All history as reconstruction of the past is of course myth

The exhibition will be held at The Islamic Central Mosque Regent’s park, London, from August 11th-15th, 2008.

Alhamdullilah, I am very honoured to know sister Sultana, and I can’t wait to meet her finally in London, Isha’Allah. May Allah(SWT) Reward her with good in the Dunya and Akhirah, ameen.

As’salamu Aleikum Ahmed/Muslem Historian, and apologize for taking so long to approve your comment. usually my comment moderation is turned off, but lately I had couple of hate messages toward Islam and Obama, yes Obama. Sometimes I wonder if these people can read, and those who can read can easily see that I am not a supporter of Obama, but somehow some people assume that I am. Nevertheless, I am strictly against on my blog to be used as platform for hate speech ! And those who know my blog can bear witness that I am not shy of criticism of my writings or my faith. I don’t think I need to explain the difference between criticism and hate speech.

Back to you, Ahmed/Muslem Historian. I have decided to bring your comment on front page:

An informative article on a forgotten chapter of islamic history..but i have some remarks regarding inaccuracies in the text:
1)You say “the son of a learned family in Islamic Jurisprudence from the city of Timbuktu, which had the world’s first university” Timbuktu did not have the world’s first university,spain ,Tunisia and Cairo’s alazhar had universities centuries before timbuktu was ever built.Timbuktu may have been a regional center for a while but never more than that and never even one of the largest five islamic cities worldwide.
2)I notice you provided reference for all koranic verses with the exception of this one ” In accordance with the Qur’anic command: ‘Fight it, and fall not in the test of your mettle. Be bold and establish the flag of Righteousness in the highest places. Thus comes Peace, for which due sacrifice must be made…’” ………….Reason is simply is that it does not exist in koran.
3)you say that there were huge numbers of muslims among the slaves shipped to the Americas, taking into account that the recorded numbers of shipped slaves exceeded 3 millions…that means that at least over a million muslims were among them.That is not correct for many reasons..muslims were not a sizable minority in the slave exporting areas..and their jihad warrior ethic would not have allowed for such numbers to be taken captive.The shores of west africa and the center at the time were mostly pagan.
In reality the slave emancipation movement of Europe and later, Lincolnesque America, of which the African Americans were merely adoptees,came in response to the huge numbers(some say over a million) of European and American white slaves who were captured by the mujahideen of North Africa(Also called Barbary Pirates) who forced the U.S government to pay tribute for safe passage in the mediterranean.
4)Finally, it is understood that the Atlantic trade had a traumatic effect on African Americans but that is no justification to change muslim laws that allow slavery.Companions of the prophet(saw) had slaves and the generations after them did that untill Lincoln and Victoria convinced some secular muslim rulers to release their white and Black slaves and institute Anti slavery laws in the 19th century amost 13 centuries after the revelation of Koran. Slavery in muslem lands was not as cruel, documented cases show hundreds of slaves rose to become rulers of the native muslim populations and establish ruling dynasties.In a way islamic societies were meritocracies where your origin did not count in the face achievements.

The post you refer to is; “The Jihad of 1831–1832: The Misunderstood Baptist Rebellion in Jamaica” by Dr. Sultana Afroz.

Dr. Sultana Afroz has been very kind to send me this comment:

(a) Regarding the Qur’anic statement, it is not a direct verse from the Holy Quran. It is a part of the commentary from verses 20-38 from Surah Mauhammad (47). It is from Yusuf Ali’s commentary.

(b) New research shows that the majority of the enslaved Africans were of Islamic faith. Sylviane Diouf (1998, 48), writing on the Muslim slaves in the Americas, conclusively asserts, “Therefore, if countedf as a whole, on a religious basis rather than on an ethnic one the Muslims were probably more numerous in the Americas than any other group among the arriving Africans”. For Jamica from 1655 to 1807, in Curtin’s (1969, 160) work on the slave census, 423,900 were Africans from Muslim-dominated areas, representing 56.8 percent of the arrivals. The dominance of the Muslims among the enslaved Africans and that Islam forbids Muslims to enslave other Muslims challenge the thesis established by western metropolitan historians that Muslims were wholesalers in the Atlantic slave trade(c) Enslaved Africans exported through pagan held-coastal areas do not necessarily mean that they were pagans. There are new research work showing that Senegambia, Guniea, Mali, to name a few were major areas from where Africans were brought as slaves. Likewise, it would be erroneous to consider all the enslaved deported through Fante port as from Koromantyn, just as all those shipped through Calcutta as from the state of Bengal in India. Similarly, it would be\n wrong to conclude that enslaved Africans coming from non-Islamic areas were non-Muslims, since many of them were war captives who were Muslims.(c) Timbuktu was the most important center of Arabic and Islamic studies in West Africa. The scholarly elite came from a number of interrelated families representing the varied tribal and ethnic groups, which made up the populace of the city. Scholars sustained Timbuktu society regardless of the fortunes of political regimes such as the rise and fall of Mali and Songhay. Trade sustained the scholarly families, besides investments in cloth, camels, cattle and urban property, patronage of rulers and state officials and donations of their students and disciples, who worked as traders and tailors. For centuries, the scholars of Timbuktu\n maintained a rich and vital tradition of Qur’anic, hadith, and legal studies supplemented by studies in linguistics, history, mathematics, and astronomy.

(c) Enslaved Africans exported through pagan held-coastal areas do not necessarily mean that they were pagans. There are new research work showing that Senegambia, Guniea, Mali, to name a few were major areas from where Africans were brought as slaves. Likewise,

it would be erroneous to consider all the enslaved deported through Fante port as from Koromantyn, just as all those shipped through Calcutta as from the state of Bengal in India. Similarly, it would be wrong to conclude that enslaved Africans coming from non-Islamic areas were non-Muslims, since many of them were war captives who were Muslims.

(c) Timbuktu was the most important center of Arabic and Islamic studies in West Africa. The scholarly elite came from a number of interrelated families representing the varied tribal and ethnic groups, which made up the populace of the city. Scholars sustained Timbuktu society regardless of the fortunes of political regimes such as the rise and fall of Mali and Songhay. Trade sustained the scholarly families, besides investments in cloth, camels, cattle and urban property, patronage of rulers and state officials and donations of their students and disciples, who worked as traders and tailors. For centuries, the scholars of Timbuktu maintained a rich and vital tradition of Qur’anic, hadith, and legal studies supplemented by studies in linguistics, history, mathematics, and astronomy.

[..] Islam, which gave Africa its first higher education institutions that have endured to the present. Indeed, Africa claims distinction as the center of the world’s oldest Islamic universities and some of the world’s oldest surviving universities. They include Ez-Zitouna madrassa in Tunis founded in 732. Next came al-Qarawiyyin mosque university established in Fez in 859 by a young migrant female princess from Qairawan (Tunisia), Fatima Al-Fihri. The university attracted students and scholars from Andalusian Spain to West Africa. Then in 969 Al-Azhar mosque university was established in Cairo, the same year that the city was founded by the Fatimid dynasty from the Maghreb. It came to be regarded as the most prestigious center of Islamic education and scholarship and attracted the greatest intellectuals of the Muslim world, including Ibn Khaldun the renowned historian who taught there. Another major early Islamic university was Sankore mosque university in Timbuktu founded in the twelfth century where a wide range of courses were taught from theology, logic, astronomy and astrology, to grammar, rhetoric, history and geography. [Source Paul Tiyambe Zeleza ]

“Fear God concerning your slaves, Feed them with what you eat and cloth them with what you wear and do not give them work beyond their capacity. Those whom you like, keep, and those whom you dislike, sell. Do not cause pain to God’s creation. He caused you to own them, and had He so wished he would have made them own you”

Lincoln had never been an Abolitionist; he had never believed in full Negro citizenship; he had tried desperately to win the war without Negro soldiers, and he had emancipated the slaves only on account of military necessity. (p. 153)

Freedom for the slave was the logical result of a crazy attempt to wage war in the midst of four million black slaves, and trying the while sublimely to ignore the interests of those slaves in the outcome of the fighting.(p. 121)

[Source from this book]

EDIT  

THE MUSLIM MAROONS AND THE BUCRA MASSA IN JAMAICA (Word doc. and print friendly)

By Dr. Sultana Afroz

AS-SALAAMU-ALAIKUM:

THE MUSLIM MAROONS AND THE BUCRA MASSA IN JAMAICA

©Sultana Afroz

Introduction

As eight centuries of glorious Muslim rule folded in Andalusia Spain in 1492, Islam unfolded itself in the West Indian islands with the Andalusian Muslim mariners who piloted Columbus discovery entourage through the rough waters of the Atlantic into the Caribbean. Schooled in Atlantic navigation to discover and to dominate the sea routes for centuries, the mission for the Muslim mariners was to find the eternal peace of Islam as they left al-Andalus/Muslim Spain in a state of ‘empty husks’ and a land synonym for intellectual and moral desolation in the hands of Christendom Spain. The Islamic faith made its advent into Jamaica in1494 as these Muslim mariners on their second voyage with Columbus set their feet on the peaceful West Indian island adorned with wooded mountains, waterfalls, sandy beaches and blue seas. The seed of Islam sown by the Mu’minun (the Believers of the Islamic faith) from al-Andalus gradually propagated through the enslaved African Muslims from West Africa brought to serve the plantation system in Jamaica. Their struggle or resistance (jihad) against the slave system often in the form of flight or run away (hijra) from the plantations led many of them to form their own community (ummah), known as Maroon communities, a feature then common in the New World plantation economy.[1] Isolationism and lack of Islamic learning made Islam oblivion in the Maroon societies, while the enslaved African Muslims on the plantations saw their faith being eclipsed and subdued by the slave institution, the metropolitan powers and the various Christian churches with their draconian laws.

