Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
manuscript on West African
Islamic law
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...
. It was written in the 19th century by Bilali Mohammet, an enslaved West African held on
Sapelo Island
Sapelo Island is a state-protected barrier island located in McIntosh County, Georgia. The island is accessible only by aircraft or boat; the primary ferry comes from the Sapelo Island Visitors Center in McIntosh County, Georgia, a seven-mil ...
of Georgia. The document is held at the Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library at the
University of Georgia
, mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things."
, establ ...
as part of the Francis Goulding papers. It is referred to as the "Ben Ali (Bilali) Manuscript".
History
Bilali Mohammed was an enslaved West African on a plantation on Sapelo Island, Georgia. According to his descendant, Cornelia Bailey, in her history, ''God, Dr. Buzzard and The Bolito Man,'' Bilali was from the area of present-day
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...
. He was a master cultivator of
rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima
''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...
, a skill prized by Georgia planters.
William Brown Hodgson was among scholars who met Bilali. Bilali was born in Timbo,
Guinea
Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...
sometime between 1760 and 1779 to a well-educated African Muslim family. He was enslaved as a teenager, taken to the Bahamas and sold to Dr. Bell, where he was worked as a slave for ten years at his
Middle Caicos
Middle Caicos is the largest island in the Turks and Caicos Islands. To the west, it is separated from North Caicos by Juniper Hole, and to the east, from East Caicos by Lorimer Creek, both narrow passages that can accommodate only small boats. T ...
plantation. Bell was a
Loyalist
Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cro ...
colonial refugee from the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
who had been resettled by the Crown at Middle Caicos. He sold Bilali in 1802 to a trader who took the man to Georgia.
Bilali Mohammed was purchased by
Thomas Spalding
Thomas Spalding (March 25, 1774 – January 4, 1851) was a United States representative from Georgia. He was born in Frederica, Georgia, St. Simons Island, Glynn County, Georgia. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1795, but did not ...
and assigned as his head driver at his plantation on Sapelo Island. Bilali could speak Arabic and had knowledge of the ''
Qur'an
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...
''. "Due to his literacy and leadership qualities, he would be appointed the manager of his master's plantation, overseeing approximately five hundred slaves". In the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
, Bilali and his fellow Muslims on Sapelo Island helped to defend the United States from a British attack. Upon Bilali's death in 1857, it was discovered that he had written a thirteen-page Arabic manuscript. At first, this was thought to have been his diary, but closer inspection revealed that the manuscript was a transcription of a Muslim legal treatise and part of West Africa's Muslim curriculum.
The first partial translation of the document was undertaken in 1939 by
Joseph Greenberg
Joseph Harold Greenberg (May 28, 1915 – May 7, 2001) was an American linguist, known mainly for his work concerning linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages.
Life Early life and education
Joseph Greenberg was born on ...
and published in the ''
Journal of Negro History
''The Journal of African American History'', formerly ''The Journal of Negro History'' (1916–2001), is a quarterly academic journal covering African-American life and history. It was founded in 1916 by Carter G. Woodson. The journal is owned and ...
.'' Since the turn of the 21st century, it has been analyzed by Ronald Judy, Joseph Progler, Allan D. Austin and
Muhammed al-Ahari
Muhammed Abdullah al-Ahari (born January 6, 1965, as Ray Allen Rudder) is an American essayist, historian, teacher, and writer on the topics of American Islam, Black Nationalist groups, heterodox Islamic groups, Bosniaks, and modern occultis ...
.
Synopsis
The ''Bilali Muhammad Document'' is also known as the ''Ben Ali Diary'' or ''Ben Ali Journal''. On close analysis, the text proves to be a brief statement of Islamic beliefs and the rules for ablution, morning prayer, and the calls to prayer. When it was translated, it was found that it had nothing of an autobiographic nature.
It could, justifiably, be called the "Mother Text" of American Islamic literature, according to researcher
Muhammed al-Ahari
Muhammed Abdullah al-Ahari (born January 6, 1965, as Ray Allen Rudder) is an American essayist, historian, teacher, and writer on the topics of American Islam, Black Nationalist groups, heterodox Islamic groups, Bosniaks, and modern occultis ...
