Zanj - Arab Views On The Zanj

Arab Views On The Zanj

Arab descriptions of Zanj have been inconsistent. A negative view is exemplified in the following passage from Kitab al-Bad' wah-tarikh, vol.4 by the medieval Arab writer Al-Muqaddasi:

"As for the Zanj, they are people of black color, flat noses, kinky hair, and little understanding or intelligence."

"We know that the Zanj (blacks) are the least intelligent and the least discerning of mankind, and the least capable of understanding the consequences of actions."

-- Jahiz (d. 868 AD), Kitab al-Bukhala (The Book of Misers)

"Like the crow among mankind are the Zanj for they are the worst of men and the most vicious of creatures in character and temperament."

Al Jahiz, Kitab al-Hayawan, vol. 2

However, the 9th-century Muslim author Al-Jahiz, an Afro-Arab and the grandson of a Zanj (Bantu) slave, disagreed.

"They say; If a Zanji and a Zanji women marry and their children remain after puberty in Iraq, they come to rule the roost thanks to their numbers, endurance, intelligence, and efficiency."

Al-Jahiz also wrote a book entitled Risalat mufakharat al-Sudan 'ala al-bidan ("Treatise on the Superiority of Blacks over Whites"), in which he stated that Blacks:

"...have conquered the country of the Arabs as far as Mecca and have governed them. We defeated Dhu Nowas (Jewish King of Yemen) and killed all the Himyarite princes, but you, White people, have never conquered our country. Our people, the Zenghs (Negroes) revolted forty times in the Euphrates, driving the inhabitants from their homes and making Oballah a bath of blood.

"...Blacks are physically stronger than no matter what other people. A single one of them can lift stones of greater weight and carry burdens such as several Whites could not lift nor carry between them. They are brave, strong, and generous as witness their nobility and general lack of wickedness..."

In 1331, the Arabic-speaking Berber explorer Ibn Battuta visited the Kilwa Sultanate in the Land of Zanj, which was ruled by Sultan Hasan bin Sulayman's Yemeni dynasty. Battuta described the kingdom's Arab ruler as often making slave and booty raids on the local Zanj inhabitants, the latter of whom Battuta characterized as "jet-black in color, and with tattoo marks on their faces."

"Kilwa is one of the most beautiful and well-constructed towns in the world. The whole of it is elegantly built. The roofs are built with mangrove pole. There is very much rain. The people are engaged in a holy war, for their country lies beside the pagan Zanj. Their chief qualities are devotion and piety: they follow the Shafi'i sect. When I arrived, the Sultan was Abu al-Muzaffar Hasan surnamed Abu al-Mawahib ... on account of his numerous charitable gifts. He frequently makes raids into the Zanj country, attacks them and carries off booty, of which he reserves a fifth, using it in the manner prescribed by the Koran ."