Arabic-L:LIT:JAIS, vol.5, 3 (Arabic Document by American Slave)

[Dilworth Parkinson]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Arabic-L: Tue 18 May  2004
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
[To post messages to the list, send them to arabic-l at byu.edu]
[To unsubscribe, send message from same address you subscribed from to
listserv at byu.edu with first line reading:
            unsubscribe arabic-l                                      ]

-------------------------Directory------------------------------------

1) Subject:JAIS, vol.5, 3 (Arabic Document by American Slave)

-------------------------Messages-----------------------------------
1)
Date: 18 May  2004
From:"Joseph N. Bell" <joseph.bell at msk.uib.no>
Subject:JAIS, vol.5, 3 (Arabic Document by American Slave)

Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies
<http://www.uib.no/jais>
<http://enlil.ff.cuni.cz/jais/jais.htm>

 From Joseph Bell

The prepublication version of the following new article has been posted
today:

<http://www.uib.no/jais/v005/Hunwick1WMd.pdf>John Hunwick.
<http://www.uib.no/jais/v005/Hunwick1WMd.pdf>"I Wish to Be Seen in Our
Land Called Afrika": 'Umar b. Sayyid's Appeal to Be Released from
Slavery (1819) (Adobe Acrobat 6.0 PDF file, 177 kB, pp. 62-77).
<file:///D:/JAIS/JAISWEB/v005ht/Hunwick1WMd.htm>HTML version to be
posted later.

Abstract: While Muslims were forbidden to enslave Muslims, in Africa,
in battles between Muslims and non-Muslims, sometimes the latter
captured Muslims, and sold them to European/American ship crews, who
were seeking slaves to take across to America and sell, since Americans
could use Muslims as slaves. 'Umar b. Sayyid (or, more likely, Sa'id)
was captured in Futa Toro in 1806/7, exported, and sold as a slave in
South Carolina. Later he was bought by the brother of a subsequent
governor of North Carolina and lived with both of them for some thirty
years. 'Umar had learned Arabic in Africa, but as an aging slave forgot
some of the rules of the language. Nevertheless, in 1819 he wrote an
Arabic document, translated below, in which he quotes many parts of the
Koran and seeks return to his homeland in Africa. The Koranic passages
surround his statement: "I wish to be seen in our land called Afrika".
However, he was forced to stay in America until he died in 1864, long
after writing an Arabic autobiography.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
End of Arabic-L:  18 May  2004