Is Allah Syriac?

Shaka Ahmose and the Sloppy

Scholarship of the Afrocentric Jihad

(Black Arabia Strikes Back)

The gasping Afrocentric Jihad against Islam has

a new magic bullet: the claim that the Arabic
divine name "Allah" derived from Syriac,
particularly Syriac Christianity. This is
supposed to somehow disauthenticate Islam's
Allah. Of course, the most current advocate of
this is Shaka Ahmose.

Now, if it was true that the current Arabic

"Allah" is anchored in a Syriac "Allaha," that
would cause me no discomfort at all. I have
demonstrated in my book Black Arabia and the
African Origin of Islam (2009) that the Modern
Standard Arabic quadraliteral word "Allah" is a
very late development from the Proto-Semitic
biliteral word (pronounced Alah); both the
Modern Standard Arabic Allah and the Syriac
Allaha are both quite late branches on the "Alah
Tree."

Nevertheless, the Magic Bullet is only a Nerf

and does nothing more than demonstrate
luminously the shobby, sloppy scholarship of
the Afrocentric Jihad which relies on outdated
and discredited sources. It routinely fails to
engage the most current scholarship on a
subject. It is true that neither Shaka Ahmose nor
the Afrocentric Jihad originated this claim: it
was seriously and soberly entertained in
Islamicist scholarship as early as Arthur
Jeffery's "The Foreign Vocabulary in the
Qur'an" (1938). Today, however, it is mainly
discredited "throw-back" or "wannabe"
Orientalist Christian scholars like the
pseudonynous Christoph Luxenberg who
champion this "Allah is Syric" Cause. And it is
these outdated and/or academically spurious
sources that are the sources for the Afrocentric
Jihad. Nothing surprising there.
Nonetheless, the credibility of an idea does not
live or die on the credentials (or lack thereof) of
its popular advocates. The "Allah is Syriac"
claim is discredited though the linguistic data
and revealed by the most recent sober research
done on the question.

Specifically, David Kiltz in his studyThe

Relationship between Arabic Allh and Syriac
Allh, Der Islam 88 (2012): 33-50 takes up
the question and, after reviewing the data, finds
that the grammatical evidence militates against
the Syriac being the origin of the Arabic Allah.
He concludes:

Regardless of whether the Arabic word was or

was not the source of Syriac allh, the Arabic
can be plausibly explained as being not a loan
word but the result of inner-Arabic
developments...There is no reason to assume a
loan from Syriac into Arabic, as allh is
perfectly motivated, i.e. phonetically regular, in
(some dialects of) Arabic and its development
within Arabic is safely accounted for. (45-46).

Case Closed

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Ra IZ Allah: Response to Asar Imhotep. Part I:

Deconstructive Analysis

Black Arabia Strikes Back I

(For Mature Audiences Only)

This Report is Part I of my response to Asar
Imhoteps 2013 critical review or attempted
refutation of my 2009 work, Black Arabia and
the African Origin of Islam, specifically a
particular claim that I made therein. Imhoteps
critical review is very lengthy and robust: over
80 pages dense with linguistic theorizing. My
response of necessity is equally lengthy and
robust with a heavy indulgence in historical
linguistics. This ensures that, unfortunately, this
Report will be no easy read for those unfamiliar
with the field of linguistics and its jargon. I
apologize up front. But because the matters on
which Imhotep and I are at variance are
linguistic matters, there is no avoiding this
difficulty for the reader. Language and
linguistics, like higher mathematics, is Big Boy
and Big Girl stuff. This Report is thus for
mature audiences only. The consolation is this:
if you have read and were able to follow
Imhoteps critical review then you should have
little difficulty reading this Report.

This Report will be issued in two parts.

Part I is a Deconstructive Analysis of Imhoteps
critique. Here I highlight some of the merits of
Imhoteps work, but also and in great detail the
many academic problems with it: the
methodological issues, the data issues, etc. Here
not only are many of Imhoteps conclusions
impeached, but his scholarly license to even
engage the subjects that he has and in the way
that he has appears, well, counterfeit. It should
not be concluded from this, however, that
Imhoteps critique has no value at all. Despite
its many and fatal documented problems, this
critique by Imhotep actually has made an
important contribution to the overall discourse
on Africa, Egypt and Islam. There are points of
his critique that I concede, and thus my personal
consideration of these matters have benefited
from Imhoteps contribution. The forthcoming
Part II of this Report is a Constructive Analysis.
Here I document in much detail the linguistic
origin of the Egyptian God Rah (R) and the
Semitic God Allah ((Aah). I demonstrate that,
contra Imhotep, these two are dialectical
variants of the same deity. In other words, Rah
IZ Allah, still.

