Note too that the early Arab (not African) leader ‘Ubada inb al-Samit is described as a black (aswad) man, and consider the expression used by the Arabic writers to mean “non Arabs and Arabs” (i.e., the whole world), al-ahmar wa’l-aswad, “the red and the black” respectively. Similarly the explanation of al-Jahiz, which he puts in the mouths of the Zanj (black Africans): “The Arabs belong with us not with the whites, because their color is nearer to ours… 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.” Jahiz concludes: “Our blackness, O people of the Zanj, is not different from the blackness of the Banu Sulaym and other Arab tribes. We can add several other authors including those who use the term in the context of Ham’s curse of dark skin.
Ka’b al-Ahbar (d. ca. 652), a Jewish Yemeni convert to Islam, spoke of the cursed descendants of Ham “begetting black [aswadayn] male and female children until they multiplied and spread along the shore. Among them are the Nubians [nuba], the Negroes [zanj], the Barbars [brb], the Sindhis [sind], the Indians [hind] and all the blacks [sudan]: they are the children of Ham. We saw earlier that Wahb inbn Munabbih (d. ca. 73), “a celebrated authority on the traditions of the ahl al-kitab,” reported that God “changed [Ham’s] color and the color of his descendants in response to his father’s curse,” and that Ham’s descendants are Kush, Canaan, and Fut; Fut Fut’s descendants are the Indians; and Kush and Canaan’s descendants are the various races of blacks [sudan]: Nubians, Zanj, Qaran, Zaghawa, Ethiopians, Copts and Barbar. In another source Wahb is reported to have said that Canaan’s descendants were the blacks [al-aswid], Nubians [nuba], Fezzan [Fazzan], Zanj [zanj], Zaghawah [zaghawa], and all the peoples of the Sudan [sudan]. The Akhbar al zaman counts “among the descendants of Sudan, son of Kan’an…the Ishban, the Zanj, and many peoples that multiplied in the Maghrib, about 70 of then.
Clearly, the rabbinic story of sex in the ark is an etiology that is meant to account for the existence of all dark skinned people, not just the Black African. Although, to the best of my knowledge, rabbinic literature does not mention the skin color of the Putites and Canaanites, who descended from Ham, it does refer to the dark skin of Ham’s other descendant, the Egyptians. In the next chapter, we will see two examples of Egyptians referred to as Kushites because of their dark skin color. (107)
Archaeological and epigraphic (South Arabian) evidence in East Africa indicates that already in the early first millennium B.C.E. there were strong trade contracts between East Africa and Arabia. Similarly, “topographical names with Sabean foundations testify.. to the relations between ancient Yemen and Abyssinia. The anonymous author of the Periplus says that in his time a significant part of the East African coast (“Azania” was subject to the kingdom of Arabia “by ancient right” and that Arab traders “through continual intercourse and intermarriage, are familiar with the area and its language. Lewicki notes that the name Azania itself indicates the existence of South Arabian traders in East Africa, “many centuries BC,” for the name is a Greek transcription of the Arabic name Ajam. In light of the evidence from the Greek and Latin texts of a slave trade in black Africans during the first six centuries of the Common Era, it is likely that these trad contacts between Africa and Arabia included slaves.
Another reflection of biblical imagery may be indicated in the midrashic play on the Arabic word Kuwayyis to describe the Kushites as particularly handsome people. (195)
“To the Cushite race belonged the oldest and purest Arabian blood. They were the original Arabians and the creators of the ancient civilization, evidences of which may be seen in the stupendous ruins to be found in every part of the country. At the time that Ethiopians began to show power as monarchs of Egypt about 3000 to 3500 B. C. the western part of Arabia was divided into two powerful kingdoms.”
“Meleck Yarfrick, king of Arabia Felix, who conducted a people called Sabcei into Libya, made himself master of that country, established his followers there, and gave it the name Africa…”
Arabia Felix (Egypt Nubia East North Africa) 1576 Petri rare woodcut old map. Issued Basel, 1576 by Henri Petri for Pomponii Melae de Orbis Situ.Charming and quite rare 16th century woodblock miniature map. Despite the title, the map includes almost the entire Arabian peninsula as well as the coast of Persia.
“Malik, Melik, Malka, Malek, Malick, or Melekh is the Semitic term translating to “king”, recorded in East Semitic and later Northwest Semitic (e.g. Aramaic, Canaanite, Hebrew) and Arabic. The earliest form of the name Maloka was used to denote a prince or chieftain in the East Semitic Akkadian language of the Mesopotamian states of Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia and Chaldea. The Northwest Semitic mlk was the title of the rulers of the primarily Amorite, Sutean, Canaanite, Phoenician and Aramean city-states of the Levant and Canaan from the Late Bronze Age. Eventual derivatives include the Aramaic, Neo Assyrian, Mandic and Arabic forms: Malik, Malek, Mallick, Malkha, Malka, Malkai and the Hebrew form Melek. Moloch has been traditionally interpreted the epithet of a god, known as “the king” like Baal was an epithet “the master” and Adon an epithet “the lord”, but in the case of Moloch purposely mispronounced as Molek instead of Melek using the vowels of Hebrew bosheth “shame”
“Arabia Felix (literally: Fertile Arabia; also Ancient Greek: Eudaemon Arabia) was the Latin name previously used by geographers to describe South Arabia,[1][2] or what is now Yemen.[3] The term “Fertile Arabia” is a translation of the Latin “Arabia Felix”. Felix means “fecund, fertile” but also “happy, fortunate, blessed.” Arabia Felix was one of three regions into which the Romans divided the Arabian peninsula: Arabia Deserta, Arabia Felix, and Arabia Petraea. The Greeks and the Romans called Yemen Arabia Felix.
“Strabo” and “Diodorus” and other ancient’s who identified everything East of the Nile as “Arabia”, “WHEN we were describing Arabia, we included in the description the gulfs which compress and make it a peninsula, namely the Gulfs of Arabia and of Persis. We described at the same time some parts of Egypt, and those of Ethiopia, inhabited by the Troglodytæ, and by the people situated next to them, extending to the confines of the Cinnamon country.” (Quoting Strabo Book 17.1)
dated means: dated Formerly in common use, and still in occasional use, but now unfashionable;
Portrait of young Abram Hannibal.
