When Arabia was Eastern Ethiopia (Part 3) – by – Dana Marniche
It should be understood that many of the names of Cushitic speaking tribes today in the horn of Africa – Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia/Eritrea – were also known in early Arabia. In Somalia such clans as the Yahar, Darood, the Mahra or Maheyra of Somalia and the Yemen, Makhar or Makir (Machir), Bin Sama’al or Somali(or Sam’al and El Sama of Yemen), Rahawein (ancient Rahawiyyin or Ru’ayn or Rahawi of Yemen) and smith clans such the Hubir (Heber), Yubir, Sabi, Tumal and Wubar (or Wabar) are mentioned in ancient times and through the early Islamic period as Himyarite and Sabaean tribes in South Arabian inscriptions., They are in fact, found in earlier Mesopotamian inscriptions and later Arabic documents. The phrase as divided as the Sabaeans as Diop mentioned has everything to do with this dispersal.
Other tribes located today both in Arabia and in Africa claiming descent from Himyar and Kahlan, descendants of Qahtan, through Abd Shams Saba or Saba and his sons Himyar and Kahlan are the Afar (Afari or Afariyyah in Arabia), and Danakil or Anagil, (Nakh’l, Nakhawila or An-Nakha al Nakha of Arabia) and many other tribes. Thus, the bulk of the tall Cushitic speakers of Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and Puntland are likely derived from African peoples who had settled in ancient times in south Arabia. This settlement very likely began during the Neolithic and/or Copper Age (between 7th and the 3rd millennium B.C. )when elements of the Doian neolithic of Somalia begin to appear in the Rub al Khali and tall, oval-headed “Negroids” as Anati put it, begin to appear in the rock art of the Central Arabian and Syrian Arabian deserts.
Another group of African affiliation appeared in the rock art along the coasts of Arabia, and this population was tied to the smaller or shorter-statured populations that appeared in the deserts of Egypt and Sudan as well as along the Nile in both places in the proto-dynastic period. This group was no doubt related to the Beja or Bega populations and the names of the Beja or Bega or Buga as they were called in earlier writings appear on both sides of the Arabia Sea as well. They include the Beza’a or Bayzan , Beni Amer or Amir, Abdah or Ababdah, Huweitat, Atmaan, Umar’ar, Hada or Hadandowa, Bishari, Erigat, Orteyga, Bediyat,. The Beja of Sudan of modern Eritrea and Egypt are descendants of ancient Afro-Arabian bedouin who had intermixed with later Islamic Arabians coming from Hejaz through Sinai during the hegemonic period of Islam. They in fact have always extended up to Sinai and into the area of Transjordan. They are also traditionally called Matat or Madid which may be related to the ancient Egyptian name for peoples in these same regions – “Madjayu”.
The most recent wave of Arabian origin to enter the region of Sudan and East Africa are the people whose names are still found on both sides of the Nile are the Sudanese Arabs who came after the birth of Muhammed and until the 18th century. They include the Manasse’ir (Mansour), Kababish or Kabsh, Beni Amer, Ja’aliya or Ja’aliin, Bishari’in, Humr, Muzeina, Haweitat, Hamar, Rufa or Ruwafa, Khuzam, Salamat,, Hamid, Gerar, Hamran, Mugharba, Lahawi, Ma’aza. Habbaniyya, Mahass, Rashaida, Djerafin (Terapin), Hawara, Kuwahla, Bayza’a, Rikab, Shaikyia, Dhubaniyya and Mesiria to name just a few. These tribes are in part and in full the descendants of tribes of the Arabian bedouin of North Africa Rabia, Sulaym, Hilal, and Ghatafan who began emigrating from the Hejaz area of northwestern Arabia into Egypt as early as the 9th c. A.D. and continued their immigration as late as a few centuries ago. They had originally conquered Egypt and North Africa and finally moved southward into Sudan, Chad and Eritrea.
The Last Living Descendants of Shem
Early Muslim writers outside of Arabia were often confused on the origin of the true Arabs. They sometimes divided them into Ishmaelites and Qahtanis or northern Arabians and southern ones. But most northern Arabian bedouin had traditions of coming from the Yemen from the kingdom of Himyar or Humayr and Saba who were descendants of Qahtan, while the dark skinned tribes of Qahtan in the Yemen in fact claimed an African origin.
Qahtan is sometimes said to be a child of A’abar or Abir (Biblical Eber or Heber) and otherwise of Asmah who was apparently the Isma’il of later writings. In addition Qahtan (Joktan) son of Abir (Eber) whose brothers were Aram (Aram), Awza or Aus (Uz) had fathered Amalek and A’d (the latter’s name was derived from Adah) are all closely related peoples in Arabian tradition. Amalek in particular ruled from Sana’a in the far southwest corner of Arabia in modern Yemen to Syria at one time. All historical accounts state that the near descendant (great grandson) of Qahtan was Saba (Seba) whose two sons according to most accounts were Himyar (or Humayr) and Kahlan (Nakhete Kalnis of Ethiopian genealogy). These went on to populate the whole of Arabia and to rule a great part of the ancient world under leaders such as Numayr ibn Qassit (Nimrod), the Amelekite rulers Cathim (Heth of the Hittites or Cetimus of Mythology), Anak and Sheshi the Hittite rulers of Canaan, Ak (Og), Kabus, Djurham or Darim (Hadoram) and the Sabaeans or Adite kings of Himyar such as Murath’ad from whom came the name of the Banu Murad (Amurath or Amorites), Akk ( Og the Amorite king of the Rephaim), Al Modad or Al Matat(Almodad), Numan, Ma’afir , and the later Himyarite rulers Awal (Hevila) Dhu’l Karnein and Afrikus who colonized Africa. Incidentally the rulers Anak and Sheshai have been identified as names of the Hyksos rulers Nakhi and Sheshi in Egypt by archeologist David Rohl.
1872A.D. -On the inhabitants of southwest Arabia in Yemen, “The inhabitants of this part of Arabia nearly all belong to the race of Himyar. Their complexion is almost as black as the Abyssinians,” see p. 121 in “Geography of Southern Arabia” by Baron von Maltzan, in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol. 16, No. 2 , pp. 115-123.
1900 – In this year the sultan of the tribe of Yafa’a described as of “greenish brown” color See Mabel and Theodore Bent Southern Arabia p. 403
1932- Bertram Thomas describes individuals of southern Arabia. Men of the Yafi’i or Yafa’a clans of Ahl Yazid fuzzy haired, greenish–brown and Yahar tribe of the Yafa’a as dark chocolate Anthropological Observations in South Arabia, Bertram Thomas in The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Insdtitute of Great Britain and Ireland Vol. 62 83-103 Jan-June 1932. On a sultan of the Yafa’ai tribe who claim descent from Himyar ibn Qahtan through the tribe of al Haf. They are likely the Haiappa or Chayafa who figure in Assyrian inscriptions circa 8th c. B.C.. and the Ephah of the Bible.
1927 – “The people of Dhufar are of the Qahtan tribe, the sons of Joktan mentioned in Genesis: they are of Hamitic or African rather than Arab types…” See page 236 in “A Periplus of the Persian Gulf”, Arnold Wilson. The Geographical Journal Vol. 69l, No. 3 March 1927, pp. 235-255. (The Dhufar talked about here are the mountains of Oman.)
1929- Bertram Thomas on the modern remnants of the ancient Qahtan tribes: “…these tribes – with the exception of the Harasis – have a tradition of African origin, the order of their local antiquity being Shahara, Bautahara, Mahra, Qara.” Found in The South Eastern Borderlands of Rub-al Khali, Bertram Thomas vol. 73 (LXXIII) No. 3 March 1929.
1932 – Bertram Thomas also observed individuals from a number of clans in the Yemen a man from a tribe called Mashai’a man is described as “very dark brown” The Shahara are “dark brown” and the Bait Marhum of the Kathiri (Keturah) tribe are similarly described. Found in Anthropological Observations in South Arabia The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 62, (Jan. – Jun., 1932), pp. 83-103 The photos of a Mashai’a man and Shahara (of Sheherazade fame) and Kathiri children, Mahra and Qara can be found in Bertram Thomas books. The Shahara are a clan affiliated with the Mahra. The Mashai’a are those mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions. It has also been written or translated as Maasaai.
