As illustration ony: paintings of Africans in the Islamic World.
Al Mubarrad: Al-Kamil (The Perfect One) (d898)  Baghdad

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Taken from: wn.com/Arabs_And_East_African_Sub-Saharan_Ancestory

 

Also called Mobarrad, full name Abu Al-'Abbas Muhammad Ibn Yazid, is a book on grammar

 

What he (Fadl ibn al Abas (1)) meant by: I am the green one; is the dark one, the black one. The Arabs used to take
pride in their darkness and blackness and they had a distaste for a light complexion and they used to say that a
light complexion was the complexion of the non-Arabs.

(1) Fadl ibn al Abas: Fadl ibn Abbas (611-639) was a brother of Abdullah ibn Abbas and was a cousin of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.