THE LIFE OF OMAR IBN SAID
SADIA NOOR ZAMAN
2710-MPHIL-ENG-23
AMERICAN LITERATURE
CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT FOR
OMAR’S LIFE
- Allan D. Austen
REPRESENTING THE WEST IN
ARABIC LANGUAGE
- Ghada Osman and Camille F.
Forbes
CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT FOR OMAR’S
LIFE - Introduction
All writings are assertions of their faith and afro
Muslim identities
Appeared in Southern newspaper and limited
publications of ACS or AES
Break ethnic taboos
Unusual cases- Mahommah Grado Baquaqa and
Muhammad Ali ben Said –wrote in English
Baquaqa- desire to see his mother and motherland
Slave Narratives
Mohammed Ali ben Said - “A Native of Bornoo”
Desire to teach his fellow black people
Job Ben Solomon- ran away from an American
purchaser like Omar
Later returned to Senegal after impressing English
nobility and intelligentsia
Negro slave of Captain David Anderson- Fatiha,
Suras 114—the last, 113, 112, and part of 110 of the
Qur’an
Enslaved Muslims wrote in Arabic to one another
urging adherence to the faith
Ibrahima Abdar Rehman
A cavalry captain in Africa, most famous slave
After 40 years wrote to his father with the help of
local newspaper
The State Department in Washington sent his letter
on to Morocco, urged for his manumission
The “freeman’s” beloved wife had to be ransomed
Raised enough money to free eight of his offsprings
Lord’s prayer four extant manuscripts, include
variations on the Fatiha.
Beholden to Christians, wrote to please them
Bilali Mohammed and Salih Bilali
Bilali- plantation manager on Sapelo Island.
His diary- unique Muslim-American pedagogical
statement
His island of Sapelo- an island of Islam
Often acted as an imam
Joel Chandler Harris distorted Bilali’s book into a
plantation diary by an Arab slave trader who
despised Africans.
Lamine Kebe
A teacher and trader in Futa Jallon
Dwight published an article on some of Kebe’s
pedagogical ideas and practices
Wanted him to teach Christianity in his homeland
Encouraged the sending of Bibles in Arabic to West
Africa
London , an enslaved African-Georgian- Gospel of
John and some hymns
MUHAMMAD KAABA
Muhammad Kaba- once a trader in Futa Jallon
Strove to support all the Muslims they could contact
Distribution of letters in Arabic urging strict
adherence to Islam
Confiscated in Caribbean lands until 1814
Letters comprised of careful lavish praises of their
masters in English and a secret part written in
Arabic
All are assertions of their writers’ faith with wistful
remembrances of their African homelands.
OMAR IBN SAID
OMAR IBN SAID
Wrote often at the request of his masters
Omar’s three surviving renditions of the Lord’s
Prayer in Arabic- pasted in a scrapbook
R. D. Wilson, a Princeton professor, observed:
“Uncle Moro still retained a little weakness
for Mohammed” because his Twenty-third
Psalm was preceded by the Bismillah
But translators—all Christian—of presently
unavailable Omar manuscripts discovered a convert
OMAR-Muslim or Convert?
Letters to Kebe:
“Lay aside Mahomet’s prayer and use the one
which our blessed savior taught his disciples—
our Father, &c.”
“God has been good to us in bringing us to this
country and placing us in the hands of Christians. Let
us now wake up and go to Christ, and he will give us
light. God bless the American land! God bless the white
people.”
Omar ibn Said
My lot is at last a delightful one. From one man to
another I went until I fell into the hands of a pious
man. He read the Bible for me until my eyes were
opened, now I can see; thank God for it. I am dealt
with as a child, not as a servant. Jesus the Son of God.
O, my countrymen [of] Bundah [Bundu], and
Phootoor [Futa Toro], and Phootdalik [Futa Jalon?], . . .
Come, come, come, come to Jesus the Son of God, and
ye shall find rest to your souls in the day of judgment.
A go-between
REPRESENTING THE WEST IN ARABIC
LANGUAGE
Representing the West in Arabic
Robert Stepto in his book In from Behind the Veil
posits : pregeneric myth is the quest for freedom and
literacy
Four narratives taken from earliest period of African
American narrative
Rediscovery of Omar's narrative in 1995- troubled
the pregeneric myth
Narrative reveal a different image of the West as
Other by strategically identifying and disidentifying
with the Christians
Omar’s narrative
Little detail of his servile life
Present tense- indicating the probable continuation
of his clandestine beliefs
Final portion- praise of Owen family
Manipulation of Arabic language
Use of Quranic phrasing:
O people of Carolina!
O Prophet!
Iterative style of Quran creates a sense of urgency
Surah e Mulk
De emphasizes the significance of his position as a
slave by highlighting ALLAH’s mulk (dominion)
“the fundamental idea running through the whole of this
sura is man’s inability ever to encompass the mysteries of
the universe with his earthbound knowledge, and hence,
his utter dependence on guidance through divine
revelation.”
Western Christian as Other
William Plumer : Omar had been baptized by the
Reverend Dr. Snodgrass of the Presbyterian Church in
Fayetteville and received into that church.
Alyrres: Omar sought spiritual Christians to make up for
the loss of community
Always referred to English as a language of Christians
Recites Surat al-Fatiha in one part of his narrative, then
follows it immediately with the Lord’s Prayer.
In the old missionary translation this reads: “When I was
a Mohammedan, I prayed thus,” followed by quoting the
Fatiha. “But now I pray ‘Our Father,’” followed by
quoting the Lord’s Prayer
Continued
Omar gives Fatiha before Lord’s prayer
Use of Quranic terms to describe Christian beliefs
Lord Jesus the Messiah
Places Jesus equal to Moses- Islamic Framework of
Prophethood
Ending Surah e Nasr indicates victory over infidels
THANK YOU!