2001 – “Mahra is the Arab name for the Bedouin tribes who are different in appearance to other Arabs, having almost beardless faces, fuzzy hair and dark pigmentation – such as the Qarra, Mahra and Harasis… Also on “…the Qarra, Mahra and Harasis with parts of other tribes. The language is derived from the language of the Sabaeans, Minaeans and Himyarites. The Mahra with other Southern Arabian peoples seem aligned to the Hamitic race of north-east Africa… The Mahra are believed to be descended from the Habasha, who colonized Ethiopia in the first millennium BC” p. 250-251, Peoples on the Move by David Phillips, 2001.
Ancient Origins of the Afro-Arabian Qara tribes (also written Qarra, Gara, Kara)
The Qara or Kara claim descent from the Azdites of Kindah kingdom which existed in Central Arabia and the Persian Gulf. The Azd are descendants of Qahtan through Kahlan son of Himyar. They are among those remnants of peoples who claim they came from Africa at a remote period. The dialects of the Qara is related to the pre Arabic dialects of ancient Saba, Himyar and Ethiopia.
1929 – Bertram Thomas describes the Qara or Kara as “the most prosperous tribe of all the Hamitic group, possessing innumerable camels, herds of cattle and the richest frankincense country. They resemble the Bisharin tribe of the Nubian desert. Men of big bone , they have long faces long narrow jaws, noses of a refined shape long curly hair and brown skin.” Quoted on p. 200 in Richmond Palmer’s, The Bornu Sahara ans Sudan 1970 originally published 1936 by John Murray of London. The Qara are actually rather short in stature as well.
2004 On the Qara, “European observers have made much of their physical resemblance to Somalis and Ethiopians, but there is no historical evidence of any connections.” P. 261 J. E. Peterson “Oman’s Diverse Society: Southern Oman”, Middle East Journal Vol. 38, No. 2 Spring 2004.
Claudius Ptolemy mentions the town of “Gerra” in the Geographos (2nd cent CE). Strabo appears to have referred to them as Gerraeans salt traders in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea says they were the Chaldeans pushed from Harran (which was apparently Arabian Hauran) by Nebudchadnezzer. He wrote, “the Gerrhaeans have become the richest of all; and they have a vast equipment of both gold and silver articles, such as couches and tripods and bowls, together with drinking vessels and very costly houses; for doors and wall and ceilings are variegated with ivory and gold and silver set with precious stones.” (Frankincense and Myrrh, A Study of Arabian Incense Trade, Nigel Groom, p. 67).
“The city of Gerrha played a central role in the interchange of commodities of certain regions of the ArabianPeninsula during the reign of the Seleucid King Antioch III (223 – 187 BC) of Syria. Most notable was the frankincense and myrrh of southwestern Arabia in the Yemen and Hadramawt regions. Juba and Pliny refer to the city of Gerrae as Carra as mentioned in his Natural History 1.161-62 an Arabian tribe called Carrae or Carraeans who had the most extensive and fertile agricultural lands in Arabia.
The Qarra or Kara tribe also carry on a salt trade that was one of the hallmarks of the ancient Gerrhaeans or Carrae. Some have tried to relate the name of Carraeans to that of Hagar while others probably more accurately see some correlation with the Korahites of Southwest Arabia who appear to be the Biblical Korah.
TITLE: Fear of Blackness: Descriptions and Ethnogenesis of the original Afro-Arabian tribes of “Moorish” Spain
PART I
“…a fair-skinned Arab is something inconceivable… “ Ibn Abd Rabbu in El Iqd el Farid (The Unique Necklace) quoting Shuraik el-Qadi a 7th century Arab of the clan of Nakha’l of the Maddhij in the Yemen.
“…the Arabs describe their color as black and they describe the color of the non-Arab Persians as red.” Assertion of grammarian Ibn Manzur or Mandhur, in Lisaan al Arab, Vol. 4 (born in Tunis or northern Egypt).
“Red, in the speech of the people from Hejaz means fair-complexioned, and this color is rare amongst the Arabs. This is the meaning of the saying … a red man as if he is one of the slaves.” From Seyar A’laam al-Nubalaa, vol. 2, by the Syrian Al-Dhahabi (Thahabi),of the century 13th -14th c. a.d., cited in The Unknown Arabs, by Tariq Berry.
“…most Arabs are dark brown in color.” 13th c. Ibn Mandhur, Lisaan al Arab, Vol. 4.
The above quotes cited in The Unknown Arabs, Tariq Berry, published, 2002.
Batn – clan; literally meaning ‘from the belly of”
Ibn, bin, banu, beni – meaning “son of”
Harrah or el Harra the volcanic region stretching from
Hejaz the western stretching from
Nejd – central Arabian land including Riyadh
Sudan – the area south of the Sahara and the same latitudes in Arabia.
Totemism – veneration of ancestral consciousness represented by animal names with cosmological significance and associations.
The Yemen – the southern part of the Arabian peninsula
The following treatise documents the tribes of Afro-Arabians descended from the original occupants of the Arabian peninsula. Although the Arabians were not the first to be called Moors, it was the color of the people leaving the Arab peninsula from the peninsula of Arabia that was mainly due the use of the term “Moor” for black and woolly haired people in Spain, France, Italy and other parts of Europe in Islamic times. When the Chanson de Roland which speaks of the time of the Moorish battles in Gallic France speaks of “those hordes and hordes blacker than the blackest ink – no shred of white on them except their teeth…” it is no mere exaggeration. Anyone familiar with the Arabic writings of the Syrian, Iraqi and Iranian historians up until the 14th century that this is exactly their description of many of the early “pure” Arab clans of the Arabian peninsula.
Therefore, the use of the term “Afro-Arabian” in this article refers to the inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula who long after the time of Mohammed shared the appearance of sub-Saharan Africans, as well as customs of present day Africans stretching from the present country of Sudan to Somalia in the East to Mauritania, Mali and Nigeria in the West and other parts of Africa.
Totemism, ancestral veneration, including knowing the genealogy of cattle and sheep back many generations (almost all early Arabian tribal names are also the names of their animals and have an astronomical reference), matrifocal societies (including worship of Goddesses), the wearing of cowry shells, nose rings, plaited and totemic hair-styles, ululations, hennaed limbs and scarred faces are all African-associated traits and customs most of which date back several thousand years into the Neolithic.
These are the facts of pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabia, which is why the Greeks and Romans considered Arabia an extension of Ethiopia and for Syrians much of Arabia was considered part of the Sudan long after the time of the prophet Muhammed. (See Richmond Palmer’s, Bornu, Sahara and Sudan with regard to the Syrian Al Omari). It was from this colony of “blacks” (as the original Arabs invariably called themselves), that the numerous tribes of the men Europeans once called “Moors” left after the time of the Muslim prophet to also spread over parts of the Middle East, North Africa and the Iberian peninsula.
Although Iranians had settled the Yemen or south of the peninsula in the centuries immediately preceding the Prophet Mohammed; though Turks, Circassians, mercenaries, concubines and slaves from all parts of he world had come to settle the land of the Arabs later in Islamic times, large numbers of inidigenous peoples of African appearance still occupy the peninsula Arabia preserving their indigenous and original Afro-Arab customs.
Descriptions and Ethnogenesis of the Original Arabs:
The tribes leaving the north and central parts of Arabia occupying the Hejaz and Nejd can be divided into major branches. They include those traditional genealogy called “Ishmaelites” or descendants of Kedar, like the tribes of Qays ibn Ailan or El Nas and El Yas, and the Rabi’ah and Wa’il all based in the central regions of the peninsula. Many of these were “the Saracens” whom Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman general of the 4th c. A.D. claimed had originated “from the cataracts of the Nile” in Sudan.
It is the north and central group of Arabians inhabiting the Jordan, the Harra and the Nejd whose ancestors came to be called Ishmaelites, descendants of Thamud (the second A’d), Kedar and Naba’it (all traditionally children of Ismail). (The Nabataeans were among those known also as Amurru or Amorites in late Assyrian texts.)
In the tradition of Syria and in the later European Jewish or Rabbinic tradition the term “Kushi” signified black peoples, and in fact, became a derogatory term. A European Jewish Targum text Song 1:5 employs the phrase “as black as the Kushi who live in the tents of Kedar.”
