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WHY THE ARABS WERE CALLED “THE BLACKS” Part II

DESCENDANTS OF ADNAN:THE NORTH ARABIAN TRIBES AND THEIR EARLY APPEARANCE ACCORDING TO EARLY MIDDLE EASTERN AND LATER COLONIAL WRITERS

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Modern bedouin of Sinai

Before discussing early descriptions of ALL of the Northern Arabian tribes individually it is important to understand who they were and their south Arabian origins.

“…The other chief Joktanite king was that of Hijaz, founded by Jurhum, the brother of Yaarub who left the Yemen and settled in the neighborhood fo Mecca. .. the name of their leader, and that of two of his successors was Mudad ( or El Mudad) who probably represents Almodad{Almodad]. Ishmael, according to the Arabs married a daughter of the first Mudad, whence sprang’ Adnan the ancestor of Mohammed. ..Fresnel cites an Arab author who identifies Jurhum with the Hadoram.” Dictionary of the Bible: Comprising Its Antiquities, Biography, Geography and Natural History, 1872 Volume 1 p. 141.

Arab tradition makes the "North Arabians" the descendents of NIZAR bin (son of )MA'AD bin (son of) ADNAN - Adnan is an ancestral name for of the Qudha’a clans of the Himyarites represented mainly by the Mahra people. Among them were and are clans named Bal Haf, Hadan, Gharib, Qunasah (or Kenz’irit ), Junaydah, Qama’ah and Hada. These are the names of clans mentioned in Arabian genealogy written down Arabic speaking historian - by al Tabari, Hamdani and others. Said the 9th c. al-Tabari, as for Nizar bin Ma’ad bin Adnan, “ His full brothers were Qunus, Qunasah, Sinam, Haydan, Haydah, Hayadah , Junayd, Junadah, al-Qam, Ubayd al Rammah, al- Urf, Awf, Shakk and Quda’ah.” (See The History of Al Tabarii Vol. VI Muhammad at Mecca).

The genealogy of the Mahra has been recounted by historians in Oman, “Haidan had two sons Mahrah and ‘Amr. The latter begat Majid, Gharid, Gharib, Yazid, en Nu’ma , edh-Dhaighar, el- Laha, and Janadah, …Mahra begat Samatra who had three sons… El –Imry begat el Kamar, and el Kamra, and el Masalla, and el-Masaka.”’ (From History of the Imams and Seyyids of Oman by Hamid Ruzayq 1871 p. 57 and 58 by George Percy Bedger London Hakluyt Society. )Kuda’ah/Quda’a (written Kuta’a, Kuta’ah, Kata’a etc.) was a clan of the Himyarites. The genealogy of the modern Mahra is thus, Mahra bin Haydan bin al Haf bin Quda’ah or Kuda’a. (Kudha’a may very well be Kuth son of Ham of Abyssinian royal genealogy, who is sometimes made synonymous with Phut.) Of the Yemen Ibn Khaldun living in the 1300s wrote, “Mahra, son of Haydan son of al Haf son of Kuda’ah reigned over the countries of Kuda’ah.” (See Yemen: Its Early Mediaeval History, Najm Umarah al-Hakami.)

In Africa the Hada or Hadda clan of Arabia are known among the Beja as Hada’ndawa or Haddendowa–the name meaning people (ndawa) of Hada. Similarly the Sabaean tribe of “Hadoram” known as Djorham (or Jurhum bin Peleg in al-Tabari‘s writings) a Himyarite ruler in Arab texts is said to be the Arabian name for the east African Hadorab clan of the Beja.

The Greeks appear to have called the clan the Adramitae, Adramyttti or Dreemati in the Yemen, where they are later called Hadrami or Hadarim. (The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol 12 by Hugh Chisholm 1910, p. 799) It is Arab historians themselves who connected the name of the Hadoraim with the spelling “Djorham” or “Jurhum” which is the name of one of earliest people of Mecca and Hijaz. (The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol 12 by Hugh Chisholm 1910, p. 799)

In south Arabian genealogy El Modad/Murith’ad ( Almodad), Djurhum/Jorham (Hadoram) are all Himyarite chiefs of Hejaz. One of the princesses of this line of Jurhum was named Rahil or Ra’ala (el Sayyidi meaning the noblewoman) who married Ismael/Ismail the son of Hajar or Hagar.(The latter were another Azd tribe al Hajr from the south the town of Misr in Wadi Bisha who settled the oases of Ruhay ( Be’er Lahi Roi) which is also located in Wadi Bisha according to Kamal Salibi. See, Secrets of the Bible, London, 1988) The descendants of these were the Ismaelites also called children of Kedar. From Yaarub (also written Yarab, Yarob or Iarob) brother of Jurhum comes the name Arab, Arib or Arabiyya. Thus,Ishmaelites became known as Must’aribi or “Arabiyya” through adoption.

