Servants of Allah

Servants of Allah Diouf_i-x_1-342.indd i 4/4/13 3:05 PM Diouf_i-x_1-342.indd ii 4/4/13 3:05 PM Servants of Allah African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas 15th Anniversary Edition Sylviane A. Diouf a NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London Diouf_i-x_1-342.indd iii 4/4/13 3:05 PM NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London © 1998, 2013 by Sylviane Diouf All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Diouf, Sylviane A. (Sylviane Anna) Servants of Allah : African Muslims enslaved in the Americas / Sylviane A. Diouf. — 15th anniversary edition pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4798-4711-2 (pb : alk. paper) 1. Slaves — Religious life — United States — History. 2. Slaves — Religious life — America — History. 3. Muslims, Black — United States — History. 4. Muslims, Black — American — History. 5. African Americans — History — To 1863. I. Title. E443.D56 2013 973'.0496073 — dc23 2013005255 New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Diouf_i-x_1-342.indd iv 4/4/13 3:05 PM To Sény and to the memory of Adani Diouf_i-x_1-342.indd v 4/4/13 3:05 PM This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction to the 15th Anniversary Edition 1 1 African Muslims, Christian Europeans, and the Transatlantic Slave Trade 20 2 Upholding the Five Pillars of Islam in a Hostile World 71 3 Th e Muslim Community 99 4 Literacy: A Distinction and a Danger 159 5 Resistance, Revolts, and Returns to Africa 210 6 Th e Muslim Legacy 251 Notes 285 Select Bibliography 315 Index 327 About the Author 341 Illustrations appear as a group following page 142. >> vii Diouf_i-x_1-342.indd vii 4/4/13 3:05 PM This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments Researching and writing Servants of Allah was a singularly solitary endeavor. But once I emerged from the libraries, I immediately received the enthusiastic support of Niko Pfund, then director of NYU Press, and Jennifer Hammer, my attentive and brilliant editor. I am deeply thank- ful to both of them for the fi rst edition and to NYU Press director Steve Maikowski and to Jennifer again, for making this second one possible. Over the years, through this book, I was lucky to meet and befriend a number of people. Among them are Abdel Kader Haidara, founder of the Mamma Haidara Memorial Library in Timbuktu, owner and guardian of his family’s fi ve thousand manuscripts and documents dat- ing from the 1500s. His expertise, convivial personality, and vision are true treasures. In 1996, I had gone to the auction where Omar ibn Said’s autobiography and Sana See’s manuscript were to be off ered to the high- est bidder. I was well aware I could not be even the lowest one, but I was eager to know who would get these documents. To my relief, they were auctioned off to collector Joshua Beard, who has been a diligent and generous custodian, making the manuscripts widely available to scholars and exhibitions. My scholarly and friendly appreciation goes to Paul E. Lovejoy at York University and Elisée Soumonni at the University of Cotonou for great discussions and camaraderie. João José Reis at the Federal Univer- sity of Bahia has been a gracious colleague always ready to share documents and insights about Muslims in Brazil. I have enjoyed fascinating conversations, long walks, and great collaboration with Omar H. Ali at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. I am indebted to Grace Turner, at William and Mary, who took Abul Keli of the Bahamas out of obscurity and brought the man and his letters to my attention many >> ix Diouf_i-x_1-342.indd ix 4/4/13 3:05 PM x << Acknowledgments years ago. To Aisha Al-Adawiyya at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Women in Islam and Marieta Harper at the Library of Congress, I thank you and you know why. Mille mercis to my family, Maman, Martine, Alain, Mariam, and Maya, who have sustained me, each in her or his own way. Fift een years ago, I dedicated this book to my son for his loving support and under- standing, smart comments, and daily encouragements. I do the same today with immense gratitude and love. Sény has transformed my life and made my work so much easier. He is my inspiration and my model, though I am very short of being as accomplished as he is. Diouf_i-x_1-342.indd x 4/4/13 3:05 PM Introduction to the 15th Anniversary Edition In 1998, when Servants of Allah was fi rst published, I could not have imagined that I would be writing a new introduction to the volume fi f- teen years later. Th ree years earlier, I could not even imagine this book would ever exist. I had started writing it in French, certain