Justification of Research

The present paper attempts to study the Islamic heritage of the Maroons in Jamaica. This is part of the greater research on Islam in Jamaica since Columbus. The history of the Maroons constitutes an important aspect of the historical study of Jamaica particularly because of the British recognition of their societies as separate entities beyond the jurisdiction of the British colonial government through the conclusion of formal ‘victory’ treaties and their continuance into the present. However, there is much misinformation, misconception and misrepresentation regarding Jamaican Maroons who were the first to inflict a military defeat upon the British in the New World. Uniqueness in Maroon communities continues to draw the attention of numerous researchers but distortions continue to abound in Maroon history. Because of the lack of adequate knowledge in Islam and the absence of any written documents by the historical Maroons, the researchers fall prey to the corrupt and inaccurate primary sources in the form of official documents, biased eyewitnesses’ accounts or stories of planter historians, which were almost all biased and written from their ethnocentricity and coloured by their economic interests. Furthermore, with the passage of time and the penetration of Western culture into Maroon societies, oral history and testimonies offered by present day Maroons have little historical value pertaining to the authentic cultural heritage of the historical Maroons. The absence of literary archaeology and the lack of proper analyses of oral history due to the general dearth of scholarship in Maroon communities have also created room for distortions in Maroon history. The Islamic heritage of the Maroons has not been studied, despite all the indications that Blacks brought directly to the West Indies from Spain were of Moorish background and that the majority of the enslaved Africans brought to Jamaica, came from Muslim dominated West Africa. Without a properly reconstructed history of the Maroons in Jamaica, the history of Jamaica remains incomplete.

The presence of Islam in the form of existing historical institutions and vernacular culture in predominantly Black Christian Maroon communities in Jamaica is an eye opener to researchers with Islamic background to unearth the story of the Muslim Maroons of al-Andalusia Spain and West African heritage. The stories of the Moorish Muslim mariners and the enslaved Moors have been overshadowed by the fabricated myths of Columbus discovery of the Americas in Jamaican and West Indian history. While ethnicity of the enslaved Africans dominated the nature and scope of previous scholarship, Islam, which was the predominant religion of these people and, which overshadowed varied traditional cultures forms the basis of this research.

New Research Methodology

Islam does not believe in symbolism. Therefore, Islamic archeological evidence in the form of artifacts should not be the primary measuring tool to ascertain the authenticity of the Islamic heritage of the Maroons in Jamaica. To a Muslim, the whole world is a house of worship. The absence of a masjid, which is a formal house of worship for the Muslims, as an archaeological evidence cannot be used as an argument to refute the Islamic heritage of the Jamaican Maroons. Even the presence of the Holy Qur’an as a literary archaeological evidence is not a necessity given the prevailing conditions of the Maroon communities in the midst of the plantation system. The memorization of the Holy Qur’an is a traditional practice for the preservation of the Holy Revelation within the hearts of Muslims. The presence of Islamic scholars—ulemas (teachers) and marabouts and imams (prayer leaders) is the essence for the practice and propagation of Islamic knowledge to the succeeding generations. Consequently, the authenticity of Islamic heritage can be established from the analytical study of the prevailing cultural practices within the Maroon societies, which fall within the framework of Islam. The universality of Islamic principles will allow a careful observer to recognize the Islamic faith even in the few and scanty evidences left in the form of cultural heritages and oral testimony. Contrary to Christianity, where different denominations follow different versions of the Bible, and the polytheists who are believers of many gods and spirits, Islam is a religion of The Holy Qur’an, the authenticity and purity of which has been maintained since its revelation in the seventh century. All actions of a Muslim must conform to the Qur’anic guidance and the practical applications of the Qur’anic principles by the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Hence, there is no room for manipulation of evidence or creation of myth based on superstitions or imagination.[2] The use of Qur’anic terms, Islamic salutation, Islamic governance, Muslim names, and Islamic actions are indicative of the strong Islamic faith of the historical Maroons. These cultural practices are fundamental to understanding the Islamic heritage of both the windward and leeward Maroon communities in Jamaica.

The Genesis of Islam in West Indian/Jamaican History

The dominance of Islam in al-Andalusia for almost eight hundred years until the fall of the last Muslim kingdom of Granada in 1492, and the significant impact of Islam in the formation of societies and states in West Africa as early as the tenth century, i.e. long before the commencement of the Atlantic slave trade make it imperative to study the history and heritage of Jamaica from an Islamic perspective.

(more…)

I am very pleased to announce more articles by Dr. Sultana Afroz, and I want to thank Sister Afroz for sending the articles.

By Afroz, Sultana (Lecturer in History at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica. She completed her doctoral degree in American History with a specialization in US Foreign Policy in South Asia. She is the co-author of The Political Economy of Food and Agriculture in the Caribbean, and is working on a manuscript entitled Invisible Yet Invincible: The Histoiy of the Muslim Umma in Jamaica.) (more…)

The Ummah Slowly Bled: A Select Bibliography of Enslaved African Muslims in the Americas and the Caribbean

By Brent Singleton [You may view the article as PDF]

Introduction

Despite an Islamic presence in the Western hemisphere for over half a millennium, the history of this portion of the Muslim Diaspora is gravely under-researched. There is evidence that Muslims had reached and interacted with Native Peoples long before Columbus made the ‘New World’ known to Europe. Nevertheless, it was Columbus’ voyage and the resultant European onslaught that forever changed the history of Native
Peoples, Africans, and consequently African Muslims.

For 400 years, millions of Africans were forced into chattel slavery in the Americas and the Caribbean. The precise estimates of enslaved Africans of the Islamic faith vary greatly, but the notion that a signiŽ cant percentage was Muslim is unquestioned. Unfortunately, precious few resources related to these African Muslims have been unearthed or fully examined. Over the past three decades more research has been written on the subject and it is becoming an acknowledged phenomenon in the histories of many countries including the United States. From Muslim-led rebellions in Brazil to Islamic scholars and gentry toiling in bondage in Georgia and Maryland, the history of how the West African arm of the Muslim ummah slowly bled is Ž nally coming to light.
The following select bibliography provides an introduction to the research tracing the
plight of enslaved African Muslims in the Americas and the Caribbean. The included works are books, book chapters, and journal articles published through 2001, as well as a small number of signiŽ cant unpublished dissertations. The majority of citations represent scholarly research on the topic in English, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Italian, and German, but also included are several published primary resources in many languages including Arabic. Incorporated sources were limited to those that focus on the topic or contain discrete chapters or sections on enslaved Muslims. Nineteenth and twentieth century newspaper and magazine accounts of enslaved Muslims have been omitted. After a general literature category, the works are arranged geographically and further broken down by country and subtopics within the country when applicable.

General Works about Enslaved Muslims in the Americas and the Caribbean

1. Sultana Afroz, ‘Islam and Slavery Through the Ages: Slave Sultans and Slave Mujahids’, Journal of Islamic Law & Culture, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2000, pp. 97–123.

2. Sylviane A. Diouf, Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas, New York: New York University Press, 1998.

3. Sylviane A. Diouf, ‘Sadaqa Among AfricanMuslims Enslaved in the Americas’,
Journal of Islamic Studies, Vol. 10, No. 1, 1999, pp. 22–32.

4. Paul E. Lovejoy, ‘Cerner les Identities au Sein de la Diaspora AŽ caine, l’Islam
et l’Esclavage aux Ameriques’ (‘Determining Identities Within the African
Diaspora, Islam and Slavery in the Americas’), Cahiers des Anneaux de la
Memoire, Vol. 1, 1999, pp. 249–278. Available online through the York/UNESCO Nigerian Hinterland Project at: , http://www.yorku.ca/nhp/publications/
cahiers/001.htm . .

5. Amir N. Muhammad, Muslims in America: Seven Centuries of History, 1312–
2000: Collections and Stories of American Muslims, 2nd edn, Beltsville, MD:
Amana, 2001.

6. Abdullah Hakim Quick, Deeper Roots: Muslims in the Americas and the Caribbean from before Columbus to the Present, London: Ta-Ha, 1996.

