Overview
While skin color was not the only distinguishing characterstic of race in the middle ages, we would be remiss to not acknowledge that it was a characterstic. One of the best points of encounter are the rise of the Islamic Commonwealth, where Islam spread from the Hejaz throughout parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe. In so doing, it encountered different people and those cultures found moments of cooperation and also clashing.
Below are two examples where individuals refuted claims of Arab superiority in Islam versus non-Arabs on make references to skin color in doing so.
For this assignment:
- Read Al-Jahiz, excerpt from Book of the Glroy of the Black Race
- Of particular note is his Zanj status... look this up if you don't know what that means. More information about Al-Jahiz is located on his wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Jahiz
- N.B. I also have the whole book translated if you ever want to peruse it.
- Read Ibn Garcia, RisalaDownload Ibn Garcia, Risala
- Due to his Basque origin, many of the non-Arab Muslims in this period of Spain were significantly lighter than members of the Arab ruling class, who claimed superiority due to their Arab status.
- I have included some of his wikipedia page for more context on Ibn Garcia
- Describe what you have read. Is it as simple as Black vs White or are other things going on? What parts of the passages stood out to you and why? How do these readings specifically shape the complexity of race in the middle ages?
- This should take about 300 words if you are hitting all of the parts and providing specific references to Al-Jahiz and Ibn Garcia.
P.S. One of my favorite parts of Ibn Garcia is when he uses the vocative phrase, "O, hater" as a diss to those that think differently than him. But there are plenty of other interesting parts of both readings to comment upon. And I cannot stress this enough... be specific.