How many people know this man? Al-Jahiz - Wikipedia
Basically this was a black man of Saudi Arabian ancestry that was born in Iraq (which was at the time the center of the Islamic world). Al-Jahiz was very famous author in the Arab world. He wrote many books on many subjects.
His most interesting book is a book entitled "The Glory (or Superiority) of Blacks over Whites." The book has only recently been translated to English.
You can see what he wrote in the book here: al-jahiz superiority of blacks over whites – knowledge of self
Here are some excerpts:
And you thought "the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice" started with Tupac.
More knowledge by the brotha:
The brotha delivered some science here. He basically united all black peoples when he said the Arabs are closer to the Zanj (which was the name for Southeast African in what today are the Swahilli States like Mozambique). Cacs try to divide black people. And back then it looks like the Persians and other muslim cacs were trying to separate the black Arabs from the blacks in other parts of Africa. Al-Jahiz here basically was saying that the Arabs are closer to the Zanj (aka Southeast Africans) than they were with the Persians in modern day Iran.
Remarkable Book that everyone should read.
Al-Jahiz (born 776, in Basra – December 868/January 869) was an Arab prose writer and author of works of literature, Mu'tazili theology, and politico-religious polemics.
Not much is known about al-Jāḥiẓ's early life, but his family was very poor. Born in Basra early in 160/February 776, he asserted in a book he wrote that he was a member of the Arabian tribe Banu Kinanah.[1][2] His nephew also reported that Al-Jahiz's grandfather was a black cameleer.[3]
Basically this was a black man of Saudi Arabian ancestry that was born in Iraq (which was at the time the center of the Islamic world). Al-Jahiz was very famous author in the Arab world. He wrote many books on many subjects.
His most interesting book is a book entitled "The Glory (or Superiority) of Blacks over Whites." The book has only recently been translated to English.
You can see what he wrote in the book here: al-jahiz superiority of blacks over whites – knowledge of self
Here are some excerpts:
And also: we inspire the most fear in the heart and catch most of the glances (of the onlookers), just as the carriers of black (Abbasid) inspire more fear and fill up more the heart than the carriers of white (Umayyad), in the same way the night inspires more fear than the day.
And also: the color black always inspires the most fear. The Arabs, to describe their camels, say: “the black horses are most beautiful and most robust, the black cows best and most beautiful, and their skins are most valuable, most useful and most durable. The black ewes give the fattiest milk and creamy, moreover the dark brown ewes give more milk then the russet-red ewes”. while every stone and hill is dryer and harder the more it is black.
The black lion is invincible.
The black date is the highest quality. Healthy date palms have black stems.
A hadith of the Prophet says : Follow the great black color.
The poet al-Ansari says:
I’m in debt but I do not have to worry;
Because I own tall date groves, well pruned.
And every heavy laden palm seems to have been smeared with the pitch of blood of sacrificed animals.
The Zanj say that the best green is the darkest green. God, may he be exalted said: And besides these there are two gardens. When describing them so as to make people long for them God called them dark green. Ibn Abbas said : they became dark green through irrigation.
Black ebony is the most solid and most durable of woods. It s also most expensive , free of disease, best fit for art-work. It is so heavy that of all woods expensive and cheap ones only ebony sinks in the water. Remember that even certain stones do not sink while ebony sinks immediately.
A person remains handsome as long as his hair is still black and in paradise everyone will have black hair. The pupils of the eye, too are black and are they not the most precious part of the human body. The most expensive kohl is made of antimony which is black. This is why a hadith of the Prophet states that God will have all the faithful enter paradise hairless (on their body) beardless, and their eyes blackened with kohl.
Man doesn’t have anything more useful in him than his liver, which ensures the good operation of the stomach and the digestion of food and the good functioning of the unit maintains the life of the body; however, the liver is black.
Man does not have anything more valuable, more expensive in him than the black bile of his heart, a clot of black blood situated in the folds of this internal organ; it holds in this heart the same place as the brain in the head.
The woman does not have anything sweeter and more pleasant than her lips, for the kiss; however, they are all the more beautiful as they are as close to the black as possible. Du r-Rumma says (Basit):
Sunk are its lips blood-colored and purple,
Of the same are her gums, fine and bright her teeth.
The most pleasant shade and freshest is the shade [well] black. The poet says (Ragaz): Jet black, similar to the shade projected by the stone.
And you thought "the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice" started with Tupac.
More knowledge by the brotha:
They say : The blacks are more numerous than the whites. The whites at most consist of the people of Persia, Jibal, and Khurasan, the Greeks, Slavs, Franks, and Avars, and some few others, not very numerous; the blacks include the Zanj, Ethiopians, the people of Fazzan, the Berbers, the Copts, and Nubians, the people of Zaghawa, Marw, Sind and India, Qamar and Dabila, China, and Masin… the islands in the seas between China and Africa are full of blacks, such as Ceylon, Kalah, Amal, Zabij, and their islands, as far as India, China, Kabul, and those shores.
They say; Al-Ishtiyan the blind man used to say; There are more blacks than whites, more rocks than mud, more sand than soil, more saltwater than sweet water.
They say; The Arabs belong with us and not with the whites, because their color is nearer to ours. The Indians are more bronzed than the Arabs, and they belong to the blacks. For the Prophet, God bless and save him, said; I was sent to the red and the black, and everyone knows that the Arabs are not red, as we already have stated above.
He said; This advantage belongs to us and to the Arabs, as against the whites, if the Arabs want it. If they do not want it, then the advantage is ours alone against all the rest.
The brotha delivered some science here. He basically united all black peoples when he said the Arabs are closer to the Zanj (which was the name for Southeast African in what today are the Swahilli States like Mozambique). Cacs try to divide black people. And back then it looks like the Persians and other muslim cacs were trying to separate the black Arabs from the blacks in other parts of Africa. Al-Jahiz here basically was saying that the Arabs are closer to the Zanj (aka Southeast Africans) than they were with the Persians in modern day Iran.
Remarkable Book that everyone should read.