The idea that the Must’aribi and the Arabi represented two different “types” or “races” of Arabs – Ishmaelites and Qahtanids was due to misunderstanding of ancient genealogy and later political rivalries between northern Arabs and southern Arabs dating from the Christian era and lasting into early Islamic times.

Biblical scholars have found that in early Christian iconography “Midianites (Ishmaelites) are repeatedly depicted as black”. (Goldenberg, p. 308). It is said in both Arab and Judaic tradition that after Keturah (Kathira) settled in Beer Laha Roi (which is in Arabia according to Salibi) and the tribe came to be called Hagar. The Keturah and Ishmaelites were the same people. They came north from the Yemen as did the people of Djurhum brother of Yarab. The term “Ishmaelite” in the hebrew Bible was synonymous with the term “Midianites.” The identification of the children of Keturah with the children of Hagar is witnessed in Genesis 37:28 and other places where the Midianites are called Ishmaelites. 9See also Goldenberg p. 229).

These Kedarenes or Nabataeans who are the Ishmaelites are also mentioned in certain late Assyrian sources as “Amurru”. The Syrians and others who adopted Arabic nationality or who had been colonized by the Arabs, came to presume names such as Nabit, Kanaan meant “black” people. But it is just as likely that the term Kedar or Qaydhar meaning black in Arabic as in Hebrew was in fact applied anachronistically to the first Arabs after coming into contact with the fairer peoples of Syria. Some Arab tribes that had not mixed with fair-skinned people in late Islamic times came to be called “Khudar” meaning simply "the black ones”.

David Goldenberg, author of The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity and Islam wrote, “Dimashqi, who lists the Nabataeans (Nbt) among the descendants of Ham together with the Copts, the BrBr (Berbers) and the Sudan … and the Akkbar al Zaman, which lists the Nabit, among the children of Canaan… also said the word, ‘Nabit’ signifies ‘black’…” (see p. 313).

The Arabian tradition holds that Mecca in Hejaz was the home of Djurham (Hadoram of Genesis) who were the uncles of the Ishmaelites and Mudad (Almodad of Genesis) of the Jurhumites were the uncles and grandfathers of the Nabataeans and Ishmael. “The story of Jurhum, of their filling in the well of Zamzam, of their leaving Mecca, and of those who ruled Mecca after them until Abd al-Muttalib …is that Ishmael the son of Nabat was in charge of the shrine as long as God willed then it was in charge of Mudad ibn Amr of the Jurhum. The sons of Ishmael and the sons of Nabat were with their grandfather Mudad ibn Amer and their maternal uncles of Jurhum – Jurhum and Qatura who were cousins being at that time the people of Mecca. They had come forth from the Yemen and travelled together and Mudad was over Jurhum while Sumayda’, one of their men, was over Qatura…” from the book, Ibn Ishaq published in 1955: 45-46) cited on page 9 in, Muhammad and the Origins of Islam, by Francis E. Peters, 1994).

MA’AD SON OF ADNAN - The mother of Ma’ad is said to be Lahm or Liham who is a descendant of Jokshan brother of Zimran, Madan and Madi’an or (ancestor of the Midianites) the children of Ibrahim. Ma’addi or Me’eddi are called Madani by Greeks and are probably the Mydi’an mentioned by Arab writers such as of Andalusia. According to Sa’id of Andalusia after the destruction of Marib, the Shamran (Zimran), Al-Hujr (Hagar), Daws, Myda’an Midi’an, Yashkur, Bariq moved into the went into al-Surat (the Sara’at mountain range). (See Science in the Medieval World, Alok Kumar and Sema’an Salem, p. 43, 1996 .)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb1Ze6Pv4hE&feature=related
See Shamran tribe in Yemen see here.

