Said, Omar ibn, 1770?–1863, Theodore Dwight, Henry Cotheal, Lamine Kebe, and Omar ibn Said Collection. The life of Omar ben Saeed, called Morro, a Fullah Slave in Fayetteville, N.C. Owned by Governor Owen. [?, 1831] Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018371864/
Omar ibn Said’s narrative is the only extant autobiography written in Arabic by an enslaved person. This resource is incredibly valuable for students learning about early American history. Firstly, when high school students look at religion in early American literature and history, they are almost exclusively exposed to sources about Christianity; this source offers them the opportunity to learn about the diversity of religion in early America. Secondly, students in American literature and history courses often read and analyze narratives of enslavement; such narratives provide important testimony about slavery. Examining this text can help students to think through questions of authorship, purpose, production, and circulation.
Because Omar ibn Said’s narrative was written in Arabic, it was not directly edited by his enslavers, although “enslavers, missionary groups and Arabists…colluded to ignore, disregard, and distort Omar’s Arabic writings” (Mock 2023). For example, an artifact with Said’s writing in Arabic on it was recorded as “The Lord’s Prayer written in Arabic by Uncle Moreau (Omar) a native African…a devoted Christian” when it is “not the Lord’s Prayer, but actually Surat 110 from the Koran (entitled ‘The Help’), predicting a mass conversion of unbelievers to Islam…this mistranslation of Said’s words should serve as a caveat to his statement in the Autobiography that ‘now I pray ‘Our Father,’ etc.’” (Horn). As Mbaye Lo points out in an interview about his book with Carl W. Ernst on Omar ibn Said, “Enslavers and their influential network were interested in presenting him as a benevolent proof for the success of slavery in civilizing and Christianizing the enslaved” (Mock 2023).
This item is a manuscript. It is a narrative written by Omar ibn Said, an enslaved Muslim, in Arabic.
Omar ibn Said was a Fula Muslim scholar (from what is now present-day Senegal) who was abducted and enslaved when he was 37. He was taken to Charleston, where he eventually escaped and fled to Fayetteville, NC. After taking refuge in a church, ibn Said was imprisoned; in prison, he wrote on the walls of his cell in Arabic. This brought ibn Said to the attention of the governor of North Carolina, John Owen, and his brother, Jim Owen, who purchased and enslaved ibn Said in Bladen County, NC. In 1831, Omar ibn Said wrote an account of his life; this narrative was written in Arabic, a language his enslavers did not speak. The narrative includes many passages from the Qur’an that resist and challenge his enslavement. However, “Enslavers and their influential network were interested in presenting him [Omar ibn Said] as a benevolent proof for the success of slavery in civilizing and Christianizing the enslaved” (Mock 2023).
- What do you know about the form of the slave narrative?
- What do you know about religion in early America?
- Looking at the title page of this text, what do you first notice? Who wrote it? Why?
- Why does it matter that ibn Said’s narrative is written in Arabic?
- How does translation change the meaning of a text?
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
- Students will examine elements of the cover page and read a translation of parts of ibn Said’s work in order to develop an analysis.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
- Students will examine elements of the cover page and excerpts from ibn Said’s text in order to develop an analysis, and also identify places for further inquiry.
- The Library of Congress has many excellent resources to use in teaching about Omar ibn Said. For example, students could use the Library of Congress’s resource, Educated and Enslaved: the Journey of Omar ibn Said, to learn about Omar ibn Said, his text, and its history. Students could also look at the Library of Congress’s collection on Omar ibn Said, Omar ibn Said Collection, and use Michael Apfeldorf’s blog post, “Expanding Student Understanding of Slavery in America by Exploring an Arabic Muslim Slave Narrative,” to begin a conversation around ibn Said’s work.
- Mbaye Lo and Carl W. Ernst’s collection, Enslaved Scholars: A Website Repository for Editions of Arabic Texts and English Translations of writings by Enslaved Muslims in the Americas, including works they quote, could be used by teachers to discuss Omar ibn Said with students. For example, students could look at Omar ibn Said’s letter to John Owen, where ibn Said states that he “want[s] to be seen in our land called Africa, in the place of the river called Kaba” and use that to contest the idea that he refused to “accept freedom and return to Africa” (NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources).
- Teachers could teach ibn Said’s text alongside excerpts from Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abel’s opera Omar, which won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2023. Students could watch this video, Omar the Opera: Behind the Scenes, and this clip, “Julie’s Aria,” from the opera.
- This item could be challenged by parents who do not want their children to learn about the history of slavery in America.
Links to resources for approaching those topics
- Learning for Justice: Teaching Hard History, American Slavery.
- Complementary: Isaac Bird’s translation of Omar ibn Said’s narrative. Bird was a nineteenth century Christian missionary, so students should ask what Bird’s investment in ibn Said’s text was, and what biases might have played into his translation of the text.
- Alternative: Travels into the inland parts of Africa, focusing on the “particular account of Job ben Solomon,” which gives a second hand, partial account of Ayuba Suleiman Ibrahima Diallo’s life (pp. 205–209, 223–225).
- National Humanities Center: The Making of African American Identity, Volume 1, 1500–1865.
- Documenting the American South: Omar ibn Said, African Muslim Enslaved in the Carolinas.
- PBS: How an Autobiography of a Muslim Slave is Challenging an American Narrative.
- Carolina Public Humanities: Challenging Misconceptions of Slavery: The Life of Omar ibn Said.
- Duke Today: Returning a Voice to an Enslaved Muslim Scholar.
- Mbaye Lo, Carl W. Ernst: I Cannot Write My Life: Islam, Arabic, and Slavery in Omar ibn Said’s America.
- Mbaye Lo, Carl W. Ernst: Enslaved Scholars: A Website Repository for Editions of Arabic Texts and English Translations of writings by Enslaved Muslims in the Americas, including works they quote.
- NPR: The debut of “Omar,” a thoroughly American opera.