There can be no doubt that on first sight

and on first read Imhoteps critical examination
of my thesis is an imposing and impressive
piece of scholarship. Even after the second,
third and fourth reads compel a more sober
perspective one cannot help but remain
impressed with Imhoteps mind. This critique of
my 2009 argument definitely warrants applause
in places, but it also warrants reprimand. Within
those pages one finds impressive erudition,
brilliant insights and a commendable critical
mind at work. Within those same pages,
however, these merits sit all too comfortably
alongside poor methodology, a lack of
thoroughness, misrepresentation,
misappropriation, and a much too laissez faire
approach to the scholarly convention of citing
sources and documenting claims.

What then might we say in conclusion

about Imhoteps scholarly offering after such a
deconstructive analysis? Despite its insights
and moments of brilliance, this critique smacks
of amateurism concealed behind eloquent
verbosity. Imhoteps lack of formal training
either as a linguist or an historian shines through
as brightly as does his natural brilliance. His
methodological parochialism and the many
faulty conclusions produced ultimately renders
this work of scholarship a valuable read but an
unqualified authority on most of the subjects
broached therein. Imhotep too often ventured
into areas for which he failed to properly
prepare and the overall value of this work is
severely diminished as a result, at least its value
as a scholarly authority on the relevant matters.

Go to document here:
https://www.academia.edu/12048826/Rah_IZ_A
llah_Response_to_Asar_Imhotep._Part_I_Deco
nstructive_Analysis

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Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Report: The Black Arabian Origins of the
Yoruba and Ifa

By Wesley Muhammad, PhD

The below is only a summary. The full, 41-page
report is here:

http://www.drwesleymuhammad.com/yahoo_sit
e_admin/assets/docs/Yoruban_Origins.3099220
0.pdf

(The ideological dogmatists will judge the

conclusions here presented on the basis of
reading this summary alone. The true Truth-
seekers will reserve judgement
until afterreading the report in full and weighing
the evidences presented and arguments
proffered.)

Conclusion: Islam is as African a religion as is

If.

Status quaestionis is a Latin phrase meaning

the state of the investigation and refers to
scholarly presentations of the up-to-date
accumulated data relevant to a particularly
controversial and unresolved topic. Truth of
God Institute (TGI) publishes Status
Quaestionis Reports on various debated
Religious Studies topics. This Report concerns
the origin of the Yoruban magico-religious
tradition called If and its relationship to Islam.
This Report is an extract from my upcoming
book that treats the subject more fully: Ah
and Oldmar: Islm and If as Sibling
Rivals (Atlanta: A-Team Publishing, 2014).

Professor Razaq Olatunde Rom Kalilu of

Ladoke Akintola University of Technology,
Ogbomoso, Nigeria, observed in 1997 that there
exists a paradoxical relationship of love and
hate between the Yorb culture and Islam. He
says further: That paradoxical relation itself
was a result of some similarities and contrasts in
the cultures which both the indigenous Yorb
religions setup and Islam radiated.

In my forthcoming book, Ah and Oldmar:

Islm and If as Sibling Rivals, I argue that this
paradoxical relationship of love and hate
between If and Islam is most aptly described as
a sibling rivalry. A sibling rivalry is competition
or animosity among siblings, particularly
(though not exclusively) siblings that are close
of age and of the same gender. Because they are
siblings, there is naturally love between them
(unless something egregious is done to change
that). But their rivalry also produces animosity
and hate at times.

Islam was founded in Mecca by Black Arabs

and If was founded in If (Nigeria) by Black
Arabs too. As siblings, If and Islam have the
same father (the magico-religion of ancient
Black Arabia) but different mothers (Egyptian
tradition/Qurnic tradition). In ways, both
Islam and If are developments from the ancient
magico-religion of Black Arabia. This means,
among other things, that, just as we cannot fully
understand Islam without a sufficient
knowledge of pre-Islamic religious tradition in
Arabia, we equally cannot fully or even
adequately understand If absent that same
knowledge.