7. Samory Rashid, ‘Islamic In uence in America: Struggle, Flight, Community’,
Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 19, No. 1, 1999, pp. 7–31.

8. Clyde Ahmed Winters, ‘A Survey of Islam and the African Diaspora’, Pan-
African Journal, Vol. 8, No. 4, 1975, pp. 425–434.

9. Clyde Ahmed Winters, ‘Roots and Islam in Slave America’, Al-Ittihad, Vol. 13, No. 3, 1976, pp. 18–20.

10. Clyde Ahmed Winters, ‘Afro-American Muslims from Slavery to Freedom’,
Islamic Studies (Islamabad), Vol. 17, No. 4, 1978, pp. 187–205.

11. Clyde Ahmed Winters, ‘A Chronology of Islam in Afro-America’, Al-’Ilm
(Durban), Vol. 5, 1985, pp. 112–122.

United States

General Works

12. Allan D. Austin, African Muslims in Antebellum America: A Sourcebook, New York: Garland, 1984.

13. Allan D. Austin, ‘Islamic Identities in Africans in North America in the Days
of Slavery (1731–1865)’, Islam et Socie´te´s au Sud du Sahara, Vol. 7, 1993,
pp. 205–219.

14. Allan D. Austin, African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles, New York: Routledge, 1997.

15. Sylviane A. Diouf, ‘American Slaves Who Were Readers and Writers’, Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, Vol. 24, 1999, pp. 124–125.

16. Michael A. Gomez, ‘Muslims in Early America’, Journal of Southern History,
Vol. 60, No. 4, 1994, pp. 671–710.

17. Michael A. Gomez, ‘Prayin’ on duh Bead: Islam in Early America’, in Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998, pp. 59–87.

18. James W. Hagy, ‘Muslim Slaves, Abducted Moors, African Jews, Misnamed
Turks, & an Asiatic Greek Lady: Some Examples of Non-European Religious
& Ethnic Diversity in South Carolina Prior to 1861’, Carologue: Bulletin of the
South Carolina Historical Society, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1993, pp. 12–13, 25–27.

19. William Brown Hodgson, The Gospels Written in the Negro Patois of English with Arabic Characters by a Mandingo Slave (Named London) in Georgia, New York: Ethnological Society, 1857.

20. Ronald A. T. Judy, (Dis)forming the American Canon: African–Arabic Slave Narratives and the Vernacular, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993.

21. Y. N. Kly, ‘The African-American Muslim: 1776–1900’, Journal of Muslim
Minority Affairs, Vol. 10, No. 1, 1989, pp. 152–160.

22. Al-Hajj Wali Akbar Muhammad, Muslims in Georgia: A Chronology & Oral History, Fayetteville, GA: The Brandon Institute, 1994.

23. Sulayman S. Nyang, ‘Islam in the United States of America: A Review of the Sources’, Islamic Culture, Vol. 55, No. 2, 1981, pp. 93–102. Also published under the same title in The Search (Center for Arab–Islamic Studies, Miami, FL), Vol. 1, No. 2, 1980, pp. 164–182.

24. Thomas C. Parramore, ‘Muslim Slave Aristocrats in North Carolina’, North
Carolina Historical Review, Vol. 77, No. 2, 2000, pp. 127–150.

25. Adib Rashad, Islam, Black Nationalism and Slavery: A Detailed History, Beltsville, MD: Writers’ Inc., 1995.

26. Abdulhafeez Q. Turkistani, ‘Muslim Slaves and Their Narratives: Religious
Faith and Cultural Accommodation’, unpublished dissertation, Kent State, 1995.

27. Richard Brent Turner, ‘What Shall We Call Him? Islam and African American
Identity’, Journal of Religious Thought, Vol. 51, No. 1, 1994, pp. 25–52.

28. Richard Brent Turner, Islam in the African-American Experience, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997.

29. Richard Brent Turner, ‘African Muslim Slaves, the Nation of Islam, and the
Bible: Identity, Resistance, and Transatlantic Spiritual Struggle’, in African Americans and the Bible: Sacred Texts and Social Textures, ed. Vincent L.
Wimbush, New York: Continuum, 2000, pp. 297–318.

30. Clyde Ahmed Winters, ‘Origins of Muslim Slaves in the U.S.’, Al-Ittihad, Vol. 21, 1986, pp. 49–51.

Biographical Material and Narratives
Abd ar-Rahman Ibrahima

31. Terry Alford, Prince Among Slaves, New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
32. Allan D. Austin, ‘Abdul Rahaman’s History’, in African Muslims in Antebellum America: A Sourcebook, New York: Garland, 1984, pp. 121–263.
33. Allan D. Austin, ‘Abd ar-Rahman and His Two Amazing American Journeys’, in African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles, New York: Routledge, 1997, pp. 64–83.
34. Edward Everett, ‘Abdul Rahaman’, in Orations and Speeches on Various Occasions, Vol. 3, Boston: Little, Brown, 1879–1883, pp. 186–194.
35. Frederick Freeman, A Plea for Africa: Being Familiar Conversations on the Subject of Slavery and Colonization, Philadelphia: William Stavely, 1838. Abd ar-Rahman is covered on pp. 40–44.
36. Thomas Gallaudet, A Statement with Regard to the Moorish Prince, Abduhl Rahhahman, New York: Daniel Fanshaw, 1828. Available online through the Documenting the American South collection at: , http://docsouth.unc.edu/ neh/gallaudet/menu.html . .
37. Job Ben Solomon and Abd al-Rahman: The Stories of Two Men in Slavery, Washington, DC: American Historical Association, 1970. Unseen by compiler, listed in the notes of entries 29 and 32.

38. Bertram Wyatt-Brown, ‘The Mask of Obedience: Male Slave Psychology in the Old South’, American Historical Review, Vol. 93, No. 5, 1988, pp. 1228–1252.

Bilali (Ben Ali) Muhammad

39. Joseph H. Greenberg, ‘The Decipherment of the “Ben Ali Diary”, a Preliminary Report’, Journal of Negro History, Vol. 25, No. 3, 1940, pp. 372–375.
40. B. G. Martin, ‘Sapelo Island’s Arabic Document: The “Bilali Diary” in Context’, Georgia Historical Quarterly, Vol. 78, No. 3, 1994, pp. 589–601.
41. Ella May Thornton, ‘Bilali—His Book’, Law Library Journal, Vol. 47, 1955,
pp. 228–229.

Job Ben Solomon (Ayuba Suleiman Diallo)

42. Allan D. Austin, ‘Job Ben Solomon—African Nobleman and a Father of African American Literature’, in African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles, New York: Routledge, 1997, pp. 51–62.
43. Thomas Bluett, Some Memoirs of the Life of Job, the Son of Solomon, the High Priest of Boonda in Africa; Who Was a Slave about Two Years in Maryland; and Afterwards Being Brought to England, Was Set Free, and Sent to His Native Land in the Year 1734, London: R. Ford, 1734. Available online through the Documenting the American South collection at: , http://docsouth.unc.edu/ bluett/bluett.html . .
44. Philip D. Curtin, ‘Ayuba Suleiman Diallo of Bondu’, in Africa Remembered:
Narratives by West Africans from the Era of the Slave Trade, ed. Philip D. Curtin, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1967, pp. 17–59.

45. Douglas Grant, The Fortunate Slave: An Illustration of African Slavery in the Early Eighteenth Century, London: Oxford University Press, 1968.
46. Job Ben Solomon and Abd al-Rahman: The Stories of Two Men in Slavery,
Washington, DC: American Historical Association, 1970. Unseen by compiler,
listed in the notes of entries 29 and 32.
47. Arthur Pierce Middleton, ‘The Strange Story of Job Ben Solomon’, William
and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 3, 3rd ser., 1948, pp. 342–350.
48. Francis Moore, Travels into the Inland Parts of Africa Containing a Description of the Several Nations for the Space of Six Hundred Miles up the River Gambia; Their Trade, Habits, Customs, Language, Manners, Religion and Government; the Power, Disposition and Characters of Some Negro Princes; with a Particular Account of Job Ben Solomon, London: E. Cave, 1738.

Lamine Kebe

49. Allan D. Austin, ‘Lamen Kebe: Professor Without a Class’, in African Muslims in Antebellum America: A Sourcebook, New York: Garland, 1984, pp. 409–444.
50. Allan D. Austin, ‘Lamine Kebe, Educator’, in African Muslims in Antebellum
America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles, New York: Routledge, 1997, pp. 115–126.

Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua

51. Allan D. Austin, ‘The Adventures of Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua’, in African Muslims in Antebellum America: A Sourcebook, New York: Garland, 1984, pp. 585–654.
52. Allan D. Austin, ‘The Transatlantic Trials ofMahommah Gardo Baquaqua’, in
African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles, New York: Routledge, 1997, pp. 158–171. 53. Robin Law and Paul E. Lovejoy, The Biography of Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua: His Passage from Slavery to Freedom in Africa and America, Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2001. Includes the text of several documents and letters by and about Baquaqua.
54. Samuel Moore, ‘Biography of Mahommah G. Baquaqua: A Native of Zoogoo’, in Interior of Africa, Detroit: Pomeroy, 1854. Available online through the Documenting the American South collection at: , http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/baquaqua/menu.html . .

