Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry (7 page)

In early Arabic poetry and historical narrative, the Persians are sometimes
spoken of as "the red people," with a suggestion of ethnic hostility. This seems
to date back to pre-Islamic times-to Arab resistance to Persian imperial
penetration in Arabia and Arab reaction to the disdain which the civilized
Persians showed for the semi-barbarous tribes on their desert frontier.`' After
the Arab conquest of Iran, the roles were reversed; the Arabs were now the
imperial masters, and the Persians their subjects. In this situation, the term
"red people" acquired a connotation of inferiority and was used in particular
reference to the non-Arab converts to Islam. Redness is similarly ascribed to
the conquered natives of Spain, to the Greeks, and to other Mediterranean
peoples of somewhat lighter skin than the Arabs.'

As between Arabs and Africans the situation is more difficult to assess.
There are verses, indeed many verses, attributed to pre-Islamic and early
Islamic poets which would suggest very strongly a feeling of hatred and contempt directed against persons of African birth or origin. Most if not all of
these, however, almost certainly belong to later periods and reflect later
problems, attitudes, and preoccupations.

References to black people in pre-Islamic Arabia have usually been taken
to mean Ethiopians-commonly called Habash, the Arabic name from which
our word "Abyssinian" is derived. Habash was probably used for the peoples
of the Horn of Africa and their immediate neighbors. Apart from a few questionable references to Nubians, no other specific ethnic term relating to
an African people is used in the most ancient Arabic sources; such terms do
not appear until after the great waves of Islamic conquest had carried the
Arabs out of Arabia and made them masters of a vast empire in southwest
Asia and northern Africa.

Ethiopians were active in Arabia in the sixth century as allies of the
Byzantines in the great struggle for power and influence between the Christian Roman Empire on the one hand and the Persian Empire on the other.
An Ethiopian expedition seems to have crossed the Red Sea in about 512 A.D.
to help the Christians in southern Arabia. After fighting a victorious campaign they returned home, leaving garrisons behind them. These were, however, overwhelmed in a local reaction. The Ethiopians returned in about 525
A.D. to restore their authority and protect the Christians. Having done this,
they once again withdrew, leaving the country in the hands of a local puppet
ruler. Later, he was overthrown by a group of Ethiopian deserters who had
remained in the country. Their leader, who now became king, was Abraha, a
former slave of a Byzantine merchant in the Ethiopian port of Adulis. The
Ethiopians tried unsuccessfully to remove him and then agreed to grant him
some form of recognition. He probably led the Ethiopian force which advanced northward from the Yemen and attacked Mecca, at that time a Yemenite trading post on the West Arabian caravan route to Syria.4 The attempt,
which seems to have been part of a campaign against the Persians, failed, and
in about 570 the Persians sent a naval expedition which brought the Yemen
under their control.

Some Ethiopians remained in Arabia, mostly as slaves-that is to say, as
captives-or as mercenaries. These were at times of some importance, as is
attested by the Arabic sources and also by ancient Ethiopic loanwords in
classical Arabic. The early poets also made frequent references to Ethiopians
serving the Arab tribesmen as shepherds and herdsmen.

Apart from some inscriptions there is no contemporary internal historical
evidence on Arabia on the eve of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad. There
is, however, a great deal of poetry and narrative, committed to writing in later
(that is, Islamic) times. Although very detailed and informative, it needs
careful critical scrutiny in that it often tends to project back into the preIslamic Arabian past the situations and attitudes of the very different later age
in which the texts were compiled and written. This consideration applies
particularly to the poems and traditions relating to blacks, whose situation
changed radically after the great Arab conquests, as did also the attitude of
the Arabs toward them.

The normal fate of captives in antiquity was enslavement, and Ethiopians
appear together with Persians, Greeks, and others among the foreign slave
population of seventh-century Arabia. The proportion of black slaves is unknown; but from lists of the slaves and freedmen of the Prophet and of some
of his Companions, it would seem that they formed a minority. Slave women
were normally and lawfully used as concubines; and it was not unusual for a
man to have a free, noble Arab as father and a slave concubine as mother. In such a case, according to ancient Arabian custom, he was a slave unless he
was recognized and liberated by his father.

Arab poetry and legend have preserved the names of several famous figures in ancient Arabia who are said to have been born to Ethiopian mothers
and who in consequence were of dark complexion. The most famous of these
was the poet and warrior `Antara, whose father was of the Arab tribe of `Abs
and whose mother was an Ethiopian slave woman called Zabiba. He is considered one of the greatest Arabic poets of the pre-Islamic period. Already in
early times he became the subject of a series of tales and legends. As the son of
a slave mother, he was by ancient custom himself a slave. A relatively early
account tells how he gained his freedom. One day his tribe, the `Abs, were
attacked by raiders from a hostile tribe, who drove off their camels.

The `Abs pursued and fought them, and `Antara, who was present, was called
on by his father to charge. "'Antara is a slave," he replied, "he does not know
how to charge-only to milk camels and bind their udders." "Charge!" cried
his father, "and you are free." And `Antara charged.5

If we are to accept the verses ascribed to him, `Antara, once free, despised
those who were still slaves and, proud of his part-Arab descent, looked down
on the "jabbering barbarians" and "skin-clad, crop-eared slaves" who lacked
this advantage. Later, in the shortened form `Antar, his name appears as the
hero of a famous Arab romance of chivalry, covering the wars against Persia,
Byzantium, the Crusaders, and various other enemies. On one campaign,
against the blacks, the hero penetrates farther and farther into Africa until he
reaches the empire of Ethiopia and discovers, in true fairy-tale style, that his
mother, the slave girl Zabiba, was the granddaughter of the emperor.

All this is clearly fiction; but even the early historical accounts of `Antara
are questionable, and only a very small part of the poetry extant in his name
can be ascribed to him with any certainty. The greater part, and especially the
verses in which he complains of the insult and abuse which he suffered because of his blackness, is of later composition and is probably the work of later
poets of African origin. Some of these verses do indeed recur in collections
ascribed to later poets of African or part-African birth. And it is not uncommon to find the same verses ascribed to more than one of these poets. A
famous verse ascribed only to `Antara runs:

This may mean no more than that his mother was a slave, without reference to
race or color. There are, however, other verses ascribed to him, indicating
that his African blood and dark skin marked him as socially inferior and
exposed him to insult and abuse. For example:

1. The slave market in Zabid, in the Yemen.

Baghdad, 1237

2. A slave bringing food.

Probably Syria, 1222.

3. The story of the two foxes. A prince hunting with falcon, cheetah, and huntsman.

Herat, ca. 1490-1500.

4. The birth of the Persian hero Rustam, with women and black servants in attendance.

Egypt, 1510.

5. A merchant with attendants and packhorse driver.

Tabriz, Iran, ca. 1530.