Arabic in the Americas

Captives who wrote in Arabic. 9 points on the WW9 Atlas, oldest first, each with its source.

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• Ayuba Suleiman Diallo (Job ben Solomon)1731–1734 · Kent Island / Annapolis, MDFrom Fula, Bundu (Senegal). Held on Kent Island; wrote a letter in Arabic to his father that reached James Oglethorpe in London; freed 1733, feted in London, returned to Bundu 1734. Thomas Bluett's 1734 memoir is the first printed account of a Muslim captive from the Americas. Written record: Bluetthttps://www.docsouth.unc.edu/neh/bluett/bluett.html
• Yarrow Mamout1752–1823 · Georgetown, Washington DCFrom Fula. Held 44 years, freed 1796; bought a house on Dent Place, owned bank stock; painted by Charles Willson Peale (1819) and James Alexander Simpson (1822) as a Muslim elder; Peale's diary records his prayers and his account of his age. Written record: Peale's diary 1819; two portraits Held at:James H. Johnston, From Slave Ship to Harvard: Yarrow Mamout and the History of an African American Family (2012)
• Abdulrahman Ibrahima Sori1788–1828 · Natchez, MS (Foster plantation, Pine Ridge)From Fula, Timbo, Futa Jallon. Sold at Natchez Aug 1788 for $930 with his friend Samba; held 40 years; married Isabella 1794, nine children. In 1826 Andrew Marschalk helps him write a letter in Arabic (with a Qur'an passage); it reaches the U.S. consul at Tangier and Sultan Abd al-Rahman of Morocco,https://mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/prince-enslaved-southwest-mississippi-story-abdul-rahman-ibrahima-1762-1829
• Salih Bilali (Tom)1800–1846 · St. Simons Island, GA (Couper plantation)From Fula, Massina (Niger bend, Mali). Driver of the Couper plantation at Cannon's Point; literate in Arabic; his account of Massina was taken down by James Hamilton Couper and published by William Brown Hodgson in 1844; kinsman and friend of Bilali of Sapelo. Written record: Couper's letter in HodgWilliam B. Hodgson, Notes on Northern Africa, the Sahara and Soudan (1844), pp. 68–75; Allan Austin, African Muslims in Antebellum America (1997)
• Bilali Muhammad (Bilali Mohammet)1803–1859 · Sapelo Island, GA (Spalding plantation)From Fula, Timbo, Futa Jallon. Head driver of 500 people on Thomas Spalding's Sapelo plantation; led a Muslim community; wrote a 13-page Arabic manuscript on Islamic law (the 'Bilali Document'); his descendants (Katie Brown, Shad Hall) describe his prayers and rice cakes in Drums and Shadows (1940);https://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/
• Omar ibn Said1807–1863 · Fayetteville / Bladen County, NCFrom Fula, Futa Toro (Senegal River). Scholar of 25 years' study; sold at Charleston 1807; held by Gen. John Owen in Bladen County until his death in 1863. Wrote his autobiography in Arabic in 1831, the only known Arabic-language narrative by a captive in the U.S. Written record: The Life of Omar ibhttps://blogs.loc.gov/international-collections/2019/01/new-online-rare-autobiography-in-arabic-by-enslaved-american/
• Muhammad Kaba Saghanughu1820–1845 · Manchester Parish, JamaicaFrom Mandinka / Jakhanke, Bouka (Futa Jallon region). Scholar held in Jamaica from c. 1777; wrote the Kitab al-Salat (a manual of prayer) in Arabic c. 1820, the only known Arabic manuscript by a captive in the British Caribbean; corresponded with Abu Bakr al-Siddiq of Timbuktu, also held in Jamaica,Daddi Addoun and Lovejoy, 'Muhammad Kaba Saghanughu and the Muslim Community of Jamaica,' in Slavery on the Frontiers of Islam (2004)
• The Malê rising1835 · Salvador da Bahia, BrazilFrom Hausa and Yoruba Muslims (many soldiers of the Oyo and Sokoto wars). Jan 24–25, 1835: about 600 Muslim Africans, free and held, rise in Salvador; planning papers in Arabic (Qur'an verses, amulets) are seized and used as evidence at trial; about 70 killed, hundreds flogged, deported or executed.João José Reis, Slave Rebellion in Brazil: The Muslim Uprising of 1835 in Bahia (1993)
• Nicholas Said (Mohammed Ali ben Said)1863–1882 · Boston, MA (55th Massachusetts)From Kanuri, Bornu (Lake Chad). Held in Ottoman Tripoli and Istanbul, then by a Russian prince; traveled Europe; reached the U.S. free in 1860; enlisted in the 55th Massachusetts Colored Infantry 1863, rose to sergeant; wrote his autobiography (1873). The one documented case in our file of a man whohttps://www.docsouth.unc.edu/neh/said/said.html