Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-378) and index
I: Images of blacks -- 1. Biblical Israel: the land of Kush -- 2. Biblical Israel: the people of Kush -- 3. Postbiblical Israel: black Africa -- 4. Postbiblical Israel: black Africans -- II: The color of skin -- 5. The color of women -- 6. The color of health -- 7. The colors of mankind -- 8. The colored meaning of Kushite in postbiblical literature -- III: History -- 9. Evidence for black slaves in Israel -- IV: At the crossroads of history and exegesis -- 10. Was Ham back? -- 11. "Ham sinned and Canaan was cursed?" -- 12. The curse of Ham -- 13. The curse of Cain -- 14. The new world of order: humanity by physiognomy -- Jewish views of black Africans and the development of anti-black sentiment in western thought -- When is a Kushite not a Kushite? Cases of mistake identity -- Kush/Ethiopia and India
How old is prejudice against black people? Were the racist attitudes that fueled the Atlantic slave trade firmly in place 700 years before the European discovery of sub-Saharan Africa? In this groundbreaking book, David Goldenberg seeks to discover how dark-skinned peoples, especially black Africans, were portrayed in the Bible and by those who interpreted the Bible--Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Unprecedented in rigor and breadth, his investigation covers a 1,500-year period, from ancient Israel (around 800 B.C.E.) to the eighth century C.E., after the birth of Islam