Because many of the indigenous Arabian people of Jordan and Hejaz were near black in color and claim descent from the Kedar, Kinanniyya, Kana’ani or Cana’an, or Nabataeans (such as the modern Haweit’at), the Syrians and others who adopted Arabic nationality or who had been colonized by the Arabs, came to presume names such as Nabit, Kedar, Kanaan meant “black” people.
David Goldberg’s 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 10th c. Al Masudi of Baghdad , is thought to have written the text, Akbar al Zaman. Al Dimashqi of Syria belonged to the 13th century.
In the southern part of Arabia the modern Qahtan Arabs’ are descendants of e the peoples known mainly as Sabaeans, Himyarites, Ma’in and Azd (also called Asad, Zayyed or Sid) in Arab genealogy. These came to spread north and became the progenitors of many “Ismailites” . Thus, many groups have genealogies which make them both north Arabian descendants of Ismail and Qahtan through the Azdites (Zayyed) or Maddhij of Yemen descendants of Himyar and Kahlan sons of Saba. Most of the living Qahtan tribes told the European colonial ethnographers that they came in remote times from Africa. Thus, Bertram Thomas in 1929 said that the Shahara (Banu Shahr), Mahra or Maheyra, and Bautahara and Qarra or Kara had “a tradition of African origin” in “The Southeastern Borderlands of the Rub-al Khali”,in Geography Journal, Vol. 73, 3. These clans are described as having a dark pigmentation and fuzzy hair as recently as 2001 (see David Philips, Peoples on the Move, pp. 250-251).
In 1872, von Maltzan wrote on the inhabitants of southwest Arabia in Yemen, “The inhabitants of this part of Arabia nearly all belong to the race of Himyar. Their complexion is almost as black as the Abyssinians,” see p. 121 in “Geography of Southern Arabia” by Baron von Maltzan, in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol. 16, No. 2 , pp. 115-123.
On the Qara it was recently written, “European observers have made much of their physical resemblance to Somalis and Ethiopians…” P. 261 J. E. Peterson “Oman’s Diverse Society: Southern Oman”, Middle East Journal Vol. 38, No. 2 Spring 2004.
NORTHERN ARABIAN “ISHMAELITES” IN SPAIN – EL NAS AND AL YAS
THE QAYS AILAN BIN MUDAR – DESCRIPTIONS AND SETTLEMENT IN SPAIN: The descriptions of the Qays clans families and individuals are many. To the Qays Ailan groups belonged the famous northern Arabian tribes of the Harra and Hejaz including the well-described children of Mansur (Mansour or Manas’ir) Sulaym bin Mansur, Mazin bin Mansur and Hawazin bin Mansour whose sub clans are in the dozens. The descendants Mansur bin Ikrima bin Khasafa bin Qays bin Ailan in Arabia, like most early Arabs in Arabia are referred to as black and dark brown in texts. Although they were famous for their slave raiding and use of Greco- Romans or (Rum) concubines in ancient times, many clans, in fact, remain near black in color in the peninsula today.
Al Jahiz (9th c.) and Ibn Athir, the Kurd (12th -13th c.) refer to the Sulaym bin Mansour in particular as “pure” Arabs and “black” in color, not simply dark brown which was also common in the Hejaz. Al Jahiz said that all the tribes of the Harra an area south of Jordan and extending into Hejaz were black like the lava and animals in the region.
Some Sulaym (Sulaym ibn Mansour bin Ikrima bin Khasafa) had settled in North Africa and entered Spain with the first governor of Andalusia, Abd el Azziz ibn Musa, and others also settled in Tudmir. But most of the clans of early settlers from the Qays tribes of Sulaym, Ghatafan, Fahm, Abs, and Dhubyan (Zubyan) of the Ghatafan or Ghutayf came later from Jazira in Mesopotamia where they had been settled for some time.
Ghatafan bin Sa’ad bin Qays Ailan, “settled the plain of Granada in a village called Ibra” in Spain, while the Abs of the Ghatafan (Abs bin Baghid bin Raith bin Ghatafan) settled in Jaen. (See bib. Taha, below) An early eyewitness upon seeing the Abs tribe in Arabia describes them as “black-skinned men shaking their spears and digging in the earth with their feet.” (the Unknown Arabs, p. 780). Both Ghutayf and Abs are originally known as batn or clans of the dark-skinned Murad of the Maddhij in Yemen according to original sources mentioned in, The Yemen in Early Islam, 1988.
The clans of Hawazin bin Mansour, like those of his brothers Sulaym and Mazin bin Mansour were also described in early Arabia. Among their modern remnants are the black and tall Dawasir of Yemama and the “dark brown” Utayba and the lithe short “chocolate colored” Hamida of the Harb.
“A great number of Hawazin settled in Seville and Valencia” others settled in Elvira and Grenada. (see Taha, p. 135 The Muslim Conquest…)
Circa 1879, the famed British adventurer Sir Richard Burton describing the Hamida as a large clan of the Banu Salim bin Auf of Hejaz, Sir Richard Francis Burton describes the men as, “small chocolate colored beings, stunted and thin… with 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…” ( Burton in Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to el Medina and Mecca .p. 173 3rd edition William Mullen and Son.)
Concerning the Otaiba (also written Ateyba, Utaiba, Ateibe, etc.) 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.
Mazin bin Mansour’s descendants:
Clans of Khazraj and Aus based in Medina and the surrounding area are tribes whose individuals are often described in Arabic texts. When individuals of these tribes are described by non-Arabian writers, they are usually called ‘black- skinned” and “huge” or massive in stature making it likely this group originally from the Yemen belong to the remnants of the old Ubaid or Obeid stock of neolithic Arabia and Syria, whom are described as having unusually “large bodies” and “negroid” aspect by early anthropologists like Archibald Sayce. The Ubaid crania show a people that with long, wide noses.
The Khazraj (Gezer) and Aus (Uz) are the tribes from which came most of the Ansar or “companions” of Mohammed, the Prophet. One famous leader of the Ansar visiting the Byzantine ruled Egypt, Obadah bin Samit an aristocrat and chief of the Khazras or Khazaraj is described as “black” and by tradition was over 8 ft tall, which may be an exaggeration of course, but then again may not have been. The famous Mohammed ibn Maslama of the Aus clan of al Ansar is also “tall, black-skinned, and huge.” By Ibn Saad (9th century Baghdad, Iraqi) in El-Tabaqat El Kubra vol. 3. (See Berry). While El Baladhuri (a 9th century Iranian ) also calls Nabtali ibn Harith from the Aus Ansar as tall, jet black and huge, with nappy hair”. See Tariq Berry’s book, The Unknown Arabs for more description of members of Aus and Khazraj.
Most of the Medina al Ansar settled in the region of Saragossa in Spain. (See Taha, p. 118) The Khazraj clan of Sa’d bin Abada settled in Qarabalan near Saragossa in Spain, while the Aramramma clan settled Sidonia and Cordoba and “later moved to Elvira, Grenada, Toledo, Tortua and Jerica in the province of Castellon.”
ELYAS (ELIAS BIN MUZAR, MUZIR OR MUDAR)
Muzar’s other descendants were the clans of Elyas of the southern Hejaz. When the tribes and individuals of the clans of Elyas are described, they are described in writings as “dark brown” or “black”. They were centered in Hejaz or western Arabia stretching southward toward the Yemen. The El Yas or Elias bin Muzir or Mudar was exemplified by the Kinaniyya or Kinana bin Khuzaima bin Mudrika bin Elyas (who became famously known as the Canaanites) from which came Mohammed’s tribe of the Qureish, and the tribes of Tamim bin Murra, Hudhail, Nadir, Mustaliq, Makhzumi and Zahra.
Elyasa or Elias included the famous Kinana who were described in EuropeanJewish Talmudic texts as “black, thieving people” with “large male members”. Wah ibn Munabbih a 7th century descendant of Iranian mercenaries who had settled in the Yemen just before the period of Islam also made Cana’an “black”, being quite familiar with the Kinaaniyya tribe of Hejaz. The Banu Umaayya who founded the Umayyad dynasty of Islam among the clans descended from tribes of Qureish founded the Umayyad dynasty.