“The term aswad was used in Arabic literature to describe any dark-skinned person, not necessarily a black African. The Arabs are depicted as white skinned in the hadith and as dark skinned in the midrash, but the perception of color is relative and in the eye of the perceiver. To the Jew the Arab was dark, as we saw in several other examples, and for our purposes the important point is that in the rabbinic story the dark-skinned Arab is called Kushi.”
“Such usage is echoed in Byzantine sources, in which we find, after the fourth century, that the terms “Indian” and “Indians” refer to three different places and its peoples: the Indian subcontinent, South Arabia, and Ethiopia. Some would date this usage as early as the third century. Note also that the Troglodytes, on the east coast of Africa, were variously classified as Ethiopians, Arabs, or Indians by classical writers.”
“The confusion in antiquity and late antiquity of the terms India and Ethiopia, and the use of “Indian” to refer to South Arabians, thus parallels the rabbinic usage of Kushi for Arab. The rabbinic view of the Arab as dark skinned is, perhaps, echoed in the name of Abgar V Ukkama, the king of Edessa in the first century C.E. Many of the Abgar dynasty were ethnically Arab, and “Abgar” itself is an Arabic name.”
“Tacitus specifically refers to Abgar V as an Arab who led Arab troops. The name Ukkama is Syriac (the language of Edessa) and means “black.” Although there is some dispute as to why Abgar was called “the black,” there is a good possibility that his skin color was the reason. We know of a number of individuals in antiquity and late antiquity who were nicknamed “the black.”
“Josephus, for example, mentions a Niger of Peraea who was general of the Jewish army in the war against Rome, as well as onetime governor of Idumaea. “Niger” and various derivaites were Latin cognomina chose for the color of one’s hair, eyes, or skin.”
“The prophet or teacher at Antioch, “Simeon called Niger” (Acts 13:1), apparently got his cognomen because of his dark complexion. In Syriac we know of Mar Ukkama who was one of the founders of a monastery in the seventh century. Indeed, sch nicknames seem to be a universal phenomenon. It is therefore not unlikely that Abgar Ukkama was so named because of his Arab dark complexion in the eyes of the surrounding population, just as the Jews of Palestine considered the Arabs to be dark skinned. Use of the term kushi to refer to a dark-skinned Arab continued into the Jewish Middle Ages.”
“A Hebrew poem found the Cairo Genizah records the Fatimid campaign against the Banu Jarrah in the early eleventh century. Written by Menahem be-Rabbi Yom Tav [sic] he-Hazzan shortly after the event, it refers to the Banu Jarrah, who were from southern Arabia and had very dark skin, as Kushim.”
“According to Ezra Fleischer, who published the poem, a contemporaneous source, the poem Bekhu ahay vegam sifdu by Joseph ibn Abitur, also refers to the Banu Jarrah in this way, calling them Kushim, while a letter from Sadoq Halevi ben Levi in Israel called them shehorim ‘blacks.'”
“Another example from the Middle Ages is afforded by several medieval exegetes who commented on the biblical identification of Moses’ wife as a “Kushite” (Num 12:1). Following the line that Moses’ wife was Zipporah (Ex. 2:21), they said that since Zipporah was a Midianite/Arab (“Ishmaelite”), she was called a Kushite because she was “very dark like the Kushites.”
“This view of the Arab as dark skinned is also found among other peoples, as is indicated by the term arap (i.e. Arab) meaning “black African” in modern Turkish, Greek, and Russian, as well as in Yiddish.”
“The meaning of kushi as dark skinned occurs also in a tenth century apocalyptic Genizah fragment dealing with the Byzantine emperors from Michael III to Romanus I (842-944 C.E.). According to this text, Emperor Leo VI, “the Wise,” made a close favorite of his, a kushi, co-emperor for twenty-two years of his reign.”
“Arabia [of עָרַב , Heb. Black, or of Harabi, Heh. a Thief or Robber] the one account of their swarthy complexion and the latter on account of their thievish disposition. The Arabians having in all Ages been so addicted to this Vice, that, as Matin del Rio observes, it was as usual with the Jews to call a Thief an Arabian, as it was to call a Merchant a Canaanite, and a Mathematician a Chaldean.”
Source: Dictionary of races or peoples by United States. Immigration Commission (1907-1910); Dillingham, William P. (William Paul), 1843-1923; Folkmar, Daniel, 1861-1932; Folkmar, Elnora (Cuddeback) 1863-1930 The U.S. Immigration Dictionary of Races and Peoples was originally intended to guide the Immigration Commission workers, but when it became clear that it would appear too late for that, it came to be seen as the Commission’s summation of knowledge about each race or people.”
“The Arabians are related to the Hebrews and include Arabs proper and the wandering Bedouin tribes of the desert. (See Semetic-Hamitic). They have long since spread out from the country that bears their name and settled in distant portions of Africa and Asia, as well as penetrated into Europe. They have given their language through the Koran, to the vaster populations of Mohammedan faith. They are not to be confounded with the Turks (see), who are Mongolian, Tatar, in origin and speech rather than Caucasian. Neither are they closely related to the Syrians (see), who are Christians and Aryans, not Semites; nor even to the Berbers and the modern Moors of north Africa, who are Hamitic rather than Semetic in origin. Yet Syrians and Moors alike have long used the Arabic tongue.” Dictionary of races or peoples by United States. Immigration Commission (1907-1910); Dillingham, William P. (William Paul), 1843-1923; Folkmar, Daniel, 1861-1932; Folkmar, Elnora (Cuddeback) 1863-1930
“According to the 13th c. Lisan -al-Arab, Khudr or dark brown “with kinky hair”- like the Iranian girl here, was the predominant color of the Arabs of Muhammad’s time, while others were shadeed al-udmah much darker. The most important question is why up to the 15th century Arabia was still predominantly black or filled with “Khudr” and “sumr” populations, and the history books never mention it.” (Quoting Dana Reynolds Marniche)
“Afro-Turks are often called “Arabs” in Turkey. They also refer to themselves as Arabs, at times. This has led to a situation in which “Arab” means “black.” University professor Ahmet Yurur explains. “For the Turks, Africa was only the northern part of the continent: from Egypt to Morocco. This part was of course under Arab influence. Turks were never really interested in the south of the continent. This is why this community has come to be called ‘Arab,” he says.”