I would fi nd a receptive publisher in Paris. Only when, to my utter surprise, no one shared my enthusiasm — to say the least — did I decide to start all over. Fift een years later, Servants of Allah is still here, and Allah’in Kullari — its Turkish version — has gone into two editions. As for Serviteurs d ’Allah, it has yet to exist; nothing has changed there. But change there has been, and plenty of it, between 1998, the end of the twentieth century, and today, roughly a decade and a half into the twenty-fi rst. A new political, religious, and social reality unexpectedly transformed a book on a hitherto obscure part of slavery history into what its publisher has deemed “a surprise bestseller.” Sadly, it took a tragedy to alter the landscape, literally and fi guratively. >> 1 Diouf_i-x_1-342.indd 1 4/4/13 3:05 PM 2 << Introduction to the 15th Anniversary Edition In the aft ershock of 9/11, against all expectations, an authentic interest in Islam and Muslims manifested itself. Community centers, churches, schools, universities, libraries, museums, and international organiza- tions solicited scholars, religious fi gures, and ordinary believers asking for information, explanations, and responses to fear and incomprehen- sion. Servants of Allah, along with other scholarship on Islam, Muslims, American Muslims, and Muslims in America became an integral part of this process, especially as it made clear that Islam and Muslims were not recent arrivals but had been part of the American fabric from its very beginning. Th e realization that Islam had deep roots in the United States was oft en a stunning discovery to non-Muslims and Muslims alike. Th at Islam was brought not only to the United States but also to the entire Western Hemisphere, from Cuba to Peru and from Guadeloupe to Guy- ana, and had been maintained by enslaved Africans was nothing short of mystifying for most people. Th at these Africans had written documents in Arabic was a fact that shattered ingrained stereotypes. Th ere was a genuine interest in the history in and of itself, but there was also a larger narrative into which it fi t. Th e book appealed to the voices that sought to bring or reinforce ecumenism, tolerance, and fraternity among peoples of various faiths at a time when these quali- ties were in short supply. By putting Islam in an hemispheric context since the early 1500s, it showed that Islam was the second monotheist religion introduced into all parts of the New World — aft er Catholicism and before Judaism and Protestantism — thus exposing its longevity, its continental reach, and its followers’ resilience even under the worst cir- cumstances. In the face of mounting suspicion of foreignness and supposed anti-Americanism, Muslims were eager to demonstrate that Islam was as much an American religion as any, one that had coexisted with others quietly for centuries and whose followers had contributed to the development of the country. Perhaps more than anything else, at that moment, it was this mainstreaming of Islam and Muslims that attracted those who found themselves on the defensive, asked to demonstrate their “Americanness.” Diouf_i-x_1-342.indd 2 4/4/13 3:05 PM Introduction to the 15th Anniversary Edition >> 3 But there was still another dynamic going on within the Muslim community itself. Many Muslims who embraced the centuries-old history of Islam in the Americas as their heritage were not of West African descent. White and Hispanic Americans and men and women whose roots were in the Middle East and Asia were quick to claim West African Muslims as their brothers and sisters in faith, although some — by no means all — among them had failed to acknowledge sub-Saharan Africa as a land of Islam, had ignored African Muslims, and had shown no previous interest in African American history. Yet they now proclaimed their connection to the people and the history. West African Muslims enthusiastically welcomed a historical narrative they could relate to. Th e events, religious and political fi gures, and celebrated places of learning from Almami Abdul Kader Kane and Usman dan Fodio to the Qadiriyya, Pir, and Timbuktu were already familiar, but placed in an American-wide historical perspective, they took on an all-new dimension. African American Muslims, who oft en complained of being margin- alized by their coreligionists for being converts — even when they were second- or third-generation Muslims — and supposed heirs to home- grown proto-American Islamic movements considered blasphemous by orthodox Islam, embraced the history of African Islam in the Americas as their own.

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