Nigerian linguist and exegete Modupe Oduyoye

collected data for a yet unpublished work
entitled, African Words in the Bible and the
Quran. Oduyoye maintains that there
arecruces interpretationis (i.e. passages very
difficult to interpret) in the Hebrew Bible and
the Arabic Quran which can be resolved only
by resort to comparative linguistic data from
African languages. Oduyoye very ably
demonstrated this for the Hebrew Bible in his
1984 publication, The Sons of the Gods and the
Daughters of Men: An Afro-Asiatic
Interpretation of Genesis 1-11. Unfortunately,
any similar work that Oduyoye has done on the
Qurn has, to my knowledge, not been
published. In Ah and Oldmar, I intend to
fill this lacuna. I illustrate that, not only does
West African religious and linguistic tradition,
Yorb in particular, illuminate some parts of
the Qurn and Islamic tradition in general, but
also that the Qurn and Islamic tradition can
shed light on some Yoruban tradition.

The late Dr John Henrik Clarke has stated:

From the great Nile Valley religions came

Judaism, Christianity, and the elements that
went into Islam. Islam came out of the Nile
Valley. All these great religions are derivative
religionsIf I wanted a great religion I would
bypass all of them and go to the original
Judaism, Christianity and Islam are all carbon
copies of African religions. We need to go back
and take the original and deal from the original
rather than the carbon.

The first part of this statement by our great

teacher Dr. Clarke is factually correct, as far as
it goes. That some of the substantive elements
of the Judeo-Christian (Biblical and extra-
Biblical) tradition derived from the Nile Valley,
Kemet in particular, has been well documented.
That substantive elements of Islam have
parallels in Kemet has also been documented
and I have argued that the peoples of Arabia
who are likely responsible for the religious
tradition that later morphed into Islam
ultimately derived from the Nile Valley regions
(though not necessarily from Kemet).

So there is nothing historically problematic

about Dr. Clarkes claim. His judgment that
seems to derive from these facts, however,
warrants reconsideration, especially in the light
of the foregoing. Is Islam, which originated with
Africans in Arabia who migrated there from the
Nile Valley area and which shows such
remarkable similarities to Maat, to be rejected
as a carbon copy religion? If we applied this
same logic to If we would have to discard it as
a copy-cat religion, for it shows direct
derivation by way of Egypt from the
magico-religious tradition of Black Arabia. If
we modified Dr. Clarks words slightly, this is
what we are asked to consider:
From the great [Black Arabian] religions came
[If], and the elements that went into [If]. [If]
came out of [Black Arabia]. All these great
religions [of the Yorb] are derivative
religionsIf I wanted a great religion I would
bypass [If] and go to the original[If is]
carbon cop[y] of [Black Arabian] religions. We
need to go back and take the original and deal
from the original rather than the carbon.

While the first half of this statement is factually

true, who will follow the judgment of the
second half of this statement? If does derive in
part from Black Arabia and in part from Kemet.
Is this a good reason to bypass it and go back
instead to the original Black Arabian religion? I
dont think so. Yet, if we enforce Dr. Clarks
judgment of Islam then we must enforce this
judgment on If, lest we are guilty of an
unjustifiable double standard.

Continuing to deny Black Arabia and its

products (e.g. Islam) their rightful place within
the Africa-centered paradigm has serious
consequences. For example it renders our If-
practicing Yoruban family a leg short: to deny
Black Arabia is to make If stand and hop about
on one leg only.

If Islam is to be denied its Africanity, if you

will, because it originated with Black people
whose home was east of the Red Sea in Black
Arabia, then Ifs Africanity is to be similarly
denied, for it similarly originated with Black
people whose home was east of the Red Sea in
Black Arabia.

