Early Arabs Were Black: Classical Islamic Sources Say So Classical Arabic and Islamic sources describe the early Arabs as black in skin tone and physical features, often indistinguishable from Habasha (Ethiopians) and Zanj (East Africans). This video highlights: • Statements attributed to early scholars describing Arabs, Habasha, and Zanj as sharing “ʿāmmah al-sawād” (general blackness) • Arab poets who openly identified themselves as dark or “green-skinned”—a known euphemism for jet-black skin