For other works concerning Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua, see entries 118–120.

Mohammed Ali Ben Said (Nicholas Said)

55. Allan D. Austin, ‘Mohammed Ali Ben Said’s Travels’, in African Muslims in
Antebellum America: A Sourcebook, New York: Garland, 1984, pp. 655–689.

56. Allan D. Austin, ‘Mohammed Ali Ben Said: Travels on Five Continents’,
Contributions in Black Studies, Vol. 12, 1993–1994, pp. 129–158. Revision of
Austin’s 1984 work in entry 55.

57. Allan D. Austin, ‘Mohammed Ali Ben Said or Nicholas Said: His Travels on
Five Continents’, in African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles, New York: Routledge, 1997, pp. 172–186.

58. Nicholas Said and Precious Rasheeda Muhammad, The Autobiography of
Nicholas Said: A Native of Bornou, Eastern Soudan, Central Africa, Cambridge, MA: Journal of Islam in America, 2001.

Salih Bilali

59. Allan D. Austin, ‘Salih Bilali of Massina—Tom of Georgia’, in African Muslims
in Antebellum America: A Sourcebook, New York: Garland, 1984, pp. 309–408.

60. Ivor Wilks, ‘Salih Bilali of Massina’, Africa Remembered: Narratives by West
Africans from the Era of the Slave Trade, ed. Philip D. Curtin, Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press, 1967, pp. 145–151.

Umar ibn Said

61. Allan D. Austin, ‘Omar Ibn Said: The Life and the Legend’, in African Muslims in Antebellum America: A Sourcebook, New York: Garland, 1984, pp. 445–523.
62. Allan D. Austin, ‘Umar Ibn Said’s Legend(s), Life, and Letters’, in African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles, New York: Routledge, 1997, pp. 128–156.

63. George Callcott, ‘Omar Ibn Seid, a Slave Who Wrote an Autobiography in
Arabic’, Journal of Negro History, Vol. 39, No. 1, 1954, pp. 58–63.
64. Frederick Freeman, A Plea for Africa: Being Familiar Conversations on the Subject of Slavery and Colonization, Philadelphia: William Stavely, 1838. Umar ibn Said is covered on pp. 36–40.

65. J. Franklin Jameson, ‘Autobiography of Omar Ibn Said, Slave in North Carolina, 1831’, American Historical Review, Vol. 30, No. 4, 1924–1925, pp. 787–795.

Others

66. Allan D. Austin, ‘Five Africans in Colonial Maryland’, in African Muslims in
Antebellum America: A Sourcebook, New York: Garland, 1984, pp. 65–120.
Includes biographical sketches of Yarrow Mamout and Job Ben Solomon.

67. Allan D. Austin, ‘Glimpses of Seventy-Five African Muslims in Antebellum
North America’, in African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories
and Spiritual Struggles, New York: Routledge, 1997, pp. 31–49.

68. Sidney Kaplan, ‘Yarrow Mamout: Maryland Muslim’, in The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, 1770–1800, Greenwich, CT: New York
Graphic Society, 1973, pp. 218–219.

69. D. L. Schafer, ‘Shades of Freedom: Anna Kingsley in Senegal, Florida and
Haiti’, Slavery and Abolition, Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996, pp. 130–154.

Latin America
General Works

70. Raymond Delval, Les Musulmans en Ame´rique Latine et aux Caraõ¨bes (Muslims in Latin America and the Caribbean), Paris: L’Harmattan, 1992.

71. Mohammed Djinguiz, ‘L’Islam dans l’Amerique Centrale et dans l’Amerique
du Sud’ (‘Islam in Central America and South America’), Revue Du Monde
Musulman, Vol. 6, No. 10, 1908, pp. 314–318.

72. Dennis Walker, ‘Black Islamic Slave Revolts of South America’, Islamic Review, Vol. 58, No. 10/11, 1970, pp. 9–11.

Brazil

General Works

73. Roger Bastide, ‘L’Islam Noir au Bre´sil’ (‘Black Islam in Brazil’), Hespe´ris, Vol. 39, 1952, pp. 373–382.

74. Roger Bastide, ‘Black Islam in Brazil’, in The African Religions of Brazil: Toward a Sociology of the Interpretation of Civilizations, trans. Helen Sebba, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978, pp. 143–154. Originally published in French as Les Religions Africaines au Bre´sil: Vers une Sociologie des Interpe´ne´trations de Civilizations, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1960. Also published in Portuguese as As Religio˜es Africanas no Brasil: Contribuic¸a˜o a uma Sociologia das Interpenetrac¸o˜es de Civilizac¸o˜es, Sa˜o Paulo: Livraria Pioneira Editora, 1971.

75. Alberto Da Costa e Silva, ‘Buying and Selling Korans in Nineteenth-Century
Rio de Janeiro’, Slavery & Abolition, Vol. 22, No. 1, 2001, pp. 83–90. Also
published under the same title in Rethinking the African Diaspora: The Making
of a Black Atlantic World in the Bight of Benin and Brazil, eds K. Mann and E.
G. Bay, London: Cass, 2001, pp. 83–90.

76. Abelardo Duarte, Negros Muc¸ulmanos nas Alagoas: os Male`s (Black Muslims in Alagoas: The Males), Maceio: Edicoes Caete, 1958.

77. Mary C. Karasch, ‘Children of Allah and Olorun: Islam and Candomble´’, in
Slave Life in Rio de Janeiro, 1808–1850, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987, pp. 284–287.

78. Nei Lopes, Bantos, Maleˆs e Identidade Negra (Bantus, Males and Black Identity), Rio de Janeiro: Forense Universita´ria, 1988.

79. Nei Lopes and Joa˜o Baptista M. Vargens, Islamismo e Negritude: da A´ frica ao Brasil, da Idade Me´dia aos Nossos Dias (Islam and Negritude: From Africa to Brazil, from the Middle Ages to the Present Day), Rio de Janeiro: Sector de Estudos A´ rabes da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 1982.

80. Paul E. Lovejoy, ‘Jihad e Escravida˜o: As Origens dos Escravos Muc¸ulmanos da Bahia’ (‘Jihad and Slavery: The Origins of the Muslim Slaves of Bahia’), Topoi (Rio de Janeiro), Vol. 1, 2000, pp. 11–44. Available online through the York/UNESCO Nigerian Hinterland Project at: , http://www.yorku.ca/nhp/publications/topoi/001.htm . .

81. John Edwin Mason, Social Death and Resurrsction [sic]: Conversion, Resistance and the Ambiguities of Islam in Bahia and the Cape, Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand, Institute for Advanced Social Research, 1995.

82. Antoˆnio Monteiro, Notas sobre Negros Maleˆs na Bahia (Notes on the Black Males in Bahia), Salvador: Ianama, 1987.

83. Zita St. Aubyn Nunes, ‘Os Males do Brasil’: Antropofagia e a Questa˜o da Rac¸a (‘The Males of Brazil’: Anthropophacism and the Question of Race), Rio de Janeiro: CIEC, 1990.

84. Rolf Reichert, ‘El Ocaso del Islam Entre los Negros Brasilen˜os’ (‘The Decline of Islam Among Black Brazilians’), in XXXVI Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, Espan˜a, 1964: Actas y Memorias (XXXVI International Congress of Americanists, Spain, 1964: Proceedings and Transactions), ed. Alfredo Jimenez Nunez, Seville: ECESA, 1966, pp. 621–625.

85. Rolf Reichert, Os Documentos A´ rabes do Arquivo do Estado da Bahia (Arabic Documents in the State Archive of Bahia), Bahia: Universidade Federal da Bahia, Centro de Estudos Afro-Orientais, 1970. Consists of three series originally published in the journal Afro-A´ sia (Salvador, Brazil): ‘1.a Se´rie: Textos Coraˆnicos’, Afro-A´ sia, No. 2–3, 1966; ‘2.a Se´rie: Orac¸o˜ es Islaˆmicas (Na˜o- Coraˆnicos)’, Afro-A´ sia, No. 4–5, 1967; ‘3.a Se´rie: Amuletos, Exercõ´cios de Escrita, Etc.’, Afro-A´ sia, No. 6–7, 1968. Includes 30 facsimiles of documents, accompanied Arabic text and Portuguese translations.

86. Jose´ Ribeiro, Culto Maleˆ (Male Cult), Rio de Janeiro: Editora Espiritualista, 1973.

87. R. Ricard, ‘L’Islam Noir a` Bahia D’Apre`s les Travaux de l’Ecole Ethnologique Bre´silienne’ (‘Black Islam in Bahia According to the Work of the Brazilian Ethnological School’), Hespe´ris, Vol. 35, 1948, pp. 57–78.