Posted by Black Arabia at 3:14 PM 4

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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Join me in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas This

Weekend, July 11 - 14, 2013

Posted by Black Arabia at 10:04 AM No

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Wednesday, April 10, 2013
His Daddy was Black. His Momma was Black.
So A Look at Prophet Muhammads Lineage

By Wesley Muhammad, PhD 2013

The Prophet Muhammad of Arabia was a pure

Arab from the Ban Hshim clan of the
Quraysh tribe. Not only were the original and
true Arabs black (aswad, akhar, udma), but the
Prophets particular tribe and clan were
famously black. As Robert F. Spencer remarks:
It is said that the Quraysh explained their short
stature and dark skin by the fact that they
always carefully adhered to endogamy,[1] and
Henry Lammens took notice of les Himites,
famille o dominait le sang ngre (the
Hashimites, the family where Black blood
dominated), remarking further that the Ban
Hshim are gnralement qualifies de =
couleur fonce (generally described as dam
= dark colored).[2]

These Western observations are in complete

accord with the confessions found in Classical
Arabic/Islamic literature. Ibn Manr (d. 1311),
author of the most authoritative classical Arabic
lexicon, Lisn al-arab, notes the opinion that
the phrase aswad al-jilda, black-skinned,
idiomatically meant khli 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. Barr al-Adaw (d. 1193) noted that an
Akhar or black-skinned Arab was a pure
Arab (arab ma) with a pure genealogy,
because Arabs describe their color as black (al-
aswad)[4] Al-Jai (d. 869), in his Fakhr al-
sdn al l-bidan, declared: The Arabs pride
themselves in (their) black color,
(al-arab tafkhar bi-sawd 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-sawd)
and they had a distaste for a white and fair
complexion (al-umra wa al-shaqra), and they
used to say that such was the complexion of the
non-Arabs.[6]

If Muhammad was in fact a pure Arab, how

could he have been Caucasian or pale
complexioned, the characteristic trait of non-
Arabs within the Hejaz? This question is the
more urgent when we consider that, not only
was his Arab tribe and clan notably black-
skinned, but so too was his immediate and
extended family.
I. Paternal Blackness

Abd al-Mualib (d. 578) was the Prophets

paternal grandfather and, as an Hshim Arab,
he was (as expected) black-skinned. Muhammad
b. Umar Bahriq al-Hadram, in his book al-
Anwr wa matlii al-asrr f srat al-Nab al-
Mukhtar, reports: Concerning Abd al-
Mualibhe was [dark] brown (asmar)
complexioned. This dark brown Arab fathered
sons with Arab women from clans who were
even blacker than his own clan and these sons
will be even blacker than he. Al-Ji noted:

The ten lordly sons of Abd al-Mualib were

deep black (dalham) in color and big/tall
(ukhm). When Amir b. al-ufayl saw them
circumambulating (the Kaba) like dark camels,
he said, With such men as these is the custody
of the Kaba preserved. Abd Allah b. Abbs
was very black and tall. Those of Ab libs
family, who are the most noble of men, are
black (sd).[7]
 Dalham is a very deep black or jet black.
Abd al-Mualibs ten dalham sons were:
rith, Abd al-Uzz (Ab Lahab), Ab
lib, al-Zubayr, Abd Allah, amza, Muqm,
al-Abbs, Hijl, and Zarrar. All ten were black
Arabs of the Ban Hshim, including Abd
Allah, the Prophets father. Yes, the Holy
Prophets father was a jet black Arab! So too
were the Prophets uncles and cousins.

Uncles and Cousins

1. Hamza b. Abd al-Mualib. The Prophets

famous paternal uncle, Hamza (d. 625),
famously called The Lion of God, was black-
skinned. Ab Dd (d. 819), in his text
Musnad al-Taylis, reports: (The Ethiopian
slave) Wahsi (b. Harb) said: I saw Hamza as
if he were an awraq (colored) camel
According to Ibn Manr (s.v.) awraq, from
wurqa, means an asmar or (dark) brown
complexion.
2. Abd al-Uzz b. Abd al-Mualib and
Descendants. More popularly known as Ab
Lahab or Father of the Flame (d. 624), this
was the uncle infamously hostile to the Prophet.
He too was dalham jet black according to al-
Jai and others. According to a report found in
the Musnad of Imam Amad b. anbal (d.
855), Ab Lahabs appearance was luminous,
with two braids; the most abya and the most
handsome of the people (#16020). Abya used
here to describe Ab Lahabs complexion does
not mean white or fair-skinned. According to
the Classical Arabic linguistic phenomenon
called al-addad (Opposites), it means black
(aswad) but free of blemish (al-kalaf) and giving
off a luminous glow (a-hint al-lawn).[8]