Ma’add or Ma’ad , was traditionally the brother of Akk and Dahhak. It is said Akk left for Samran in the Yemen and Ma’add and after Nebuchanezzar came the tribe was transported away to Armiya and Barkhiya (Jeremiah and Baruch) Harram and then moved back to Mecca. The Katibu 'l-Waqidi says: "God watched over 'Adnan's son Ma’add, who was by the command of the Lord taken by the leader prophets Armiya and Abrakha (Barukh) into the land of Harram and nurtured safely." (A Dictionary of Islam p. 227 by Thomas Patrick Hughes, 1996). They are mentioned in ancient 3rd century Syrian inscriptions together and with the Maddhij to whom they were probably closely related. By one tradition the mother of Kuda’ah married Ma’ad, the father of Nizar, whose brothers were the Mahra ancestors of Janadah, Haydan, Hada , El Qamah, Qunaysah and Quda’a or Kudha’a. Nizar’s son was Mudar (Muzar or Muzir).


MUDAR SON OF NIZAR SON OF MA’AD – Mudar’s mother was Saudah bayt Akk. According to Hamdani the Banu Akk whose name came from Akk, son of Adnan lived just north of Zabid located in the Tihama part of Yemen. Major branches of the Mudarites were El Nas and El Yas. El Nas is also known as Ailan or Qays Ailan while El Yas is called Elias. These tribes are also named Khindif or after his wife Khindif of the Kuda’ah - her genealogy being Layla bint Hulwan b. Imran b. Haf b. Kuda’ah.

DESCRIPTIONS OF “THE MUDARITES” OR NORTH ARABIAN TRIBES

QAYS AILAN (EL NAS) bin MUDAR of the ADNAN - major branches were the Hawazin and Sulaym bin Mansur and Ghatafan. Ailan or Al Nas brother of El Yas (or Elias) was son of MUDAR son of Nizar son of Ma’ad son of Adnan.

SULAYM bin Mansur (variously written Solaymi, Sulaym, Suleim Sulaymiyyah, Suwaleim, Solaym, etc.) from Khasafa son of QAYS AILAN - Al Jahiz wrote, “… there are black tribes among the Arabs, such as the Banu Soleym bin Mansur, and that all the peoples settled in the Harra, besides the Banu Soleym are black…. they take their concubines from among the Byzantines; and yet it takes less than three generations of living in the Harra for the original complexion of Banu Soleym to return.” Al Jahiz an Iraqi man 9th century Iraqi writer.

Ibn Athir, a Kurdish man of the 11th century, also makes mention of the “blackness” of a man of the Soleym (variously written Solaymi, Sulaym, Salim, Selim, Suleim and Solaym in texts) whom he refers to as “of the pure Arabs”. For a full account of the story of Sa’d al-Aswad (S’ad the black). see Tarikh e-Ibn Athir, 2:336-337. Noted clans of Banu Sulaym include Assiya/`Usayya, Ra`l or Rahil, Dhakwan or Zakwan, Debab, Zageb or Zogby and Habib.

Numerous direct ancestors of the Prophet (pbuh) belonged to the Sulaym tribe including Banua Ateeqa or Atika. The Prophet even said I am the son of many Atikah’s of the Sulaym - the last of which was Atikah bayt al Awqas al -Sulaymi his own grandmother.

Muharrib bin Khasafa of QAYS AILAN – Ibn Mandour claimed when it is said “’green Muharrib’ what is meant is their blackness”. Lisaan al Arab Vol. 1. 13th century A.D.

HAWAZIN BIN MANSUR (also written Hawazim/Awazin)- include modern Masruh (Harb) clans of Hamidah, Salim, Ateyyiba, Haweit’at and Beni Amer bin Sa’sa’a clans of Jada’a bin Ka’b or Uqayl, Muntafiq, and Rabi’ah.

