Antara Ibn Shaddad (525-615) was the son of a pre-Islamic Arabian father and an enslaved Ethiopian mother.
As a young man, he excelled as a warrior and was granted his freedom. Antara went on to become a folk hero and one of the greatest pre-Islamic Arab poets. He is known for his poem contained in Mu'allaqa. He is still the subject of many Arab storytellers today.
(Thanks to Lani S. for the introduction to this historical figure!)
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Mixed Experience History Month is an annual blog post series celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established on Heidi Durrow's blog Light-skinned-ed Girl in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to illuminate achievements of multiracial and multicultural individuals (not tragic mulattoes) and people and events central to the Mixed experience. Please look for more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog, or Mixed Chicks Chat blog, the blog for the weekly award-winning podcast about being racially and culturally mixed! Thanks for reading. You can also read past year's series: 2007, 2008, 2009.
