Despite the ever-richer scholarship on perceptions of “blackness” in Muslim communities across time, there remains much to be studied about the history of how Islamic legal texts spoke about black-skinned believers. The Arabic-language interpretive tradition of the M?lik? school of Islamic law – prevalent across north and west Africa and the Sahel – included legal debates about the social status of “black” people in everyday life and particularly in marriage negotiations. I ask – what can the M?lik? legal texts tell us about historical Muslim perceptions of “blackness”, the fluidity of historical interpretations of Islamic law, and the role of Muslim jurists in either supporting or challenging anti-blackness? To answer, I discuss two brief case studies of marriage fiqh in the foundational M?lik? Arabic-language text al-Mudawwana, where Imam M?lik is presented ambiguously discussing the social perception of “blackness” as undesirable and “black women” as lowly. Using these case studies, I chronologically trace how different popular M?lik? jurists across time interpreted M?lik’s words in thirty-eight Arabic-language M?lik? texts. I argue that Al-Mudawanna’s recognition of social anti-blackness is tempered by M?lik’s idealization of equality between believers – however, M?lik’s legal followers over time often appealed to the recognition of “social custom” within marriage fiqh to justify legally upholding social anti-blackness rather than challenging it. On the other hand, other M?lik? jurists went out of their way to appeal against such readings of M?lik’s words, arguing that piety should be the highest criterion of marriage. In conclusion, rather than only repeating the opinion of their forebears or using only the “pure Islamic primary sources”, the discussions of “blackness” in M?lik? marriage fiqh show how jurists’ legal interpretations were colored by society and how “custom” could be used in the law even when seemingly going against primary sources on equality of all believers. Understanding the history of “blackness” in M?lik? legal texts, particularly in different African Muslim communities where these Arabic-language texts were widespread, can help explain how Muslims understand what is “Islamic” and what the potential role of fiqh can be for modern Muslims confronting anti-blackness.