Importantly, it is in this context of rebellion and tragic confrontation that we witness the most violent outburst of images and negative attributes directed  
against blacks. As a result, there is a noticeable change in the tone of historical narratives. Chronicler al-Tabarī is a case in point. This historian, who is usually relatively objective when narrating facts, cannot stop himself from denigrating and maligning the actions of the insurgents. His words take on a violent tone, fiercely denouncing the enslaved rebels and describing them as a 'band of savages, godless monsters, cursed and evil traitors, enemies of God and Islam'.  
This new rhetoric marks the beginning of the crystallization of the issue of colour and enslavement. When a scholar like Ibn Hawqal confesses his discomfiture about including specific information about the world of blacks in his book, this voluntary omission is not unrelated to the memory of the grim years of the enslaved people's struggle. The copyist for Ibn Hawqal (op. cit., pp. 237-8), who visited the environs of Basra during $537 \mathrm{H} / 1122 \mathrm{CE}$, reported that 'there was scarcely anything left except ruins and rare vestiges. All the neighbourhoods have been demolished apart from a few that are still famous [...]'. This devastation, he says, began with the Zanj revolt and became more noticeable thereafter.