This is demonstrated further by the example of

Ab Lahabs great grandson, the seventh
century CE Quraysh poet, al-Fal b. al-Abbs
(d. 714). Al-Fal himself and his mother,
Amna, were cousins of the Prophet. Called al-
Akhar al-Lahab The Flaming Black, Al-
Fal is well-known for both his blackness and
his genealogical purity. He recited these famous
words:

I am the black-skinned one (al-Akhar). I am

well-known.
My complexion is black. I am from the noble
house of the Arabs.[9]

This black-skinnedness of al-Fal is due to his

Arab genealogy, not to some negro admixture
as some deniers would have us think. Ibn
Manr notes the opinion that al-Fal is al-
Akhar or aswad al-jilda, Black-skinned,
because he is from khli al-arab, the pure
Arabs, because the color of most of the Arabs
is dark (al-udma).[10] Similarly Ibn Barr (d.
1193) said: He (al- Fal) means by this that his
genealogy is pure and that he is a pure Arab
(arab ma) because Arabs describe their
color as black (al-aswad).[11] Thus, according
to these Classical Arabic/Islamic scholars, al-
Fals blackness (akhar) is the visual mark of
his pure, Quraysh background. This is the
cousin to the Quraysh prophet, Muhammad.

3. Al-Abbs b. Abd al-Mualib and

Descendants. Al-Abbs (d. 652) is the
patronym and root of the Ban Abbs, after
which the Abbsid dynasty was named. He
was a dalham uncle of the Prophet and fathered
an important first cousin of the Prophet also
noted for his deep blackness: Abd Allh b.
Abbs (d. 687), famed for being Tarjuman al-
Quran, THE Interpreter of the Quran. Al-
Ji describes him as very black and tall.
The Syrian scholar and historian al-Dhahab (d.
1348) too reported that Abd Allh b. Abbs
and his son, Al b. Abd Allh, were very
dark-skinned.[12] When al-Dhahab reports
also that Abd Allh b. Abbs was abya,
imbued with sufra (yellowish black), tall and
bulky, handsome,[13] we know there is no
contradiction here. Abya as a human
complexion means black (aswad) but free of
blemish (al-kalaf) and giving off a luminous
glow (a-hint al-lawn).

4. Ab lib b. Abd al-Mualib and

Descendants. Ab lib (d. 619), brother of the
Prophets father Abd Allh and stalwart of the
Prophet until his death in 619, was dalham or jet
black like his brother. Al-Ji confirms
further that those of Ab libs family, who
are the most noble (genealogically pure) of men,
are black (sd). This fact is further confirmed
for Ab libs famous son, Al b. Ab lib
(d. 661), the first cousin and son-in-law of the
Prophet, and also the father of the Prophets
only grandsons al-Hasan and al-Husayn. Al,
the fourth of the Rightly Guided Caliphs
(Khulaf Rshidn) is the central figure of
Shiite Islam. For the latter, Al is considered
the first Imam and he and his descendants are
considered the legitimate successors of the
Prophet. That Al b. Ab lib was a black-
skinned Arab is pointed out by al-Suy, who
describes him as husky, baldpot-bellied,
large-beardedand jet-black (dam shadd al-
udma).[14] Als own son, Ab Jafar
Muhammad, according to Ibn Sad (d. 845),
described Al thusly: He was a black-skinned
man with big, heavy eyes, pot-bellied, bald, and
kind of short.[15] Als descendents, the
sharfs/sayyids, were similarly described as
black-skinned.[16] This family blackness of
Ab lib is very significant for our discussion
of the appearance of the Prophet because Ab
libs son Jafar, who is the elder brother of
Al and is known as al-Hshim, The
Hshimite. Jafar is one of Muhammads
kinsmen who most closely resembled him.[17]
Indeed, Muhammad himself is reported to have
said to his black-skinned cousin: You resemble
me both in appearance and character (ashbahta
khalq wa khuluq).[18]

