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Overview
It is commonly claimed that Islam is antiblack, even inherently bent on enslaving Black Africans. Western and African critics alike have contended that antiblack racism is in the faith’s very scriptural foundations and its traditions of law, spirituality, and theology. But what is the basis for this accusation?
Bestselling scholar Jonathan A.C. Brown examines Islamic scripture, law, Sufism, and history to comprehensively interrogate this claim and determine how and why it emerged. Locating its origins in conservative politics, modern Afrocentrism, and the old trope of Barbary enslavement, he explains how antiblackness arose in the Islamic world and became entangled with normative tradition. From the imagery of ‘blackened faces’ in the Quran to Shariah assessments of Black women as ‘undesirable’ and the assertion that Islam and Muslims are foreign to Africa, this work provides an in-depth study of the controversial knot that is Islam and Blackness, and identifies authoritative voices in Islam’s past that are crucial for combatting antiblack racism today.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780861544844 |
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Publisher: | Oneworld Publications |
Publication date: | 12/13/2022 |
Pages: | 416 |
Sales rank: | 1,040,086 |
Product dimensions: | 6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.50(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
Date and Spelling Conventions xix
1 Introduction: Reading and Misreading 1
The Argument of This Book 3
The Virtues of Black Africans … Sudan, Habash, Zanj? 5
Blackness or blackness? The Question of Capitalization 10
Blackness in the Modern Muslim World 13
Antiblackness in the Modern Muslim World 15
Roots and Branches of Antiblackness 18
The Color Line in Other Times and Places 25
Misreading for Race and the Burdens of the Present 28
Guidance After Waywardness 35
2 The Background of Race and Racism 37
Race and Reality 38
Race and Racism: Origins and Modern Developments 41
Racialization, Religion, and Color 46
When is Something or Someone Racist? 50
Was Islamic Civilization Racist? 54
3 Blackness Contested 58
Blackness as Phenotype, White as the Norm 61
Blackness as Sin, Barbarism, and Filth 69
Black as Metaphor; Metaphor Shaping Reality 75
Blackness as a Political Condition 78
Blackness as Non-Being: Afropessimism 84
So What About Antiblackness and Islam? 90
4 The Western Narrative of Islam, Slavery, and Antiblackness 93
The Roots and Branches of Afrocentrism 95
The Problems with Afrocentrism and 'Arab-Islamic Slavery' 98
Enduring Templates: Moorish Bondage and the Arab Slave Trade 104
Gathering the Threads: Arab-Islamic Slavery and the Israel-Palestine Conflict 112
ISIS, Boko Haram, and the Narrative of Barbary Captivity 119
5 The Prophet, Arabia, and the Rise of Antiblackness 121
The Easy Answer 121
Black Crows: Why was Blackness Bad in Arabia? 123
Blackness in Body and Metaphor in Arabia 129
The Rise of Antiblackness, Part One: Black as Slave 133
The Rise of Antiblackness, Part Two: Black as Hypersexual, Black as Stupid, Black as Animal 141
6 Antiblackness in the Quran and Sunna? 146
Tyranny of the Present 146
Blackened and Whitened Faces in the Quran 148
The Forgery of Antiblack Hadiths 151
Raisin-Headed: The Question of Antiblack Racism in the Sunna, Part One 154
Two for One: The Question of Antiblack Racism in the Sunna, Part Two 163
7 Antiblackness, Sufism, and Veneration of the Prophet 170
Casual Antiblackness, or Black as Human? 172
The Prophet's Color and Black Muslims 179
Antiblackness and Insulting the Prophet 181
Black as Beautiful 184
8 Antiblackness in Maliki Marriage Law 187
The Conundrum of Custom 189
Desirability and Blackness in Maliki Law 193
9 What is the Point of the Law? Islamic Hierarchy or Islamic Egalitarianism 204
Justifying Hierarchy in Suitability (kafa'a) 206
Islamic Civilization and Natural Hierarchy 210
A Useful Analogy: Islamic Law and Caste in India 214
Egalitarianism Resurgent: Jahiliyya, Caste, and Tribalism 216
What is the Purpose of the Law? 223
10 Conclusion 229
Miscegenating Our Way Out 229
Can Discrimination Be Legitimate? 234
Appendices
Appendix I Antiblack Statements Attributed to Imam al-Shafi'i 241
Appendix II African Languages and Blackness - General 245
Appendix III Race, Blackness, and Language in the Sahel 249
Appendix IV Race and Blackness in the Horn of Africa 258
Appendix V Arab/Muslim Slavers in Film 260
Appendix VI The Curse of Ham in Islamic Sources 265
Appendix VII Islam and Caste in South Asia 269
Select Bibliography 275
Notes 307
Index 381