Early Muslim Presence in the Americas

# Islam in the Americas

The history of Islam in the Americas spans several distinct phases: a contested claim of pre-Columbian Muslim presence, the arrival of enslaved African Muslims in the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries, immigration waves in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and significant conversion among African Americans and other communities. Today, approximately five to seven million Muslims live in the United States, making it one of the most significant Muslim communities in the Western world.

Pre-Columbian Muslim Presence

Some scholars, including the historian Ivan Van Sertima and Gavin Menzies, have proposed that Muslims reached the Americas before Columbus — potentially through contacts between West Africa (whose Muslim rulers knew of Mali's extensive geography) and the New World, or through the voyages of Zheng He. These claims are highly contested among mainstream historians, and the evidence is largely circumstantial.

What is documented is that Columbus's 1492 expedition sailed from Palos de la Frontera in Spain shortly after the final expulsion of Muslims from Spain (the fall of Granada was in January 1492 CE). Some members of Columbus's crew may have been of Moorish (Andalusian Muslim) ancestry.

Enslaved African Muslims

The most significant and documented early presence of Islam in the Americas came through the transatlantic slave trade, which brought millions of West Africans to the Americas from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Among the enslaved were substantial numbers of Muslims from the Sahel and coastal West Africa.

Significant figures:

• Ayuba Suleiman Diallo (Job Ben Solomon, 1701-1773 CE / 1113-1187 AH): A Muslim scholar from Senegal enslaved in Maryland in 1730 CE who was eventually freed and returned to Africa. His Quranic literacy and dignified bearing attracted the attention of English gentlemen who facilitated his freedom.
• Omar ibn Said (1770-1864 CE / 1184-1280 AH): A Fula Muslim scholar enslaved in North Carolina who wrote an autobiography in Arabic — the only known slave narrative written in Arabic. He maintained Islamic practice even while nominally accepting Christianity.
• Abdul-Rahman Ibrahim ibn Sori (1762-1829 CE / 1176-1245 AH): A Fula prince and Muslim scholar enslaved in Mississippi for 40 years before being freed.

These individuals, and thousands like them, maintained Islamic practice as best they could under the conditions of slavery. Evidence of Islamic practice among enslaved Africans includes Arabic inscriptions, knowledge of the Quran, and distinctive naming patterns. However, the systematic destruction of family, cultural, and religious ties under slavery meant that most enslaved Muslims could not pass their faith to subsequent generations.

The Brazilian Muslim Rebellion

The largest armed slave rebellion in Brazilian history, the Malê Revolt (1835 CE / 1250 AH) in Bahia, was led by Muslim enslaved Africans, primarily of Yoruba and Hausa origin. The conspirators planned a revolt to occur during Ramadan. The uprising was suppressed, but it demonstrated the organizational capacity of African Muslim communities in the Americas and the persistence of Islamic identity even across the Atlantic.

Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Immigration

The first significant wave of Muslim immigration to North America came from the Ottoman Arab provinces (Syria, Lebanon) beginning in the late nineteenth century. These immigrants, many of them seeking economic opportunity, established small Muslim communities in cities across the United States and Canada.

The early twentieth century saw immigration from South Asia, and the post-1965 Immigration Act changes opened the United States to immigration from Muslim-majority countries across Asia and Africa. By the late twentieth century, Muslim immigrants represented a wide diversity of national origins.

African American Islam

The most numerically significant conversion movement has been among African Americans. The Nation of Islam, founded by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad and developed under Elijah Muhammad (1897-1975 CE), attracted hundreds of thousands of African Americans through its message of Black liberation and dignity, though its theology differed significantly from mainstream Sunni Islam. Malcolm X (1925-1965 CE / 1344-1385 AH), who became the most prominent spokesperson for the Nation of Islam before breaking with it to embrace Sunni Islam, was among the most influential Muslim figures in American history.

Warith Deen Mohammed (1933-2008 CE), the son of Elijah Muhammad, led the majority of the Nation of Islam into mainstream Sunni Islam after his father's death in 1975 CE, creating the largest indigenous American Muslim community.

Sources

• Michael Gomez, Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas
• Allan Austin, African Muslims in Antebellum America
• Yvonne Haddad (ed.), The Muslims of America
• Manning Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention