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I cannot write my life : Islam, Arabic, and slavery in Omar ibn Said's America / Mbaye Lo and Carl W. Ernst.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextLanguage: English Original language: Arabic Series: Islamic civilization & Muslim networksPublisher: Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2023]Description: x, 218 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
  • still image
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781469674667
  • 1469674661
  • 9781469674674
  • 146967467X
Contained works:
  • Said, Omar ibn, 1770?-1863. Works. Selections. English
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
A land lost -- A life unread -- Sermons unheard -- A Muslim in church -- The treachery of the experts -- Appendix. Omar's ʻAjamī English: American Words and Names in Arabic Script.
Summary: "This work centers on the life and writing of Omar Ibn Said, born in 1770 in a border region between Senegal and Mauritania that played a significant role in Islamic nations. Omar studied for 25 years at an Islamic seminary and was poised to become a leader in the faith, but after being captured by an invading army, he fell into the hands of transatlantic slave traders. He was sold to a plantation owner near Charleston, South Carolina, in 1808. What we know of Omar's life comes largely from a series of brief autobiographical writings and transcriptions, comprising the only known narrative written in Arabic by an enslaved person in North America. In this book, Mbaye Lo and Carl Ernst weave fresh and accurate translations of Omar's writing together with context and interpretation to provide the fullest possible account of this West African Islamic scholar's life and significance"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Biography SAID, O. L795 Available 33111011181902
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Omar ibn Said (1770-1863) 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. His enslavers also provided him with an Arabic Bible and claimed Omar as a convert to Christianity, prompting wonder and speculation among amateur scholars of Islam, white slave owners, and missionaries. But these self-proclaimed experts were unable or unwilling to understand Omar's writings, and his voice was suppressed for two centuries.



Mbaye Lo and Carl W. Ernst here 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. Placing Omar at the center of a broader network of the era's literary and religious thought, Lo and Ernst restore Omar's voice, his sophisticated engagement with Islamic and Christian theologies, his Arabic skills, and his extraordinary efforts to express himself and exert agency despite his enslavement.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

A land lost -- A life unread -- Sermons unheard -- A Muslim in church -- The treachery of the experts -- Appendix. Omar's ʻAjamī English: American Words and Names in Arabic Script.

"This work centers on the life and writing of Omar Ibn Said, born in 1770 in a border region between Senegal and Mauritania that played a significant role in Islamic nations. Omar studied for 25 years at an Islamic seminary and was poised to become a leader in the faith, but after being captured by an invading army, he fell into the hands of transatlantic slave traders. He was sold to a plantation owner near Charleston, South Carolina, in 1808. What we know of Omar's life comes largely from a series of brief autobiographical writings and transcriptions, comprising the only known narrative written in Arabic by an enslaved person in North America. In this book, Mbaye Lo and Carl Ernst weave fresh and accurate translations of Omar's writing together with context and interpretation to provide the fullest possible account of this West African Islamic scholar's life and significance"-- Provided by publisher.

Chiefly in English; includes some translation from the Arabic.

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