“Superiority of the Blacks to the Whites”
Al-Jahiz
Jahiz sets out to write
a disquisition on the glories of the Black race. He quotes memorable sayings by Blacks, and
goes on to enumerate the famous men (Luqman Sa’id b. Jubair, Bilal, etc.)
[67] Blacks say: Everybody agrees that there is no people on earth in whom generosity is as universally well developed as the Zanj; and this is a quality found only in those of noble character. These people have a natural talent for dancing to the rhythm of the tambourine, without needing to learn it. There are no better singers in the world, no people more polished and eloquent, and no people less given to insulting language. All other peoples in the world have their stammerers, those who have difficulty in pronouncing certain sounds, and those who cannot express themselves fluently or are downright tongue-tied, except the Zanj. Sometimes some of them hold forth before their ruler continuously from sunrise to sunset, without needing to turn round or pause in their flow. No other nation can surpass them in bodily strength and physical toughness. One of them will lift huge blocks and carry heavy loads that would be beyond the strength of most Bedouins or members of the other races. They are courageous, energetic, and generous, which are virtues of the nobility, and also good-tempered with little propensity to evil. They are always cheerful, smiling and devoid of malice, which is a sign of noble character. Some people say that their generosity is due to their stupidity, shortsightedness and lack of foresight, but our reply id that this is a scurvy way of commending generosity and altruism. At that rate the wisest and most intelligent man would be the most stingy and ungenerous. But in fact the Slavs are more stingy than the Byzantines [68], and the latter more intelligent and thoughtful; according to our opponents’ argument, the Slavs ought to be more generous and open-handed than the Byzantines … The Zanj say to the Arabs: You are so ignorant that during the jahiliyya you regarded us as your equals [when it came to marrying] Arab women, but with the advent of the justice of Islam you decided this practice was bad. Yet the desert is full of Blacks married to Arab wives, and they have been princes and kings and have safeguarded your rights and sheltered you against your enemies.
Jahiz mentions other
famous Blacks, and refers to the exploits of the Abyssinians, the things their
country produces, etc. He asserts that black is superior to other
colours. Blacks are proud of their great numbers;
also, the Arabs do not really know them, since all they see is Black
slaves. After some reflections on
cross-breeding between races, and on men’s taste for the female slaves commonest
in their own countries, he repeated that the blacks outnumber the whites.
[81] …We say that God did not make us black in order to disfigure us; rather it is our environment that has made us so. The best evidence of this is that there are black tribes among the Arabs, such as the Banu Sulaim b. Mansu and that all the peoples settled [82] in the Harra* besides the Banu Sulaim are black. These tribes take slaves from among the Ashban to mind their flocks and for irrigation work, manual labor and domestic service, and their wives from among the Byzantines; and yet it takes less than 3 generations for the Harra to give them all the complexion of the Banu Sulaim. This Harra is such that the gazelles, ostriches, insects, wolves, foxes, sheep, asses, horses and birds that live there are all black. White and black are the results of environment, the natural properties of water and soil, distance from the sun and intensity of heat. There is no question of metamorphosis, or of punishment, disfigurement or favor meted out by God. Besides, the land of the Banu Sulaim has much in common with the land of the Turks, where the camels, beasts of burden and everything belonging to these people is similar in appearance; everything has a Turkish look. The soldiers of the frontier garrisons on this side of the Awsim sometimes come across Byzantine sheep mixed up with sheep belonging to the local inhabitants, but they have no difficulty in distinguishing the Byzantine flocks from the Syrian by their Byzantinity. When one comes across the descendents of Bedouin men and women who have ended up in Kurasan it is immediately apparent that they are the barbarians of these parts.
The author reiterates his
theory about the influence of environment on skin color, quotes some verses
from the Qur’an.
[84] …As regards the Indians, they are among the leaders in
astronomy, mathmatics in particular, they have Indian
numerals, and medicine; they alone possess the secrets of the latter, and use
them to practice some remarkable forms of treatment. They have the art of carving statues and
painted figures. They possess the game
of chess, which is the noblest of games and requires more judgment and
intelligence than any other. They make Kedah swords, and excel in their use. They have splendid music, including that of
the kankala*, an instrument with a
single string mounted on a gourd, which takes the place of the many stringed
lute and cymbals. They know a number of
sprightly dances…and are versed in magic and fumigation…. They
posses a script capable of expressing the sounds of all languages as well as
many numerals. They have a great
deal of poetry, many long treatises, and a deep understanding of philosophy and
letters; the book Kalila wa-Dimna originated
with them. They are intelligent and
courageous, and have more good qualities than the Chinese. Their sound judgment and sensible habits led
them to invent pins, cork and toothpicks, the drape of clothes and the dyeing
of hair. They are handsome, attractive
and forbearing, their women are proverbial, and their country produces the
matchless Indian aloes which are supplied to kings. They were the originators of the science of fikr by which a poison can be counteracted after it has
been used, and of astronomical reckoning, subsequently adopted by the rest of
the world. [85] When Adam descended from