Islam, Arabic, and Slavery in Omar ibn Said’s America

Winner of a 2024 American Academy of Religion book award, this book focuses on Omar ibn Said (1770–1863) who was a Muslim scholar from West Africa who spent more than fifty years enslaved in the North Carolina household of James Owen, brother of Governor John Owen. In 1831 Omar composed a brief autobiography, the only known narrative written in Arabic by an enslaved person in North America, and he became famous for his Arabic writings. In this book, Mbaye Lo and Carl W. Ernst weave fresh and accurate translations of Omar’s eighteen surviving writings, for the first time identifying his quotations from Islamic theological texts, correcting many distortions, and providing the fullest possible account of his life and significance.

Professor Mbaye Lo is an Associate Professor of the Practice of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and International Comparative Studies at Duke University. His research focuses on political Islam, Arabic literary traditions in West Africa, and concepts of civil society and governance.

Carl W. Ernst is William R. Kenan, Jr., Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is an academic specialist in Islamic studies, with a focus on West and South Asia.

Seth Perry -Associate Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion at Princeton University.

Judith Weisenfeld -Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion and Chair in the Department of Religion at Princeton University.

Sponsors:

• Department of Religion
• Center for Collaborative History
• Department of African American Studies
• Stewart Fund for Religion in the Humanities Counci