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Painting of Hawazin bedouin from life by a European artist of over 100 years ago visitng Hijaz

Hamida/Ahamidah (Of the Banu Salim branch of the HAWAZIN) - 1879 - On the Hamida clan of the Hawazin of Hejaz “small chocolate colored beings, stunted and thin… mops of bushy hair… straggling beards , vicious eyes, frowning brows … armed with scabbards slung over the shoulder and Janbiyyah daggers…” a people “of the great hejazi tribe that has kept his blood pure” for the last 13 centuries…” Richard Francis 1879 Burton Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to el Medina and Mecca .p. 173 3rd edition William Mullen and Son

Ateyyibah of the HAWAZIN - (Ateyba, Utaiba, Ateibe, Otaiba, etc.) Over a century ago James Hamilton wrote, “they wore their hair in long curly plaits” and their skin was “a dark brown”. (See pp. 129-130, Wanderings Around the Birthplace of Mohammed, published by R. Bentley, 1857. )

Haweitat of the HAWAZIN also written HOWEITAT/HUWAYT’AT - In 1887 one European traveler in the region wrote of a sheikh of the Huweitat tribes: “The sheikh soon afterwards appeared. He was a dirty, truculent looking fellow, with very black eyes and very white teeth, a sinister expression, and complexion scarcely less dark than that of a negro.” (P. Austen Henry Layard, Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana, and Babylonia: Including … pg. 32. Published by J. Murray.)

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Modern Haweitat bedouin of Jordan from the Banu Masruh of the HAWAZIN

Beni Amer Bin Sa’sa’a of the HAWAZINinclude the Ka’b bin Rabi’a including included of Jada’ah, Uqayl, Muntafiq, Kilab and Kulaib. Jada’a bin Ka’ab and Kulaib and other clans of Rabi’a left the southwest of Yemamah ( north of the Rub al Khali) by the 9th century and headed for Iraq and Syria in support of other Arabian followers of Mohammed who had settled those countries. Many after the 15th century moved into Khuzestan area in Iran where they were called Tsiab.

Ka’b of Beni Amer bin Sa’sa’a (also written Ka’ab, Cha’ab, Chub, Tsiab) – “The Cha’ab Arabs, the present possessors of the more southern parts of Babylonia are nearly black...” The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World: Or, The History, Geography, and Antiquites of Chaldœa, Assyria, Babylon, Media, and Persia, Vol. II

The Muntafik tribe along with the Ka’b were called the complexion of “Galla” Ethiopians by Rawlinson and others.

A relatively recent article by journalists in the Middle East entitled Iraq’s Blacks reads:

“There are two main categories of blacks in Iraq, mostly in the south, who total about 300,000: those of East African origin, numbering around 100,000; and those of who are Arab… The latter are mostly from the Muntafek tribe… But both groups used to be far more numerous in the past centuries, many of them having intermarried with the locals and thus the colour of their skin has since been changed, though most remain darker than other Iraqis …”

1854 - On the tribes of Beni Amer ibn Za’za’a Arabians of Khuzestan Iran, “The faces and limbs of these Arabs were almost black from constant exposure to the sun. They were nearly naked and their hair was plaited in long tresses shining with grease…” p. 85 of Henry Layard’s, Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana and Babylonia, republished 2003

1878 – Francois Lenormant describes people of Lamlun in Iran (Khaza’il) as “almost Melanian” on p. 351 of his Chaldean magic : or It’s origin and Development or Magie Chez les Chaldaeans, he also writes : “Part of the marshy region around the Persian Gulf was inhabited by people who were nearly black. A remnant of these are yet extant in the Lamlun whom the French traveler, Texier has described and who are allied …to the Bisharis…” p. 518-519. (The Bishari or Bishariin are a tribe of the Bedja living in southern Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea east Africa.)

Some say the Khaza’il are descended from the Lam and Tayyi tribes.

Rabia’h bin MUDAR - Rabiah mother is sometimes said to be Shuqayqah. Clans of Rabiah include the Aklub, Taghlib, Bakr and Anaeza bin Wa’il, Taghlib a branch of the Dawasir was brother of Bakr bin Wa’il. The descendants of Bakr were said to have fathered the well-documented tribes of Banu Shayban or Sayban, Hanifah and Yashkur. (See The Yemen in Early Islam by Abd'al Muhsin Mad'aj, 1988 p on Sayban as a clan of Mahra)).