“WHEN we were describing Arabia, we included in the description the gulfs which compress and make it a peninsula, namely the Gulfs of Arabia and of Persis. We described at the same time some parts of Egypt, and those of Ethiopia, inhabited by the Troglodytæ, and by the people situated next to them, extending to the confines of the Cinnamon country.”
“The Moorish “henchmen” and their ruler are said to live in tents and in a white manors or towers by the sea. In another tale, Marco, in order to achieve one of his heroic deeds at one point when he is in the accursed dungeon of “Azak”, takes black dye “and dyed black his white face, he made of himself a black Arab, and let out his good brown steed”. (p. 111).”
“In Bulgaria, as among the Roma, black face is often used for the Arapi, i.e. Arabs, in mumming or mummers parades. In certain villages “entire faces are blackened, and not just with soot but with a dark-black greasepaint or polish” (Creed, Gerald, 2011, p. 190).”
“In studying the history of the Arabian peninsula and use of Arab names in genealogy one becomes aware that certain of them over time had come to signify things other than what they originally meant among the Arabic speaking, but non-Arab historians and their translators. For example, the names that should have been translated as Musri or Muzir or Mizraim came to be translated by writers in our time as Egypt. Meanwhile the name of the Arabian tribe of Banu Faris has been translated as” Persian”, and so on and so on. It is how for example Japhet came to be perceived of as other than an Arabian people.”
“The name Zanj or Zanuj appears to have been another word for dark-skinned populations whether from the continent of Asia or Africa and including the peninsula of Arabia. It came to mean the rust colored people but may have been connected to the name of Azania as suggested by. David Goldenberg. The Iranians for example used the word to refer to the dark-skinned Arabs that had been pushed back from Persia. They were considered descendants of Zohhakk, the Arabian. Earliest rulers of Iran (Medes and Persians) appear to have had such names as Az-Dahakka or (Astyages) and Deioces (translated as Dahakka). “The name is identified by Rawlinson and Niebuhr (Gesch. Assur’s, p. 32) with Deioces = Ashdahak (Arm.), Ajis Dahaka (Pe’s.), the biting snake, the emblem of the Median power.”
“It should be noted that the name was considered connected to that of the Daae or Daasas of Central Asia who were ancestral to the Achaemenids of Persia. These people who built tripura or castles surrounded by three concentric circles were likely those that had first settled in Baluchistan and Central Asia with a culture called Namazgha IV. There was originally some connection with the word daeva and in fact divine. The name Dasa however, later came to have the connotation of dark force, slave or servant as the Scythic (Armenian related) people moved and pushed them southward adopting the Haoma (Soma) practices and according to the Greeks even the name Arya itself, from the early Medes.”
“According to al-Masudi it was Nabataeans (Arabians who had settled and built Babylonia) who first called themselves Arya and that the name meant lion. These people of Faris and the Medes/Maitanni likely introduced the so-called Indo-Iranic script and culture. However, early Orientalists tried to justify an exceedingly early arrival for such people in India based on the idea that the earliest Aryans were proto-Europeans.”
“In Arab tradition the Madhhij tribe of Al-Ash’ar begat Judda (Gad). The nomad tribe of Judda or Jadda (Gadd/”Gad”) founded the town of Jeddah/Jiddah in Hijaz and Judda was often in the company of Ash’ar. Just as Gad is mentioned together with Asher in the Torah. “He is al-Ash’ar … the brother of Madhhij and, it is said, the son of Madhhij in Ibn Kalbi’s account. He begat al—Jumahir, al—Argham, al—Adgham, al-An’am, Judda,..” Al-Iqd al’Farid the Unique Necklace by ibn Abd Rabbih Vol. published 2012 p. 295 Al-Argham is the Arabic for “Jerachme’el”.
“There is a large group of scholars that have been invested in dismissing anything that would connect the early Arabian, and thus Afro-Asiatic, origins of the Jews and Israelites. This, of course, parallels the attempts of other scholars to refute any connection of black Africans with the early Moors and Berbers. Here is an excellent example of someone that is in denial about the early Jews in Arabia and Africa attempts to identify such observations by medieval travelers as Eldad ha-Dani and Benjamin of Tudela as mostly fantasy or fantastical.”
“As in the case of the Central Asian tribes the Yemeni ten tribes story begins with an exorbitant demography – ‘100,000 in Teima’ and ‘300,000 in Tanai,,” the main city in the region. But what concerns Benjamin most is the city of Kheibar (Khaybar), located not in Yemen, but ‘sixteen day’ journey to the north’ in the Hijaz:
‘People say that the men of Kheibar belong to the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh, whom Shalmaneser, king of Assyria led hiter into captivity. They have built strongly fortified cities and make war upon all other kingdoms. … Kheibar is a very large city with 50,000 Jews. In it are learned men and great warriors, who wage war with the men of Shinar and of the land of the north, as well as with the bordering tribes of the land of El-Yemen near them, which latter country is [in] the confines of India.” The Ten Lost Tribes : A World History by Zvi Ben-Dor Benite 2009 p. 106-107
Further down this author states -“It is fascinating how persistent the story of the Hijazi ten tribes was…” “Behind this topos of the Arabian ten tribes is the fact of Jewish tribes in Arabia up to the time of Muhammad; in this regard, Benjamin’s Kheibar” is not wholly fictional. Khaybar was ‘the great Jewish centre in the north of the Hajez’ at the time of the Prophet Muhammad. A rich oasis with a fortified Jewish village, Khaybar provided economic and political sustenance to the rest of the Jewish tribes in the Hijaz. A ‘hotbed of anti-Muslim intrigue,’ it was certainly a Jewish power with which Muhammad had to contend on his way to control of the region and of Arabia…”
Nevertheless, both Eldad ha-Dani (whose name likely derived from the Hadramaut tribe named Daan) and Benjamin of Tudela are claimed by this author to have gathered their information and pronounced their statements based on hearsay. Benjamin is accused of mainly borrowing from Eldad. The author also appears oblivious to the fact that since the period of Byzantium until the late medieval period of Marco Polo – the Yemen was referred to as- India and primarily as Little India or India Minor. He writes -“Here again is an instance of fantastic geography, this time connecting Yemen with India – a testimony to the space –defying powers of the ten tribes’ geography in Arabia borders on India.”