Some Kinana or Kinaniyya who now live in Jericho today, the modern state of Israel are black, and many with the keenest features are jet black. (Some have tried to say they descend from Nubian slaves, which may be the case, but certainly not for the blacker ones.) The Quraish clan of the Kinaniyya were with Musa’s army (the first Arab governor in of Al-Andalus in Spain). Kinana also came to live in Jaen in Spain.
When individuals of the Qureish clan of the Kinana in Arabia especially relatives of the Prophet are mentioned in texts they described as black. Ali, the son of the prophet’s cousin described as ‘black skinned” by the Turkish and Iranian writer el Suyuti and by Ibn Saad, a Baghdad, Iraqi of the 8th c. in El Tabaqat ael Kabra vol. 8. (cited in Berry). Ali’s great grandson according to Kitab el Aghani by Esfahani of Central Asia was “black skinned and huge”.
The Zuhra clan of Qureish settled Saragossa. A member of the Banu Zuhra in Arabia named Saad ibn Waqqas is called very dark, “tall” and “flat-nosed” by El Dhahabi, of Syria. While Jahiz of Iraq calls him black-skinned and huge. Yazid ibn Muawia from the Qureish clan of Abd Manaf is called black-skinned and huge” al Dhahabi of the 14th century(cited in Tarik Berry, The Unknown Arabs).
The tribe of Hudhail bin Mudrika bin El Yas settled Murcia and Saragossa. El Baladhuri, the 9th century Iranian, describing Abdella ibn Mas’ud, a famous member of the Hudhail clan of Arabians says he was “short, thin and black”. (p. 17 Berry). Tabikha was brother of Mudrika in the genealogy. When the Central Asian or Iranian writer Al Esfahan (from Esfahan in Iran) described an Arab of the clan of Tabikha and Banu Asad he described him as “black- skinned” with “black eyes”. According to Taha (p. 1376, The Muslim Conquest…), Banu Asad bin Khuzaima bin Mudrika settled in al Bushra near the Sierra Nevada mountains and Barajila.
The Muslim Conquest and Settlement of North Africa and Spain, by Abdul Wahid Taha, 1989.
CENTRAL ARABIAN TRIBES OF THE NEJD IN SPAIN Part II To Be Continued
sorry sir
tarik berry have slave roots not arab roots his delirium about that pure arabs are black is only desastrous and pitty for the black cause because pure arabs are white and even whiter than europeans .
Omar
Little lickspittle semi-illiterates like you have no place in scholarly discussions.
Now take some lessons:
The only pink Arab there was came from central Europe. The original Arabs are all from Africa, like the Yemenites, the Omanites, the Saudi Arabs, the Iraqis and the Shirazi Persians.
The great Umar, one of the early caliphs of Islam was known as the Black Caliph. I suppose that is because his hair is “black” eh?
True Arabs are black people and this got nothing to do with Tarik Berry’s ethnicity.
A quick image search on google and Youtube will make the wool fall off your jaundiced eyes.
BTW: Where you from originally? Azerbaijan or Turkmenistan?
This Omar is like the bulk of his people :
- Ignorant
- Racist
- Negrophobic
But it’s not their fault though, because their “scholars” never speak about the true original arabs i.e The CUSHIM or Ethiopians of the old Testament.
In modern “Arab” history , everything black was a slave, and everything white was his master. This is how they corrupted Arabia history.
For example the great Cushitic king Luqman (as) who is praised in the Qu’ran for his knowledge , faith and wisdom is described as a former slave by the contemporary commentators.
You have 2 Great phophets of God Almighty who are described as BROWN men in the Hadiths , but these facts are hidden from the bulk of ignorant people like this guy:
- Moses (as ) : Bukhari 3439, Bukhari 3394, Muslim 423, Tirmidhi 3130
- Jesus or Issa Ibn Maryam (as) : Bukhari 3439, 3440, Muslim 7289, Musnad Ahmad 2/37
Furthermore, Moses (as) is described as a man from the tribe of Shanu’ah who were very dark ( brown skin) like the companion , Said Ibn Al Khudri (ra).
In an other Hadith Moses (as ) is described as follow : ” brown complexion, straight hair and tall stature as though he was of the men of Az – Zutt”.
These two examples tell us that many original arab tribes were of brown or black complexion.
The Oldest and True Arabians came from Ethiopia, and when the first muslims were persecuted they looked for refuge not in Persia, or Palestine but in ETHIOPIA . Is it not a sign ???
The African Negus Ashamah protected them against the Qoraish.
There were many black noble Arabs :
- Zaid Ibn Harithah (ra) was a black and Noble Arab, kidnapped during a razzia and sold as slave…
- Amr Ibn Al As (ra) was a black and noble Arab…
- Ubadah Ibn As Samit (ra) was a black and noble Arab…
The old Arabian society was divided between two classes : Masters and Slaves .
Safiur Rahman Al Mubarakpuri who wrote “The Sealed Nectar” (awarded first prize by the muslim world league) says :
” The three Arab regions adjacent to foreigners suffered great weakness and inferiority. The people were either masters or slaves, rulers or subordinates. Masters, especially the foreigners , had claim to every advantage…” Page 36
Persians had many arab slaves…before the advent of islam…
Many white semitic Arabs ( from the North) were themselves slaves. It was the evil of the pre-islamic nomadic society . I’m stronger than you so I steal your stuff (razzia) and enslave you and your tribe ( Men, Women, Children).
Their “scholars” forgot (avoid) to say that Arabia was divided into two parts :
- The North with “white” nomadic people from the East.
- The South with the oldest Arabians who came from Africa.
It’s not a surprise for us when we see the scientific achievement of antic South Arabia and the “desert” civilization which prevailed on the North.
Arabia Felix was briliant like her sisters : Kemet, Chaldea, Babylonia , Ethiopia, Soudan etc
Even at the time of the Prophet Mohamed (saw), the people of North Arabia was called the Umiyyin , the illiterated ones…It is their name in the Quran Al Karim and in Torah.
But these people don’t read their Holy Book and hate black people.
In the oldest Arab Traditions gathered by the French scholar Caussin de Perceval the first inhabitants of South Arabia : Yemen, Hadramaut, Mahrah, Oman were the black Adites.
Their language were the same, which was spoken by the black koushites of Chaldea or Babylone, namely the Sumerians.
He says that the originals Canaanites (1st Amaliqas) were black people from South Arabia.
There were also the 2nd Amaliqas who were a mixed people between the semites ( ARAM) and the cushites ( LUD).
He divides the Amaliqas in 3 Families :
- Pure Amaliqas
- Arcam
- Qaturah
The last one is mixed between white semites and black arabians. Madian is a group of the Amalicas from Qaturah.
Tsiporah or Sephorah the black Ethiopian wife of Moses (as) was from the tribe of Madian,like the prophet of God Shuayb (as).
They did the same thing with the sumerians , I found a document from the French anthropoly society dating from 1902.
It has been written by Dr Adolphe BLOCH , he says many important things that we afro-descendants know :
- The Black Kushites of Chaldea and Babylone created the sumerian civilization;
- There were Black people in this region and they called themselves : ADAMU (Cuneiform writing);
- There were White people in this region and they were called : SARKU (Cuneiform writing);
- The Blacks of Babylonia ( ADAMU) created the writing system, the arts, and they educated the semites in this region;
- The bulk of slaves in Babylonia were WHITE people, and they were called according to their fair skin complexion by the word : NAMRUTIM ie ” people with fair complexion”.
They were bought from the land of GUTI ( Actual LURISTAN in IRAN), they were white ( ie whiter than semite people) and contracts were settled in order to buy these white slaves.
- Greeks called the Ethiopians, CEPHENES or KEPHENES. Hellanicus ( 5 th, BC) saw Ethiopians in Mesopotamia ( Inferior Region of Tigris / Euphrate)
- The Black Kushites descendants have been described by the Arab ABU-ZEID ( 8-9 th century AD) and the Persian ISTACHRI (10 th , AD)
- The Kushites from Arabia settled in Chaldea, Susiana , Phenicia , Palestine
I had the chance to see a recent picture of these originals black canaanites in a conference in Paris.
An African Scholar ( PHD in Egyptology/History/ Philosophy) , namely Pr Jean Charles Coovi-Gomez, showed us the document from a French newspaper, which said that they were the originals inhabitants of Palestine which is occupied by the Zionist state.
