There appears to have been a blond, racially Nordic element, amongst the leadership of the Arabic peoples, from the very earliest times. Thus, as the distinguished Harvard anthropologist Carleton S. Coon has noted, when referring to the population of the Yemen plateau: "The Nordic-looking people are usually confined to the social stratum from which civil officers and religious men are drawn, and it is more than a coincidence that the acknowledged descendants of the Prophet are lighter-skinned and show greater evidence of blondism than the rest of the population. There may perhaps have been a Nordic strain associated with the holy families who entered this region from the Hejaz in early post-Islamic times." [Coon (1939) 408-409.] Professor C. S. Coon has also stated, that amongst the people of Morocco: "The ordinary city Arabs are little different from their pastoral and agricultural brethren, but this rule does not apply to the aristocratic families. These merchant-princes are sometimes blond, and of Nordic appearance; others of them look like Mekkan aristocrats in Arabia." [Coon (1939) 484.] In the mid-eleventh-century, the Hispano-Muslim author Ibn García penned his Risala, which expressed similar sentiments, linking blondness with nobility: "Of Roman origin and blond, Byzantine lineage, fostered by the possessors of inner virtue, lineal glory, and greatness among the blond ones . . . soft-skinned ones among whom neither the Egyptians nor the Nabateans have implanted; family honour well-guarded and noble lineage." It would also appear that many of the numerous and diverse rulers of Moorish Spain, were racially Nordic; the Spanish historian Enrique Sordo, informs us that: "Most of the caliphs were fair or ginger-haired with blue eyes, which seems to show a preponderance of Berber or Germanic blood.
WHY did the Prophet Muhammad start using henna in his later years? Starting after the age of 40, he began to dye his greying beard red to gain a more youthful appearance, as the Prophet Mohammed himself was reported to have NATURALLY red hair when he was young. "Red-hair is still honoured amongst Moslems as the Prophet Mohammed himself was reported to have red hair." [von Schwerin (1960) 27.] This politically incorrect ethnic revelation helps to explain WHY millions of Muslims today, some being of sub-Saharan African origin with black hair, also dye their beards with red henna. The Prophet Muhammad (AD 570-632), the founder of the Islamic religion, was apparently fair-skinned; a freedman, by the name of Umar, described the Prophet thus: "his face was not fat nor rounded; it was white tinged with red". [Guillaume (1987) 726.] The same way that DNA evidence has demonstrated the 99% of MODERN day Egyptians are NOT genetically related to the blond and red-headed Pharaohs, the vast majority of Muslims today have no ethnic relation to the Prophet Mohammed, yet still dye themselves with RED henna out of respect, tradition, and imitation.
During her lifetime Aisha, the Prophet's beloved wife, gained the epithet humayra, a word which has been translated as "light," "reddish," or "fair," but whose meaning can be most accurately rendered as "blonde." Subsequently, she has become known to the Islamic peoples as "Aisha the Blonde." [Günther (1930) 168.] Abu Bakr, the father of Aisha, and thus, the father-in-law of Muhammad, was the first Caliph of Islam (AD 632-634). He was slenderly built, and white-skinned; also, he dyed his grey beard red. [Günther (1930) 163.] Caliph Ali (AD 656-661), a first cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, was also renowned for his blond hair, as were his descendants, who founded the Shi'ite branch of Islam. [Grant (1981) 84-85; Lewis (1990) 36.] However, it was bitterly resented by some Muslims, that the physical features which characterised a true descendant of Muhammad, were steadily being lost, due to admixture with darker races. - Atlantean Gardens