The skin color and complexion of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ)
The Islamic tradition contains many descriptions of the Prophet (ﷺ), including of his hair, beard, and particularly skin color. It is very insistent that he was white of complexion.
Sahih al-Bukhari 63:
While we were sitting with the Prophet (ﷺ) in the mosque, a man came riding on a camel. He made his camel kneel down in the mosque, tied its foreleg and then said: “Who amongst you is Muhammad?” At that time the Prophet (ﷺ) was sitting amongst us (his companions) leaning on his arm. We replied, “This white man reclining on his arm.” The man then addressed him, “O Son of `Abdul Muttalib.” The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “I am here to answer your questions.”Sahih al-Bukhari 3544:
I heard Abii Juhaifa saying, “I saw the Prophet, and Al-Hasan bin `Ali resembled him.” I said to Abu- Juhaifa, “Describe him for me.” He said, “He was white and his beard was black with some white hair. He promised to give us 13 young she-camels, but he expired before we could get them.”Sahih Muslim 2340a:
I said to Abu Tufail: Did you see Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ)? He said: Yes, he had a white handsome face. Muslim b. Hajjaj said: Abu Tufail who died in 100 Hijra was the last of the Companions of Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ).
But what does that mean, exactly? Another narration provides a better description of his complexion, using specific terms.
Rabee‘ah ibn Abi ‘Abdur-Rahmaan narrated, “I heard Anas ibn Maalik describe the Prophet (ﷺ) saying, ‘He was of medium height amongst the people, neither tall nor short; he had a fair white color (Azhar), not absolutely white (Amhaq).’” [Al-Bukhari]
Azhar means that he had a white complexion mixed with redness; Ibn Hajar said, “Azhar means white imbued with redness. This was explicitly mentioned in another hadeeth by Anas as well, which was reported by Muslim, Sa’eed ibn Mansoor, At-Tayaalisi, At-Tirmithi and Al-Haakim, and it was narrated by ‘Ali, who said, ‘The Prophet (ﷺ) was white with his whiteness imbued with redness.’”
He also said, “What is meant is that he was not extremely white and not extremely dark, but his whiteness was mixed with redness.”
An-Nawawi said, “The Amhaq is the person who is extremely white, like the color of lime. He is unpleasant to see, and the person who looks at him might think that he has vitiligo.”
In that time period, it was common to identify Europeans as ‘red’ or ‘yellow’, and identify very light-skinned Arabs as ‘white’, so the assumption here would be that he’s not necessarily white as Celts or Nords, but was a light-skinned Arab with a complexion that resembled Mediterranean Europeans. There are also narrations describing how certain spots of his body are whiter than others — such as his armpits, legs or cheeks — indicating his tan.