And in fact, the man from the tribe of Dan must have been from the Dan or Da’an of the Hadramaut in Yemen from the Habbani, who claim descent from Dan and Bahila (“Bilha” mother of Dan in the Torah.). According to Arab manuscripts The Habbania are the descendants ” of Habban son of el Kulus son of ‘Amr son of Kays, a sub-tribe of Bahila”. A History of the Arabs in Sudan Harold MacMichael 1922. Bahila according to tradition was originally a woman from the Sabaean tribe of Hamdan, who married Ma’an b. Asur or A’sir b. Saad of the Azd from whom were derived some lineages of Qays b. Ailan including Suhm or Sahm, who are called Suham in the Torah, son of Dan. In addition, as I’ve mentioned many times before Ghunai or Ghani b. Asur another tribe of the Arabian Bahilah is undoubtedly the Ghuni that is in the Torah the grandson of Bilha through her other son “Naphtali”.
“In addition the tribe of Naphtali (now called al-Maftalah in the A’sir), Gadd (called Jadda/Judda) and Ash’ar are Yemenite tribes mentioned by Eldad of the Dan tribe living beyond the river Kush – which may refer to the river of the Kush in the Yemen (where Moses/Muzaikiyya once lived), or else, the Nile which they colonized (and where they were both considered Sabaeans. ) The river Sambathes or Sabbation may thus have been the same or connected to the river in Africa the earlier Greeks called Astaboras named for the city of Sabotha or Sabtah 50 miles north of lake Tana in Ethiopia. The fact that he mentions fire worshippers suggest the Sambation or this land of Israelites was somewhere near the Blemmyes or Beja tribes.”
“The “Makir” coastal inhabitants (Macherten/Majertein of Somalia or the Bin Samaal) who in the Torah are called “Machir” a clan of “Manasse”, and related to the Galadi or (“Gilead”= al-Jadda or Gad) must represent some of the folk that came relatively late to the Horn, from the Rahawiyyn or Rahanweyn located on both sides of the Red Sea but derived from the Yemenite Madh’hij (Madghis?), like Ash’ar (“Asher”), Murad and the Tayyi. People like the Afar (“Apher” and “Ifren” ) or Midianites, Dedan (Udad/Yudadas) must have come in at an earlier time. Meanwhile the people of the Zaghai/Sughai/ Songhai (Zakkai/”Zaccai” or “Kenite” (Kanuri) group from Heber and the Hammathites (Hamadha, or sons of Ham) may have arrived around the same time. Eldad claimed when he arrived in Tunisia that peoples of Israel had settled in Azania as well, which is reference to East Africa, and that he was a citizen of that region.”
“Lisan al-Arab was written between by Ibn Manzur who lived between the 13th and 14th centuries. Thankfully, Tariq Berry was the first in this era to expose in his The Unknown Arabs pointed out that Ibn Manzur wrote in it he wrote that “most Arabs” were “dark brown’ in color and possessed kinky hair. Ibn Manzur also said it was the Arabs that called themselves the blacks. And such Arabs that were ‘dark brown” i.e. near black said it was because they were “pure” Arabs. See p. 60 of The Unknown Arabs and Vol. 4 of Lisaan el-Arab.”
“And Ibn Manzur was not the only medieval writer to state that the blacker Arabs were the purer Arabs. Al-Dhahabi said that any individual in Hijaz fair in color was considered to be derived in part from non-Arab slaves in Siyar al-Nubalaa. But he also says it was rare to sees fair skinned Arabs in Hijaz in any case. Fortunately . it is also known that the tribes of the Hijaz were the populations that extended into Central Arabia or Nejd.”
“This lets us know that at the time of the earlier invasions of North Africa and Spain between the the true Arabs referred to themselves as “the blacks” and looked it – Or like modern black Africans – who as we remember are called Arap (Arab) today in eastern Europe, Yiddish and Russian for this very reason. When we add to this the fact that a century later the Chinese recorded the people of Hijaz as looking very dark purple in complexion a phrase they used for black people of southern India as well then there is very little one can do but assume that those people have been amalgamated with non-Arab populations. This is logical but most people in the West are in denial.”
“However more importantly the same exact diverse tribes and clan names that were found in in pre-Islamic times on both sides of the Red Sea, and this is why Strabo and Diodorus identify everything east of the Nile in Africa as Arabia. It is also why Josephus refers to the Gaitules/Joddala (Berbers) of Numidia as descendants of Havila founders of Zeila or Zawila. the Horn and North Africa. That is to say the African was the Arabian and the Arabian was the African in that day. Same people same culture and same names. Which is why it is silly to complain about Arabs being called African or vice versa.”
“Originally in fact Arab or Yarab was the name of a single tribe of the Qahtan while the name of Africa itself (was undoubtedly derived from name of the leader or name of one of these South Arabian tribes Afren and Afarik. It part of Tunisia and Tripolitania was the name of a Arabia was nothing less than the biological and cultural extension the populations of Africa in the period between the 7th and 3rd millennium BC. Some of these populations appear to have settled northward as far as Anatolia and the Fertile Crescent. After some ancient conflict in the region of Yemen in the second millennium and one early flooding of the Marib (Meribah) dam some of the people came to flee to the north and others across the less than 19 miles of water to Africa. That was one of the early waves that led to settlements of what are today called “Africans”. Of course, in that period there was no such name. The above should help put things like the usage of the term black, Arabian and African on this page into historical context.”
Orientalist James Hamilton wrote of the Ateibah or Otaibah, “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.