88. Raymundo Nina Rodrigues, ‘Os Negros Maometanos no Brasil’ (‘Black Muslims in Brazil’), in Os Africanos no Brasil (Africans in Brazil), Brasilia: Ed. UNB, 1988, pp. 38–70.

89. Vittorio Spinazzola, ‘Islam e Schiavitu’ in Brasile’ (‘Islam and Slavery in
Brazil’), Oriente Moderno, Vol. 47, No. 4, 1967, pp. 269–285.

90. Clyde AhmedWinters, ‘The Muslims of Rio de Janeiro’, The Search (Center for Arab–Islamic Studies, Miami, FL), Vol. 3, No. 1, 1982, pp. 27–48.

Muslim Insurrections in Brazil

91. Zaid Abdul-Aleem, ‘African Muslim Survival and Adaptation in Salvador,
Brazil: Males after the Revolt of 1835’, unpublished dissertation, Duke, 1996.
92. Nilda Beatriz Anglarill, ‘Acerca de los Esclavos Musulmanes de Bahia (Brasil)
y la Revuelta de 1835’ (‘About the Muslim Slaves of Bahia (Brazil) and the
Revolt of 1835’), Scripta Ethnologica, Vol. 13, 1990–1991, pp. 75–90.
93. Anonymous, ‘Pec¸as Proucessuais do Levante dos Maleˆs’ (‘Legal Proceedings of the Male Uprising’), Anais do Arquivo Pu´blico do Estado da Bahia, Vol. 40, 1971, pp. 9–170.
94. Pedro Calmon, Maleˆs, a Insurreic¸a˜o das Senzales (Males, the Rebellion of the Senzales), Rio de Janeiro: Pro Luce, 1933.
95. Decio Freitas, A Revoluc¸a˜o dos Maleˆs: Insurreic¸o˜es Escravass (The Male Revolution; Slave Rebellion), Porto Alegre: Editora Movimento, 1985.
96. Jack Goody, ‘Writing, Religion and Revolt in Bahia’, Visible Language, Vol. 20, No. 3, 1986, pp. 318–343.
97. Etienne Ignace, ‘A Revolta dos Maleˆs (24 para 25 de Janeiro de 1835)’ (‘The Male Revolt (24th and 25th of January 1835’)), Revista do Instituto Histo´rico e Geogra´ Ž co Brasileiro, Vol. 14, No. 33, 1907, pp. 129–149.
98. Etienne Ignace, ‘Os Male´s’, Revista do Instituto Histo´rico e Geogra´ Ž co Brasileiro, Vol. 72, No. 2, 1909, pp. 67–126.
99. Etienne Ignace, ‘La Secte Musulmane des Male`s du Bre´sil et Leur Re´volte en 1835, Chapitre Premier: Doctrine, Ethique et Culte des Male`s’ (‘The Muslim Male Sect of Brazil and Their Revolt in 1835, Chapter One: Doctrines, Ethics and the Male Cult’, Anthropos (Salzburg), Vol. 4, No. 1, 1909, pp. 99–105.

100. Etienne Ignace, ‘La Secte Musulmane des Male`s du Bre´sil et Leur Re´volte en 1835, Chapitre Second: La Re´volte des Male`s (24–25 Janvier 1835)’ (‘The Muslim Male Sect of Brazil and Their Revolt in 1835, Chapter Two: The Male Revolt (24–25 January 1835)’), Anthropos (Salzburg), Vol. 4, No. 2, 1909, pp. 405–415.
101. T. B. Irving, ‘King Zumbi and the Male Movement in Brazil: Research Notes’, American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Vol. 9, No. 3, 1992, pp. 397–409.
102. Raymond Kent, ‘African Revolt in Bahia: 24–25 January, 1835’, Journal of
Social History, Vol. 3, 1970, pp. 334–356.
103. Paul E. Lovejoy, ‘Background to Rebellion: The Origins of Muslim Slaves in Bahia’, Slavery & Abolition, Vol. 15, No. 2, 1994, pp. 151–180. Also published under the same title in Paul E. Lovejoy, ed., Unfree Labour in the Development of the Atlantic World, London: Cass, 1994, pp. 151–180.

104. Francisco Gonc¸alves Martins, ‘OfŽ cio do Chefe de Policia Sobre a Insurreic¸a˜o de 1835’ (‘OfŽ ce of the Chief of Police on the Rebellion of 1835’), Revista do Instituto Geogra´phico e Histo´rico da Bahia, Vol. 10, No. 29, 1903, pp. 107–115.
105. Vincent Monteil, ‘Analyse des 25 Documents Arabes des Males de Bahia
(1835)’ (‘Analysis of 25 Arabic Documents of the Males of Bahia (1835)’),
Bulletin de l’Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire, Vol. 29, Ser. B, No. 1–2, 1967, pp. 88–98.
106. Yusuf A. Nzibo, ‘The Muslim Factor in the Afro-Brazilian Struggle Against
Slavery’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1986, pp. 547–556.

107. Howard Prince, ‘Slave Rebellion in Bahia, 1807–1835’, unpublished dissertation, Columbia University, 1972.
108. Manuel Querino, ‘Dos Maleˆs’, in Costumes Africanos no Brasil (African Costumes in Brazil), Recife: Fundac¸a˜o Joaquim Nabuco, Editora Massangana, 1988, pp. 66–73.
109. R. Quiring-Zoche, ‘Glaubenskampf oder Machtkampf? Der Aufstand der Male von Bahia nach einer Islamischen Quelle’ (‘Holy War or Power Struggle? The Male Revolt of Bahia According to an Islamic Source’), Sudanic Africa, Vol. 6, 1995, pp. 115–124. Available online at Sudanic Africa at: , http://www.hf.uib.no/smi/sa/06/6Quiring.pdf . .
110. Rolf Reichert, ‘L’Insurrection d’Esclaves de 1835 a` la Lumie`re des Documents Arabes des Archives Publiques de l’E´ tat de Bahia (Bresil)’ (‘The Slave Insurrection of 1835 in Light of the Arabic Documents of the Public Archives of the State of Bahia (Brazil)’), Bulletin de l’Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire, Vol. 29, Ser. B, No. 1–2, 1967, pp. 99–104.
111. Joa˜o Jose´ Reis, Slave Rebellion in Brazil: The Muslim Uprising of 1835 in Bahia, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. Also published in Portuguese as Rebelia˜o Escrava no Brasil: A Histo´ria do Levante dos Maleˆs (1835), Sao Paulo: Editora Brasiliense, 1986.
112. Joa˜o Jose´ Reis, ‘O Levante dos Maleˆs na Bahia: uma Interpretac¸a˜o Polõ´tica’ (‘The Male Uprising in Bahia: A Political Interpretation’), Estudos Econoˆmicos, Vol. 17 (special issue), 1987, pp. 131–149.
113. Joa˜o Jose´ Reis, ‘Slave Resistance in Brazil: Bahia, 1807–1835’, Luso-Brazilian Review, Vol. 25, No. 1, 1988, pp. 111–144.
114. Joa˜o Jose´ Reis and P. F. de Moraes Farias, ‘Islam and Slave Resistance in Bahia, Brazil’, Islam et Socie´te´s au Sud du Sahara, Vol. 3, 1989, pp. 41–66.
115. Stuart B. Schwartz, ‘Cantos e Quilombos Numa Conspiraca˜o de Escravos Haussa´s: Bahia 1814’ (‘Songs and Quilombos in a Conspiracy of Hausa Slaves: Bahia 1814’), in eds Joa˜o Jose´ Reis and Fla´vio dos Santos Gomes, Liberdade por um Fio: Histo´ria dos Quilombos no Brasil (Freedom by a Thread: History of the Quilombos in Brazil), Sa˜o Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1996, pp. 373–406.
116. Pierre Verger, ‘Slave Revolts and Uprisings in Bahia, 1807–1835’, in Trade Relations Between the Bight of Benin and Bahia from the 17th to 19th Century, Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, 1976, pp. 285–313. Originally published in French as Flux et Re ux de la Traite des Ne`gres Entre le Golfe de Be´nin et Bahia de Todos os Santos, du XVIIe au XIXe Sie`cle, Paris: La Haye, Mouton, 1968.
117. Clyde Ahmed Winters, ‘The Afro-Brazilian Concept of Jihad and the 1835
Slave Revolt’, Afrodiaspora: Journal of the African World, Vol. 2, No. 4, 1984,
pp. 87–91.

