Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry

The state of race relations in Islamic societies has often been the subject of optimistic descriptions. Sources as various as Toynbee and Malcolm X refer to a racial Utopia, a colour-blind society. This society is seen as the direct result of the tenets of Islam, in which the only important distinction is that between Believers and Infidels. In support of this view is the indisputable fact that the Koran expresses no racial or colour prejudice. Contradicting it are various historical documents, and such literary sources as the The Thousand and One Nights, which clearly depict the social advantages of possessing white skin, as in the tale of the black slave who is rewarded by becoming white upon his passing into Heaven.