This picture SHOWED a black ebony man with Ethiopian features. They live in Jordania. And only a little more than one hundred people had survived.
I’ll post you the video of the conference, it’s in French but at least you’ll see the picture. I’ll translate for you the comment given by the French newspaper about this people.
But it was saying that they WERE the originals BEDOUINS of Palestine before the actual “arabs” of Palestine and their Zionist Askhenazi oppressors…
He showed us also an original picture of the so – called Semitic deity, the canaanite deity named BAAL. It was a black deity as well, like Osiris ( Wsr) , and Isis ( Ast).
PEACE
Come back soon , If God wills
http://video.kemmiou.com/view/1851/Coovi-Gomez-RexMiRa-Relations-entre-les-noirs-et-les-juifs-2-3:
- From 0:55 to 1:25 , the Black Canaanite deity BAAL – AMON, with an Egyptian posture.
- From 18:26 : The Black Canaanites descendants of the Natufians and From 19:05 he reads the text :
” Voici la figure des premiers Bédouins autochtones et indigènes de la Palestine…La représentation des premiers pionniers juifs de la bible ne ressemble pas à celle des autres”
” This is the representation of the first autochthonous and natives Bedouins of Palestine…This representation of the first jews (inhabitants of Palestine) pionneers of the Bible ( the canaanites) doesn’t look like to the others “….
He further says that more than 400 descendants of the first canaanites are now living in Jordania….
Truth is sweeeeeeetttttttttttttttttttttttt……
PS : This picture is a living witness of the ethnicity of the Phenicians
Hi all, I think we need to stop confuising and propogating the myth that the term Cush was meant to differentiate the African Arabs from other types of Arabs. The early Rabbis of Israel even referred to Shem as “black” . Originally Ham and Shem and Japhet referred to Afro-Arabians, and the myth of these three was an African Arabian allegory. There is no evidence that northern Arabians were fair in color. As the the Hejaz is even today are dark brown. The Ka’b, Muntafiq, Uqayl groups who left Central Arabia immigrating to Iraq from the 9thc. onwards are described as near black in color, and are considered to have been spread to Mesopotamia since remote times. The people of the south are the descedants of Shem,, Aram and Joktan/Qahtan, Thamud is called a son of Abir or Eber in Arabian tradition. Eber Joktan and Aram are not from Cush. This term came to refer to black people in general because of the presence of the Ghassan or Azd Sanuah a Himyarite people in Syria. Who are in various Arabic texts mentioned as ” black”. please do not keep the mythology alive that the Arab- speakers of today as represented in Western media are the Arabs of yesteryear. Osama bin Samit was black because he belonged to the Khazras group who were also derived from the Azd. The individuals like Omayya were black because the Banu Kenani or from whom came the Biblical Canaanites were “black” as are told in various texts of Iranians and Europeans. The Madhij leader mentioned in Berry’s book said a fair-skinned Arab was unthinkable in the 7th c., not because he was cushitic, but because he was from the tribes of Shem.
Apparently in the Pirqe of Rabbi Eliazar of Israel of the 1-2nd century, in Pereq 24, “Shem was especially blessed black and beautiful, Ham was blessed black like a raven…”
There are absolutely no texts speaking of fair skin “children of Shem” previous to the Greek interpretations of the Bible and later Iranian mercenary interpretations of the Noah myth.
I meant to say there are many Hejazi’s in northwest Arabia that are still dark brown in color. (Not all, of course.) They are the remnants of ancient slave trading people Sulaym, Ghatafan, Khazraj, Aus, Haram bin Samal, Hawazin etc, whose concubines came from the Rum as Jahiz said and later from Syria and as far north s the Caucasus.They were likely a people who are probably much blacker than they are now judging from the early descriptions..
Oops, not Osama I meant Obadah bin Samit. of the Salim bin Auf tribe of the Khazraj (Gazar/Gezer/Gether brother of Aus/Uz in Arab tradition) both sons Aram in the Bible. He lived in the time of the Prophet Muhammed.
I admire your research and great scholarship, however, I must you rely too much on the works of western orientalists. The orientalists gave corrupted much of what they came across by either mistranslating, hiding evidence, or literally destroying evidence such as manuscripts and books. I advice you that you should invest sometime in the language of the region which you are writing about, namely, learn the Arabic language, there is much resource available in this language. For instance, there is Ibn Sa’ad, Ibn Zubayr, and many others who wrote about the region and its people.
Hi Al-jahiz,
Thanks for your coment. I actually use early European Western documenters alot because i think they for the most part who the people of these areas actually were. They were also more likely to use ancient sources as reference unlike many of today’s “scholars” who seem to have been too influenced by modern political nationalisms and National Geographic illustrations and the like.
I actually had almost two years of Arabic under my belt but haven’t had time to continue on with it. In any case I’m sure there are many works that have been translated into French or English that I and other people who wish to can read and learn from. I think Tariq Berry’s, the Unknown Arabs is a good start.
Thanks for your advice.
Hi Dana,
Great work. Here is a forum thread that you also might be interested in lending your expertise…
http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=006400
A-salaam-O -Liekium,
I am so pleased with this article. I am Muslim and I am African Offspring of Slave American. I am so pleased to know in fact the obvious that the first Arabs were in deed people of color, namely black. I understand now why individuals have went to great links to cover up this reality. I think mainly because it would profoundly suggest and conclude that the Greatest man that ever lived, the best example to all mankind and Jin, Muhammad Iben Abdul-ah Iben Muttalib,( PBUH) had black blood running through his veins like river pouring into an ocean. I can see Muhammed (PBUH) with Zaid Iben Harith(adopted BLACK son) at the Kabba, after Zaid refused to leave Muhammed (PBUH) when his biological father came to rescue him from what he thought was Zaid’s enslavement. Muhammed having no prejudice/racism in his body and as we know the Angels cut him open at around age 6 and washed his heart from all iniquity. Muhammed exclaimed to the inhabitants of Mecca that Zaid was his son and that Zaid would inherit from him and he would inherit from Zaid. Zaid is the only name mentioned in the Quran of Muhammed’s companions. The white washing has got to stop!
Thanks Dana and may Allah continue to enhance you with wisdom and Knowledge profound.
I have no doubt, Hud. that God or Allah is bringing out this information for people to know through certain others for a purpose. I hope it is used wisely in the future. But your statement is wrong about black blood in his veins. His blood was red – and his genes – as seen by the description of his cousins, his mothers ancestors and his fathers ancestors – were BLACK.
Dana, I stand corrected. I agree entirely that the blood in Muhammeds veins was red. My statement about “black blood” was only a figure of speech meant to imply that his ancestors, father, and mother were people of color. I am not a raciest and verily The Lord of The Worlds has no color that you and I can comprehend. Verily he is the day and the night and all that is in between. The good is from Allah and the bad is from my self. The color of Muhammed is no consequence to me for he is the Seal of The Prophets and the Last sent to all mankind. I am just appalled at the fact that people would go to great lengths to cover up the obvious. After all Muhammed did descend from Abraham, Hagar, and Ishmael.