“Al-J ā ḥ i ẓ , Fakhr al- sūdān ‘alā l -bidan , in Risa’il Al-Jahiz , 4 vols. (Cairo, 1964) I:207. See also the English Translation by T. Khalidi, “The Boast of the Blacks Over the Whites,” Islamic Quarterly 25 (1981): 3-26(17). See further Ignaz Goldziher, Muslim Studies (Muhammedanische Studien) 2 vols. (London, Allen & Unwin, 1967-), 1:268 who notes that, in contrast to the Persians who are described as red or light-skinned( ahmar ) the Arabs call themselves black. “
“These Western observations are in complete accord with the confessions found in Classical Arabic/Islamic literature. Ibn Man ẓ ūr (d. 1311), author of the most authoritative classical Arabic lexicon, Lisān al – ‘arab , notes the opinion that the phrase aswad al-jilda , ‘black – skinned,’ idiomatically meant khāli ṣ al- ‘arab , “the pure Arabs,” “because the color of most of the Arabs is dark ( al-udma ).” 3 In other words,blackness of skin among the Arabs indicated purity of Arab ethnicity.”
“Likewise, the famous grammarian from the century prior, Muhammad b. Barrī al – ‘Adawī (d. 1193) noted that an Akh ḍ ar or black-skinned Arab was “a pure Arab ( ‘ arab ī ma ḥḍ )” with a pure genealogy, “because Arabs describe their color as black ( al-aswad )” 4 Al-Ja ḥ i ẓ (d. 869), in his Fakhr al-s ū d ā n ‘ al ā l-bidan , declared: “The Arabs pride themselves in (their) black color, نول د وس رفت برعل ( al- ‘ arab tafkhar bi-saw ā d al-lawn )” 5 Finally Al-Mubarrad (d. 898), the leading figure in the Basran grammatical tradition, took this a step further when he claimed:
“ The Arabs used to take pride in their brown and black complexion ( al-sumra wa al- sawād ) and they had a distaste for a white and fair complexion ( al- ḥ umra wa al-shaqra ), and they used to say that such was the complexion of the non-Arabs. ”
Ezaldeen, Muhammad a.k.a. Lomax Bey Founder Of The Addeynu Allahe Universal Arabic Association. Ex. Founding Member of the Moorish Science Temple of America, Inc.,
“Ezaldeen proceeded with the establishment of the new AAUAA unit, which became a competitor to the program and teachings of the MST. The AAUAA offered courses on the Qur’an, the sunna, the Hametic (Black) Arab heritage, and the Arabic language. Tensions between the Moorish Science Temple of America and the AAUAA were evident but kept to a minimum and did not contain Ezaldeen’s influence. Wahab Arbubakar, a student of Ezaldeen’s, recalled that when he met Ezaldeen, he spoke about the one true Allah, the prophets, the holy books, and the hereafter. Arbubakar had not known much about Islam prior to meeting Ezaldeen; he recalled that the most profound religious teaching he heard from Ezaldeen was the al-fatiha (opening chapter of the Qur’an) and the adhan, or “call to prayer.” Ezaldeen also taught his students that the term Arab was a linguistic term and not a racial one. Although he taught that the original Arabs were black (Hametic), the emphasis in his teachings was placed on language and faith, not race, as the highest form of identification for a person. Malik Arbubakar, son of Wahab Arbubakar, stated that “Professor Ezaldeen was keen to pointing out that we were Hametic Arabs and he taught us that just because our foreign-born brothers and sisters came from Arabia and other Muslim countries, did not give them any greater claim on al-Islam than we had.”
Dana Reynolds-Marniche: “The Arab al -Mutaribah refers to the Ishmaelites not mixed Arabs in the sense you are using it. Arabs were an ethnicity before it was a language or political term.”
Dana Reynolds-Marniche: “There were no “mixed” Arabs in the ancient world. It originally referred to people that were not purely of Qahtan stock and then later some tried to turn even the Qahtan into Musta’ribah. The Kushites means the Qahtan Arab Yokshan or Midianites. And no they aren’t any purer then the Ishmaelites, i. e the Mizraim (Minaeans) or Adnan who colonized Aden.Ishmael camee from the south originally. That is why it is good to read the Arab genealogies on where these Ma’adei Adnan people originated. In any case I explain it in this latest publication coming out soon. Any time now.” “The Ḥabasha are Christians; their complexion is like that of the Arabs, …” black “… (the term used was abyad); they are scattered along the coast as far as opposite Aden. The Nūba are Christians; their country is larger than Ethiopia and has more towns and villages than Ethiopia.” 10th c. AD of Nisibis Of the Beja of Nubia and the Eastern desert “Leaving Qulzum on the western side of this sea [Red Sea], one moves along the edge of a barren desert where nothing grows and only sees off-shore the islands we have mentioned above. This desert is the home of the Buja, who dwell under hair tents. Their skin is darker than that of the Ḥabasha although their features are similar to those of the Arabs. ” Another translation of the last sentence says “their skin is much darker than the Abyssinians, who resemble the Arabs.” Source: The Buja in Medieval Islamic Mappa Mundi ” p. 157 in the book Views from the Edge Essays in Honor of Richard D. Bulliet (2004). Ibn Hawqul of Iraq 10th c. AD born Nisibis”….
“When they say that Islam started with some pale Arabs, you gotta Show them that we can Trace our ISLAM straight to the Nile Valley Civilization on the walls of Nubia (Sudan)and Khemet (Egypt). It was the JET BLACK man who gave the world ISLAM and this Wolof speaking African brother Proves it. He speaks an ancient form of Arabic that’s not Quraishic Arabic that modern Arabs speak, that the Qur’an was revealed in. Knowledge is here for those who REALLY Seek it!”
Dana Reynolds-Marniche posted on Facebook the following information demonstrating the fact that many laymen are simply not aware of in relation to the “Moors” and the “original Arabs“.
Professor Marniche addressed their part in bringing the Renaissance and Islam to Europe and how they have been written out of history and how an individual on Facebook contended “near black Arabs” found on Blogspot and other sites have been “Arabized”. I am familiar with this type of application of the term “Arabized”, in my recollection it is often used in the same manner within the Black Power or House of Consciousness communities and their train of thought on the subject.
