Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Chronology
Introduction: "Arabic Work," Islam, and American Literature
Ala Alryyes
The Life
The Life of Omar ibn Said, Written by Himself
Translated by Ala Alryyes
Autobiography of Omar ibn Said, Slave in North Carolina, 1831 (The American Historical Review, 1925, translated by Isaac Bird)
Contextual Essays
Muslims in Early America
Michael A. Gomez
Contemporary Contexts for Omar's Life and Life
Allan D. Austin
The United States and Barbary Coast Slavery
Robert J. Allison
"God Does Not Allow Kings to Enslave Their People": Islamic Reformists and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Sylviane A. Diouf
Representing the West in the Arabic Language: The Slave Narrative of Omar ibn Said
Ghada Osman and Camille F. Forbes
Appendixes: Other Writings by Omar Ibn Said and Contemporary Texts
1. The Earliest known manuscript written by Omar, which accompanied a letter from John Louis Taylor to Francis Scott Key in 1819
Translated by John Hunwick
2. Letter from the Reverend Isaac Bird to Theodore Dwight
3. "Uncle Moreau," from North Carolina University Magazine (September 1854)
4. Ralph Gurley's "Secretary's Report," from African Repository (July 1837)
Contributors
Index