This is bullshit , all your researches and study will prove nothing but a big joke , the Arab tribes have their own races which is different than horn Africa people but for sure during the long history many Arabs married women from horn Africa and India that’s why you will find Arabs look like hor Africa people and India , but for sure many southern Arab immigrated and life in horn Africa since thousand of years and mix with hor Africans that’s why many of Ethiopian and eritirian people they have deadhead like Arabs , Arabs in original they red and light skins and have sharp face features but cuz of sun they becom dark and that normal , so Dana you need to review again all what what you wrote and forget our Arab ancestors were black never but ofcourse Arab races is in between hor Africans races and north Arabia races
Here is the description of “red” people by Ibn Manzur (14th century) wrote his dictionary Lisaan al Arab:
” The Arabs don’t say a man is white [or: “white man,” rajul abya?] due to a white complexion. Rather, whiteness [al-abya?] with them means an external appearance that is free from blemish; when they mean a white complexion they say ‘red’ (ahmar)… And the Arabs attribute fair skin TO THE SLAVES. ”
We have Tariq Berry of the book Unknown Arabs to thank for these quotes. if you have any Arab ancestors WHATSOEVER, you best believe they were black : )
Another early author of the Azd tribe living among the fair-skinned Abbasid era people of the Middle East – “The Arabs used to take pride in their brown and black complexion (al-sumra wa al-sawd) and they had a distaste for a white and fair complexion (al-humra wa al-shaqra), and they used to say that such was the complexion of the non-Arabs.’[in Ibn Abi al Hadid, Sharh nahj al-balaghah, V:56]
Here is how the Central Asian Rumi described the Arabs in the 9th century. ” You insulted (the family of the Prophet) because of their blackness (bi-l-sawad), while there are still deep black, pure-blooded Arabs. However, you are white – the Romans (Byzantines) have embellished your faces with their color. The color of the family of Hashim was not a bodily defect (aha).[From poem of Abu al-Hasan Ali b. al-Abbas b. Jurayj (Ibn al-Rumi) (d. 896), apud Abu al-Faraj al-Isbahani, Maqatil al-tãalibiyyin, 759]
Here is how Chinese manuscripts describe the Arabs of Mecca and Hijaz in the 15th century –
“… from Zhida (today’s Jedda/Jiddah) you go West and after traveling for one day you reach the city where the king resides. It is named the capital city of Mochieh (Mecca)… The people of this country are stalwart and fine looking, and their limbs and faces are of a dark purple color” from the manuscript of a Ma Huang Advisor to Zheng he, Muslim Chinese admiral of the 14th century in the chapter Country of the Heavenly Square. .
The 14th c. El Dhahabi of Syria wrote in, Siyar A’lam al Nubala II, 168, “This is the meaning of THE SAYING, … ‘a red man as if he is ONE OF THE SLAVES’. The speaker meant that his color is like that of the slaves who were captured from the Christians of Syria, Rome and Persia” . He also said fair skin was very rare to see in Hijaz.
Until you can explain to me how the Arabs were fair or white in color when early texts say people of that color were thought to have slave ancestors than I would suggest you take your own advice and do some research. lol!
Made the mistake of saying the Chinese mansucript saysthe Arabs were of dark purple color when it actually said “of a VERY DARK PURPLE colour”.
Found in “YING YAI SHENG LAN, ‘THE OVERALL SURVEY OF
THE OCEAN’S SHORES’”
[I433] Translated from the Chinese text edited by Feng Ch’eng-Chün with introduction, notes and appendices by J. V. G. MILLS CAMBRIDGE, Published for the Hakluyt Society
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS1970
http://faculty.washington.edu/qing/huan_ying-yai_sheng-lan%5B1%5D.pdf
” In general, the Egyptians say that their ancestors sent forth numerous colonies to many parts of the inhabited world, by reason of the pre-eminence of their former kings and their excessive population; but since they offer no precise proof whatsover for these statements, and since no historian worthy of credence testifies in their support, we have not thought that their accounts merited recording.”
” After the gods the first king of Egypt, according to the priests, was Menas, who taught the people to worship gods and offer sacrifices, and also to supply themselves with tables and couches and to use costly bedding, and in a word, introduced luxury and an extravagant manner of life.” (The KUSHY/CUSHY LIFE)
“For this reason when many generations later, Tnephachthus, the father of Bocchoris the wise, was king and, while on a campaign in Arabia, ran short of supplies because the country was desert and rough, we are told that he was obliged to go without food for one day and then to live on quite simple fare at the home of some ordinary folk in private station, and that he, enjoying the experience exceedingly, denounced luxury and pronounced a curse on the king who had first taught the people their extravagant way of living; and so deeply did he take to heart the change which had taken place in the people’s habits of eating, drinking, and sleeping, that he inscribed his curse in hieroglyphs on the temple of Zeus in Thebes; and this in fact, appears to be the chief reason why the fame of Menas and his honours did not persist into later ages.”
I told you because of sun their skin will be dark but their faces features completely different than today Ethiopian and iriterians so when those transports tradesmen wrote about the Arabs whether north or south Arabs that they black that not mean they are black like Ethiopian or horn Africa people you should understand that and if some tribes in horn Africa look like south Arabia Arab that cuz of two reason one is cuz many horn Africans during their occupation Yemen they married/raped Arab girls specially those Arab life along the coastelline of south Arabia the second reason cuz their ancestors were Arabs simply like this and Ethiopia it’s self since ages settled by Arabs from south that why we can see today I’m horn Africa influenced by the southern Arab blood and civilization even your language in north horn Africa all came from south Arabia before 3000 years they were only pure African life in hor Africa and after that Arab start immigrat / settle in hor Africa and from that time African blood start mix with Arabs and that why you people look slightly different than aftican
The same populations that occupied Africa also occupied Arabia from 7,000 to 700 years ago. In the Bronze age there was no difference in the skeletons of the peoples of the Nile and east Africa to those in Africa. The culture between these regions that led to the development of early Sabaean culture is in fact called the Afro Arabian cultural complex by archeologists. Arabia was considered part of Sudan, Kush and Ethiopia by early Greeks and Syrians and others until a late period. Hijaz was “universally ” considered East Africa as late as the 19th century according to colonialist Richard Burton. The tribes on the African part of the Red sea in pre-Islamic times had the same names as the ancient Arabian tribes. Here are some of them. Bin Simal (Somali), Mahra, Afariyyah/Afar, Djorham/Hadoram/Hadharme or Hadareb, Wubar, Yahar, Rahawayn/Ruhawayn, Makhir/Makharam, Mahass, Baliyy, Kala, Sabai, Sabi all belonging to the Qahtan and Kahlan, Himyarite people. The Greeks, people like Strabo, Diodorus and Nonnus considered people of Meroe, people of the Blue Nile and east of the Nile to be the same people as the Arabians. They thus called them Arabians.
Southern Yemen was modified early by the Sassanid Iranians and early merchants non-Arab as shown by the appearance of brachycephalic (round-headed peoples of the coast) in late Parthian times. This area was also taken over by the Turks.
There is not a single Arab confederation mentioned as being fair in color in early Islamic times except for one that were said to resemble the slaves. Arab features are rarely found in Arabia any more only among the Tihama, Nejd people (Wadi Dawasir), parts of Yemen and Hadramaut and in Wadi Beish. Hashimites and Quraysh from teh Kinanah were the only noble Arabs and they are all called black and tar colored people. i guess that must be the holy blood your talking about.
so it’s not ( when Arabia was estern Ethiopia) it’s ( when Ethiopia was the backyards of Arabia ) and please you and other like you stop put photos taken for the Arabs living along the coastelline of south and west Arabia cuz those are not representing the pure Arabs cuz their blood mixed with Africans and Ethiopians that’s they look more like horn africa people and this prove nothing but a joke . Arabs always have their own holly blood and features and you horn Africa people you were and still today and forever you will be our brothers and friends and we share many commen things and we Arab proud to be afriends to such free proud nations
Just remember today Arab means nationality and not blood.
Do you know what’s your problem you building all your final conclusions and facts based on a wrong and misguid references all of them written by authors called by Arabs ( alshoopion ) most of them are Persians and racist 19 century western travellers and politicians they all wrote these books against Arabs and for apurpose also you are taking what they wrote as a facts ???! not as one point of view also western archeologists they are building all their theories depending in one or two skeleton found them somewhere here broadcast them as a fact and build on a wrong assumption a huge false history … cmon girl understand these are all false facts and assumptions prove nothing but assumption
OK – now I am assuming you are not related to an early Arab. How ’bout that for an assumption.
Ibn Manzur wrote essentially the same as Dhahabi in his Lisaan al Arab:
“The Arabs don’t say a man is white [or: “white man,” rajul abya?] due to a white complexion. Rather, whiteness [al-abya?] with them means an external appearance that is free from blemish; when they mean a white complexion they say ‘red’ (ahmar)… And the Arabs ATTRIBUTE WHITE SKIN TO THE SLAVES.”
Was that an assumption of a 14th century writer of teh ARab dictionary Lisaan al Arab?
I am “assuming” that you are one of the ahmar people who don’t like the fact that the original Arabs called themselves “the blacks” and not the reds.
Please let me know which Arabs you come from since you know so much about the Arabs. And let us see how your people are described.
Al Jahiz said “… the Arabs take pride in their black skin”. Moreover he wrote in the beginning of his Kitab Fakhr al Sudan min al Bidan, “if the Arabs are reddish, then they belong to the Rum(Byzantines), Saqaliba (Slavs) , Persians and Khurasanis”.
