Muslims in America: Examining the Facts by Dr. Craig Considine

“The Facts: Unbeknownst to many Americans today, the United States has never existed without the presence of Muslims. Several studies elaborate on how the history of Muslims in America was immeasurably augmented by the transatlantic slave trade. As many as 15 million West Africans were enslaved by Europeans beginning in the 16th century (Diouf, 1998). Among those West Africans, approximately 10 to 20 percent were Muslim (Austin, 1997). Other scholars have suggested that upward of 30 percent of all enslaved Africans were Muslims (Ahmed, 2003).”

“The Muslims who were enslaved and brought to the Americas are thought to have been mostly well learned and literate. Consistent with the basic teachings of Islam, education was paramount to the West African civilizations. Timbuktu, in modern-day Mali, was one of the great centers of learning in the world, with libraries having up to 700 volumes and numerous schools ( well over 150 during the 16th century) ( Dirks, 2006).”

“Most of the Muslim slaves from West Africa were literate in at least Arabic, and it has been estimated that the percentage of literacy in Arabic among African slaves was actually higher than the percentage of literacy in English among their Christian owners (Dirks, 2006).”

“Al Haj Omar Ibn Said, a notable American Muslim slave with family roots in West Africa, is said to have been born and educated in the modern country of Senegal, where he served as an Islamic scholar of the Fula people. He is known for 14 documents that he wrote in Arabic, including an autobiography that detailed his life as a trader, soldier, and faithful Muslim. Said wrote that he performed the hajj, an Arabic word referring to the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, required by all Muslims (Considine, 2017: 185 ), and studied the Qur’an for 25 years before being sold into slavery in 1807 (The Pluralism Project, n.d. ).”

“Said’s handwritten works are now part of the North Carolina Collection in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Today, in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the Omar Ibn Said mosque on Southern Avenue stands as a testament to his legacy. A nearby historical marker notes that Said was a slave, scholar, and African-born author who penned in autobiography in Arabic. Other details of his life on the marker show that he lived in Blady County and worshipped with local Presbyterians. Muslims from the territories of North Africa and the Ottoman Empire are considered to be the second group of Muslims to arrive on U.S. soil.”

“One European Christian, the English sea captain and privateer Sir Francis Drake, commanded 25 to 30 English ships, whose shipmen liberated approximately 500 prisoners at Saint Augustine in Florida between 1585 and 1586. Dirks ( 2006) notes that about 300 or more of these liberated slaves were North African and Turkish galley slaves. North African and Ottoman captives from the Mediterranean region, usually called Moors and Turks, respectively, were needed to perform menial duties for their Spanish overlords in places such a5 Saint Augustine. Further evidence of Muslim galley slaves in the Americas is documented by the Smithsonian, which estimated that many of the Colombian city of Cartagena’s slave population were Muslims.”

In 1586, Drake besieged and captured the town, instructing his men to treat Frenchmen, Turks, and black Africans with respect (Lawler, 201 7). Edward D. Neill, an historian of early American history, wrote in his book The Virginia Carolorum that several shipments of Turkish and Armenian indentured servants, both men and women, were present in the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in the early 17th century, meaning that the slaves Drake captured were likely of Turkish and Armenian descent (Neill, 1886).”

“These hypotheses are confirmed in recordings by The Virginia Carolorum, which note that several of the Turks in Jam es town included the names “Mehmet the Turk,” “Ahmad the Turk,” “Joseph the Armenian,” and “Sayyan Turk” (Neill, 1886). A 1652 colonial document also refers to a “Turk” in Virginia, who wrote in the Turkish language. In the same year, Governor William Boyd of Virginia referred to a Turkish merchant in a letter (Dirks, 2006).”

“An obscure group known as the Melungeons also had a presence in precolonial and colonial America. Of mixed racial background, the Melungeons settled in the Appalachian region as early as the 17th century (Dirks, 2006). According to Wayne Winkler (2004), the Melungeons are a hybrid group with African, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean ancestry.”

“A DNA study published in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy in 2012 found that Melungeon families are the offspring of sub-Saharan African men and white women of northern or central European origin. Further details about the ancestry of the Melungeons are provided by Kathy Lyday, a researcher based at Elon University. Lyday claims that a Spanish influence is likely, given that the Southwest and the mountains were explored and settled by Spaniards as far back as Hernando de Soto, a conquistador who marched through the region in 1540 (Neal, 2015 ). These Spaniards likely brought African Muslim slaves with them, and they probably intermarried with Natives.”

