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Ibn Sina (980-1037) Kitab Al-Qanon fit-tibb ('Canon',in philosophy,medicine) A Persian doctor
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Taken from: Marcel Devic: Le Pays des Zendjs
Julie K. Ward : Philosophers on Race : Critical Essays
Full name: Abu Ali al-Hussein Ibn Sina, known in the west as Avicenna.
The Zendj and the Habacha loose their hair only very late in life, the skin of their head is hard, and makes it difficult for hair to grow, so there are only few. But they also remain there with much energy, that is why the baldness arrives late with the Zendjs and the Habacha.
Zanj (all black people) and hairy people are predisposed to melancholia.
Some people are naturally far from acquiring virtues; for they are slaves (abid) by nature like the Turks and the az-Zanj and those who generally speaking have not grown up in noble climates where conditions are for the most part such that the peoples growing up in them are balanced of temperament and sound of disposition and intellect.
(from his Urjuza fi'I-tibb)
Where the Zanj live is a heat that changes their bodies
Until their skins are covered all over with black
The Slavs acquire whiteness
Until their skins turn soft.