The Lady of Heaven – An Appraisal (3)
The blackface has a long history in entertainment arts across the globe. The theatrical makeup of donning a blackface is racist—pure and simple. The practice is rooted in white and brown racism against black people and black cultures. Racist and malicious representations of black people in the arts and media is but one of many pernicious portrayals that date back to at least the fourteenth century AD. The blackface minstrelsy, centred on satirical depictions of black people, became a prominent feature of American art entertainment in the nineteenth century. Similar demeaning visuals that intend to ridicule black identity appear in contemporary Arab and Muslim dramas—many of which are popular serials that air during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Like many, I was taken aback when I heard the Lady of Heaven film played into the old racist stereotypes where black persons are conflated with aggression and pugnacity. I will not comment on this aspect of the film since I have yet to watch it. But it would not surprise me in the slightest. Crude and racist mischaracterisations of black people are embedded deeply in contemporary Muslim culture. In fact, Muslim literary sources, particularly the hadith and fiqh corpora, are littered with dehumanising references to black people. This is true in Shiʿi and Sunni accounts—and and can be found even among the views of the Muslim philosophers (who inherited the attitudes of their ancient Greek predecessors).
The purpose of today’s blog post is not to address the problem of racism in Muslim culture, rather I aim to assess the claim of the Lady of Heaven script writer that the historical figures Abu Bakr (d. 634) and ʿUmar (d. 644) were black. This is not to exonerate the film from its racist undertones—far from it. My aim is to examine whether the supposition that Abu Bakr and ʿUmar were black accords with the (Sunni) Muslim historical accounts. It is nigh impossible to determine the accuracy of the claim using scientific methods, for the realm of factuality and the realm of imagination are too frequently conflated in the Muslim historical sources.
Let us take the example of ʿUmar. The Sunni historical memory posits two possibilities:
1. ʿUmar had a very dark complexion. The Arabic appellations employed in the sources is adam (أدم) and shadid al-admah (شديد الأدمة).
The blackness of ʿUmar is referenced in a number of Sunni sources. According to the Maliki jurist and historian Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, author of the authoritative and celebrated biography of the Companions, al-Istiʿab fi maʿrifat al-ashab (The Comprehensive Compilation of the Companions), ʿUmar was “very dark skinned”, as the Arabic excerpt below shows:
وهو أول من اتخذ الدرة، وَكَانَ نقش خاتمه "كفى بالموت واعظا يَا عُمَر"، وَكَانَ آدم شديد الأدمة، طوالا، كث اللحية، أصلع أعسر يسر، يخضب بالحناء والكتم
The view that ʿUmar was “black” or very dark skinned was held by the majority of historians and biographers, according to the authority cited by Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, namely Zirr ibn Hubaysh al-Asadi, a Kufan Successor (tabiʿi), who met and narrated hadith from prominent Companions, including ʿUmar and ʿAli.
هكذا ذكره زر بْن حبيش وغيره، بأنه كَانَ آدم شديد الأدمة وَهُوَ لأكثر عِنْدَ أهل العلم بأيام الناس وسيرهم وأخبارهم
According to Sunni hadith criteria of evaluation (rijal), Zirr ibn Hubaysh was a veracious and respected transmitter of hadith (this is the view of Yahya b. Muʿin and Ibn Hajar, for example).
2. ʿUmar was pale with reddish cheeks. He would appear dark skinned during the period of turbulent sandstorms, and after a period when he consumed large amounts of (olive) oil.
This view is reported by the early Muslim historian al-Waqidi (d. 823), among others, who claims ʿUmar was pale (“white”), but became darker in complexion later on in his life after consuming olive oil in excess. The account of ʿUmar transitioning from pale to dark skin is similarly referenced by the celebrated Sunni authority Ibn Saʿd (d. 845) in his Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir (“al-Tabaqat al-Kubrah”)
قال: أخبرنا محمد بن عمر قال: حدّثنى عبد الله بن يزيد الهُذَلىّ عن عياض ابن خليفة قال: رأيتُ عمرَ عام الرمادة وهو أسود اللون ولقد كان أبيض فيقال ممّ ذا؟ فيقول: كان رجلًا عربيًّا وكان يأكل السمن واللبن فلمّا أمحَل الناس حرّمهما فأكل الزيت حتى غيّر لونه وجاع فأكثر
The majority of Sunni authorities reject the account of ʿUmar’s pigmentation change from ‘white to black’ as fictious and inconsistent with the views of the earlier Sunni authorities who described ʿUmar as being black or very dark skinned. Ibn ʿAbr al-Barr summaries the dominant position by rejecting the claim of al-Waqidi, and instead accepting as authentic the views of widely respected Successors and scholars of hadith such as Sufyan al-Thawri (d. 778) who accepted the claim that ʿUmar was “dark skinned”.
وزعم الْوَاقِدِيّ أن سمرة عُمَر وأدمته إنما جاءت من أكله الزيت عام الرمادة. وهذا منكر من القول. وأصح مَا فِي هَذَا الباب- والله أعلم- حديث سُفْيَان الثوري، عَنْ عَاصِم بْن بهدلة عن زر بن حبيش قال: رأيت عمر شديد الأدمة
To sum: ʿUmar was dark skinned or black, according to the most authoritative Sunni Muslim accounts of history and testimonies of early Muslim authorities. The dissenting view, held by a minority of Sunni authorities, proffers the claim that ʿUmar was pale or white but changed or became darked skinned or black in the years that witnessed black sandstorms and, possibly related, when ʿUmar consumed large amounts of olive oil.