This line of thought among “African (Black) Americans” is rather “White Supremacist” in nature and a testament to their ignorance as to their own history. Obviously, the resolve of the “White Supremacist” governed educational institutions, along with our failure to make fact-checking a standard operating procedure. Many of us are accustomed to parroting information we have come across, with authenticating that information.
Nonetheless, Professor Marniche shared the fact that Arabia was essentially a part of Africa. 2000 years ago, and vice versa. The “African American” or “Black” individual didn’t want to accept that historical fact, nor additional fact Professor Marniche provided regarding “Strabo” and “Diodorus” and other ancient’s who identified everything East of the Nile as “Arabia” which was due to the fact that there was no difference in the populations in that period.
“The country between the Nile and the Arabian Gulf is Arabia, and at its extremity is situated Pelusium. But the whole is desert, and not passable by an army… [22]”
Strabo 17.1
CHAPTER I.
“WHEN we were describing Arabia, we included in the description the gulfs which compress and make it a peninsula, namely the Gulfs of Arabia and of Persis. We described at the same time some parts of Egypt, and those of Ethiopia, inhabited by the Troglodytæ, and by the people situated next to them, extending to the confines of the Cinnamon country.” (Dana Reynolds-Marniche Quoting Strabo Book 17.1)
“Most African Americans have a stereotype of an Arab in their head through years of brainwashing. In the World History class, I was “teaching” the book had no Arabs of color in it nor Arabians in the chapters on Islam. So, I put some of the photos on this page up in the room of the earliest Arabs and Berbers (or what were called Moors) and also had some of the kids make a mural of the Gurunsi home of Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta) with ancient Saharan Moorish motif (see below).”
“The only black people I saw in this World History book were people of the Nok culture in Nigeria. lol! Not that there was anything wrong about the Nok but, this is just what I’m talking about. The suggestion that the original Muslims and Semitic-speakers and culture were not the same people that are now in black Africa [Sub-Saharan Africa] is completely inaccurate and yet that is being promoted by Egyptologists like the one I met at the University of Pennsylvania when Zahi was there lecturing. The curator is responsible for the sculpture of Tut that looks rather more Armenian than the African son or grandson of Tiye he was.”
“The modern Middle East had very little to do with ancient Arabs i.e. Arabians, except that the Yarabof the Qahtan actually fought against the Assyrians centuries after an earlier wave had brought the Akkadian and Amorite (Thamudic-Nabataean-Phoenician) dialects to Babylon. The Assyrians who in the era of Sargon and Shalmanezzar were essentially neither “red” nor “black”, because their ancestors were both non-black Kurds or “Guti” indigenous to the Zagros and the early Semites i.e. the blacks ancestral to Nabataeans, Sulaym-Solymi and the like. They attacked the Yemenites in the days of Jeremiah who fled to the Hijaz. The earliest Assyrians, however, were the Akkadians and were Afro-Asiatic like the most ancient Arabians, Moors, Ghawrani (people of the Jordan Valley) and Egyptians, etc.”
“….dealing with the Hebraic and Canaanite origins of the Berbers, i.e. the original Zaghai/Soninke/Kanuri and Tuareg peoples.”
“In detail, we would talk about how the knowledge got lost, and things like the evidence for the movement across Africa, and the new research or discoveries that are proving these Africans didn’t just make up a Yemenite i.e. Canaanite origin for themselves based on Arabic or Islamic sources. We would also discuss the affinity, connections and identity of African, Canaanite, Sabaean and Indic pantheons, mythologies or deities and their link to the names of the so-called Prophets of the book of Genesis.”
“Beni Ka’ab tribe – were from the Beni Amer b. Zaza’a who settled in Iraq and the Persian Gulf. From them were the al-Muntafiq and Uqayl – rulers of southern Mesopotamia up until the 17th century. They were the so called “Ishmaelites’ or northern Arabs of Mudar and Adnan. When I first posted about the Ka’ab Arabs on Africaresource site I couldn’t find a photo of the Ka’b who were described by Rawlinson as of the color of Ethiopians or “Abyssinians”.
“Below are photos of Ka’b tribal chiefs. Here are excerpts from that post on the “Ka’b Bin Rabia bin Amir bin Sa’sa’ah: Settlements in Arabia”
“In 1881 G. Rawlinson wrote, “The Cha’ab Arabs, the present possessors of the more southern parts of Babylonia are nearly black and the ‘black Syrians’ of whom Strabo speaks seem to represent the Babylonians.” From The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World: Or, The History, Geography, and Antiquities of Chaldea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, and Persia, Vol. II”
“Elsewhere, Rawlinson refers to the Ka’b of the Banu Amir and their sub-tribe of Montefik (or the al-Muntafiq bin Uqayl bin Ka’b) as having the complexion similar to that of “Abyssinians” and “Galla” Ethiopians. from Vol. 1 of The Seven Great Monarchies of the Ancient World: Or, The History, Geography, and Antiquities of Chaldea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Perisa parthia and Sassanian or new Persian Empire. , Vol. 1 (07) p.35.”
“Having left the Hejaz of Western Arabia before the Christian era, many of the tribes of of the Hawazin were domiciled in Central Arabia (the Nejd) with a stronghold in Yemamah at the time of the Prophet. After taking up the banner of Islam the tribe of Ka’ab bin Rabia, a son of Beni Amir bin Za’za’ah, and Ka’ab’s descendants, Uqayl bin Kaab, Muntafiq bin Uqayl bin Kaab (to whom belonged the tribe Khuza’il), Jada’ah bin Ka’ab, Kilab and Kulaib bin Ka’b, Al Harish bin Ka’b and their sub-clans left the southwest of Yemamah (north of the Rub al Khali) around the 8th-9th century and headed for Iraq and Syria in support of other Arabian followers of Mohammed who had settled those countries.”
“The further one goes back in the Yemen the more African the sculptures look as with this figurine from the 6th century BC.”