The Bait or Bayt Hanifa a dark brown clan of the Mahra are called Khanafir among the Dawasir and Bait Issakron are called Ishkara or Ushayqir (Yashkur) are mentioned as Mahra and Dawasir clans by colonialists which suggests they branched off from one another. Individuals of the Bayt Hanifa and Bayt Issakron of the Mahra have been described as of very dark brown complexion. (“Anthropological Observations in South Arabia”, Bertram Thomas in The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 62 83-103 Jan-June 1932, and. “Geography of Southern Arabia” by Baron von Maltzan, in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol. 16, No. 2 , pp. 115-123.)

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Ma'aza tribe - it is said Ma'aza (the he- goat) and Ana'aza (she-goat) were brothers and two sons of Wa'il.

Salul are from the Shayban bin Thalaba branch of Bakr bin Wa’il. Shahran are said to be from Kha’tham who participated in the exodus from Marib with Aram and Azd (Gatam in the book of Genesis is brother of Amalek and Kenaz. They are all sons of Eliphaz ). The tribes named Jada’ah also were closely related.

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A recent Imam of Mecca descended from the Bakr and Taghlib bin Wa'il.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K09VyS7TuSg

Members of the Aklub, Shahran and Salul in the above video from Bisha in South Saudi Arabia belong to the Bakr bin Wa'il, Azd and Kha'tham. The genealogy of Aklub is Aklub bin Rabi’a bin Mudar bin Nizar bin Ma'ad of the Adnanites


EL YAS (Elias) – well-known branches Kenana, Hudhayl, Quraysh

Hudhail (Hudhayl/Hadhal/Huzhail) bin Mudrika – Mudrika was the son of Eliyas according to tradition and his brother Khuzaynah was the father of Kenana.

Charles Doughty in his 1888 book, Travels in Arabia Deserta, describes the Hudhal whom he calls “Hatheyl” living in the mountains between Mecca and al-Ta’if to the north and in the Marr al Zahran - including the Laheyan clan of Hatheyl (anciently known as Lihyan founders of the ancient Lihyanite dynasty). He calls them a people whose “skins were black and shining”. (see p. 535, Travels in Arabia Deserta, 1933 Edition). The villages of Hudhayl were composed of beehive dwellings in the Wadi Fatimah as they are in parts of the Tihama and east Africa.

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Tihama man near beehive hut

The appearance of the Hadhal or Hudhail and other tribes related to the Kenaniyya and Sulaym/Hawazin in Hijaz explains why the the region was still universally considered part of “East Africa” according to Richard Burton. (See Pilgrimage to Mecca and Al-Madinah, Chapter 25.) The capital of the Lihyanites was Dedan in Jordan and dates from around the 6th to 4th centuries B.C.

The villages of Hudhayl were composed of beehive dwellings in the Wadi Fatimah. There are also mountains of Hudhal in Somalia where the original Hudhail people along with other Hijazis no doubt later settled with their “skins black and shining”. Beehive dwellings and tombs date back in East Africa, the Arabian peninsula and elsewhere these same Neolithic peoples settled.

Not surprisingly in Palestine there are a group of “red” or fair- skinned “Arabs” called Hudhail ((Huzail) further north in Palestine - descendants in large part of Circassians especially the concubines brought from the Caucasus regions during the Ottoman period like so many modern peoples north of Arabia.
There are also mountains of Hudhal in Somalia where the original Hudhail people along with other Hijazis no doubt later settled with their “skins black and shining”.

Makhzum a clan of Hudhail and Quraysh (of EL YAS) - are described by al Jahiz of Iraq 9th century. He said, “ The Mughira tribe are the Khudr of the tribe of Makhzum. “ The Banu al-Mughira got their name from chief of the clan of Makhzum – Walid ibn Mughira .

Tamim bin Murra ( of EL YAS) – in the Unknown Arabs we learn of the story told by the Central Asian historian Esfehan or Asbehan about Miskeen an Arab (Arabian) poet living in the 7th century. During this time the early Iranian Abna or Ebna (Persians) had settled in Yemen, had taken over Sana’a and other towns particularly in the Yemen and had begun intermixing with certain Arab clans allied with them .

Miskeen el Darimi from the Tabikha branch of El Yas (Tabikha was said to be son of son of El Yas). He was mad after being rejected by a girl he liked who had gone for a lighter skinned man who wasn’t of pure Arab stock . He exclaimed “my complexion is brown, which is the complexion of the Arabs” Miskeen then read a poem to the couple that praised himself for being an unmixed Arab and insulted the husband for being of mixed background. In this day many Arab tribes had a strong contempt for the Ebna (Persian settlers) and Arabs were called out for what they were either purely Arab or “mixed” with non-Arabs.

