THE COLOR OF MUHAMMAD

I’m going to give you two descriptions—one of Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ father, and then one of Muhammad ﷺ himself.

The description of his father can be found in the writings of the famous 9th-century Arab scholar al-Jāḥiẓ. 

The description of Muhammad ﷺ comes from a ṣaḥīḥ/ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ hadith narrated by Anas ibn Mālik.

Al-Jāḥiẓ describes the ten sons of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib as دُلْماً (dulman)—the plural of أَدْلَم (adlam)—a term indicating a markedly dark or very dark complexion. One of those ten sons was ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, the father of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

So while al-Jāḥiẓ does not stop and say, “Muhammad’s father was black,” he places ʿAbd Allāh within a group of brothers whom he collectively describes as dulm.

Now look at Muhammad ﷺ himself.

Anas ibn Mālik describes him:

أَسْمَرَ اللَّوْنِ

asmara al-lawn

“asmar in complexion.”

That report appears in Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī, where al-Tirmidhī grades the narration ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ gharīb.

Look at the attached color palette and notice where asmar and dulma fall.

Does this mean we should simply impose modern American racial categories onto 7th-century Arabs? No. Classical Arabic complexion terminology operated differently from our modern categories.

But it also means we shouldn’t impose modern ideas of “whiteness” onto these descriptions either.

The Arabic words matter.

Father: دُلْم (dulm) — very dark complexion.

Son: أَسْمَر (asmar) — brown/dark complexion.

Read the descriptions first. Then decide what picture the Arabic actually paints.