“This is a painting of the 12th century Constantine Manasses Chronicle with miniatures scanned of the 14th century manuscript (from Vatican: Cod. Vaticanus, slav. II – from Bulgarski hudojnik” Publishing house, Sofia, 1962) – supposedly showing Persians being invaded by Byzantines under emperor Heraclius who lived during the time of Khalid ibn Walid, the invader of Sassanid Persia. Heraclius is said to have used a large contingent of Christian Arabs and the men thus depicted here are likely still Arabs but Christian Arabs of which there were many in pre-Mohammedan times in Syria. At the Battle of Firaz, the Rashidun Arabs (15,000 men) under Khalid ibn al-Walid defeat the combined forces of the Byzantine Empire, Persian Empire and Arab Christians (at least 10 times larger than Khalid’s army) in Mesopotamia (Iraq).[20]”
“Heraclius and his Arab, neo Roman and Frank troops fought against the Muslim expansion taking place under Khalid. “After the devastating blow to the Sassanid Persians at Firaz, the Muslim Arab forces, under the command of Khalid ibn al-Walid, took on the army of the Christian Byzantine Empire at Yarmouk near the border of modern-day Syria and Jordan. The major battle was to continue for six days. After the victory at Firaz, Khalid had virtually conquered Mesopotamia. Seeking to halt Muslim expansion, the Byzantines rallied all available forces. Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, the victor of Nineveh, allied himself with the Sassanids, the two empires seeking to pool their depleted resources to stop the Arab advance.” Khalid al Walid was the Prophet’s cousin. Also known as” the drawn sword of Allah.”- described as black -skinned. His con quest lead to the rise of the dynasty of the four “rightly guided caliphs. This was during the Rashidun caliphate (Kalifah ar- Rasidah) – 7th century The ancient indigenous people of Yarmouk were also Canaani and Nabataean in or origin, which is why you see dark brown and black people in the painting).”
“They were under the rule of the Byzantines or neo-Romans, until the armies of the Prophet’s kin came and changed everything. “In its time, the Rashidun army was one of the most powerful and effective military forces in the world. The size of the Rashidun army was initially 13,000 troops in 632, but as the Caliphate expanded, the army gradually grew to 100,000 troops by 657. The two most successful generals of the Rashidun army were Khalid ibn al-Walid, who conquered Persian Mesopotamia and conquered Roman Syria, and ‘Amr ibn al-‘As, who conquered Roman Egypt.” Today the black army of Yarmouk still call themselves Jaysh Khalid ibn al-Walid. Their ancestors were the men that converted many of the people of the Near East and Central Asia to Islam.”
“Of the sons of Manasseh: of Machir, the family of the Machirites: and Machir begat Gilead: of Gilead come the family of the Gileadites. These are the sons of Gilead… Numbers 26:29
“The al-Makhārim or Makharib[1] in the southern Nejd of Central Arabia are part of the Farjan Division of the al Hasan Dawasir (Kupershoek, (pp. 45, 84, and 211; Lorimer, 1908, p. 394). They may have been the same as seem to have been called “Makhar”, “Makhir” in Yemen. Al-Makir is a place in Sana’a in Yemen, and there is an al-Manasseh in the area of eastern Yemen. (In fact, the name of the tribe of Farjan is found as “Faraj” in Yemen.) The tribes of Mansur and Manase’ir are found in Yemen, in southern Nejd and in Oman (Winder, R. Bayly, 2015, p. 150; Philby, Harry, St. John, 1923, p. 48; Hamza, Fu’ad, p. 33). “
“The people across the sea on the coast of Somalia calling themselves Macherten or Majeerten named the area the coast of Makhir or Makhar of Somalia. In addition, the Makhir coast is mentioned in connection with area of Galadi or Geledi after the Somali clan name on the border between Somalia and Ethiopia by European colonialists and according to one 19th century account, “some of the Mahra tribe who occupy the opposite Arabian coast have a tradition that the Somal are descended from them and call them Beni Am or cousins” (Hunter, F. M., 1877, p. 158). The real reason for why they are called Beni Am may have been lost in translation, however, when one notes that the father of one biblical “Machir” is named “Ammi-el”, from the tribe of Dan.[2]“
“These Galadi of Somalia belong to the Rahawayn (or Rahanwayn) tribe of the “Samaal” (Somalis), whose name is strikingly like and may be connected with the Al-Rahawiyyin, branch of Madhhij (Haykal, Muhammad, 1976, p. 456) across the sea in Yemen.”
“The Mahra, themselves, are in certain sources from Qudā’a and Hamdan, and mentioned in ancient inscriptions. They are traditionally thought to have come from the al-Hayf or Ba’al-Haf of Yemen (considered to be associated with the ancient Haiapa in “Samaria” of Assyrian record and by Orientalists “Ephah” of Midian) (still in Yemen), who derive from the ancient Hamdan, mentioned in Sabaean inscriptions (Irfan, Shahid, 1989, p. 344; ). They are thus closely related to the Maddhij, from whom came Ash’ar or “al Ash’arayn” and the Tayy.”
“Thus it would appear that, along with Jokshan (Ghassān), the Midianites “descendants of Keturah” – Al-Kathira, Asherites -Ash’ar, Caleb – Kalb, and Jephunah – Jufayneh, the descendants of Manasseh “son of Joseph”,or Manase’ir or Machir or Makhir “son of Manasseh”, Galadi – Galad/Gilead, “son of Machir”, and perhaps “Ammi’el” –seem to have been just a few of the numerous people with Israelite connections in the southern Yemenite region at an early period.”[3]
“In fact, at this juncture one can point to the “Kedem” or “Kadmonites” – ancient and modern Qudman, possibly named for Dhu Yaqdam b. Sawar (Robin, Christian, 2008, p. 282). In the land of the Kadmonites, the biblical Abraham settled the children of “Keturah”. The Qudman or Qidman of Yemen who are also found today as far north as the Huwaytat al- Tihama, were among the early settlers of Moqadishu in Somalia (Hamza, F., p. 21; Chittick, Neville, 1982, p. 52).”[4]
“As shown, due to the ancient movement of groups from the Yemen northward over thousands of years there tends to be a noticeable similarity between the names of groups further north in the Hijaz and Tihama extending to the Yemen. Many bear resemblances to those of the biblical people of “Judah”, which include those that appear as descendants of “Manasseh” and “Salma”. The problem is that these names, which are very numerous, also belong to clans or tribes that, according to documented history and tradition, have come from further south, ultimately originating in the Yemen, rather than from the Levant.”
