught their attention and discriminating between the glories and the shames of their tribes, they achieved perfection beyond the wildest dreams. Certain of these activities broadened their minds and exalted their aspirations, so that of all nations they are now the most glorious and the most given to recalling their past splendors.It is the same with the Turks who dwell in tents in the desert and keep herds: they are the Bedouins of the non-Arabs....Uninterested in craftsmanship or commerce, medicine, geometry,fruit-farming, building, digging canals or collecting taxes, they care only about raiding, hunting,horsemanship, skirmishing with rival chieftains, taking booty and invading other countries. Their efforts are all directed towards these activities, and they devote all their energies to these occupations. In this way they have acquired a mastery of these skills, which for them take the place of craftsmanship and commerce and constitute their only pleasure, their glory and the subject of all their conversation. Thus have they become in the realm of warfare what the Greeks are in philosophy, the Chinese in craftsmanship, and the Arabs in the fields we have enumerated.
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The factor that makes singing slave-girls fetch such extraordinary prices is simply the desire[they arouse], for if they were bought as ordinary slaves none of them would fetch more than the normal price per head. Most of the buyers who pay an exorbitant price for a young slave-girl do so out of passionate love. A buyer may start by having designs on a girl and seeking the simplest means of satisfying his lust; if then this turns out to be impossible, he descries his opportunity and has recourse to legal means, even though this was not his original intention. So he sells his possessions,loosens his purse-strings, and takes on his shoulders a burden of usurious interest in order to purchase the slave. After that the only profitable thing left for him to do is to go abroad with singing slave-girls and act as their procurer. All these [vicissitudes] he endures simply out of infatuation for the girls: having been frustrated in his aim by the severity of their masters, the conscientiousness of their keepers and the strictness of their seclusion, he is compelled to buy in order to have free use of the woman’s body, and thus Satan is kept at bay
__________________________________
. kitab mufakharat al-jawari wa'l ghilman “The Pleasures of Girls & Boys Compared,”
By Al-jahiz
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posted
I think the translation is a bit misleading, his "Superiority" of the Sudan is probably better translated as "Boasts" or an apologia of the Sudan, specifically the Zanj in response to the degredation by the Persian writers who compared them to uncivilized and dumb animals.
quote:Originally posted by the lioness,:
quote:Originally posted by Jari-Ankhamun: [QB] Can we conclude that Al-Jahiz was the first "Afrocentric" The Ethiopians, the Berbers, the Copts, the Nubians, the Zaghawa, the Moors, the people of Sind, the Hindus, the Qamar, the Dabila, the Chinese, and those beyond them...the islands in the seas...are full of blacks...up to Hindustan and China." Would he have been taken serious if he were writing in today's time...This book is wonderful...enjoy
Al-Jahiz (776-869): Superiority Of The Blacks To The Whites
Is the idea that blacks are superior to whites Afrocentric?
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Baalberith
Ungodly and Satanic Entity
Member # 23079
Kitab al Akhbar by Al-Jahiz (Book of the New) quoted by Nashwan Al-Himyari (d. 1178) Sharh Risalat al-Hur al-in Cairo 1367 (pp 227, 1948)
(excerpt on Byzantines quoting Al-Jahiz)
Having become interested in the Byzantine, we found that they were doctors, philosophers, and astronomers. They are familiar with the principles of music, are able to create Roman(weights and measures) and know the world of books. They are excellent painters........ They possess an architecture different from any other.... It is unarguable that they have beauty, are familiar with arithmetic, astrology, and calligraphy, and that they possess courage and a variety of great talents. The Blacks and similar peoples have less intelligence because they lack these qualities.
--The Classical Heritage in Islam By Franz Rosenthal, 1965 _____________________________________
This quote is undoubtedly mistranslated. His quotes concerning "Blacks" in negative light was actually in reference to the Zanj, not the Black race itself. Also, there are multiple occasions where numerous Arab scholars deliberately designated Red-Skinned people like the Byzantines as being intellectually inferior.