, due to it being the first Islamic text written in the United States. A comprehensive extended commentary with citations from traditional Islamic texts and American Islamic texts, and related subject areas, is under preparation by al-Ahari as national secretary of the Noble Order of Moorish Sufis and long-time researcher on American Islamic history and literature.
The concept of a
Matn
Hadith studies ( ar, علم الحديث ''ʻilm al-ḥadīth'' "science of hadith", also science of hadith, or science of hadith criticism or hadith criticism)
consists of several religious scholarly disciplines used by Muslim scholars in th ...
(source text) with several extended commentaries is a traditional genre in Islamic literature. The commentaries may be linguistic, spiritual, and even have the function of relating the text to similar works. Further research on Bilali's life and his influence upon both American Islamic literature and to the
Gullah
The Gullah () are an African Americans, African American ethnic group who predominantly live in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, within the coastal plain ...
dialect of English needs to be carried out in order to present a complete picture of this unique historical American Muslim author.
Errors in prior research
Several reviewers of the manuscript have portrayed it as the scribblings of an old man copying from memory lessons of childhood. But, more expert translations of the text have shown it to be an original composition that drew from the '' Risalah'' of Abi Zayd of al-Qayrawan.
Some accounts, including that of Reverend
Dwight York
Dwight D. York (born June 26, 1945),Philips, Abu Ameenah Bilal. ''The Ansar Cult in America,'' Tawheed Publications 1988, p. 1. Philips claims that in 1975 York's publications changed his declared birth year from 1935 to 1945, to coincide with ...
(aka Imam Isa), who claimed that Bilali was his great-grandfather, have conflated Bilali Muhammad (aka Ben Ali, BuAllah, Bilali Smith, and Mahomet Bilali) with individuals with similar names. He is not the same person as Joseph Benenhaly, or either of the Wahab brothers of
Ocracoke Island
Ocracoke , from the North Carolina Collection website at the
.The Wahab family name was not Arabic but a variant spelling of Walkup or Wauchope, from Scotland.
Legacy
The Bilali Muhammed Historical Research Society, named for him, was established in Chicago in 1987; it published a one-issue journal, ''Meditations from the Bilali Muhammad Society'' (1988), in Charleston, South Carolina. The research institute has since been renamed the Muslim American Cultural Heritage Institute. It has a new board and is planning to become incorporated as a 503c corporation in Chicago.
References
Further reading
* ''Bilali Muhammad: Muslim Juriprudist in Antebellum Georgia,'' translated by Muhammad Abdullah al-Ahari, . https://web.archive.org/web/20120222065928/https://www.createspace.com/3431038
* Muhammed al-Ahari (2006). ''Five Classic Muslim Slave Narratives''. Magribine Press, Chicago.
* Bailey, Cornelia; ''God, Dr. Buzzard and The Bolito Man,'' 2003.
* Greenberg, Joseph H. "The Decipherment of the 'Ben-Ali Diary,'" ''Journal of Negro History,'' vol. 25, no.3 (July 1940): 372-375.
* Ronald AT Judy, ''(Dis)forming the American Canon: African–Arabic Slave Narratives and the Vernacular''
* Joseph Progler "Ben Ali and His Diary Encountering an African Muslim in Antebellum America", ''Muslim and Arab Perspectives'', Vol. 11 (Fall 2004), pp. 19–60.
* Joseph Progler "Reading Early American Islamica An Interpretive Translation of the Ben Ali Diary", ''Tawhid: Journal of Islamic Thought and Culture,'' Vol. 16, No. 3, (Autumn 2000), pp. 5–43.
* Rasheed ibn Estes Barbee Diary of a Muslim Slave in America The Bilali Muhammad Document and The Treatise of ibn Abi Zayd Al-Qayrawaani
Moustafa Bayoumi
Moustafa Bayoumi (born 1966) is an American writer, journalist, and professor. He is of Egyptian descent. He is based in Brooklyn, New York. He is a professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York.
Biography
Moustafa Bayo ...