[1] See p. 1908 of Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Vol. II, Geographical and Statistical by John G. Lorimer, which says the Makharim Dawasir are also called Makharib, p. 394.
[2]“Machir, son of Ammiel was the name of a descendant of the Machir …, who resided at Lo-Debar” There is a town Dabar in Yemen in the Hajji region. The name “Ammiel” is said to mean kinsmen of El or God.
[3]“Machir, son of Ammiel was the name of a descendant of the Machir …, who resided at Lo-Debar” There is a town Dabar in Yemen in the Hajji region. The name “Ammiel” is said to mean cousins or kinsmen of El or God. And the Makhir coast is also known as Debir. According to an early observer, the eastern and western parts of the Somalia are “are known and by the Arabs as ‘ Makhar ‘ and ‘ Dabir ‘ respectively.” See Frederick Mercer Hunter’s, An Account of British Settlement of Aden in Arabia. 1877, London: Trubner and Co.
[4] See Medieval Mogadishu p. 52 “the people of Mogadishu formed a federation of Five tribes, of thirty-nine clans; of these tribes the dominant one in the religious and judicial field was the Qahtani (Maqarri, who eventually became known by the Somali term Rer Faqi), who dispute with the Qudman (Afifi) the honour of being the first immigrants. The federation was governed by a council of elders of these five tribes.” Neville Chittick, 1982. ‘Afif remains the name of a tribe and dynasty in modern Yemen (See p. 14, of M. C. Lake’s South-West Arabia, op. cit.)
“…let is suffice to say, that nearly certain ground exist for the belief that the original Moors were Arabians. In confirmation of this impression, we find that, during every period of the existence of their race, the descendants of the primitive inhabitants of Mauritania have, like the Arabs, been divided into distinct tribes, and, like them, have pursued a wild and wandering modern of existence.”
“Islam penetrated several parts of Africa at different times, and its presence in the continent predates Christianity. For instance, the initial spread of Islam in West Africa dates back to 800 CE when the Almoravid warriors (Berber Muslims) pushed the religion southward into the Ghana empire from Morocco. On the east coast of Africa, Arab traders in Mombasa, some of whom had taken part in the trans-Saharan long-distance trade, were able to spread Islam to that part of the continent with ease because of the similarities of the local inhabitants’ culture and those of Arab traders.”“The growth of Arab power did not mean the total collapse of Berber resistance. To the contrary; the processes of Arabization and Islamization were accompanied for several decades by violence and coercion. In fact, so unstable and rebellious were the Berbers that they “apostatized twelve times before Islam gained a firm foothold over them”.
2.5 times bigger than the United States.
“These traders brought Islam with them to places like Zanzibar, Mogadishu, and Mombasa. Evidence suggest that these traders had traveled from as far away as the Middle East and the Orient, and many of them had knowledge of the geography and topography of the continent because of the advanced trans-Saharan trade roots that linked the Arabian Peninsula to several parts of Africa and the middle east. Because of the booming business in spices and ivory with Africans, Arab traders decided to gradually settle down along the east coast of Africa. They married local women and soon began to spread the religion of Islam. The mingling of Arab culture with local African cultures, languages, and dialects eventually gave rise to what is now known as the Kiswahili culture. Thus, one can surmise that the acceptance of Islam in black Africa, especially wester Africa, can be traced to the internaction with Arabs in countries such as Tunisia, Lobya, Egypt, Morocco, and Algeria. In Central Africa, Islam was spread by the Shirazi merchants and Arabs traders, may of whom had also traveled far from their native land. But unlike East and West Africa, it took a while before the new arrivals began to settle down and internmingle with the Africans. However, with political turmoil back in thier homeland, especially in Arabia and Iran, many of these merchants found it convenient to settle in towns along the East Africa coast and eventually Central Africa.”
“The Berbers seemed to have been chosen by history to carry the banner of Islam into West Africa because of their geographical location and their historical role as middlemen between Arabs and black Africans.”
“The first Berber tribe in the Sahara to play a major role in the Islamization process as implemented by the Sanhaja. This ethnic group became Muslims as a result of their interaction with Muslim traders who had settled in thier midst.”
“The historical evidences seems to point out that such politically astute decisions were taken only under circumstances of grave danger; the most interesting example that is directly related to our discussion of early Islam in the Sahara and the west of the Sudan occured in about 1020 CE. This act of unity by the different Berber tribes was motivated by their collective desire to bring down the Ghanaian kingdom. In fact, this much needed unity thatt the Lemtuma, Godala, and Masufa Berbers hoped for was based on the ideas acquired by one of their leaders, Tarsina the Lemtune, whose pilgramage to Makkah inspired him to rationalize his campaigns against black Africans in the name of the Islamic Jihad.”
“The end of the Almoravid dynasty and the collapse of Ghana did not necessarily mean that Islamization ceased with the death of the Almoravid movement. The process of propogation continued and Islam began to penetrate more and more into the West Sudan. This phase in the propogation of Islam in Africa was made possible by the activie involvement of three different groups of Arab-Berber and Sudanese-Muslim cultivators of Islam in West Sudan. These three groups, according to J.R. Willis and his fellow contributors in the volume entitled Studies in West African Islamic History (1979), are the Zawaya clerisy, the Mande-Islamic clerisy, and the Torodbe clerisy. The first group has been traced to a community of Berbers who suffered oppression at the hands of fellow Berbers and Arabs. According to Willis in his comprehensive introduction to the volume cited above, the Zawaya formation began to take shape in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. They decided to be pacifist and so laid down their arms and took up the life of Muslim scholars dedicated to the propogation of Islam in the area. The Mande-Islamic clerisy emerged from the numerous trading centers created by Mande Muslims throughout the West Sudan.”