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quote:Originally posted by Baalberith: This quote is undoubtedly mistranslated. His quotes that concern "Blacks" in negative light was actually in reference to the Zanj, not the Black race itself.
quote: Etymology
Sudan
1842, from Arabic Bilad-al-sudan, literally "country of the blacks" (originally the stretch of Africa between the Sahara and the equator), from sud, plural of aswad (fem. sauda) "black." In early use also Soudan, from French. Related: Sudanese. Related entries & more
quote:
Abyadh
white
(excerpt, bolding added)
quote:Originally posted by Jari-Ankhamun:
Al-Jahiz (776-869): Al-Fakhar al-Sudan min al-Abyadh (Superiority Of The Blacks To The Whites)
The Zanj say: Black delights the eye. When the eyes hurt a common prescription is sitting in the dark with a rag over the eyes. Good eyesight is the most precious thing for a person. They say : The blacks are more numerous than the whites. The whites at most consist of the people of Persia, Jibal, and Khurasan, the Greeks, Slavs, Franks, and Avars, and some few others, not very numerous; the blacks include the Zanj, Ethiopians, the people of Fazzan, the Berbers, the Copts, and Nubians, the people of Zaghawa, Marw, Sind and India, Qamar and Dabila, China, and Masin... the islands in the seas between China and Africa are full of blacks, such as Ceylon, Kalah, Amal, Zabij, and their islands, as far as India, China, Kabul, and those shores.
The Zanj say: The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said: I was send to the red and the black. And everybody knows that the Zanj, Abyssinians and Nubians or surely not white or red but definitely black. We know that Allah, the Most Powerful and Exalted, sent His Prophet (to the people), all of them: Arabs and non-Arabs (ajam) alike. And if he (Muhammad) said: I was sent to the ruddy (Al-ahmar) and the dark-skinned (al-aswad), then in his view we are neither ruddy nor light-skinned (bid); so he was sent to us. Indeed, his use of the dark-skinned refers to us, as the people (of our community) are in one of these categories (i.e. either ruddy or dark-skinned). Therefore, if the Arabs are ruddy, then they belong to the Byzantines (Rum), Slaves (Saqaliba), Persians and Khurasanis. But if they belong to the dark-skinned peoples, then they are a sub-category of our stock. So they are called medium-complexioned and brownish-black (sumr sud) when they are classified with us.....
You really have to add on the people of Abyssinia, Nubia, Fazzan, Marawa, Zaghawa and all the other black tribes. Qahtan is far from Adman.
quote:Originally posted by Baalberith: This quote is undoubtedly mistranslated. His quotes that concern "Blacks" in negative light was actually in reference to the Zanj, not the Black race itself.
"The Blacks and similar peoples have less intelligence because they lack these qualities." --Kitab al Akhbar by Al-Jahiz
^^ This piece is not the famous Al-Fakhar al-Sudan min al-Abyadh (Superiority Of The Blacks To The Whites) also by Al Jahiz
But even if it was we can see even in the famous piece on the boasts of the Zanj that the black race is discussed, including dark skin tone and other groups, not just the Zanj
It's clearly a race piece comparing various groups Al-Jahiz classifies as "black" or "white" "ruddy" etc "Abyadh", according to skin tone
As has been shown Al-Jahiz wrote for different purposes in different pieces, merit of the Turks, Byzantines etc.
He is a particular Arab writer, not all Arab writers had the same opinions He wrote serious things and also satirical things.
If you wanted to question a translation you would need to begin with a reliable source text in Arabic
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Baalberith
Ungodly and Satanic Entity
Member # 23079
posted
Lioness, i’m Completely aware of his book, “The Glory of the Blacks over the Whites”, I have the book myself. Also, I never stated that the quote was from his book, I said that his quotes concerning the Black race do not actually refer to the Black race at all, but the Zanj and sometimes the Nubians and Abyssinians. I also, wasn’t questioning the authenticity of the quote, because I am familiar which such instances where Arab scholars that mentioned a Black “population” and happened to be translated by Western scholars, are particularly alter by Westerners. Western scholars usually changed the name of the ethnic group into the racial category, Negro or Black. This type thing happened with the Egyptian’s writings on the Nubians, where Westerners changed Nehesu, the name for the Nubians into Negro or Black.
Here is a quote from his book Kitab al-Bukhala; (Avarice & the Avaricious) for example:
quote:We know that the Zanj are the least intelligent and the least discerning of mankind, and the least capable of understanding the consequences of actions.
quote:Like the crow among mankind are the Zanj for they are the worst of men and the most vicious of creatures in character and temperament.
Now if he was referring to all Blacks, why would he describe the Indians as worth mentioning?
From his book Al-Bayan wa'l-tabyin (The explanation and the evidence)
quote:If you hear me mention al awwam, then I do not include in that the farmers, the people living in bad conditions, artisans, traders, as well as Kurds, the people of the islands, not those like the Berber, the Tailasaner, the Muqaner and the Gilaner (all on the shore of the Caspian Sea), the Zang and those who resemble the Zang. The people that are worth mentioning are four: the Arabs, the Persians, the Indians and the Byzantines. The others are savages (hamag) and those who resemble savages.
posted
^^^^The quote degrading the Zanj by Jahiz comes from the book of Misrs and yes he's referreing only to the Zanj not all blacks.
