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intention is wholly serious. This
doubt is strengthened if one compares the essay with his remarks about blacks
in his other writings. Despite his putative African ancestry, he expresses-Or
perhaps cites-negative views of the Zanj:
    We know that the Zanj are the least intelligent and the least discerning of
mankind, and the least capable of understanding the consequences of actions.19
    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.20
    They [the Shu`ubiyyaj maintain that eloquence is prized by all people at all
times-even the Zanj, despite their dimness, their boundless stupidity, their
obtuseness, their crude perceptions and their evil dispositions, make long
speeches.21
    The last passage gives a clue to what might be Jahiz's purpose. The
Shu`ubiyya were a faction of non-Arab Muslims, mostly Persians, who protested against Arab privilege and superiority in the Islamic Empire and objected to the central position accorded to Arabic culture. A characteristic
form of Shu`ubi polemic was to laud the achievements and capacities of their
own peoples and decry those of the Arabs. Jahiz was a fervent defender of the
Arabs and the Arabic cultural tradition against all comers, and especially
against the Persians, who, alone among the conquered peoples, offered a
serious challenge to Arab supremacy. His defense of the blacks, though in
part intended seriously, may perhaps also be understood as a parody of
Shu`ubiyya tracts, intended to throw ridicule on Persian pretensions by advanc-
2
ing similar arguments on behalf of the lowly and despised Zanj.`2
    While however there may be some question about Jahiz's intentions, there
can be none about those of some later writers, who, from the tenth century
onward, produced a series of books offering not indeed a boast but rather a
defense of the black peoples and an answer to the insults and charges leveled
against them. An obvious question that arises is why such an anti-defamation campaign should have been thought necessary. No such defenses have come
down to us from the ancient world, whether Middle Eastern or GrecoRoman, no doubt for the good reason that there were no such accusations to
answer.

    The case against prejudice was succinctly stated by the famous statesman
and man of letters al-Sahib ibn `Abbad (938-95), who remarks that men may
be praised or blamed, rewarded or punished for their deeds, in which they have
choice: "But since God created tallness and shortness and the blackness of the
Zanj and the whiteness of the Greeks, it is not right that men should be blamed
or punished for these qualities, since God neither enjoined nor forbade them. "23
    Books written in defense of the blacks in the Islamic Middle Ages were
usually chiefly concerned with the Ethiopians. There are a few such books;
they have survived in only a few copies, and none of them has as yet been
printed. One of the earliest, written by Jamal al-Din Abu'l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi
(d. 1208 A.D.), is entitled The Lightening of the Darkness on the Merits of the
Blacks and the Ethiopians. In this the author attempts to defend both groups
against the various accusations made against them. In a striking passage, he
explains another of his purposes:
    I have seen a number of outstanding Ethiopians whose hearts were breaking
because of their black color. So I let them know that respect is based on the
performance of good deeds, and not on beautiful forms. I therefore composed
for them this book, which deals with a good number of Ethiopians and
Blacks. 24
    A second work, based in part on the previous one and written by the
famous Egyptian polyhistor Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 1505 A.D.) is The Raising
of the Status of the Ethiopians. Another, by a sixteenth-century author, is
entitled The Colored Brocade on the Good Qualities of Ethiopians. A similar
work in Turkish was written by an Ethiopian protege of