Biographical Material and Narratives

Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua

118. Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua, ‘Recollections of a Slave’s Life’, in The African in Latin America, ed. A. M. Pescatello, New York: Knopf, 1975, pp. 186–194. Covers Baquaqua’s life in Brazil, excerpted from the Samuel Moore work in entry 54.
119. Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua, BiograŽ a e Narrativa do Ex-Excravo Afro-
Brasileiro (Biography and Narrative of an Afro-Brazilian Ex-Slave), trans. Robert Krueger, Brasõ´lia: Hedic¸o˜ es Humanidades, 1997.
120. Silvia Hunold Lara, ‘BiograŽ a de Mahommah G. Baquaqua’, Revista Brasileira Histo´ria (Sa˜o Paolo), Vol. 16, 1988, pp. 269–284. Short introduction followed by a Portuguese translation of the Samuel Moore work in entry 54.

For other works concerning Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua, see entries 51–54.

Other Latin American Countries

General Works

121. Germa´n de Granda, ‘Datos Antroponõ´micos Sobre Negros Esclavos Musulmanes en Nueva Granada’ (‘Anthroponymic Data on Black Muslim Slaves in New Granada’), Thesaurus (Colombia), Vol. 27, No. 1, 1972, pp. 89–103.

Caribbean

General Works

122. Muhammad Abdul Jassan, ‘Muslims’ Struggle Against Slavery and Their
Efforts for Retention of Cultural Identity in the Caribbean Territories’, Hamdard
Islamicus, Vol. 21, No. 1, 1998, pp. 75–84.

123. Raymond Delval, Les Musulmans en Ame´rique Latine et aux Caraõ¨bes (Muslims in Latin America and the Caribbean), Paris: L’Harmattan, 1992.

124. Abdullah Hakim Quick, ‘Islam in the Caribbean: Past, Present and Future’, in Islam in Africa: Proceedings of the Islam in Africa Conference, eds Nura Alkali et al., Ibadan: Spectrum, 1993, pp. 387–417.

Haiti

General Works

125. Le Grace Benson, ‘Some Observations on West African Islamic Motifs and
Haitian Art’, Journal of Caribbean Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1–2, 1992–1993, pp. 59–66.

Biographical Material and Narratives

126. D. L. Schafer, ‘Shades of Freedom: Anna Kingsley in Senegal, Florida and
Haiti’, Slavery and Abolition, Vol. 17, No. 1, 1996, pp. 130–154.
See also works concerning Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua who spent time in Haiti, entries 51–54 and 118–120.

Jamaica

General Works

127. Sultana Afroz, ‘The Unsung Slaves: Islam in Plantation Jamaica’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 15, No. 1–2, 1994, pp. 157–170. Also published under the same title in Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 3–4, 1995, pp. 30–44.
128. Sultana Afroz, ‘The Manifestation of Tawhid: The Muslim Heritage of the
Maroons in Jamaica’, Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 45, No. 1, 1999, pp. 27–40.
129. Sultana Afroz, ‘From Moors to Marronage: The Islamic Heritage of the
Maroons in Jamaica’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 19, No. 2, 1999,
pp. 161–179.
130. Sultana Afroz, ‘The Jihad of 1831–1832: The Misunderstood Baptist Rebellion in Jamaica’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2001, pp. 227–243.

Biographical Material and Narratives

Abu Bakr al-Siddiq

131. Richard Robert Madden, ‘The Scherife of Timbuctoo’, in A Twelve Month’s
Residence in the West Indies, During the Transition from Slavery to Apprenticeship, Westport, CT: Negro Universities Press, 1970, pp. 121–130. A letter written by Madden, which includes: ‘The History of Abon Becr Sadika, Known in Jamaica by the Name Edward Donlan’. See also: ‘Capabilities of Negroes’, pp. 130–147—comprised of various letters by and about Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, including correspondence between al-Siddiq and Mahomed Caba (Robert TufŽ t).
132. G. C. Renouard, ‘Routes in North Africa, by Abu Bekr es Siddik’, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. 6, 1836, pp. 100–113.
133. Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, ‘Documents: Abou Bekir Sadiki, Alias Edward Doulan’, Journal of Negro History, Vol. 21, No. 1, 1936, pp. 52–55. Translation of short autobiography originally in Arabic.
134. Ivor Wilks, ‘Abu Bakr al-Siddiq of Timbuktu’, in ed. Philip D. Curtin, Africa
Remembered: Narratives by West Africans from the Era of the Slave Trade,
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1967, pp. 152–169.

Others

135. Allan D. Austin, ‘Six African Muslims in Jamaica’, in African Muslims in
Antebellum America: A Sourcebook, New York: Garland, 1984, pp. 525–583.
Includes biographical sketches of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Mohammed Kaba,
‘William Rainsford’, ‘Benjamin Cochrane’, Anna Mousa, and Benjamin
Larten.

Trinidad and Tobago

General Works

136. Maureen Warner-Lewis, ‘Ethnic and Religious Plurality Among Yoruba Immigrants in Trinidad in the Nineteenth Century’, in Identity in the Shadow of
Slavery, ed. Paul E. Lovejoy, London: Continuum, 2000, pp. 113–128.

Biographical Material and Narratives

Mohammedu Sisei

137. Carl Campbell, ‘Mohammedu Sisei of Gambia and Trinidad, c. 1788–1838’, African Studies Association of the West Indies Bulletin, Vol. 7, 1974, pp. 29–38.
138. Capt. J. Washington, ‘Some Account of Mohammedu Sisei: A Mandingo of Nyani-Maru on the Gambia’, Journal of the Royal Geographic Society, Vol. 8,
1838, pp. 448–454.

Others

139. Carl Campbell, ‘John Mohammed Bath and the Free Mandingos in Trinidad: The Question of Their Repatriation to Africa 1831–38’, Journal of African Studies, Vol. 2, No. 4, 1975–1976, pp. 467–495. Despite the published title, the name ‘Jonas’ is used throughout article instead of ‘John’. Also published under the same title in Pan-African Journal (Kenya), Vol. 7, No. 2, 1974, pp. 129–152.
140. Jacques de Cauna, ‘L’Odysse´e d’un Esclave Musulman du Se´ne´gal a` Versailles en Passant par Tobago’ (‘The Odyssey of a Muslim Slave from Senegal to Versailles en Route to Tobago’), Revue de la Socie´te´ Haõ¨tienne d’Historie et de Ge´ographie, No. 165, 1990, pp. 59–63. Also published under the same title in Ge´ne´alogie et Histoire de la Caraõ¨be, Vol. 11, 1989, p. 81.

The Jihad of 1831–1832: The Misunderstood Baptist Rebellion in Jamaica

By SULTANA AFROZ
Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 21, No. 2

[You may view the article as PDF The Misunderstood Baptist Rebellion in Jamaica ]

Introduction

Contemporaneous to the autonomous Muslim Maroon ummah, hundreds of thousands of Mu’minun (the Believers of the Islamic faith) of African descent worked as slaves on the plantations in Jamaica. Remarkable intelligence, eloquence in speech, cultural self-confidence, calm and discipline characterized these subdued and obedient African Muslim slaves as they toiled in various capacities on the estates. Yet, beneath this calmness and obedience was their determination to establish the Truth, which is Tawhid (the Oneness of God), and thus attain the freedom of the soul. There is also the Qur’anic command to wage jihad (struggle against oppression), which is reinforced by the traditions of the Prophet of Islam. Jihad became the religious and political ideology of these crypto-Muslims, who became members of the various denominational nonconformist churches since being sprinkled with the water by the rectors of the parishes.

Despite the experience of the most cruel servitude and the likelihood of a swift and ruthless suppression of the rebellion, the spiritually inspired Mu’minun collectively responded to the call for an island-wide jihad in 1832. Commonly known as the Baptist Rebellion, the Jihad of 1832 wrought havoc of irreparable dimension to the plantation system and hastened the Emancipation Act of 1833. With the death of the fiŽrst generation of Mu’minun, the doctrines of the Holy Qur’an could hardly be heard. Irreligious and ungodly actions of adultery and unchastity by the plantation masters, together with the indoctrination of Christianity and forceful baptism, made the descendants of the Mu’minun from Africa oblivious to Islam. However, the eye of a careful observer may trace many of the Islamic practices still prevalent in the society.

This paper analyses the nature of the so-called Baptist Rebellion from an Islamic perspective since there was the call for jihad through a wathiqah (pastoral letter) believed to have originated from Africa. The presence of thousands of Muslim slaves on the plantation estates calls for an examination of the leadership of the rebellion. The correspondence and the autobiographical notes of the slaves have been critically analysed on the basis of the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah, the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Accounts left by His Majesty’s government ofŽ cials, religious ministers, plantation historians and travellers have been assessed to ascertain the dominance of the Islamic faith in the rebellion.

