A page from Omar ibn Said’s autobiography, written in Arabic around 1831. A digital version has been published on the Library of Congress' website. Page courtesy of Library of Congress.
This portrait of Omar ibn Said, which has since been colorized, was made sometime in the 1850s. Photo courtesy of Yale University Library
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New research reconsiders writings of enslaved Muslim scholar
He was from Senegal, wrote in Arabic and was enslaved. Or was he an Arab prince? He was a scholar who memorized vast passages of the Quran and mastered numerous Islamic texts. Or were his writings unintelligible? He was a devout Muslim. Or did he convert to Christianity? These are just some of the conflicting narratives about Omar ibn Said (or more correctly Sayyid), a black Muslim scholar captured in Senegal in 1807 and taken by boat to Charleston, S.C.