Which one of the above are you from? I am assuming you know.
In the 14th century Al Dhahabi wrote in, Siyar A’lam al Nubala II, 168, “This is the meaning of the saying, … ‘a red man as if he is one of the slaves’. The speaker meant that his color is like that of the slaves who were captured from the Christians of Syria, Rome and Persia”.
I assuming that you look like a Syrian and Persian and not like a black i.e. an early Arab or a pure Arab like the Muntafiq, Kaab, Bani Amir bin Szasza Sulaym, Hawazin Wail, Ansar, Qureish, Qahtan, Azd, Tayyi, Adnan or anything else that came out of Arabia and conquered Syria and Mesopotamia and mixed with their people.
Am I RIGHT? Please let me know if I am wrong in which case I will be glad to help you with a description of your true Arab ancestors.
can you explain for me what you mean black ??! are you mean by black they look like African whether from central Africa or horn Africa ( with all my respect to my brother Africans ) or you mean their skin color black but with their Arab features which I already told you during that time there were no a/c and they were fighters traveling thousands of kilometers and spending most of their time under the sun on their homeland Arabia or wherever they travel . it seems to me you are from Sudan or nuba or Ethiopia or iretiria or Somalia or an Arab girl with African features that’s why you want to prove the Arab look like you or you are nationalist Ethiopian from the right wing . and you should know I’m not urging you about cuz I hate Africans or black colors if you think this I’m sorry this is stupidity . I’m urging you cuz I’m feeling sorry for u cuz you totally misunderstanding and your wide knowledge about the subject mixed up . So would you please explain to us what you mean by ( the Arabs are black )… but regarding red yes the Arabs call white people red but my but I mean by the red is the color of the skin by today conceptions . ( again al dhahabi kurdi , ibn manzur barbari amazegi , al jahiz from African root zingy so all of them are not arabs )
Dana where are you I’m waiting for your reply / comments / views about what I wrote in the last comments above , it’s very important for me to know your ideas specially from a girl who really have such huge information and specialized knowledge in this critical subject , as you know how Arabs hate what you are writing, by the way can you please tell me from which country you are and from which area of your country and what people think where are you from when they see for the first time , are you from Israel ?! please I’m waiting for your reply with my best wishes for you and your family …. you know when English settlers reached the east coast of north America for the first time in the 17th century in their devil ship ( mayflower) and found that north America it’s not an empty land and not the promised / holly land their white god promised them of and there is people living in that land since millions of years . their historians start to write their false history of north America to justify their occupation and genocides they done on native American by saying native Americans came from Asia through cipiria 10000 years ago and teaching this stereotype story in schools , colleges , universities to justify their occupation to this land and repeating these lies that all Americans are immigrants whether those came to America 10000 years ago or those came yesterday to open the door for everybody and prove for their generations and the world they have done no mistakes or crimes against humanity in this part of the world . what you are doing is the same thing against arabs
Lol! devil ship?! thats a new one. Sorry, I keep forgetting about the posts I put on here. need to come back more often. First of all I never anything whatsoever about Arabs being black. Modern Arabs are obviously a variety of things. Second of all the postings come straight from the mouths of Syrians and Iranians of the midieval era nort me. Thirdly the term black has nothing to do with features obviously because there are jet black people in Central East Africa today with very refined narrow features – WHICH ARE IN FACT AFRICAN – that they evolved over thousands of years of living in hot arid desert like environments. It is only natural that you would find the same in Arabia which also had desert.
African features? yes early ARABIANS had African features as their skeletons and crania show so well. Some the oldest in fact from the Umm an Nar Bronze age had LONG, WIDE, FLAT NOSES with a large and distinct PROGNATHISM which they got most likely from their MESOPOTAMIAN ANCESTORS OF THE ERIDU CULTURE OF ZIGGURATS dating from the 4th MILLENIA BC.. THESE ORIGINAL ARABS, later mixed with and encountered tall “elegant” elongated “NEGROID” oval-headed types of the Central Arabian and SyroArabian deserts as spoken of by Emmanuel Anati authro fo Rock Art of Central Arabia and other specialists on rock art. Judging from their rock art which is very much connected to the African Sahara and their material culture they came to Arabia during the neolithic by way of Somalia . They could not have looked much different than modern Woodabe, Rendili or Samburu of east Africa. If you want to say the latter don’t have “African features” that is your perogative.
Now when I say black i don’t mean descendant of an “abid” or slave or “coolie’, which is what you mean. Nor did the Syrian Al Dhahabi or Al Manzur of Tunisia mean “abid” when he said the Arabs refer to themselves as the blacks. Because in the earliest days and among real Arabs “slave” was someone ‘ahmar’ with fair skin “like a captured Syrian or Persian” Turk or Slav.
During the Bronze Age people related to the smaller Beja types also settled in the Ghassulian region and along the coasts of Arabia as they had once settled A group Nubia and much of proto-dynastic Egypt. This was of course before the Beja mixed with Turks and other non-African people. Now if you would like to believe the ancient Beja didn’t not have Afrrican features that is your perogative.
In any case these people populated the entirety of Arabia and much of southern Mesopotamia and were not influenced by the broad headed fair-skinned people of the Levant until the advent of the Sassanians and Scytho related Iranians.. You must understand in the age of the Greeks the Yemen and Abyssinia are both called the country of the Indi or INDIA Minor because they were considered one people. In the north of course the people are variously described as black and brown like the Ethiopians or “abyad” LIKE THE ABYSSINIANS because abyad meant someone with a clear skin without blotches. NEVER, EVER, EVER WAS THE TERM ABYAD OR SUMRA/SAMARA USED BY THE EARLY ARABS FOR PEOPLE OF FAIR SKIN.
That might however be how modern Syrians Lebanese and their descendants use the word “abyad” but that has nothing to do with the Arabs who were an African related people. If you want the sources documenting that fact just let me know as in LISAAN AL ARAB by ARABIC LINGUIST. IBN MANZUR, by AL THALABI, and DHAHABI.
Some tribes like those descended from the Azd are called very tall, very black and huge with kinky hair. When individuals are described among these black tribes they are said by these for the most pare NON_ARAB historians to have ” red eyes” like Nabtal ibn al harith from the tribe of Aus (described by al-Baladhuri) , with flat noses andkinky hair like Saad ibn Waqqas (as Dhahabi said,. Actually yes – these are African features.
You speak of false history. I got news for you – some historians started writing “false hstory” about the Arabs as well claiming that Arabs looked like Syrians and Iranians peoples the Arabs looked down on and whose color they held in contempt. They also took the ARAB WORD “ABYAD” and gave it their own meaning! i guarantee you the original Arabs and the present people of East Africa were once the same people and it was that way in the time of Muhammad (pbuh)..
In early Greek and Syrian texts the northern part of of Arabia was named in their texts ‘Kush” or “Ethiopia”. Until the 14th century Arabia including the Nejd was known as part of “Bilad es Sudan” and obviously for good reason!.
oh by the way to answer another of your questions i’m a black American in the United States, not African. And people of other countries and even other Americans who have seen me in person have told me i look also look Brazilian, Moroccan, Afghani, Yemeni, while real Africans have said I look N like a “white woman”, native American Indian, and black Americans have said -”like a darkened- down Jew” whatever that is.lol! So no I”M NOT AFRICAN although I have many ancestors from Africa. And BTW when I say black I mean a heck of a lot blacker and more “black African” in appearance than me. : )!
thanks for replaying , ok now since we know who you are I got the point why you fighting so hard to prove what you are repeating everywhere since I don’t know how many years , and when you decided to start this mission and who behind that whether its the same old reason of African Americans to prove to European Americans that there ancestors were no slaves and barbarians but they belong to very civilized people and culture , ok I really don’t have anything against my brother Africans we both shared many things in this area between Asia and Africa , but for sure nobody can assure or (guarantee) as you said how you guarantee some thing happened millions, thousands , hundreds years ago have you been them that days and you saw them with your eyes ???!! and do you think those words written by a numbers of non Arabs historians or some Europeans anthropologians which remain as an assumptions built in some skeletons they found somewhere and no body can prove whether they were for native people of the area where they found them or for slaves brought from Africa in areas were populated by millions sorry this is a stupidity just to make your self happy . Sorry Dana it seems to me you have not read my comments above deeply and you keep repeating the same stereotype stories to satisfy something wrong in your soul sister . ok I can accept from some one who say it’s just an assumptions they may be right or wrong but using word ((( guarantee ))) my god . girl you need to be realistic and think logically don’t ever hearing only from your self or from those agree on your views and ideas open your ears and be proud of what you are and never think bringing such assumptions will make people respect you more cuz people also have abrains and common sense
Man, stop sermonizing and begin backing up your claims with fact otherwise they are nothing but robotic lies springing from a virus-like programming deep in your mind. That programming is called… “A phobia for Blackness”.. Identify it and deal with your virus. Nobody gives a fly about your uninformed opinions. Scientific facts..not nationalistic lies!