Tamim bin Murra are the clan that went on to found the first Islamic dynasty in Sicily where the major city Palermo is referred to as the gate of the Blacks by geographer Ibn Hawkal of the 10th century. The Pope of the time named Leo refers to them as Saraceni and “Hagareni”, as these children of Elyas in fact were the people of Hagar.

Kenahna bin Khuzaymah bin Mudrikah (of EL - YAS) – (Kinaniyyah, Cana’ani) – Kinana was the Nephew of Hudhail whose brother was Khuzaymah. Khuzaymah may be Kedemah brother of Kedar or Qaydhar and Nabit (of the Ishmaelites).

One can not say about the Cana’anites what has not already been said. In traditions of early Syrians, Iranians and later European peoples of Jewish heritage the Canaanites are black in complexion. Description of the early Canaanites are well worth repeating because people seem to forget how the latter were recognized.

The lowland of Kunana or Banu Kinaniyyah tribes are south of Mecca and Medina in Arabian tradition. There are villages in southwestern Arabia named Kun’an in the vicinity of Wadi Bisha and Asir according to Salibi. There are also clans of black people in modern Israel in the region of Jericho.

Bernard Lewis quotes a “Syrian” Saint named Ephrem of Nisibis, Turkey, saying that Noah said, “Accursed be Canaan and may God make his face black,… whereupon the face of Canaan and Ham became black…” Lewis on the same page also mentioned Ibn Qutayba of Iraq who between 828 – 89AD asserted, “Wah ibn Munabbih said the sons of Ham were changed into blacks’ some of his children went to the West…Fut settled in India and Sind, Kush and Kan’an’s descendants are the various races of blacks: Nubians, Zanj, Qaran, Zaghawa, Ethiopians, Copts, and Berbers. (Kitab al-Ma’arif, ed. Tharwat Ukasha, 2nd ed. (Cairo, 1969) p. 26)’ ” (See page 124 in Race and Slavery in the Middle East. an Historical Enquiry, Oxford University Press, 1992.)


Traditionally among Syrian and Iraqi historians the Kanaan were black and the children of Ham, cursed by God. The 4th century Syriac work, Cave of Treasures gives the explanation that Canaan's curse was actually earned because of his connection with Cain. Goldenberg adds “the work explains Canaan invented musical instruments by means of which sin had multiplied through the world through song and lewd play and …lasciviousness”…”

The descendants of Canaan according to this text were the eguptae (Egyptians), the kusaye (Kushi), hinduye, Musraye or Musdae, (the latter refers to the Arabian Musra tribal confederation). Later Arabic versions of the same text translate the name Musraye as Mosirawiyen and adds the name Musin or (translated Mysians) but which is likely to be the clan of Muhsin or Mazin. The name Mysa or Mysian on the other hand are thought be some scholars to be derived from the “black Syrians” mentioned by Greeks like Strabo.

Ibn al-Tayyib an 11th century Iraqi Christian “scholar” of Baghdad, died in the mid 11th century and is said to have said: “The curse of Noah affected the posterity of Canaan who were killed by Joshua son of Nun. At the moment of the curse, Canaan’s body became black and the blackness spread out among them.” Joannes C.J. Sanders, Commentaire sur la Genèse, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 274-275, Scriptores Arabici 24-25 (Louvain, 1967), 1:56 (text), 2:52-55.

Another 13th century Syrian of Christian faith named Bar Hebraeus : “‘And Ham, the father of Canaan saw the nakedness of his father and showed [it] to his two brothers.’ …Canaan was cursed and not Ham, and with the very curse he became black and the blackness was transmitted to his descendents…. And he said, ‘Cursed be Canaan! A servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.’” Sprengling and Graham, Barhebraeus’ Scholia on the Old Testament, pp. 40–41, to Gen 9:22.

