Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry by Bernard Lewis

as the Chinese and the Turks, he allows to have achieved distinction in other respects; the rest of mankind he dismisses contemptuously as the
Northern and the Southern barbarians, "who are more like beasts than like
men." He has a few well-chosen words to say about each.
    For those who live furthest to the north between the last of the seven climates
and the limits of the inhabited world, the excessive distance of the sun in
relation to the zenith line makes the air cold and the atmosphere thick. Their
temperaments are therefore frigid, their humors raw, their bellies gross, their
color pale, their hair long and lank. Thus they lack keenness of understanding
and clarity of intelligence, and are overcome by ignorance and dullness, lack of
discernment, and stupidity. Such are the Slavs, the Bulgars, and their neighbors. For those peoples on the other hand who live near and beyond the equinoctial line to the limit of the inhabited world in the south, the long
presence of the sun at the zenith makes the air hot and the atmosphere thin.
Because of this their temperaments become hot and their humors fiery, their
color black and their hair woolly. Thus they lack self-control and steadiness of
mind and are overcome by fickleness, foolishness, and ignorance. Such are the
blacks, who live at the extremity of the land of Ethiopia, the Nubians, the Zanj
and the like.

    Even the most ignorant peoples, Said goes on to explain, if they are sedentary, have some kind of monarchical government and some kind of religious
law. The only people "who diverge from this human order and depart from
this rational association are some dwellers in the steppes and inhabitants of
the deserts and wilderness, such as the rabble of Bujja, the savages of Ghana,
the scum of Zanj, and their like."24 Said does not use such language when
speaking of the fairer-skinned barbarians of Europe.
    With the exception of one group, writers on these matters do not normally
attempt to lay down rules, or even offer guidance, on the suitability of various
races for different tasks and occupations. The one exception is the extensive
practical literature on slaves. There is a considerable body of writing, extending over almost a thousand years and written in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish,
offering what one might call consumer guidance for those who deal in slaves
and those who buy them.'s
    The earliest writings of this kind, dating from the tenth century, are physiological, giving guidance on how to judge a slave's state of health from outward
signs, and physiognomical, on how to judge his character from his face. Before long, however, writers on how to choose and use slaves offer information
and advice on ethnological matters also. Ibn Butlan, an eleventh-century
Christian physician in Baghdad, wrote a sort of slavetrader's vade mecum,
which is the first of a series of such works.26 He reviews the range of slaves
available in the markets of the Middle East, and considers the different kinds,
black and white, male and female, classifying them according to their racial,
ethnic, and regional origins and indicating which groups are best suited to
which tasks. Similar advice on these matters is offered by a number of later
writers, sometimes in separate handbooks, sometimes in chapters or sections
of books dealing with larger topics.
    The statements made in these books about different races usually consist
of conventional and stereotyped wisdom, but they also contain some interesting ethnographic information, notably about the peoples of the Caucasus, the
Turkish peoples of the Eurasian steppe and of inner Asia. and the black
peoples of eastern as well as of sub-Saharan Africa. By Ottoman times, they
even include the Christian peoples of Europe, from among whom the Ottomans and the North African states drew a large part of their slave populations. The Russians, for example, we learn from various authorities, are
handsome, blond, and charming,