Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry by Bernard Lewis Page A

darker and more specifically black
skins. A story is told concerning the Arab conquest of Egypt which, if authentic, may well be the last surviving example of the older attitude. The story tells
how a certain Arab leader called 'Ubada ibn al-Samit took a party of Muslims
to meet the Muqawqis, the great Christian functionary who at one point led
the defenders of Egypt. 'Ubada (the chronicler tells us) was "black," and
when the Arabs came to the Muqawqis and entered his presence, 'Ubada led
them. The Muqawqis was frightened by his blackness and said to them: "Get
this black man away from me and bring another to talk to me."
    The Arabs insisted that `Ubada was the wisest, best, and noblest among
them and was their appointed leader, whom they obeyed and to whose judgment they deferred. The Muqawqis asked:
    "How can you be content that a black man should be foremost among you? It is
more fitting that he should be below you."
    "Indeed no," they replied, "for though he is black, as you see, he is still the
foremost among us in position, in precedence, in intelligence and in wisdom,
for blackness is not despised among us."
    The Muqawqis asked 'Ubada to speak gently to him, because speaking
harshly would increase the dread already inspired by his blackness. The narrative concludes with 'Ubada stepping forward and saying to the Muqawqis: "I
have heard what you say. Among the men I command there are a thousand,
all of them black, indeed blacker and more frightening than I. If you saw
them, you would be very frightened indeed.""
    There are two interesting points about this story. The first is that the black
man appears as a figure of terror rather than of contempt, though that element is not entirely lacking. The second, and far more important, is that
`Ubada is not an African or even of African descent but (as the chroniclers are
careful to point out) a pure and noble Arab. Here "black" is still a personal and relative term describing an individual's complexion and not an ethnic
absolute denoting the distinguishing marks of a race. "Blackness is not despised among us" means no more than that persons of dark complexion are
not considered inferior to those of light complexion. The episode of the noble
but swarthy `Ubada occurred at the very beginning of Arab expansion. Under
the patriarchal caliphs and still more under the Umayyad caliphs in the late
seventh and early eighth centuries, we find ample evidence of a radical change
of attitudes.

     



The evidence for the growth of anti-black prejudice comes in the main from two
groups of sources. The first of these is literary, especially poetry and anecdote.
Several Arabic poets, of the pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods, are described as "black" and are known collectively, to the literary tradition, as
aghribat al-'Arab-"the crows of the Arabs."' Some of them-mostly preIslamic-were Arabs of swarthy complexion; others were of mixed Arab and
African parentage. For the latter, and still more for the pure Africans, blackness was an affliction. In many verses and narratives, they are quoted as suffering from insult and discrimination, as showing resentment at this, and yet in
some way as accepting the inferior status resulting from their African ancestry.
    One such was the poet Suhaym (d. 660), born a slave and of African
origin. His name, obviously a nickname, might be translated as "little black
man." In one poem he laments:

    In another he defends himself (in striking anticipation of William Blake's
famous line, "But I am black, but 0! my soul is white"):

    In the same mood:

    These lines are also attributed to Nusayb ibn Rabah (d. 726), probably the
most gifted of these black poets.' He was very conscious of his birth and color,
for which he endured many insults. On one occasion the great Arab poet
Kuthayyir said mockingly:

    Challenged by his friends to reply, Nusayb refused with dignity. For one thing,
he said, God had given him the gift of poetry