Afro-Arabs

Afro-Arabs
عرب أفارقة
	A group of folk singers and dancers outside a barasti house in Al Satwa, Dubai.
Regions with significant populations
	Gulf States · Levant · Yemen · East Africa · Mauritania · Sahel · North Africa
Sudan	30,800,000
Saudi Arabia	3,600,000
Yemen	3,500,000
Iraq	2,000,000
Mauritania	1,500,000
Oman	750,000
Jordan	60,000
Languages
	Majority: Arabic; Minority: Teda · Hausa · Fula · Swahili · Comorian · Wolof · Somali
Religion
	Majority: Islam; Minority: Traditional
Related ethnic groups
	Ethnic groups of Africa; Afro-Saudis · Afro-Palestinians · Afro-Jordanians · Al-Muhamashīn · Afro-Iraqis · Afro-Syrians · Afro-Omanis · Afro-Emiratis

Afro-Arabs, African Arabs, or Black Arabs are Arabs who have predominantly or total Sub-Saharan African ancestry. These include primarily minority groups in the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. The term may also refer to various Arab groups in certain African regions.^[6]

Overview

Southern Arabian and African civilizations have been in contact since the obsidian-exchange networks of the seventh millennium BC. These networks were strengthened by the rise of the Egyptian dynasties of the fourth millennium BC. Researchers have indicated the possible settlement of people from Arabia in the Horn of Africa as early as the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC.^[7]

The Afro-Arabian Tihama culture, which may have originated in Africa, began in the second millennium BC. This cultural complex is found in Africa, in countries such as Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan, as well as in neighbouring Yemen and the Saudi coastal plains.^[7]

In the first millennium BC, Southern Arabians gained control of the Red Sea trade-routes and established the first kingdom of Yemen, Saba, in around 800 BC. As a result of Saba's influence, Eritrea and the north of Ethiopia were gradually incorporated into an area of Arabian influence. By 600 BC, the formation of the state of Daamat arose in Eritrea and in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Many inscriptions in the Sabaean script have been found.

Although the script is clearly identical to that in southern Arabia, most of the inscriptions reveal few elements, in language and its key features, or in custom, that were known in the origin area. Evidence of a pre-Sabaean Semitic language or a group of languages in Ethiopia during this period is apparent from lexical and morphological peculiarities found in its Sabaic inscriptions. These are not present in ancient inscriptions from southern Arabia. Despite initial interpretations suggesting a colonization of the highlands of Tigray and Eritrea by Sabaeans from the western side of the Red Sea, due to similarities in script, language, pantheon, and monuments with the South Arabian civilization, there is no factual indication of domination. There is no mention of control, dependency, or outposts identified on either side. The idea was dismissed in the 1950s and 1960s by some scholars who proposed that Sabaean presence was limited to the settlement of small groups, particularly stonemasons, as monumental inscriptions primarily mention stonework. The local features revealed in the inscriptions imply either an adaptation to local traditions or some form of influence. It appears that, if the Sabaeans did move to Ethiopia, they were integrated by the local population in the 8th century BC, and likely even earlier,.^[8]

After several centuries of isolation, the Kingdom of Aksum arose in 100 AD. This kingdom existed for 800 years and occupied southern Arabia for part of this period. Utilitarian Aksumite pottery has been found in large quantities in deposits from the 5th and 6th centuries in the Hadhramaut region of Yemen. This suggests that there may have been substantial immigration during that period.^{[citation needed]}

Southern Arabia was a client state of the Aksumite kingdom throughout the sixth century. Himyarite inscriptions document an invasion of Mecca by an ambitious Aksumite general named Abraha (Tigrinya: አብርሃ) in the year 570 AD.^[9] An early incident in Islamic Afro-Arab relations, known as the First Hijrah, (Arabic: الهجرة إلى الحبشة, al-hijra ʾilā al-habaša), was part of the early history of Islam. The first companions of the Prophet Muhammad (the Sahabah) fled from the persecution of the ruling Quraysh tribe of Mecca. They sought refuge in the Christian Kingdom of Aksum, in present-day Eritrea and northern Ethiopia (formerly referred to as Habesha land/Abyssinia, an ancient name whose origin is debated),^[10] In 613 or 615 AD, the Aksumite monarch who received them is referred to as Ashama ibn Abjar or the Negus (Arabic: نجاشي, najāšī). Modern historians have alternatively identified him with King Armah and Ella Tsaham.^[11]

Some of the companions later returned to Mecca and made the hijra to Medina with Muhammad, while others remained in Habesha land until they came to Medina in 628. The mosque they established is called the "Masjid aṣ-Ṣaḥābah". Located in the Eritrean city of Massawa, and dating to the early 7th century AD, it is believed to be the first mosque on the African continent.^[12] Many companions settled there after Islam became established in the Arabian peninsula and the descendants of these companions still reside in the region.^{[citation needed]}

