A treatise from the classical Arabic sources
The Arabs Were Black
The Case in Their Own Words
The original Arabs described themselves as a black people, in their own dictionaries, ḥadīth commentaries, poetry and histories. This book sets the old words beside the modern claims, in the original Arabic with full vowel marks, translated and sourced.
وَالْأَسْوَدُ الْعَرَبُ، لِأَنَّ الْغَالِبَ عَلَى أَلْوَانِهِمُ الْأُدْمَةُ"The black are the Arabs, because the dominant color among them is udma."
Ibn al-Athīr, Jāmiʿ al-Uṣūl
The complexion ladder, Chapter 3
On the Arabs' own scale, "white" was a wheat complexion with a black appearance, and asmar was the first rung of black. The lexicographers who say so are quoted in full in the book.
What's inside
Thirteen chapters and two appendices, quoting classical Muslim scholars only. No Orientalists and no genetics.
What the Arabs called themselves
"I was sent to every red one and every black one," and the scholars who explain that the black are the Arabs.
The lexicographers testify
Al-Nimrī groups the Arabs with the Abyssinians and the Zanj. Al-Dhahabī defines what "white" meant.
The witnesses speak
Al-Jāḥiẓ records the Blacks counting the Arabs as their own, and an Arab king mocks four nations but never the Africans.
The case closed
A line-by-line answer to a widely read fatwa, and al-Nafs al-Zakiyyah, the purest Qurashī of his age, called tar and charcoal.
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English edition as PDF (print layout, 103 pages) and EPUB (Kindle, Apple Books, any e-reader).
Buy ebookEbook + Audiobook
Everything in the ebook, plus the full English audiobook (AI-narrated, about 2½ hours) as 21 chapter MP3s.
Buy the bundleEvery language
Each edition keeps every Arabic quotation in the original with full tashkīl. PDF and EPUB in every edition.
| Language | Title | Price | PDF + EPUB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic | كَانَ الْعَرَبُ سُودًا | $7.99 | Buy |
| French | Les Arabes étaient noirs | $9.99 | Buy |
| Spanish | Los árabes eran negros | $9.99 | Buy |
| Portuguese | Os árabes eram negros | $9.99 | Buy |
| Persian | عربها سیاه بودند | $4.99 | Buy |
| Urdu | عرب سیاہ فام تھے | $2.99 | Buy |
| Swahili | Waarabu Walikuwa Weusi | $2.99 | Buy |
| Somali | Carabtu Waxay Ahaayeen Madow | $2.99 | Buy |
| Malagasy | Mainty ny Arabo | $2.99 | Buy |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 阿拉伯人曾是黑人 | Free | Download |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 阿拉伯人曾是黑人 | Free | Download |
| Japanese | アラブ人は黒かった | Free | Download |
| All languages | All ten paid editions, PDF + EPUB | $19.99 | Buy all |
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