“Eutychius, Alexandrian Melkite patriarch (died in 940 A.D.) said : “Cursed be Ham and may he be a servant to his brothers… He himself and his descendants, who are the Egyptians, the Sudan, the Ethiopians and (it is said) the Barbari.” Patrologiae cursus completes…series Graeca, ed. J.P. Migne (Paris, 1857-66), Pococke’s (1658-59) translation of the Annales, 111.917B (sec. 41-43)” (Goldenberg, p. 173) Curse of Ham
Akhbar al Zaman, attributed to the Syrian al Mas'udi, says “among the descendants of Sudan son of Kanaan” were “the Eshban”and “the Zanj”.

The black Zanj were according to tradition originally Azd and are early mentioned in the Persian text - Bundehisn. In fact the Azd moved to Oman in ancient times and are known by tradition as Azd Uman or Oman. The Banu Julandi or Jalanda from the Azd tribe of Oman were ancestral to the original Zanj or Zanzibari Arabs who came to mix with other Africans. (See The Swahili: The Social Landscape of a Mercantile Society by Mark Horton and John Middleton, 2000.) In time most blacks along the African coast of the Zanj and in fact black Indonesians were included among the Zanj peoples.

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Modern man of the Kinaniyya in Israel/Palestine

According to Bernard Lewis the Arabic historians wrote of the tribes of KUSH AND CANAAN comprising “the various races of blacks” (see Bernard Lewis’s, Race and Slavery in the Middle East 1992, p. 124). Lewis says, The Kitab al Ma’arif includes the "Qaran" who are the Banu Murad of the Banu Maddhij (see part I)from whom came the Abs, Dhibyan or Zubyan (Zibeon of the Hivite of Canaan) and Ghatafan/Ghutayf.

Another tribe of the KENAANI was Ithran who appears under the name Bothran or Yathrib in Arabic writings, and Eshban who interestingly appears under the name Yeshban, Besman and Sanbar in Tabari . Sanbar bin Yathrib was father of Hamdan. (See p. 39 of The History of El Tabari Vol. ) Elswhere Tabari says Ithran and Eshban are called Yashbin or Beshman son of Bathrani or Bathram. Again Bashman is father of Hamdan an Edomite and Canaanite in the Torah or Old Testament of the Bible who is also called Hamayda.

It is probably no coincidence that among the Dawasir tribes who descend from the Azd mentioned as living in Central Arabia and southern Hijaz today are in fact called Basman, Badran, Hamdan, Hamayda, Kana’an and Qainan. (Gazeteer of the Persian Gulf, by John Gordon Lorimer 1908, pp. 108,110, 393-394, 622) Furthermore the tribes of Ghanim and Makhramah, Nadir tribes still found among the Dawasir were called “the full blooded brothers of al Nadr” bin Kinanah. (See the Gazeteer …p. 393-394 ; Tabari, p. 31, 1988, Vol. 6).

Muhsin (usually written Mazin by early Arab writers) a tribe “of Cana’an” see above - is one of several ancestors of the Dawasir and still a major clan of the Hamdan tribe of them. It is safe to say the many of the near black tribes among the Dawasir (there are now many fair-skinned Dawasir as well as a good number of African slaves brought into the Wadi Dawasir area in the last several centuries) now living in Central and southern Arabia are descendants of the Azd a people described as “jet black” in the hadith “Al Israa Wa Al Mi'raaj” and like descendants of Hudhail (with “black and shining” skins) who was the uncle of Kenana, they are the living descendants of Kana’anites of Edom and Israel.

According to Kamal Salibi’s controversial book published in the 1970s, The Bible Came from Arabia, the early Dawasir regions of Zahran, Asir and Wadi Bisha in southwestern Arabia were in fact the kingdoms of Israel and Canaan written of in the Old Testament before the time of Nebudchadnezzar. In any case the Cana’anites were evidently no mythological people.
QURAYSH – the clan the Muslim Prophet (pbuh) was born into were also known as Fihr and were a clan of Ka’b bin Lu’ayy - branch of Kenana (KANA’AN). Fihr was father of Lu’aay bin Ghalib and grandson of Nadr bin “Kinanah “al Qurashi”. (al Tabari, p. 20) Ghalib’s mother was a woman of Hudayl. Fihrs mother was from the Jurhum/Djorham; Lu’ayy’s other was from Kinanah, through abnd Atikah daughter of Yakhlud bin Nadr. Ka’bs mother was a descendant of Qud’a. All names of “black” tribes discussed previously. In fact all of the rest of the forefathers of the Muhammed married with women of the Sulaym, Khazraj, Quda’ah and Kenaniyyah or Cana’ani tribes, so that it is no wonder that when the Prophet Muhammed is born the Quraysh tribe was still noted for its blackness.
The quote from the great Central Asian poet Rumi summarizes what the Quraysh and early Ummayad families resembled. He wrote in his poem: "You insulted them (the family of the Prophet Mohamed) because of their blackness while there are still pure-blooded black-skinned Arabs. “ In fact Quraysh are still found among the black Kenaniyyah tribes still living in Israel/Palestine.