Source: Muslims in America: Examining the Facts

Homer was an Aethiopian Maure, the greatest of the Grecian poets, and a Historian

The blacks were the ancient poets and learned historians. The celebrated Homer was an Ethiopian, the greatest of the Grecian poets, and a historian. Homer divided the Ethiopians into two parts, and Strabo maintains that the division line to which he alluded was the Red Sea.

 

The third is that which followed the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II., a Moor.  The Old Testament was written in Africa, and Coelo Syria in the land of Moab, and translated into the Greek tongue, from the Hebrew, by the Egyptian and Jerusalem Jews, by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and Ethiopian, King of Egypt.

 

 

Negro is derived from the Latin term niger–meaning black. The following terms and definitions are in the American edition of Dr. Walker’s Dictionary.

Moor–a marsh, a fen; a negro.

Marsh — a fen, a bog, a swamp; a plant.

Moorish –fenny, marshy.

Negro—blackmoor.

In Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary–American edition, by Rev. Joseph Hamilton, M.A., 1810—we find these words thus defined:

Black —dark, cloudy, mournful, wicked.

Black—a negro, the dark color, mourning.

Moor- a negro, marsh, fen, bog.

Moorish or Moory–marshy, fenny.

Negro–a blackmoor, (a Moor).

In the Dictionary for schools, by Dr. Wesbster, American edition, we find these words thus defined:

Negro, an African by birth, or a descendant of one of full blood.

Moor, a black man, a marsh.

Marsh, low ground.

Negro, a blackmoor, a lave, a mean wretch.

Moor, a black, marsh, watery ground.

Marsh, a fen, a bog, a swamp, watery ground.

In Dr. Webster’s definition of the complexion of the skin, he calls it the blood of Africa, or their descendants—as follows:

Mangroon, is all black, a full blood, ( a whole negro.)

Sambo, is three-quarters blood, (three quarters negro.)

Mulatto is one-half blood, (one-half negro.)

Quadroon is one-quarter blood, (one-quarter negro.)

Mesitzo, is half quarter blood, (a half quarter negro.)

“Niger, a Latin word, was formerly used by the Moors–the old Romans, to designate any black, inferior object, &c., a plant, a marsh, flat, moist ground, bog, or animal.”

“Micah, the Morasthite ( a prophet of the Moors,) prophesized in the days of Hezekiah, king of Juda; and spake to all the people of Judah, (the Moors,) saying, thus saith the Lord of host: Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, (a forest).”

“Moserath was built by the Moors, in the Desert of Paran, in the land of Amalek, and was the ancient encampment of Israel in the days of Moses. In the Moorish war of Adel, in Africa, some of the books of Moses were burnt.”

“The appellation of Moor is given to those successors of Mahomet—Pagans, Christians, and Jews—who extended their empire through North Africa, South Europe and the islands of the Mediterranean.”

“The Moors gained the highest reputation, both in Arts and Arms, of all the nations of the East. The mechanic and the fine arts, especially sculpture and painting, were in a very low state in Europe, when the Moors turned their attention to them and cultivated them with great success.”

“The Moors had founded in Africa the empire of Morocco, which was governed by a viceroy, named Muca. Muca sent his general Tariff into Spain, who, in a single memorable engagement, stripped the Gothic king Roderigo of his life and crown, and subdued the country, A.D. 713.

“The Kingdom of the Moors flourished in the south of Spain, for the space of two centuries, in full vigor. Abdalrahman fixed the seat of his government at Cordova, and made it a place of the utmost splendor and magnificance. Spain’s conqueror, satisfied with the sovereignty of the country, left the Goths, who had long been masters of Spain, in possesion of their property, laws, and religion.”

“And by the marrigage of Abdallah the Moor, with the widow of the Gothic king, the two nations became united. In A.D. 732, the Moors penetrated from Spain into France, and defeated the duke of Aquitain.”

“The siege of Constantinople by the Moors occured in A.D. 672. Their fleet passed through the unguarded channel of the Hellespont, and disembarked their troops seven miles from the city. But after a thirty year’s war, and the loss of 30,000 Moslems, they were compelled to releinquish the enterprise. And by a treaty between the two empires, ‘the Faithful’ were reduced to submit to the payment of a heavy annual tribute. This badge of servitude was however shaken off, and the succeeding emperors were unable to enforce it.” 

