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Dec 05, 2005

Muslim slaves, white slaves, did I miss that day of US History? · by Rafi Kam

It’s funny what you can find when you seek out on your own. While I was researching the Devin / Briar patch article I came across some things that were never mentioned when I was in school.

In A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore there is an anecdote presented about a Muslim slave named Bilali Mohamet or Ben Ali Mohamet. Bilali worshipped according to the law of Islam, and he headed a large family and even a local community known for praying to the east all in the early 19th century.

A century later a fourteen-page document written in Arabic by Bilali turned up in a Georgia state library. For years no one knew exactly what the document was. People assumed it may have been a journal written by the slave. A professor brought the documents to West African wise men who were unable to make sense of it. Finally he figured out that some of the consonants were mixed up. Once this mistake was corrected the Arabic became readable and it was determined that the document consisted entirely of excerpts of a religious text known as the Risala which Bilali had written from memory.

My mind was blown when I read this. It’s almost like hearing the detailed stories of a stranded time traveler. A little pocket group of Islamic African slaves existing in the U.S. in the 1700s and 1800s and at least some of them were very impressively literate. I sure as hell wouldn’t be able to conjure up 14 pages accurately excerpting any text.

I took this new knowledge to Google and found some even more staggering info. An estimated 10% (or according to this PBS special “up to 20%”) of slaves brought from Africa to America were Muslims, many of whom could read and write Arabic.

Their literacy would have distinguished them not only from the non-Muslim slaves but also from many of the slave-owners at the time. In what ways did this confound expectations and how was that dealt with? Wouldn’t it be nice to learn about this in school given that there is still some subliminal acceptance of the ol’ time dogma that African slaves were primitives, nearly animals, or even just to show that our history is not nearly as clear cut as we tend to assume?

As I was looking up material for this post I came across an old Salon article on white slavery. The best part of the article is that it dwells on how we all think about slavery (or avoid thinking about it) through our own identity-colored glasses. It’s 3 pages but it’s a quick read – have a look.

Bilali’s son Aaron became the subject of a book by Joel Chandler Harris and one of his sources for folk stories. The large Bilali clan eventually became known by the surname Bailey and it is believed that Frederick Douglass who also had Bailey in his full name may have been related.

The Muslim influence may have actually helped lead to the adoption of Christianity discussed in the Line-for-line. Any Muslim would already be familiar with the main ideas of the Christian bible because the Q’oran is built on top of the Judeo-Christian text and it speaks favorably of its prophets and heroes. Also, from the PBS page: “Some scholars believe the ring shout descends from Islamic word shaw’t, which means to circle the sacred Ka’bah at Mecca counterclockwise. The joy of dancing and singing inherent in the ring shout would eventually develop into the energetic, life-affirming music of gospel.”

Some have also drawn connections between Muslim music and the origin of the blues pointing to things like the way vocalists bend notes in the Muslim call to prayer as a demonstration.

Comments for "Muslim slaves, white slaves, did I miss that day of US History?"

  1. Great post. I’d heard some of this stuff before, about the Gullah/Geechie culture and other slave cultures’ connection w/Islam, but not about the musical connection. I’ll check the audio when I get home, but I’m reall interested to hear it.
    — David    Dec 5, 03:28 PM   
  2. That 10-20% figure is a bit tricky. From what I have read on the subject, which is admittedly very little, religious affiliation in West Africa was in many ways governed by one’s class or political affiliation. Many of the larger kingdoms had Islamic rulers whose courtiers and generals were expected to follow suit and convert, so the society was technically Islamic even though sizeable portions of the population only claimed Islam in a nominal sense. People seem to have expressed many different religious identities that combined animism with Islam and would thus seem to be indeterminate or hybrid if we think of people as being strictly muslim or non-muslim. THis on top of the fact that orthodox Islan, just like orthodox Christianity, rarely encroached into a new territory without absorbing indigenous customs and rites. So 10-20% might be misleading, thought it does point to a definite Islamic influence among this population.
    — R.H.S.    Dec 5, 05:06 PM   
  3. Is there anything this site doesn’t cover?

    well done
    — sankofa    Dec 6, 07:39 AM   
  4. SoundVision sells my translation of the Bilali Muhammad manuscript.
    — Muhammed al-Ahari    Dec 9, 01:38 AM   
  5. Whoa, that’s amazing. I’ve always thought that the vocal style in real old Delta Blues from guys like Bukka White and Furry Lewis resembled Senegalese and Malian singing… this is interesting man.
    — Nikhil P. Yerawadekar    Dec 14, 12:54 AM   
  6. There is a lot more info out there on Muslims coming to America before Columbus, etc. There are even stories of Native American Muslims and the influence of Islam on the indigenous people here (the Mecca tribe, Sequoya, and more). There were also Muslim explorers in the 14th century who are believed to have reached the Americas. If anyone’s truly interested, I have some resources.

    PEACE
    — Asad    Dec 28, 03:59 PM   

  7. The number may even be higher than 10-20%. Sylvianne Diouf, who is the authority of African Muslims in the Americas puts the number at, at least 30%.


    — Hali    Dec 21, 11:03 PM   

  8. I see that a lot of people talking about my great great great granddady a son of Bilai Muhammad I love savnnnah GA call me and see it is true 912 695-3569 thank you


    — MR. ANTONIO GREGORY    May 5, 02:14 AM   

  9. I see that a lot of people talking about my great great great granddady a son of Bilai Muhammad I live in savnnnah GA call me and see it is true 912 695-3569 thank you


    — MR. ANTONIO GREGORY    May 5, 02:16 AM   

  10. A lot of that remains speculative. Islam is, at present, fashionable (as with any media hype over drug abusers, rapists, murders, and armed bandits with nuclear weapons). Hopefully the designers have something less offensive for the next season.


    — me    Sep 7, 05:35 PM