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quote:Originally posted by Baalberith: Lioness, i’m Completely aware of his book, “The Glory of the Blacks over the Whites”, I have the book myself. Also, I never stated that the quote was from his book, I said that his quotes concerning the Black race do not actually refer to the Black race at all, but the Zanj and sometimes the Nubians and Abyssinians.
You say you have a copy "Glory of the Blacks over the Whites” by Al Jahiz
( Al-Fakhar al-Sudan min al-Abyadh )
but what you are saying suggests the title of the book "Glory of the Blacks over the Whites” is incorrect
So what would a more correct translation of this books's title be?
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Baalberith
Ungodly and Satanic Entity
Member # 23079
quote:Originally posted by Baalberith: Lioness, i’m Completely aware of his book, “The Glory of the Blacks over the Whites”, I have the book myself. Also, I never stated that the quote was from his book, I said that his quotes concerning the Black race do not actually refer to the Black race at all, but the Zanj and sometimes the Nubians and Abyssinians.
You say you have a copy "Glory of the Blacks over the Whites” by Al Jahiz
( Al-Fakhar al-Sudan min al-Abyadh )
but what you are saying suggests the title of the book "Glory of the Blacks over the Whites” is incorrect
So what would a more correct translation of this books's title be?
quote:Originally posted by Baalberith: Lioness, i’m Completely aware of his book, “The Glory of the Blacks over the Whites”, I have the book myself. Also, I never stated that the quote was from his book, I said that his quotes concerning the Black race do not actually refer to the Black race at all, but the Zanj and sometimes the Nubians and Abyssinians.
That means you think that the title of the book is inaccurate
"Glory of the Blacks over the Whites” by Al Jahiz
( Al-Fakhar al-Sudan min al-Abyadh )
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So how would you translate the title of the book accurately ?
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Baalberith
Ungodly and Satanic Entity
Member # 23079
quote:Originally posted by Baalberith: Lioness, i’m Completely aware of his book, “The Glory of the Blacks over the Whites”, I have the book myself. Also, I never stated that the quote was from his book, I said that his quotes concerning the Black race do not actually refer to the Black race at all, but the Zanj and sometimes the Nubians and Abyssinians.
That means you think that the title of the book is inaccurate
"Glory of the Blacks over the Whites” by Al Jahiz
( Al-Fakhar al-Sudan min al-Abyadh )
___________________
So how would you translate the title of the book accurately ?
Lioness, I don't have preference for the title of his book, nor any other book for that matter. The book's title is translated in a number of different ways, "The Glory of the Blacks" and "The Glory of the Blacks over the Whites" are the most common titles for his book. So, I have no idea what your getting at.
quote:Originally posted by Baalberith: his quotes concerning the Black race do not actually refer to the Black race at all, but the Zanj
So here is Al Jhaiz's book title
Al-Fakhar al-Sudan min al-Abyadh
So what does it mean in your opinion?
It can't mean "The Glory of the Blacks over the Whites"
because "Blacks" and "Whites" are racial terms and you said he does not refer to the black race
so what does it mean?
You said about another quote
quote:Originally posted by Baalberith:
This quote is undoubtedly mistranslated.
You said that about a different quote and I'm asking you to apply the same critique of translation to the Glory of.. book
Al-Fakhar al-Sudan min al-Abyadh
we have
Fakhar meaning pride boast or glory
then we have Sudan and Abyad
so putting it all together what would a proper translation of the book's title be?
Isn't it also "undoubtedly mistranslated." ?
According to what you are saying
Al-Fakhar al-Sudan min al-Abyadh
the Glory of....
cannot be Glory of "blacks" or "whites" we would need different words to be more accurate to the Arabic, not blacks or whites
Do you think it it is more accurately translated as "Glory of the Africans over the Middle Easterners" ?
How can we apply what you are saying?
You said something was mistranslated and it was a problem. Now we are looking at something by the same author and talking about the translation and you are like "I don't have preference"
If you don't have a preference then why did you have a preference before when you said about a different quote " This quote is undoubtedly mistranslated. " ??
I'm talking about being consistent in your argument
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Baalberith
Ungodly and Satanic Entity
Member # 23079
posted
What are talking about? I was only concerned about the quote that you posted, which was in reference to the Zanj and not the Black race at all. I’m not concerned with the exact title for the book, because that was not my focus at all. I am more familiar with this title, than “Boast of the Blacks”, that why I used it.
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