Unveil the Lost History of Early Muslims in America

Muslims have lived in America since before the country bore its name. Thousands of Muslims arrived centuries before the white settlers who claimed this land as their own, but the limitations and discrimination they faced often masked their fundamental role in the country.

Very few records are kept of their heritage and background. In addition, many Muslims may hide their religious beliefs, practicing disguises to avoid discrimination or punishment. Because if caught, slave owners do not hesitate to punish, torture, or force them out of Islam and follow the religion of their master. The instability of life under the slavery system, has made it difficult to maintain their traditions and religion from generation to generation. However, a small group of Muslims on the Georgian coast maintained their faith in the isolated community until the early 20th century.

The first American Muslims were brought to America as slaves from West Africa, as part of the transatlantic slave trade. About 20% of enslaved Africans are Muslims.

Above is the work of William Muir, one of the earliest Western writers to write about the “Orientalism” version of Islam. Unfortunately, such "outside" narratives often do more harm than good in spreading false ideas about Islam. The recorded prayers of Muslim slaves, were erroneously labeled as "The Lord's Prayer" and "Psalm 23". It could be that they do not understand Islam, or deliberately distort Islamic values.

Muslims from the Mediterranean were referred to as "Turks" or "Moors." This population was largely assigned to rowing Caribbean galleys or working for Spanish lords in towns and on plantations. In Louisiana, plantation slave owners valued Muslim slaves more because of their previous experience growing tilapia and rice.

Notable Early American Muslims :

While this is by no means an exhaustive list, the following are some of the early Muslim Americans whose stories are the most published, and best understood. It's important to acknowledge the unique contribution of every American Muslim to the foundations and traditions of this country, but decades of prejudice and discrimination have often made that difficult.

Estevanico, early American Muslim pioneer :

Among the earliest recorded Muslim Americans was an enslaved Moroccan man named Estevanico. In 1528, he and his Spanish captors were stranded near Galveston, Texas. Raised in the Muslim stronghold of Azemmour (hence better known as Mustapha Azemmour). Estevanico had long avoided European invasion, but after his village fell to Christian forces, Estevanico was given a Christian name and began his journey across the American Southwest.

Abdul Rahman Ibrahim bin Sori :

In New Orleans, the most famous Muslim is Abdul Rahman Ibrahim ibn Sori. A prince in his homeland Guinea, he was reduced to a slave in the colony. His story received wide media attention.

Umar bin Said :

Said  was a bold and outspoken Muslim teacher and practitioner of Islam in early America. Born in Senegal, he was sold into slavery in South Carolina. He was quickly imprisoned for his strong religious beliefs. He was famous for writing in Arabic on the walls of his prison cells, unaffected by his Christian masters. Said is a prolific writer. Among his works are an autobiography of his life and imprisonment (written in Arabic) and many transcriptions of Qur'anic verses and reflections on the interaction between Christianity and Islam.

Wahab :

Among the earliest Muslims reported in America was a Yemeni man named Wahab who washed ashore on the coast of Ocracoke, an island off the coast of North Carolina. He arrived with the nickname Arabian horse, according to popular literature. Some of them are said to roam free to this day, perhaps because of the often free roam so Arabian horses. Called “James” Wahab, he bought land on the island and settled down. This area known as “Village Wahab” carries its legacy.

Cairo Street :

In the 19th century, American Muslims were eager to gain wider acceptance of their faith from American society in general. This was the inspiration for the "Cairo Street" exhibition at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. A replica of the Sultan Qayt Bey mosque in Cairo was built for the exhibition, intended to expose American festival-goers to Islamic traditions. Workers and "players" from Egypt, Morocco and Palestine were hired to staff the exhibition. However, in the end, they returned home and the mosque was torn down. Islamic messages and exposures, which are performative, do not have the desired educational effect. The first permanent mosque was built in Highland Park, Michigan, in 1921

Michael A Gomes Opens the Veil of History :

However, a paper by Michael A Gomes in 1994 explains, Muslims in America have actually been part of Uncle Sam's country long since British colonial times. The first Muslims were brought from West Africa to the new world as slaves.
Gomes writes, since the 16th century, some areas targeted by slave traders had significant Muslim populations. He offers evidence from African history to show that a significant minority of them were captured by the transatlantic slave trade, and that they were largely Muslim.
"Muslims who were sacrificed as slaves had contributed to the early Islamic revolution in Futa Toro, on the Senegal River, in the 1760s," Gomes said.

One way to track Islam among slaves in North America was through advertisements for runaway slaves. In South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana, the advertisements appear regularly including mentioning versions of Muslim names, such as Bullaly, Mustapha, Sambo, and Bocarrey. Gomez browsed archive records to learn Slave names at Early Americans, many of them had Muslim names, sometimes just spelled different.

"Names like Bullaly (Bilal) Mustapha, Sambo, Bocarrey (Bukhari, or maybe Bubacar from
Abu Bakar), and Mamado (Mamadu/Mahmud) are regularly seen in breakout commercials
slave"

Muslim slaves, apart from being forced out of their religion and converting to the religion of their masters, also often omitted their original names to become the names of the local ethnic groups.

Gomez collected several stories from prominent people to investigate the influence of Islam in the 18th and 19th centuries on the American continent.
Take, for example, one man named Salih Bilali, who arrived in North America in 1800, and eventually became a plantation manager in Georgia. He wears the traditional Fez dress and caftan, prays five times a day, and observes the day of Ramadan. Some white observers also wrote that the slaves spoke and wrote Arabic, prayed the Islamic way, and gave their children Muslim names.

A number of former slaves and children of slaves from coastal Georgia interviewed by the Work Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s, confirmed that their families had practiced the religion of Islam. They described family members and loved ones performing Friday prayers, wearing headscarves, prayer beads, and avoiding foods that are prohibited by their religion.

Gomez suggested that the legacy of the Muslim slaves may have influenced the founder of the Nation of Islam Elijah Muhammad. And today's Afro-American Muslim community.

Summary Source:
Cait O'Connor/Arab American Contributing Author-arabamerica.com , daily.jstor , republika , whyislam