The Mu’minun from Africa

Mu’minun of African descent belonging to the Islamic nations of Mandinka, Fula, Susu, Ashanti and Hausa ceaselessly tried to maintain their Islamic practices in secrecy, while working as slaves on the plantations in Jamaica. As early as the tenth and eleventh centuries, i.e. long before the commencement of the Atlantic trade, Islam had made a signiŽficant impact in West and Central Africa—Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali, Benin, Ghana, and Nigeria. Among the British West Indies islands, Jamaica had 56.8% of her arrivals from Muslim areas. A large proportion of the deported Muslims came from the intellectual elite—marabouts (clerical teachers), ‘ulema (scholars in Islamic studies), imam (prayer leaders) and talib (students). The mobility of the Muslims as traders, clerical teachers, scholars, students, prayer leaders in their homelands in Africa made them susceptible to abduction for slavery by organized gangs, immoral traders, bandits, and kidnappers. Muslim captives in civil wars between Muslim and pagan rulers in Africa became victims of the Atlantic slave trade. Most of these Muslim warrior captives were learned and devout men who, in the New World, answered to the call for jihad against the enemies of Islam. The presence of Islam among the African slaves in Jamaica is revealed through the autobiographical pieces written in Arabic by the Muslim slaves and accounts left by His Majesty’s ofŽ cials, plantation historians and British travellers. These slaves were generally literate in Arabic and many of them could write the Arabic alphabet and passages from the Holy Qur’an with great beauty and exactness. They also displayed a gentleness of disposition and demeanour, which is believed to have been ‘the result of early education and discipline’. In Africa, which is a continent of oral tradition where no writing system was available, only the Muslims were literate. In West Africa, the spread of Islam was accompanied by a rise in literacy.

Evidences of their Faith: From Others

Mrs A. Carmichael, a wealthy English traveller who resided in the British West Indies for some time and interviewed many Mandinka slaves in 1833, writes: ‘It is a commonly received opinion in Britain, that negroes are professed idolaters … There is not a trace of idol worship among them … I am convinced there is not a negro, old or young, who could not tell that one God made the world, and created mankind; and that He is all Powerful and all Seeing.’ These Africans in bondage seemed indignant at the idea that they were thought to be idol worshippers. They further stressed that in their country they went every fourth day to perform prayer. Mrs Carmichael’s observation authenticates the presence of a large number of Muslim slaves in Jamaica who had a Ž firm conviction in Islam during the period leading to emancipation. Hence, the participation of Muslim slaves during the so-called Baptist Rebellion.

The accounts left by Bryan Edwards, a plantation historian, and Magistrate Robert Madden are clear testimonies that Islam was the religion of hundreds of African slaves who were brought to Jamaica from the nations of Africa. Bryan Edwards, writing on the national customs and manners of Muslim slaves, states as follows:

An old and faithful Mandinka servant, who stands at my elbow while I write this, relates that the natives practice circumcision, and that he himself has undergone that operation; and he has not forgotten the morning and evening prayer which his father taught him. In proof of this assertion, he chants in an audible and shrill tone, a sentence that I conceive to be part of the Al-Koran, ‘La Illa ill illa’! (i.e. La Ilaha Illallah, there is no god but Allah) which he says they sing aloud at first appearance of the new moon. He relates, moreover, that in his own country Friday was constantly a strict fasting. It was almost a sin, he observes, on that day to swallow his spittle; such is his expression.

The recitation of the Confession of Unity La ilaha illa Llah—‘There is no god but Allah’—manifested the deep devotion of the Muslim slave and the shining vibrancy of his heart of the Ultimate Realm, the Truth. Such then was the beauty and purity of the hearts of the Muslim slaves.

The narrative left by Magistrate Robert Madden further reveals the faithfulness of the Muslim slaves to Islam and their exertion in the Way of Allah, despite forceful baptism. He records the presence of a considerable number of Muslims in Jamaica in a letter written to J. F. Savory, Esq., Jamaica, on 30 March 1835:

I had a visit one Sunday morning very lately, from three Mandingo Negroes, natives of Africa. They could all read and write Arabic; and one of them showed me a Koran written, from memory by himself—but written, he assured me, before he became a Christian. I had my doubts on this point. One of them, Benjamin Cockrane, a free negro … was in the habit of coming to me on Sundays … His history is that of hundreds of others in Jamaica …Cockrane says his father was a chief in the Mandingo country … I (Madden) have not the time to give you an account of his religious opinions; but though very singular, they were expressed with inŽ nitely more energy and eloquence than his sentiments on other subjects. He professed to be an occasional follower of one of the sectarian Ministers here, and so did each of his two friends. I had my doubts thereupon. I expressed them to my wife… and told her to prepare for a demonstration of Mohometanism. I took up a book, as if by accident, and commenced repeating the well-known Mussalman Salaam to Prophet Allah Illah Mohammed Rasul Allah! In an instant, I had a Mussalman trio, long and loud: my Neophytes were chanting their names with irrepressible fervour, and Mr. Banjamin Cockrane I thought, would have inflicted the whole of ‘the perspicuous book’ of Islam on me, if I had not taken advantage of the opportunity for giving him and his companions reproof for pretending to be that which they were not.

The account reveals that hundreds of African slaves who had been brought in chains from West Africa had been forced to observe the practices of their masters’ religion under rigidly speciŽfied conditions. In actuality, many of them remained faithful to their religion and practised Islam privately amongst themselves. They waged the true jihad in their struggle for self-preservation as Muslims despite all the odds against their faith.

Evidences of their Faith: From Themselves

The autobiographical notes, correspondence and letters written by slaves further bear testimony that baptism and their membership in the various nonconformist churches had not altered their belief in Islam. They also reveal the irresistible nature of spiritual power and knowledge of the African Mu’minun, contrasted with the unregenerate ingratitude, pettiness, helplessness and ignorance of the planter class and the religious leaders of the established churches. The Abrahamic heritage of Islam and Christianity enabled the Muslim slaves to secretly practise Islam, while outwardly professing Christianity and maintaining membership of the local Christian churches by paying regular dues at the rate of 3 pence each.

Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, a Mandinka slave assigned to Magistrate Robert Madden, reveals through two autobiographical pieces written in Arabic that he was the son of a learned family in Islamic Jurisprudence from the city of Timbuktu, which had the world’s first university. His father and his great-grandfathers, both paternal and maternal, presumably belonged to the class of jurisconsult-shahid al malik. Furthermore, the family belonged to one of the shurafa clans in Western Sudan, which claims descent from Prophet Mohammed (SAW). Abu Bakr acquired advanced Qur’anic learning, initially in the city of Jenne and subsequently in Bouna, which was ‘a place of great celebrity for its learning and schools, in the countries of the Mohammedan Mandingoes’. So strong was his Islamic teaching that even after 30 years of bondage in Jamaica he still knew the Qur’an and produced a written copy from memory. Robert Madden substantiates the authenticity of such a written copy.

Although Abu Bakr expresses bitterness against slavery and its oppression, he did not lose faith in Allah. He writes, ‘But praise be to God, under whose power are all things. He does whatever He wills! No one can turn aside that which He has ordained, nor can anyone withhold that which He has given. As God Almighty Himself has said: Nothing can befall us unless it be written for us (in His book)! He is our master: in God, therefore, let all the faithful put their trust!’ These statements echo many of the Qur’anic verses such as contained in Surat At-Taghabun (Mutual Loss and Gain): ‘Whatever is in the heavens and on earth, doth declare the Praises and Glory of God: to Him belongs Praise: and He has power over all things’ (64:1). ‘No calamity can
occur, except by the leave of God: And if any one believes in God, (God) guides his heart (aright): for God knows all things’ (64:11). Surat Al-Mulk (Dominion) also begins: ‘Blessed be He in Whose hands is Dominion; And He over all things hath Power’ (67:1). ‘No misfortune can happen on earth or in your souls but is recorded in a decree before We bring it into existence: That is truly easy for God’ (57:22). Abu Bakr’s notes demonstrate his thorough knowledge of the Holy Qur’an, and his unshakeable belief in Divine Decree and Predestination, which is an essential element of the Islamic faith (iman).

He accounts the Islamic values and practices of his parents in a tone of pride. He states: ‘My parents religion is of the Mussalman; … their devotions are Žfive times a day; they fast in the month of Ramadan; they give tribute according to the law… They Ž fight for their religion, and they travel to the Hedjaz. They don’t eat any meat except what they themselves kill. They do not drink wine nor spirits, as it is held an abomination to do so. They do not associate with any that worship idols, or profane the Lord’s name, or do dishonour to their parents, or commit murder, or bear false witness, or who are covetous, proud, or boastful; for such faults are an abomination unto my religion [added emphasis]. They are careful in the education of their children, and their behaviour.’ Interestingly, Abu Bakr unconsciously reveals his deep devotion and his roots in Islam despite baptism, which apparently had no impact on his religious belief. He regrets that he has lost his Islamic values since his bondage and considers himself to have ‘become corrupt’. However, he seeks God’s guidance as is evidenced from his concluding statement which reads: ‘I now conclude by begging the Almighty God to lead me into the path that is proper for me, for He alone knows the secrets of my heart and what I am in need of’. Abu Bakr’s intense love of Allah is revealed through his fear of doing things against His Will. He remembers Allah intensely in his heart and ‘Allah certainly has (full) knowledge of the secrets of (all) hearts’ (67:13). Such intensity of love obtains forgiveness for any past as Allah promises: ‘As for those who fear their Lord unseen, for them is Forgiveness and a great Reward’ (67:12).