Early descriptions of Muhammed’s family are found in the Chapter 9 of the book, The Unknown Arabs by Tariq Berry. They include citations from various Arabic speaking historians about the black complexions of Muhammad’s famous uncles, cousins, from the Quraysh clans of Banu Zuhra, Jumah, Makhzoum and Abd Manaf. The chapter also speaks of the sons of including his grandfather Abdel Muttalib representing the tribe of Hashem. “The 10 Lordly sons of Abdel Mutallib were deep black in color and tall and huge “, said the 9th century Jahiz in his Fakhr al Sudan ala al Bidaan.

All of these tribes were the clans of El Yas and El Nas the north Arabians whom were after the time of Muhamad to found many dynasties in the Middle East extending in the west to the Iberian peninsula. The descriptions of the southern Arabians are similar and the leaders of the Arabs took their people into France were men named al Sulamah and al Ghafiq (meaning from the tribe of Ghafiq) who had come from the “jet black” Azd (see part I). In fact, the latter’s full name was Abdu’l Rahman al Ghafiqi. The Ghafiq are also listed as one of the clans or batns of Akk or Banu Akk during early Islam (Mad’aj. P. 92). And when they brought their people both men and women with skins shining like jet into the region to fight against Charles Martel in Toulouse it was mostly the men of Arabian or pure Arab stock who went down in history as being “Moors” “blacker than ink” and “black as burnt brands”.

As was mentioned previously it was the last wave of the children of Ham, Shem and Japhet into the wider world. Thousands of years before the ancestors of these African Asiatics had moved into the Central Arabian deserts and coastal areas of Arabia where they had brought Neolithic civilization based on matrifocal societies and astronomical knowledge which were linked to vast knowledge of the stars and conscious behind the cosmos and the veneration of the mother Goddess.

Archeology and rock art shows some of these populations had links to the small gracile people of the Bronze Age cultures of Egypt and Nubia that were also present in the Levant (Ghassul/ Mushabian) before the ancestors of modern Eurasiatics entered the region, others were linked to the tall slender pastoralists of Neolithic Sahara, and still others to the large bodied wide-nosed Ubayd people who had once settled the fertile crescent and probably descended from earlier Natufians.

By the time of the prophet Muhammad, Yemen had had much settlement by Iranians, but even in the medieval period much of Arabia especially in the Central -North and North -West (Hijaz and al Harra) and remained part of the Afro-Asiatic world at least appearance –wise and culture. Since that time the Arabians have been mixed with the people they called “red” but their religion based on the submission to Allah – a name under which some of them had worshipped the Divine for thousands of years before Mohammed (pbuh) was born - is still on the move.

 -
Saudi Bedouin


REFERENCES

Berry, Tariq. (2002). The Unknown Arabs. http://www.savethetruearabs.com/

Burton, Richard. (1855).. A Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah Chapter 25.

Goldenberg, David. (2003). The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Princeton University Press.

Kay, Henry Cassels. (1892). Yaman: Its Early Medeiaval History - al Hakami, Ibn Khaldun.

Khanam , R. (2005). Encyclopaedic ethnography of Middle-East and Central Asia, Global Vision Publishing House.

Lorimer, John G. (1908). Gazeteer of the Persian Gulf:‘Oman and Central Arabia, Vol II Calcutta.

Mad’aj, Abdul .Muhsin. (1988).The Yemen in Early Islam (9-233/630-847): A Political History, Ithaca Press.

Watt, W. Montgomery and McDonald, M.V. (1988). A History of al-Tabari Muhammad at Mecca Vol. VI, SUNY PRESS.

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