From the 7th century onward Muslim communities were established along the coast of Eritrea and Somalia, subsequently spreading inland. The Arab slave trade, which began in pre-Islamic times but reached its height between 650 AD and 1900 AD, transported millions of African people from the Nile Valley, the Horn of Africa, and the eastern African coast across the Red Sea to Arabia. Millions more were taken from sub-Saharan Africa across the Sahara as part of the trans-Saharan slave trade.^[13]

By around the first millennium AD, Persian traders established trading towns on what is now called the Swahili Coast,^[14]^[15] which, between the tenth and twelfth centuries, became more Arabized.^[16]

The Portuguese conquered these trading centers after the discovery of the Cape Road. From the 1700s to the early 1800s, Muslim forces of the Omani empire re-seized these market towns, mainly on the islands of Pemba and Zanzibar. In these territories, Arabs from Yemen and Oman settled alongside the local "African" populations, thereby spreading Islam and establishing Afro-Arab communities.^[17] The Niger-Congo Swahili language and culture largely evolved through these contacts between Arabs and the native Bantu population.^[18]

In North Africa, Arabs historically had close connections to native continental Africans.

In the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, descendants of people from the Swahili Coast perform traditional Liwa and Fann at-Tanbura music and dance,^[19] and the mizmar is also played by Afro-Arabs in the Tihamah and Hejaz.^{[citation needed]}

In addition, Stambali of Tunisia^[20] and Gnawa music of Morocco^[21] are both ritual music and dances that in part trace their origins to West African musical styles.

Notable Afro-Arabs

Bilal ibn Rabah, early Muslim and Companion of Muhammad
Umm Ayman, early Muslim and Companion of Muhammad
Ayman ibn Ubayd, early Muslim and Companion of Muhammad
Usama ibn Zayd, early Muslim and Companion of Muhammad
Sumayyah bint Khabbat, early Muslim and Companion of Muhammad
Wahshi ibn Harb, early Muslim and Companion of Muhammad
Rasad, concubine of al-Zahir li-I'zaz Din Allah
al-Mustansir Billah, Fatimid caliph
Turki bin Said, Sultan of Oman
Faisal bin Turki, Sultan of Muscat and Oman, Sultan of Oman
Taimur bin Feisal, Sultan of Oman
Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar, Sultan of Zanzibar
Ali bin Said of Zanzibar, Sultan of Zanzibar
Ali bin Hamud of Zanzibar, Sultan of Zanzibar
Jamshid bin Abdullah of Zanzibar, last Sultan of Zanzibar
Colette Dalal Tchantcho, Kuwaiti-Cameroonian actor
Tippu Tip, Afro-Omani trader and explorer
Sefu bin Hamid, Zanzibari slave trader
Saad Al-Salim Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait
Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Prince
Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, Saudi Princess
Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, Saudi Prince
Khalid bin Bandar Al Saud (born 1977), Saudi Prince
Baraka Al Yamaniyah, concubine of King Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia
Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Prince
Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi, Saudi Businessman
Etab, Saudi singer
Anwar Sadat, Egyptian politician
Majed Abdullah, Saudi footballer
Salem Al-Dawsari, Saudi footballer
Mohamed Al-Deayea, Saudi footballer
Ali Al-Habsi, Omani footballer
Shikabala, Egyptian footballer
Khalid Eisa, Emirati footballer
Chahine van Bohemen, Dutch-Moroccan footballer
Almoez Ali, Qatari footballer
Fahad Al-Abdulrahman, Qatari footballer

