veiled4allah: servants of Allah

I've just finished reading Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas by Sylviane Diouf.

The book is the result of extensive research in primary sources about slavery and builds a profile of the African Muslims who were brought to the Americas as slaves. Diouf believes that about 15-20% of all slaves were Muslims. She analyzes the historical record in Africa as well as in the Americas to reconstruct the story of these slaves.

Many of the Muslims taken as slaves were highly educated, in the religious sciences and in general. They were marabouts (holy men), warriors, traveling scholars, merchants, or members of the upper class. They had often dedicated their lives to Islam and established a respected place for themselves in their societies. They were often used to being leaders. (Diouf's analysis of the African historical record explains why the Muslims taken as slaves tended to fit this profile).

In the Americas, they strove to practice Islam as much as possible and to form networks and communities with other Muslims. They made use of their education and training to seek ways to advance through the slave society. And when this failed, they more than once organized wide-scale revolts. What they didn't succeed in doing was transmitting Islam to more than a generation or two of their descendants. They were able to preserve it because they had learned it before being enslaved. But inculcating it in children from the beginning in the oppressive conditions of slavery proved to be almost impossible. Many traces of Islamic practice and culture remain in the broader culture of Africans in the New World, but anything recognizable as orthodox Islam had largely disappeared within three or four generations. As long as the slave trade continued and new Muslims were being brought from Africa, Islam survived in the Americas, but once the slave trade ended, Islam died out.

Often, discussion of slavery tends to focus on the United States, but slavery was widespread throughout the Americas and much of the story of Muslim slaves comes from Latin America and the Caribbean.

This book is absolutely fascinating and important for the look it gives not only at the experience of Muslim slaves but at what the world of slavery was like. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Whether you're interested in the history of slavery, or wish to learn about the struggle of Muslims to preserve their deen in brutal conditions, you will learn much from this book.