Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: One of the most remarkable figures in the history of Islam in America was Omar ibn Said (ʿUmar b. Sayyid, 1770-1863), a Muslim scholar educated in West Africa, who was captured in warfare in his homeland and sold into slavery in America in 1807. For over half a century he lived in North Carolina, enslaved by the prominent Owen family of Fayetteville, and he left behind a small body of writings in Arabic that have for the most part been misread and misunderstood. In this article, I would like to present three short poems quoted by Omar in his writings, which provide a clear indication of the intellectual and theological range of materials that he was familiar with.
Author: Carl W. Ernst
Institution: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Language: English
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4405774264