“The Caliph Omar, the third in succession from Mohammed, reduced Jerusalem under his subjection. This Omar was afterwards assasinated at Jerusalem, in 643. The Saracens continued masters of Jersualem till the year 1099, when it was taken by the Crusaders, under Godrey of Bouillon. They founded a new kingdom of which Jerusalem was the captial, and which lasted eighty-eight years, under nine kings. At last this kingdom was utterly ruined by Saladin; and though the Christians once more obtained possesion of the city, they were again obliged to relinquish it. In 1217, the Saracens were expelled by the Turks, who have evern since contined in possesion of it.”

“The word negro is considered insulting and is used as an epithet of contempt to the colored people. It has been long used by our common enemies in America. It is not only insulting but very improper for anyone to make use of it.”

“I am authorized by the word of God to say, whosoever make use of the word negro, applying it to us as a people after the light and truth have been proclaimed, are neither friends to God nor man. I say unto you, in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matt. xxxv. 40.”

“To call a person a negro, in the East, is expressive of the hight contempt. The dark Spaniard is proud of his descent from the African Moor, who first taught Europe the use of Arabic figures,&c.”

“The Arab of Africa, the most majestic of men, which his piercing eyes and flowing beard, is the descendant and representative of Abraham.”

“The Arabians a people of color, are the only people who have preserved their descent, their language, independence, manners, and customs from the earliest age; and to whom we are to look for examples of patriarchal life and habits.”

“The tribes, in general, choose to pitch their tents–whether on a hill or plain–so as to form a circular encampment. A collection of black tents thus arranged, is said to present a pleasing and beautiful appearance to the distant traveler.”

“Tents were first made it is thought of skin of animals, fastened to a long pole set perpendicularly into the ground, and the covering was drawn away from the bottom of the pole so as to form a small round dwelling.”

“Subsequently, tents were enlarged and made oblong. Tents were first invented in the family of Jubal–brother of Noah, and son of Lamech. The covering of the large tent,s was made of goat’s hair and was black. This fact beautifully illustrates the passage in the Song of Solomon: “I am black as the tents of Kedar.”

“Kedar was the second son of Ishamel: and Isaiah frequently personifies the Arabians under the name of Kedar. (Isa. 20th and 60th chap.)” 

“The curtains of Soloman” was a shelter in Arabia–a cavern wither the Arabian shepherds gathered their heds and flocks at night, for refuge. Tents are very portable dwellings; and are therefore conveniently adapted to the habits of those wandering tribes who occupation leads them to frequent removals to different parts of the country.”

“When they remove from one place to another, they take their tents with them; and when they stop, they erect them again; this they call “pitching their tents.” It apperas, that about the time of the Hebrews bondage in Egpypt, a number of the Arabian tribes passed the Red Sea at the straits of Babelmandel. And the Ludims in ages still earlier, settled in that country.”

“The language of the ancient Arabians, and of the modern Abyssinians, and many of their laws were much the same with those of the ancient Egyptians.”

“The Arabian seem to have been originally divided into a great number of tribes–with kings at the head of each. It is supposed that they worship Ammon, the offspring of Lot, in the person of their chief diety.”

“Mahomet, an Arabian was founder of the religion which is called by his name. He was born in Mecca, Arabia, on the Red Sea, anno domini, 569. The religion of which he was the author, was a system of Asiatic and Arabian voluptousness, grafted on the morality of the Gospel and partly upon some of the rites of Judaism.”

“The Koran which he wrote in detached portions, emobides the substance of his religion, and is the sacred book of the Mussulmen. Mahomet never laid down his arms from the time he captured Mecca, till he subdued all Arabia, and a part of Syrua; impressing his religion wherever he extended his conquests. He died in the midst of his successes, at the age of 61, A.D. Avienna, an Arabian and Physician.”

The Arabic Language.

“The Hebrew language -“–the most ancient in the world, after gradually pervading in, Samaria and Chaldea, was carried into the country of Arabia, by Kahtang, and ancient Arabian king, and descendant of Ishamel; and either formed the root of the Arabic, or, by a commixture with it, both in respect to idiom and verbal expression, gave birth to a language as new as compounded.

“The Arabic is now divided into many dialects, which vary from each other no less in construction than in pronunciation.”

“It is, however, notwithstanding these diversities, so generally understood in Africa and most parts of Asia, that, according to the statement of an able and respectable writer on the subject, a traveler who possess a thorough knowledge of the language, may pass from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Cape of Good Hope; may cross the widest part of the African continent from east to west; may follow the course of the Nile, and from Morocco to the eastern shores of China, opposite the islands of Japan, and find himself everywhere understood.”