Citations

^ "Are Sudanese Arabs?". 2020-12-04.
^ "Saudi-Arabia". The World Factbook (2024 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 25 March 2017. (Archived 2017 edition.)
^ "Yemen's Al-Akhdam face brutal oppression". Archived from the original on 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2013-11-29.
^ "Refworld | World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Iraq : Black Iraqis".
^ http://www.africanviews.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=105 Jordan
^ "The multiple roots of Emiratiness: the cosmopolitan history of Emirati society". openDemocracy. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
^ ^a ^b Richards, Martin; Rengo, Chiara; Cruciani, Fulvio; Gratrix, Fiona; Wilson, James F.; Scozzari, Rosaria; Macaulay, Vincent; Torroni, Antonio (April 2003). "Extensive Female-Mediated Gene Flow from Sub-Saharan Africa into Near Eastern Arab Populations". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 72 (4): 1058–1064. doi:10.1086/374384. PMC 1180338. PMID 12629598.
^ Dugast, Fabienne; Gajda, Iwona (2012-10-29). "Reconsidering contacts between southern Arabia and the highlands of Tigrai in the 1st millennium BC according to epigraphic data". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^ Iwona Gajda: Le royaume de Ḥimyar à l’époque monothéiste. L’histoire de l’Arabie ancienne de la fin du ive siècle de l’ère chrétienne jusqu’à l’avènement de l’Islam. Paris 2009, pp. 142–146.
^ E. A. Wallis Budge (Aug 1, 2014). A History of Ethiopia: Volume I: Nubia and Abyssinia. Routledge. pp. vii.
^ M. Elfasi, Ivan Hrbek (1988). Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century. UNESCO. p. 560.
^ "Liste des premières mosquées au monde prophètique, rashidun et omeyyade selon les écris historique et les traces archéologiques". Histoire Islamique (in French). 2014-06-15. Retrieved 2017-09-24.
^ Richards, Martin; Rengo, Chiara; Cruciani, Fulvio; Gratrix, Fiona; Wilson, James F.; Scozzari, Rosaria; Macaulay, Vincent; Torroni, Antonio (April 2003). "Extensive Female-Mediated Gene Flow from Sub-Saharan Africa into Near Eastern Arab Populations". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 72 (4): 1058–1064. doi:10.1086/374384. PMC 1180338. PMID 12629598.
^ Brielle, Esther; et al. (2023). "Entwined African and Asian genetic roots of medieval peoples of the Swahili coast". Nature. 615 (7954): 866–873. Bibcode:2023Natur.615..866B. doi:10.1038/s41586-023-05754-w. PMC 10060156. PMID 36991187. A key finding of this study is genetic evidence of admixture at roughly 1000 CE between people of African and people of Persian ancestry. This admixture is consistent with one strand of the history recorded by the Swahili themselves, the Kilwa Chronicle, which describes the arrival of seven Shirazi (Persian) princes on the Swahili coast. At Kilwa, coin evidence has dated a ruler linked to that Shirazi dynasty, Ali bin al-Hasan, to the mid-11th century. Whether or not this history has a basis in an actual voyage, ancient DNA provides direct evidence for Persian-associated ancestry deriving overwhelmingly from males and arriving on the eastern African coast by about 1000 CE. This timing corresponds with archaeological evidence for a substantial cultural transformation along the coast, including the widespread adoption of Islam.
^ Rothman, Norman (2002). "Indian Ocean Trading Links: The Swahili Experience". Comparative Civilizations Review. 46 (46).
^ Spear, Thomas (2000). "Early Swahili History Reconsidered". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 33 (2): 257–290. doi:10.2307/220649. JSTOR 220649.
^ Hinde 1897, p. 2.
^ Tarikh, Volumes 1-2. Longman. 1966. p. 68. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
^ Olsen, Poul Rovsing (1967). "La Musique Africaine dans le Golfe Persique" [African Music in the Persian Gulf]. Journal of the International Folk Music Council (in French). 19: 28–36. doi:10.2307/942182. JSTOR 942182.
^ Jankowsky, Richard C. (Fall 2006). "Black Spirits, White Saints: Music, Spirit Possession, and Sub-Saharans in Tunisia". Ethnomusicology. 50 (3). The University of Illinois Press/Ethnomusicology: 373–410. doi:10.2307/20174467. JSTOR 20174467. S2CID 191924116.
^ "Gnawa Intangible Cultural Heritage". UNESCO. …ceremonies combining ancestral African practices, Arab-Muslim influences and native Berber cultural performances.

Bibliography

Hinde, Sidney Langford (1897). The Fall of the Congo Arabs. London: Methuen & Co.
Mazrui, Alamin M.; Mutunga, Willy, eds. (2004). Debating the African Condition: Race, gender, and culture conflict (illustrated ed.). Africa World Press. ISBN 9781592211456.
Mazrui, Ali A. (2014). The Politics of Gender and the Culture of Sexuality: Western, Islamic, and African Perspectives. University Press of America. ISBN 9780761864035.

External links

Arab Slave Trade Afo-Arab relations and the Arab Slave Trade
"Black Africans in (Arab) West Asia" - a cited ColorQ.org essay
Prof. Helmi Sharawy, Arab Culture and African Culture: ambiguous relations Archived 2021-07-24 at the Wayback Machine, paper extracted from the book The Dialogue between the Arab culture and other cultures', Arab League, Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (ALECSO), Tunis, 1999.
Resolution on Afro-arab Co-operation of The Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity, 23, February 23–28, 1987.
African Union/league of Arab States Inter-secretariat Consultative Meeting On Afro-arab Cooperation, Addis Ababa: 10–12 May 2005.
Maho M. Sebiane, « Le statut socio-économique de la pratique musicale aux Émirats arabes unis : la tradition du leiwah à Dubai », Chroniques yéménites, 14, 2007.[1]^{[permanent dead link]}.
Afro-Arabian origins of the Early Yemenites and their Conquest and Settlement of Spain

[1] "Are Sudanese Arabs?". 2020-12-04.

