Africa in the story of Islam
Before Madinah, there was Abyssinia.
About 615, a small band of Muslims crossed the Red Sea and asked an African king for protection. He gave it. This reading room follows what came after: fourteen centuries of scholars, kings, teachers and captives, from the highlands of Ethiopia to the rice fields of the Carolinas.
The chapters
Four rooms, in order
Each one is a short read with its sources at the foot of the page. Start anywhere.
The First Refuge
A Christian king hears the chapter of Mary and refuses to hand the first Muslims back.
Read II670 onwardHouses of Learning
Kairouan, Fez, Cairo, Timbuktu: mosques that became schools, and libraries families still keep.
Read III1068 to 1804Kingdoms and Roads
A pilgrimage that shook the gold market, a traveler from Tangier, and stone towns on the monsoon coast.
Read IV1528 to 1863Across the Water
The Muslims carried in chains to the Americas, and what they wrote, prayed and remembered. Several lived in the Carolinas.
ReadThe lives
A line of people
Seventeen lives so far, from the Negus to a man who walked off a ship in New York. Four of them left their faces behind.
The Carolinas
This history is local
Charleston was the largest landing place for enslaved Africans in North America, and some of the people who came through it could read and write Arabic. One of them, Omar ibn Said, covered the walls of a jail in Fayetteville with prayers. Another, Bilali Muhammad, wrote out a law book from memory on a Georgia sea island.
If you live on the Carolina coast, this is not somebody else’s past. It happened along the roads you already drive.
The faith
The faith they carried
Omar ibn Said opened his life story with the Quran. Bilali Muhammad wrote about ablution and prayer. If you want to understand them, it helps to know what they believed. This room explains the five pillars in plain words.
The method
How this is kept
Every date, name and number here is checked against the books and archives listed on the sources page. Scripture is quoted only from verified text. Where historians disagree, the page says so. If you find a mistake, please write.
Quick answers
What people ask first
What was the first refuge?
About 615, seven years before the Hijrah to Madinah, a group of the first Muslims left Makkah for the Christian kingdom of Aksum in Abyssinia, in today's Ethiopia and Eritrea. Its king protected them and refused to send them back.
Who was the Negus?
Negus is the title of the king of Aksum. Muslim tradition gives his name as Ashama ibn Abjar. When he died, about 630, the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, prayed the funeral prayer for him in Madinah, as recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari 1245 and 3877.
Were there Muslims among the Africans enslaved in America?
Yes. Historians agree that Muslims were a significant minority of the people taken from West Africa, though their number cannot be known precisely. Several left writing in Arabic, among them Omar ibn Said, Bilali Muhammad and Ayuba Suleiman Diallo.
Who was Omar ibn Said?
A scholar born about 1770 in Futa Toro, in West Africa. He was captured in 1807, shipped to Charleston, and enslaved in North Carolina until he died in 1863. In 1831 he wrote the story of his life in Arabic. The Library of Congress keeps the manuscript.
What is the oldest school still open?
UNESCO and Guinness World Records describe al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco, founded by tradition in 859, as the oldest existing, continually operating educational institution in the world. Historians debate the details of its founding.
Who keeps this site?
It is kept by Abd al-Rahim Ferrand, a student and not a scholar. Every claim is tied to a named source listed on its page, and corrections are welcome at [email protected].
Looking for the guide to prayer at work under Title VII? It is still here.