February 8, 2010

The Seeds of Islam in the United States

Today there seems to be a myth floating around certain Muslim communities that Islam
was brought to the United States of America by Muslims who emigrated from the Middle East or
the Indian Subcontinent. While there is scholarly difference of opinion about when exactly the
first Muslim came to the North American continent it is generally held that the earliest known
Muslim in the so-called New World was a slave named Estevan who was a guide for Panfilo
de Narvaez's expedition to what is now the state of Florida in 1527long before the mass
immigration of Muslims from the Near East or South Asia.
Islam was brought to colonial America and, later, the United States of America primarily
by African slaves captured and brought to harvest cash crops.Thus, the seeds of Islam in the US
came by way of the slave trade before the American Revolution. Many of their stories have been
lost and much of the early documentation of African Muslims in the US was overlooked during
its time and has just recently been re-examined and written about by contemporary historians.
Originally these accounts were kept low-key because of the danger it posed to the system of
slavery. Some of the biographies of these men, such as Job Ben Solomon (Ayuba Suleiman
Diallo), highlighted their keen intelligence, their reading and writing skills (in Arabic) and, thus,
their humanity according to the standards of Enlightenment thinking.1 We will trace, briefly,
two stories of well known Muslim Slaves in pre-civil war America.
Job Ben Solmon was born in Bundu (in today's Senegal) in 1701 and was captured while
he was on a trip to purchase parchment in 1730 or 17312. He was sold into slavery in Annapolis
Maryland and worked on a tobacco plantation. Job would find time to pray by going into a
wooded area on the plantation. He was once discovered by a young boy who threw dirt on him
during his salah. Soon thereafter Job attempted to escape from his master but he was caught. It
was soon discovered that he could read and write in Arabic which impressed a certain James
Oglethorpe. Eventually Job ben Solomon would return to Bundu around 1735. His biographer
noted that Job often prayed and slaughtered his own meat.
Another slave, Umar ibn Said, took the time to critique the Bible and Christian theology.
In his critique of the notion of the Trinity, prevalent in both Catholic and Protestant Christianity
in America, he quotes the Qur'an, 'These are nothing but names which you have made upyou
and your fathers,'3 (referring to the names the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit- Q. 53:23).
Umar wrote his own autobiography in Arabic in 1831 and he later died in North Carolina.
Today, a Quranic school, or masjid, in Fayetteville, North Carolina, has been named after Al
Hajj Umar ibn Said.4
There is much more documentation of early Muslim slaves in colonial and postrevolution America. Some attained a degree of stature (if one can be given any resemblance of
status while still a slave) because of their trustworthiness, diligence, and upright character.
Islam is part and parcel of the American experience and has been since the inception of
the US though much of the historical accounts of Islam in the US has been covered or
overlooked. These biographies and stories were not widely published because of the threat it
1
2
3
4

Edward E. Curtis IV, Muslims in America, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 2.
Edward E. Curtis IV, Muslims in America, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 1.
Edward E. Curtis IV, Muslims in America, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 13.
Allan D. Austin, African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles, (NY:
Routledge, 1997), p.129.

February 8, 2010
posed to the racist system in America. The American Muslim community will do well to begin to
examine these stories and Islam's place in the United States historically. Islam is not a new
phenomenon in the West or the United States and our communities should be cognizant of this
fact so that we can put ourselves in a proper historical context as a faith group in America. These
roots are important when examining later black nationalist movements, new spiritual movements
for African Americans and other liberation fronts Islam is a foundational element in most, if
not all, of them. We may find answers to some of our contemporary struggles by examaning the
spiritual struggles of Muslims who have come before us in this country.
God willing we will examine how the government of the United States perceived Islam
on the world stage in Antebellum America in the next issue.
[this was originally published in MOMIN Magazine]