[cia-2] "Saudi-Arabia". The World Factbook (2024 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 25 March 2017. (Archived 2017 edition.)

[Yfbo-3] "Yemen's Al-Akhdam face brutal oppression". Archived from the original on 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2013-11-29.

[4] "Refworld | World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Iraq : Black Iraqis".

[5] ttp://www.africanviews.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=105 Jordan

[6] "The multiple roots of Emiratiness: the cosmopolitan history of Emirati society". openDemocracy. Retrieved 2020-08-18.

[:0-7] Richards, Martin; Rengo, Chiara; Cruciani, Fulvio; Gratrix, Fiona; Wilson, James F.; Scozzari, Rosaria; Macaulay, Vincent; Torroni, Antonio (April 2003). "Extensive Female-Mediated Gene Flow from Sub-Saharan Africa into Near Eastern Arab Populations". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 72 (4): 1058–1064. doi:10.1086/374384. PMC 1180338. PMID 12629598.

[8] Dugast, Fabienne; Gajda, Iwona (2012-10-29). "Reconsidering contacts between southern Arabia and the highlands of Tigrai in the 1st millennium BC according to epigraphic data". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

[9] Iwona Gajda: Le royaume de Ḥimyar à l’époque monothéiste. L’histoire de l’Arabie ancienne de la fin du ive siècle de l’ère chrétienne jusqu’à l’avènement de l’Islam. Paris 2009, pp. 142–146.

[10] E. A. Wallis Budge (Aug 1, 2014). A History of Ethiopia: Volume I: Nubia and Abyssinia. Routledge. pp. vii.

[11] M. Elfasi, Ivan Hrbek (1988). Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century. UNESCO. p. 560.

[12] "Liste des premières mosquées au monde prophètique, rashidun et omeyyade selon les écris historique et les traces archéologiques". Histoire Islamique (in French). 2014-06-15. Retrieved 2017-09-24.

[:03-13] Richards, Martin; Rengo, Chiara; Cruciani, Fulvio; Gratrix, Fiona; Wilson, James F.; Scozzari, Rosaria; Macaulay, Vincent; Torroni, Antonio (April 2003). "Extensive Female-Mediated Gene Flow from Sub-Saharan Africa into Near Eastern Arab Populations". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 72 (4): 1058–1064. doi:10.1086/374384. PMC 1180338. PMID 12629598.

[14] Brielle, Esther; et al. (2023). "Entwined African and Asian genetic roots of medieval peoples of the Swahili coast". Nature. 615 (7954): 866–873. Bibcode:2023Natur.615..866B. doi:10.1038/s41586-023-05754-w. PMC 10060156. PMID 36991187. A key finding of this study is genetic evidence of admixture at roughly 1000 CE between people of African and people of Persian ancestry. This admixture is consistent with one strand of the history recorded by the Swahili themselves, the Kilwa Chronicle, which describes the arrival of seven Shirazi (Persian) princes on the Swahili coast. At Kilwa, coin evidence has dated a ruler linked to that Shirazi dynasty, Ali bin al-Hasan, to the mid-11th century. Whether or not this history has a basis in an actual voyage, ancient DNA provides direct evidence for Persian-associated ancestry deriving overwhelmingly from males and arriving on the eastern African coast by about 1000 CE. This timing corresponds with archaeological evidence for a substantial cultural transformation along the coast, including the widespread adoption of Islam.

[15] Rothman, Norman (2002). "Indian Ocean Trading Links: The Swahili Experience". Comparative Civilizations Review. 46 (46).

[16] Spear, Thomas (2000). "Early Swahili History Reconsidered". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 33 (2): 257–290. doi:10.2307/220649. JSTOR 220649.

[FOOTNOTEHinde18972-17] Hinde 1897, p. 2.

[18] Tarikh, Volumes 1-2. Longman. 1966. p. 68. Retrieved 6 December 2016.

[19] Olsen, Poul Rovsing (1967). "La Musique Africaine dans le Golfe Persique" [African Music in the Persian Gulf]. Journal of the International Folk Music Council (in French). 19: 28–36. doi:10.2307/942182. JSTOR 942182.

[20] Jankowsky, Richard C. (Fall 2006). "Black Spirits, White Saints: Music, Spirit Possession, and Sub-Saharans in Tunisia". Ethnomusicology. 50 (3). The University of Illinois Press/Ethnomusicology: 373–410. doi:10.2307/20174467. JSTOR 20174467. S2CID 191924116.

[21] "Gnawa Intangible Cultural Heritage". UNESCO. …ceremonies combining ancestral African practices, Arab-Muslim influences and native Berber cultural performances.

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Afro-Arabs

Overview

Notable Afro-Arabs

See also

Citations

Bibliography

External links

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