Islam and Blackness

Jonathan A.C. Brown

• Publisher: Oneworld Academic
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9780861544851
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Islamic Theology

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Also by Jonathan A.C. Brown
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Date and Spelling Conventions
• 1 Introduction: Reading and Misreading
• 2 The Background of Race and Racism
• 3 Blackness Contested
• 4 The Western Narrative of Islam, Slavery, and Antiblackness
• 5 The Prophet, Arabia, and the Rise of Antiblackness
• 6 Antiblackness in the Quran and Sunna?
• 7 Antiblackness, Sufism, and Veneration of the Prophet
• 8 Antiblackness in Mālikī Marriage Law
• 9 What is the Point of the Law? Islamic Hierarchy or Islamic Egalitarianism
• 10 Conclusion
• Appendix I - Antiblack Statements Attributed to Imam al-Shāfiʿī
• Appendix II - African Languages and Blackness – General
• Appendix III - Race, Blackness, and Language in the Sahel
• Appendix IV - Race and Blackness in the Horn of Africa
• Appendix V - Arab/Muslim Slavers in Film
• Appendix VI - The Curse of Ham in Islamic Sources
• Appendix VII - Islam and Caste in South Asia
• Illustration Section
• Select Bibliography
• Notes
• Imprint Page