American and Muslim Worlds before 1900

by John Ghazvinian, Arthur Mitchell Fraas

Overview

American and Muslim Worlds before 1900 challenges the prevailing assumption that when we talk about "American and Muslim worlds", we are talking about two conflicting entities that came into contact with each other in the 20th century. Instead, this book shows there is a long and deep seam of history between the two which provides an important context for contemporary events -- and is also important in its own right.

Some of the earliest American Muslims were the African slaves working in the plantations of the Carolinas and Latin America. Thomas Jefferson, a slaveholder himself, was frequently called an "infidel" and suspected of hidden Muslim sympathies by his opponents. Whether it was the sale of American commodities in Central Asia, Ottoman consuls in Washington, orientalist themes in American fiction, the uprisings of enslaved Muslims in Brazil, or the travels of American missionaries in the Middle East, there was no shortage of opportunities for Muslims and inhabitants of the Americas to meet, interact and shape one another from an early period.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350109537
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	02/06/2020
Series:	Islam of the Global West
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	256
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

John Ghazvinian is Associate Director of the Middle East Center, University of Pennsylvania, USA. He is the author of Children of the Revolution: Iran and America since 1600 (2018).

Arthur Mitchell Fraas is Senior Curator of Special Collections at the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, USA.
John Ghazvinian is Associate Director of the Middle East Center, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
Arthur Mitchell Fraasis is Curator of Special Collections at the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries.

Table of Contents

List of Images
List of contributors
Introduction
Part One: Islam and the Making of the Early American Republic
1. Benjamin Franklin, Islam and the Abolition of Slavery (Denise Spellberg University of Texas at Austin, USA)
2. The Greek War of Independence and the Ideological Manifestations of
the Clash of Civilizations Theory in the United States, 1821-1830, Karine Walther (Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Qatar)
Part II: The Muslim Experience in the Americas
3. Nicholas Said's America: Islam, the Civil War, and the Emergence of African
American Narrative, Ira Dworkin (Texas A&M University, USA)
4. Transcending Transcendentalism: An Islam Surface Reading of
African Muslim Slave Narratives in Antebellum America, Zeinab McHeimech (Western University, Canada)
5. Crossing Oceans, Transgressing Boundaries: Incorporating Muslims and
Moriscos into Histories of Colonial Spanish America, Karoline Cook (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK)
Part III: Muslim Worlds in the American Imaginary
6. 'An Unwelcome Present': Simulation and Simulacra in the Unlikely
Friendship of General Lew Wallace and Sultan Abdülhamit II, Bill Hunt (Barton College, USA)
7. The Lost Tribes of the Afghans: Religious Mobility and
Entanglement in Narratives of Afghan Origins, William E B Sherman (UNC Charlotte, USA)
8. Imagining Empire: Islamic India in Nineteenth-Century US Print Culture, Susan Ryan (University of Louisville, USA)
Part IV: Islam and American Empire: The Case of the Philippines
9. Subjugating the Sultan of Sulu: American Imperial Negotiations in the
Muslim Philippines, Timothy Marr (University of North Carolina, USA)
10. Native Americans, the Ottoman Empire, and Global Narratives of Islam
in the US Colonial Philippines, 1900-1914, Joshua Gedacht (Rowan University, USA)
11. An Ottoman Notable in America in 1915-1916: Sayyid Wajih
al-Kilani of Nazareth, William G Clarence-Smith (SOAS, University of London, UK)
Epilogue: The Global History of American and Muslim Worlds, Heather J Sharkey (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Fresh and topical. This collection on various aspects of the US-Islam relationship goes back to the beginning, and looks at the phenomenon from very different and yet ultimately complementary angles.” —Mark Sedgwick, Aarhus University, Denmark

“This is an impressive book, and will become an essential reading for those teaching on the US relationship with the Muslim societies.” —Cemil Aydin, Professor of History, UNC-Chapel Hill, USA

From the Publisher