Umm lol! Assumptions – I know English isn’t your first language but your going to have to try to get some help because i couldn’t understand a single sentence you wrote.
I am assuming however that u are not using logic.
Am I just assuming that the Muntafik and other descendants of Ka’b bin Rabi’a, or Hawazin NORTH ARABIANS in Iraq today are called “abid” because they are white?
Be for real man. YOU mentioned the phrase “common sense” – so USE IT! These people were and are black and have been described as such for thousands of years. I am trying to figure out what your trying tosay.
Which Arab tribe are you ASSUMING wasn’t African in appearance., when even Chinese manuscripts mention the Arabs coming to them from Hijaz were “black men with high noses”. When the word Arab or Arapi means simply “the black man” today still means in Greek and Turkish. YOU USE SOME LOGIC AND BE REALISTIC ! LOL!
You are also obviously the one creating stereoptypes about Arabs. What “holy features” are you talking about. Syrian ones? Iranian ones?
That’s funny why did the Ibn Rabbih of Cordoba say in his book ,The Precious Necklace that a 7th century Middhij sheikh claimed one of the 7 rare things of this world is “an Arab with fair skin. ” Why would he claim that an Arab with fair skin was thought to be “inconceivable” and “unthinkable’. Why would these Iranian writers just make up such things. It would be against their interests.
Why did Chinese manuscripts of the 14th century describe the peoples of Hijaz as of a very dark purple color. And why do modern 19th century dictionaries claim Mecca and Jidda have been inundated or flooded with foreigners.
Why are the Quraysh, Hudhail and other Hashemite, Kinaaniyah related clans in Israel and Arabia still black. These people practiced endogamy and didn’t mix with other people. THAT’S WHY! They wanted to keep their blood pure. That is what THEY CLAIMED. your wishful thinking will not change history a bit.
If anything is a stereotype it is that early ARabs looked like modern Syrians and mixed people in the Middle East AND THEY DIDN’”T! GET IT!?
This is an African American posing as someone else. My gut instinct tells me he is an African American.
Ok it’s not my mother tongue who care nor yours and the fellow jahdey but I really surprised by you both last comments they are really aggressive and sorry to say impolite . You both from USA are not you ? correct me if I’m wrong , that mean both of you raised in democratic country belong to a culture ( the opinion and the other opinion ) . Then how you understood the previous comments ??! why this is not understandable ?! lol or because my last opinion was so transparent difficult to be swollen . so now when I faced you with some facts about you African Americans presence history in north America since your ancestors brought by Europeans as slaves to serve them and their farms you attack me that much lol . cmon Dana be realistic and proud of who you are . we when we talk about Arabs we don’t mean Syrian or Persian we are talking about the original Arab tribe in Arabia ( have you ever visited one of these tribe in their homeland arrange visit and go see them sit with them and then write about them but just by reading a translated books written by non Arabs and for your information the presence of our brothers Africans in Arabia very long so many of them were traders traveling to different country for business since hundreds of years so may be some of them went to china and the people their thought them were the real Arab ( with my full respect to them ) . cmon girl who said al muntafic tribe in Iraq blacks this is a joke . girl I told you Arabs have fair skin color when they exposed to the sun their skin will turn to black but their features never and ever will be black . I’m not repeating this thing again and again not because I think Arab is better than African or any other nation or race this is only simply the real fact which it seems to me not reached you tel now . cmon girl be proud of your ancestors history and heritage and don’t put your self from what you are writing that you are trying to steal other nations history to make your race bigger they are bigger but you will make them look small . and before I conclude I want to you to know I’m a black Arab and I’ve got many of my Arab friends and they are not for sure like what you want to prove . Again sorry for my broken English which the happiness fill your life and your family and your race
Assumption:
[ lol or because my last opinion was so transparent difficult to be swollen . so now when I faced you with some facts about you African Americans presence history in north America since your ancestors brought by Europeans as slaves to serve them and their farms you attack me that much lol .]
It’s obvious to me that you don’t know theTRUE story. You are basing your knowledge on HIS story. The FACT is: most African Americans were here before Columbus and Europeans. Do you know what Pangea is? Do you know who the Olmec are? Look it up and expand your knowledge….
Tel me the true story rasheeda ??! it look all of you in this site have the only true stories ?! lol . like your teacher Dana ok keep repeating the true stories and the facts in your minds and according to your wishes and all of them will justify nothing but the assumptions in your minds .. my opinion about all your stories , facts , thoughts , are just a debate built on afalse base to suit your false stories and you are doing exactly the same thing done by your executioner ( European settlers ) so keep on your god job . For me no use of continuing this useless urgement . may god help us all
You have no arguments, beggar. No facts, no logic, just wishful thinking. Now that you have been beaten bad and sore with knowledge on Rasta Livewire, its time you either confess up to the truth or to climb back down to your pale souless world of lies and ignorance.
Welcome to Rasta Livewire, where we burn and shock ignorance to oblivion!
I understand your concern assumptions. But my statements are based on fact not on wishful thinking and exagerrating. For example I would never be one to say most African Americans are descendants of Olmecs. obviously from the records of slave ships that we have they were not. That doesn’t mean there were not Africans here before the slave ships with the other Native American groups. The skeletons found among early Olmec include numerous African ones and the heads are found on top of some of the earliest pyrmaids. Now its a matter of putting two and two together. Modern Natives in that area are an obviously descended from both African and Asiatic people that came in that ancient period. The reason that offends people around the world is that they in their countries have been taught that the black people were only slaves, and thought they must be better then them. Now they are enraged, confused and angry, but there is nothing that can be done about that because true history of ancient civilization is coming not only from so-called Afrocentrics but from a number of European scholars who have been able to deal with the issue without nationalistic impulses and distortions. Its judgement day! lol!
LOL ..hahaha god help you
Hehehe…LMBAO! god help you too!
LOL , sadooooooh… what can we do this is the facts whether you accept them or keep swimming in your dreams sea which will lead to nowhere but keep accusing people who disagree with you of ignorance and inhuman . you people live in a lake of low self esteem . You are spreading the pathetic and need doses of self confidence … god help you brothers. …..haahaaaaaha loleen
^Animal chattering….
It appears that the intellectual beating you just got has been too much for you. You sound like you lost it. Now you are reduced to making monkey noises…
See how facts and logic can quickly send each one of us back to our origins…
LOL!
where are you from mr. jahdey which country you are from and from which race or ethnic group if you are Ethiopian ( Oromo , Amhara , tigrean , sidamo , shankella , Somali , afar , gurage ) can you please specify thanks
I am a Muur! An Ethiopian Ras!
Where are you from?
Jahdey
you are black mr. jahdey I mean you have African roots are not you? if you are African American that mean your ancestors came to America not more 400-450 years am I correct ? and if you European African that mean not more 200 years
@ Dana
We’re still waiting for your book, you know so much about ancient arabs (and ancient mesopotamians) that you should write and publish something to educate people (me the first)
Kind Rgds
Its in the works believe me Nehesy, in the works. Thanks for your confidence. : )
i thought this article might interest you.
What do Haile Selassie and Mandela have in common? Among other things, both are Africa’s most prominent politicians who have come to be considered as inspiring and iconic figures of our age. Though one was a symbol of regal and feudal power and the other a revolutionary with Marxist inclination, both have come to demonstrate great political ability and astuteness during their period in office. Both suffered colonial oppression, and both of them mobilized their respective peoples against oppressors that violated their freedoms. Both are cool, self-contained men, who managed to stay calm and graceful under pressure.
http://arefe.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/mandela-on-haile-selassie/