The Moorish Castle.

 

“This castle was taken from the Moors by the Spanish. It is now called Gibraltar Castle, or by the name of the Spanish Castle. This castle is not very large, but it bears the marks of great age, and has not, in fact, been opened for several hundred years, even from the time it was first taken from the Moors. There are various and marvelous reasons told for keeping it closed One reason was that the sentinels stationed at this castle for eight or ten days in succession, when the relief guard came in the morning, were found dead on the ramparts; and after twenty or thirty men had been thus singularly cut off from the Spanish ranks, it was resolved to search the castle. The Moors say the reason this castle was not opened by the Spanish was that the plague was in it.” 

Source: Light and Truth: Collected from the Bible and Ancient and Modern History By Robert Benjamin Lewis.

The Canarian: Or, Book of the Conquest and Conversion of the Canarians

“A reference to the map of Abul Hassan Ali Ben Omar (1230) shows us this Western Nile, under the name of Nil Gana, falling into the Atlantic in about the latitude of the Gambia.”

“The map of Ibn Said (1274) has it, under the name of Os Nili Ganah, a little more northward. That of Abulfeda (1331) with the same name, yet a little more northward.”

“The retention of the belief in this river as a branch of the Nile by the Arab geographers is shown by an Arabic map, preserved to us by M. Jomard in his Monuments de la Georgraphie, by a Moor named Mohammed Ebn Aly Ebn Ahmed al Charfy of Sfax, and bearing date 1009 of the Hegira, which corresponds with A.D. 1600.”

“That the river itself was Senegal is shewn by Azurara, the chronicler of the conquest of Guinea in the time of Prince Henry, who speaks of it as the Ryo do Nillo, which they call the Canega. Both in the Pizzigani map and in the Catalan map which records the voyage of Ferrer, this river, whose existence was thus learned from Arab sources, is called the River of Gold.”

“But while this notion of a river of gold, debouching on the west coast of Africa, was thus handed down geographically from ancient times, the mercantile cities of Italy would have the impression more immediately brought home to them by the gold brought across the desert from Guinea into the Mediterranean.”

“We find in the treatise Delle Decima of Balducci Pegolotti, who was a factor in the great Florentine house of the Bardi, and who wrote in the first half of the fourteenth century that the malaguette pepper, which was the product of the Guinea coast, was then among the articles imported into Nismes and Montpellier; and De Barros expressly states (Dec. I, fol. 33) that the malaguette imported into Italy before Prince Henry’s time was brought from Guinea by the Moors, who, crossing the vast empire of Mandingo and the deserts of Libya, reached the Mediterranean at a port named Mundi Barca, corrupted into Monte de Barca, and as the Italians were not acquainted with the locality whence it came, they called it “grains of Paradise.”

“It would be unreasonable to doubt that, with the malaguette from Guinea, gold was also transported by these merchants across the desert to their port in the Mediterranean, and though the Italians were ignorant of the country whence it came,…”

Source: Canarian Or Book of the Conquest and Conversion of the Canarians in the Year 1402 by Messire Jean De Bethencourt

Zaghawa and Sadrata Berbers ruled Kanem in 900 A.D.

These regions have since the eighth century A.D. been a stronghold of Moslem unorthodoxy–a remote area where the Zenatian Berber tribes, who embraced the doctrines of the Kharijites or “seceders” from the Khalif Ali at the battle of Siffin, have been able to maintain even to present day a distinctive social organization.

It would appear, for instance, from the geographer Yacubi, A.D. 891, that the “fathers” of the medieval slave trade between Chad region and the Mediterranean were merchants from Basra and Kufa and Khorasan–Wahabites–who settled in Southern Fezzan.

Hence, no doubt, the reason why the Tomagheri Teda are commonly called by Bornu writers, “Beni Wahba,” and why in Bornu itself the leading hierarchs were called, as among the M’zab, “Tolba.”

From Edrisi we learn that the Zaghawa Berbers (who towards A.D.900 ruled Kanem) were fused and influenced by other Berbers called “Sadrata.” From Dr. Mercier’s work it seems fairly clear that the word “Sadrata,” hitherto unexplained and the reading even doubted, were Kharijite Berbers of the Wargla region, who, owing to one or other of the constant schisms, had gone south and settled among the Zaghawa of Kanem.

Source: Journal of the African Society, Volume 22 By African Society