Descendants

Muhammad b. Abd Allh (d. 762), known also

as al-Nafs al-Zakiyya (The Pure Soul), was a
pure descendant of the Prophet himself through
the latters daughter Fimah, wife of Al b.
Ab lib. Al-Nafs al-Zakiyya prided himself
on being a Qurayshi of pure lineage[with] a
pure descent from the Prophet,[19]and could
boast: I am at the very center of the Ban
Hshims (genealogical) lines. My paternity is
purest among them, undiluted with non-Arab
blood, and no concubines dispute over me.[20]
What did this pure Arab descendent of the pure
Arab Prophet look like? Muhammad (Al-Nafs
al-Zakiyya) is described as tall and strong with
very dark skin.[21] Indeed, al-Dhahab
describes him as black-skinned and huge.[22]
But it is al-abars description that is most
informative:

Muhammad (Al-Nafs al-Zakiyya) was black,

exceedingly black, jet black (dam shadd al-
udma adlam) and huge. He was nicknamed Tar
Face (al-qr) because of his black complexion
(udmatihi), such that Ab Jafar used to call
him Charcoal Face (al-muammam).[23]

Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya was a Quraysh

Arab whose pure lineage on both his fathers
and his mothers side put him at the center of
the genealogical lines of the Ban Hshim, the
Prophets kinsfolk; indeed he was famously of
pure descent from the Prophet himself. The fact
that he was so black he was called Tar face
and Charcoal face is of significance for our
discussion of the ethnicity of the Prophet
himself.

II. Maternal Blackness

Amna bt. Wahb, the mother of the Prophet

Muhammad, hailed from the Ban Zuhra, a
black sub-clan of the black Quraysh tribe.[24]
Amna is the daughter of Wahb b. Abd Manf
b. Zuhra whose mother (Amnas grandmother)
is said to be tika bt. al-Awqa from the
exceptionally black Ban Sulaym.[25] The
black Sulaym are thus considered the maternal
uncles of the prophet and he is therefore
reported to have said: I am the son of the many
tikas of Sulaym.[26] In other words,
Amnas paternal grandmother is from the black
Sulaym tribe, and her grandfather Abd Manf
was from the Zuhra tribe. Ban Zuhra
tribesmen were frequently noted for their
blackness, especially the maternal relatives of
the Prophet Muhammad. See for example the
famous Sad b. Ab Waqqs (d. 646), cousin of
Amna and uncle of the prophet Muhammad. He
is described as very dark or black (dam), tall
and flat-nosed.[27] Muhammad, it should be
noted, was quite proud of his uncle Sad. We are
told that once Muhammad was sitting with some
of his companions and Sad walked by. The
prophet stopped and taunted: Thats my uncle.
Let any man show me his uncle.[28] Relevant
too is al-Aswad b. Abd Yaghth of the Ban
Zuhra, Amnas nephew and thus the Prophets
maternal cousin. He is called in later literature
al-Aswad, The Black, because he was black-
skinned (aswad al-lawn).[29]
III. Pan-Arab Blackness

Muhammad had more than just Quraysh

blackness running through his paternal veins as
well. His great, great grandfather was Abd
Manf who bore with tika bt. Murra al-
Sulaym the prophets great grandfather
shim. That is to say that the prophets great,
great grandmother was from the jet-black Ban
Sulaym. shim, the great grandfather, bore
with Salm bt. Amr l-Khazraj the prophets
grandfather, Abd al-Mualib. This means that
his paternal great grandmother was from the
black Medinese tribe Ban Khazraj.[30]

I will leave it to persons much smarter than I to

tell us how a black-skinned Arab clan from a
black-skinned Arab tribe can produce a family
of black-skinned Arab uncles, cousins, father
and mother, who in turn gave birth to a
Caucasian or white skinned non-albino boy.
Notes

