I Cannot Write My Life: Islam, Arabic, and Slavery in Omar Ibn Said's America

Title: I Cannot Write My Life: Islam, Arabic, and Slavery in Omar Ibn Said's America Author: Mbaye Lo ISBN: 9781469674674 Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press Published: 2023 Binding: Paperback Language: English Condition: New New from the publisher Black Studies 1561063 Publisher Description: Omar ibn Said (1770-1863) was a Muslim scholar from West Africa who spent more than fifty years enslaved in the North Carolina household of James Owen, brother of Governor John Owen. In 1831 Omar composed a brief autobiography, the only known narrative written in Arabic by an enslaved person in North America, and he became famous for his Arabic writings. His enslavers also provided him with an Arabic Bible and claimed Omar as a convert to Christianity, prompting wonder and speculation among amateur scholars of Islam, white slave owners, and missionaries. But these self-proclaimed expe