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About
Omar ibn Said (c. 1770-1864), rahimahullah, was a West African Muslim scholar from the Futa Toro region of present-day Senegal. Educated in the Islamic sciences in West Africa, he was enslaved and transported to the United States in 1807, eventually settling in North Carolina. He became notable for composing an autobiography in Arabic in 1831, one of the very few surviving Arabic manuscripts authored by an enslaved person in America. His writing reveals a man of considerable Islamic learning who maintained his faith and identity under the brutal conditions of slavery. The text, published in various editions under titles including A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar Ibn Said, is a significant primary source for the history of Islam in America and the broader African diaspora.