[1] Robert F. Spencer, The Arabian

Matriarchate: An Old Controversy,
Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 8
(Winter, 1952) 488. See further Muhammad,
Black Arabia, 173-178.
[2] tudes sur le sicle des Omayyades (Beirut:
Imprimerie Calholique, 1930) 44.
[3] Ibn Manr, Lisn al-arab (Beirut: Dar al-
Sadir - Dar al-Bayrut, 1955-1956) s.v.
IV:245f; See also Edward William Lane,
Arabic-English Lexicon (London: Williams &
Norgate 1863) I: 756 s.v. .
[4] Ibn Manr, Lisn al-arab, s.v. IV:245.
[5] Al-Ji, Fakhr al-sdn al l-bidan, in
Risail 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.
[6] Apud Ibn Ab al-add, Shar nahj al-
balghah, V:56.
[7] Al-Ji, Fakhr al-sdn al l-bidan,
I:209.
[8] See Wesley Muhammad, Abyad and the
Black Arabs: Some Clarifications @
http://drwesleywilliams.com/yahoo_site_admin/
assets/docs/Abyad_and_the_Black_Arabs_Site.
4394849.pdf.
[9] Ibn Manr, Lisn al-arab, s.v. IV:245f.
[10] Ibn Manr, Lisn al-arab,, s.v.
IV:245; Lane, Arabic-English, I: 756 s.v. .
[11] Ibn Manr, Lisn al-arab, s.v. IV:245.
[12] Al-Dhahab, Siyar alm al-nubal (Beirut,
1992),V:253
[13] Al-Dhahab, Siyar, III:336.
[14] Al-Suy, Trikh al-khulaf, 134.
[15] Ibn Sad, al-abaqt al-kubr (Beirut: Dar
Sdir) 8:25. On Al as short and dark brown
see I.M.N. al-Jubouri, History of Islamic
Philosophy With View of Greek Philosophy
and Early History of Islam (2004), 155; Philip K
Hitti, History of the Arabs, 10th edition
(London: Macmillan Education Ltd, 1970) 183.

[16]Tariq Berry, Unknown Arabs; idem, Tariq

Berry, A True Description of the Prophet
Mohamed's Family (SAWS),
http://savethetruearabs.blogspot.com/2009/08/tr
ue-description-of-prophet-mohameds_26.html.
[17] EI2 2: 372 s.v. Djafar b. Ab lib by L.
Veccia Vaglieri.
[18] The Translation of the Meanings of a
Bukhar, Arabic-English, trans. Dr. Muhammad
Muhsin Khan (Medina: Islamic University,
1985) V:47.
[19] Muhammad Qasim Zaman, The Nature of
Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyyas Mahdiship: A
Study of Some Reports in Ibahns Maqtil,
Hamdard Islamicus 13 (1990): 60-61.
[20] Quoted from al-abar, The History of al-
abar, Vol. XXVIII: Abbsid Authority
Affirmed, trans. annot. Jane Dammen
McAuliffe (Albany: State University of New
York Press, 1985) 167-68.
[21] EI2 7:389 s.v. Muammad b. Abd Allh
by F. Buhl.
[22] Al-Ibar f khabar man ghabar (Kuwait:
Turath al-Arabi) 4:198.
[23] Al-abar, Tarkh al-rusul wal-mulk,
10:203.
[24] See above. On the other hand, Caesar E.
Farah suggests that Amnas tribal background
is the Najjr clan of the Ban Khazraj, a tribe in
Medina also noted for its blackness. See Caesar
E. Farah, Islam 7th Edition (Hauppauge, NY:
Barrons, 2003) 37; Muhammad, Black Arabia,
178-179; Berry, Unknown, 68.
[25] Michael Lecker, The Ban Sulaym: A
Contribution to the Study of Early Islam
(Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1989), 114. On
the Ban Sulaym see further Muhammad, Black
Arabia, 180-181.
[26] Muhammad b. Ysuf al-li al-Shm,
Subul al-hud wa-l-rashd f srat khayr
al-bd (Cairo, 1392/1972) I:384-85; Lecker,
Ban Sulaym, 114-115.
[27] Al-Dhahab, Siyar alm al-nubal (Beirut,
1992), 1:97.
[28] On Sad b. Ab Waqqs see Abd al-
Ramn Rfat al-Bsh, uwar min ayt al-
abah (Karachi: al-Maktabah al-Ghafrya
al-imyah, 1996 ) 285-292 (287); Berry,
Unknown Arabs, 71-72.
[29] Al-Dhahab, Siyar, I:385-86.
[30] On the significance of these matrilateral
listings in Muhammads genealogy see Daniel
Martin Varisco, Metaphors and Sacred History:
The Genealogy of Muhammad and the Arab
Tribe, Anthropological Quarterly 68 (1995):
139-156, esp. 148-150.