Islam and Blackness

In this meticulous apologetic, Brown (Slavery and Islam), an Islamic studies professor at Georgetown University, defends Islam against charges that the faith, “either in its founding scriptures or its normative traditions of law, theology, and spirituality, is antiblack.” Contending that “antiblackness has been incidental, not essential” to Islam, Brown probes the historical context within which the faith developed to illuminate Muslim writings on Black African people. He notes that some premodern Islamic texts reflect the biases of the larger Mediterranean and Middle Eastern community against East African people, and that Islam’s deference to regional customs led to the perpetuation of regional prejudices. Brown’s nuanced analysis highlights more egalitarian strands of the faith as well, suggesting that the Quran promotes the equality of all humans before God and that Muhammad taught “that no race or tribe has any inherent value over another.” Brown wrestles with the difficulty of parsing the centuries-old writings of Muslim scholars in light of modern understandings of race, disentangling the ways in which Abbasid-era uses of “black” as a metaphor for sinfulness wouldn’t have transferred to uses of “black” as a phenotypical descriptor. Brown’s extensive scholarship on Muslim theological and legal thinkers is remarkable, and though the granular interpretations impress, their complexity and subtlety can make it hard to discern explanation from excuse. Deeply researched and carefully reasoned, this is sure to spark spirited debate. (Dec.)