The Process of Baptism: Spiritual Genocide of the Mu’minun

While thousands of slaves were subjected to the process of baptism, the collective force of faith and virtue of the Mu’minun from Africa became an impregnable fortress of the Righteous. Many of them, apparently, were Sufis who stressed the personal dimension of the relationship between Allah and man. The practice of Christianity by many of these African Muslim slaves, as stated before, seems to have been only a pretension adopted to avoid confrontation and punishments from the plantation owners and the church. The Anglican Church played the major role in carrying out the spiritual genocide by forcefully baptizing thousands of African slaves. Under metropolitan urging and insistence, new colonial laws called for slave baptism, church marriages, Christian lessons and directives, and sabbatarianism. Reverend George Bridges, the founder of the Colonial Church Union, claimed in 1823 to have baptized 10,000 slaves within two years in Manchester parish. It seemed to have been a proŽfitable profession to be a religious minister as a fee of 2 shillings and 6 pence was charged to baptize each slave, as decreed by the Jamaican legislature. Reverend Bridges and his counterpart, Reverend Lindsay, are known to have physically attacked nonconformists and burned their places of worship. This is indicative of the possible existence of Muslim houses of worship in the guise of the less established or nonconformist churches such as the Moravian, Baptist and Wesleyan Methodist Churches, which became targets of Bridges’ heinous acts of terror.

The accounts of Reverend Bridges reveal his anguish over the strong conviction of the Islamic faith of many of the slaves in Jamaica who had been baptized by him. The mere sprinkling of water had no effect on the SuŽfis who had become purged of self and its desires. Bridges writes:

… amongst the Negroes of Jamaica, who are natives of the northern coasts of Africa, many of its institutions (Islamic) may still be traced by the eye of a careful observer; and whatever maybe the influence of Christianity upon their sable offspring, it is to be feared that they themselves will never change their conduct or their faith …The tribes of Foulis, Madingo, Ghiolofs, and Bambarra … practice the rite of circumcision, and observe the Jente Karafana or Ramadan, with much greater respect and awe than they feel when they allow themselves to be sprinkled with
the waters of baptism. Allah, the Mahometan appelation of the Deity, is still used in the different dialects of these tribes… The Friday is their Sabbath, and though they rank the mother of Jesus as one of the four perfect women of the prophet’s faith, they look upon her Son … as an inferior prophet, famous only for his miracles. They maintain a Marbut, or a priest, in every village; believe implicitly in the doctrine of predestination …

Bridges’ keen awareness of the deep conviction of the Islamic belief of the Muslim slaves and his anguish over failure to proselytise among them seem to have motivated him to destroy more than 17 of the less established or nonconformist churches. These included the Baptist, Moravian and Wesleyn Methodist Churches, which were demolished following the outbreak of the rebellion in 1832. The membership of these churches comprised of the so-called ‘baptized slaves’. The virtues that are the seedbed of faith were laid by the Mu’minun in an environment where Truth was denied and its votaries of royal and learned lineages insulted and persecuted. These men of faith held fast to their faith because they knew it was true and Truth is one and must prevail.

The Jihad of 1832

The Righteous, working on the various estates, formed one Brotherhood to repel evil by goodness and faith in God. Despite the overwhelming power of the established authorities, the mujahids (Ž fighters) made no compromise in matters of Truth as the Qur’anic guidance requires that in Ž fighting for Truth, there is no room for faint-heartedness or half-heartedness. In accordance with the Qur’anic command: ‘Fight it, and fall not in the test of your mettle. Be bold and establish the  flag of Righteousness in the highest places. Thus comes Peace, for which due sacrifice must be made…’ the collective force of the ummah of the Mu’minun undertook to establish human dignity. This found its expression in an island-wide rebellion in late December 1831 and January 1832. The rebellion, misunderstood as the Baptist War, is reported to be in response to the call for jihad made through a wathiqah, a ‘pastoral letter’, which ‘exhorted all of the followers of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) to be true and faithful if they wished to enter Paradise’. Apparently, this document written in Africa in 1789 was circulated in Jamaica and reached the hands of Muhammad Kaba, a Muslim slave of Spice Grove Estate who had been baptized and known by his Christian name Robert TufŽfit or Robert Peart. Of Mandingo parentage, Kaba came from Bouka, a short distance east of Timbuktu, and belonged to a well-to-do family learned in law and Islamic teachings. Apparently Kaba, who studied the Qur’anic law at Timbuktu, which was then regarded to be one of the most important centres of Arabic and Muslim studies, was a marabout and a sufiŽ . So strong was Muhammad Kaba’s belief in Islam that never in practice or in spirit did he give up his faith. Even as a member of the Moravian Church, Kaba and many of his fellow brethren who had gone through the process of baptism ‘were in the habit of fasting three times a week, eating and drinking nothing from sunrise to sunset’. Such a practice, usually observed by a devout Muslim, irritated the masters who adopted every means to discourage it. On one such occasion, an overseer, Ž finding his slaves fasting, ordered them to break stones all day with sledgehammers. The Mu’minun did not bow down to the pressures and break their fasts, but ‘rapidly continued to do till evening without intermission, and so successfully, that he (overseer) could not refrain from expressing his surprise’. Historians have interpreted such acts of fasting as a form of slave resistance.

The extent and nature of the rebellion also illustrate that Muslims formed a formidable number on the plantations throughout the length and breadth of the island. Prior to the rebellion, large numbers of slaves were baptized in a profane manner. They were not allowed into the Anglican Church, the established church of England, which was regarded to be ‘a white man’s church’, advocating the cause of the local planters. The white established authorities never considered the slaves to be genuine Christians. The accounts ofMadden, Edwards, Carmichael and even Reverend Bridges reveal that they were aware of the Žfirm Islamic conviction of the slaves and their deep respect for their Islamic culture. The forced separation of the slaves from the European Christian culture and the isolation of the estates thus created room for preaching religious teachings, which apparently did not conform with Christianity. Evidently, these baptized slaves were crypto-Muslims practising Islam and teaching Islam while being only occasional or nominal members of the Baptist or Moravian Churches as required by the plantation system once they were baptized. Furthermore, the presence of hundreds of Muslim slaves in Jamaica even during the apprenticeship period leading to emancipation, as confiŽrmed and authenticated by Special Magistrate Robert Madden, gives credence to the argument that the insurrection in 1831–1832 was a jihad’ against the indignity of slavery. Evidence further suggests that the rebellion had been essentially rural and was led by mature slaves belonging to the slave elite group such as drivers, slave headmen, carpenters, masons, coopers and blacksmiths. Intelligence, education, specialized skills, discipline and good disposition, which were the characteristics of the Muslim slaves, must have earned them these elite positions. The exoneration of the white Baptist Missionaries from all criminal charges of inciting their slave members to rebel for the purpose of effecting a change in their state and condition in open court by a jury is also indicative of the misnomer attached to this rebellion as a Baptist War. This is further strengthened by the testimonials of the rebel leaders as to the innocence of the white missionaries. Neither did the white brethren come to the assistance of their black brethren during the trial or even before, when blacks were butchered for no other offences than that of coming to chapels like the Baptists, Moravians and Wesleyan Methodists. Apparently, an uncompromising religious difference existed between the black and white brethren. Guided by the Holy Qur’an, the religious belief of the mujahids (Ž fighters) stood in sharp contrast to Christianity, the faith of the white missionaries and the oppressive slave masters. The Torah enjoins slavery, and Christianity is silent about it. Hence, neither Christianity nor the white Christian brethren had anything to offer to the slaves. However, Islam, according to the words of the Ž first muezzin in Islam, Bilal Ibn Rabah, ‘has left no chance except that it urged the emancipation of slaves, as a mandatory obligation or as a recommended action’. Slavery is reprobated by the Islamic principles of liberty, equality and universal brotherhood and discountenanced by the Islamic code. To the Muslim slaves who had been sprinkled with baptismal water, Christianity, the religion of the spiritually fossilized bukra massa, represented oppression. Despite  flogging and severe punishments, even privileged slaves enjoying yearly pensions remained defiŽant and refused to leave their religion. Such were the cases of Sarah Atkinson, once a privileged slave of Rural Retreat estate who enjoyed £10 a year pension, and Henry Williams, the head driver of the same estate, and the leader of the Wesleyen Chapel. No coercion or force on earth could change the indomitable faith of the Muslim slaves as the Qur’anic verses say: La ikraha Ž fi addin, ‘there shall be no compulsion in religion’, and lakum dinukum wa lyedin, ‘your religion for you and mine for me’.

The Preaching of Islam and Jihad

The Mu’minun in Jamaica got a further boost to practise Islam in-groups with the coming of American black Baptists after American independence. Th