During the slave trade, more than 10 million Africans were uprooted from their homes and brought to American shores. Many of these slaves were from the Fulas, Fula Jallon, Fula Toro, and Massiona as well as other areas of West Africa. These areas were governed from their capital, "Timbuctu." These slaves were sent to Mexico, Cuba, and South America. More than 30 percent of these 10 million slaves were Muslim. They became the backbone of the American economy.

1539 Estevanico of Azamor, a Muslim from Morocco, lands in Florida with the ill-fated expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez in 1527. Estevanico remained in America to become the first of three Americans to cross the continent. At least two states owe their beginnings to this Muslim, Arizona and New Mexico.

1732 Ayyub ibn Sulaiman Jallon, a Muslim slave in Maryland, is set free by James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia, and provided transportation to England. He arrived home (Boonda, Ga- lumbo) from England in 1735.

1790 Moors from Spain are reported living in South Carolina and Florida.

1807 United States Congress prohibits the impor- tation of slaves into America after Jan. 1, 1808. Despite suppression of the slave trade during the next 60 years, slavery reached its peak between 1840 and 1860. The last Slave ships to be confiscates by the federal government were Wildfire, Storm King, Williams, Erie, Echo, Cora, and Binita, all of which violated the ban on importing slaves.  

1807 Yarrow Mamout, an African Muslim slave, is set free in Washington DC, and later becomes one of the first shareholders of the second chartered bank in America, the Columbia Bank. Yarrow may have lived to be more than 128 years old, the oldest person in American history. Two portraits of Yarrow done by well known artists are on public display.   The first, painted by Charles W. Peal in 1819 was done when Yarrow was 100 years old. It hangs in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. A second portrait com- pleted by James Simpson in 1828, can be seen in the Peabody Room at the Georgetown Public Library, Washington DC.  

1809 Al Haj Umar  ibn  Sayyid is enslaved in Charleston after running away. In jail, he is visited by John Owen and taken to Blade County and placed on the Owen plantation.  John Owen later became Governor of North Carolina. It has been reported that Umar lived to be 100 years old.  1828 Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori, a former prince from West Africa and now a salve on a Georgia plantation, is freed by the order of Secretary of State Henry Clay and President John

He was known to many during his lifetime as "The Prince of Slaves." A drawing of him, done by Henry Inman, is displayed in the Library of Congress. His life has also been well-documented.

1839 Sayyid Sa'id, ruler of Oman, orders his ship The Sultana to set sail for America on a trade mission. The Sultana touched port in New York, April 30, 1840. Although the voyage was not a commercial success, it marks the point of successful friendly rela- tions between the two countries that continue to this day.

1856 The United States cavalry hire a Muslim by the name of Hajji Ali to experi- ment with raising camels in Arizona.  

1865 The American Civil War ends. During the war, the "scorched earth" policy of the North destroyed churches, farms, schools, libraries, colleges, and a great deal of other property. The libraries at the University of Alabama managed to save one book from the debris of their library buildings. On the morning of April 4, when Federal troops reached the campus with order to destroy the university, Andre Deloffre, a modern language professor and custodian of the library, appealed to the commanding officer to spare one of the finest libraries in the South. The officer, being sympathetic, sent a courier to Gen. Croxton at his headquarters in Tuscaloosa asking permission to save the Rotunda. The general's reply was no. The officer reportedly said, "I will save one volume as a memento of this occasion. The volume selected was a rare copy of the Qur'an. 1870 The Reverend Norman, a Methodist missionary, converts to Islam.

1889 Edward W. Blyden, noted scholar and social activist, traveled throughout the eastern and southern parts of the US, proclaiming Islam. In a speech before the Colonization Society of Chicago, Blyden told his audience that the reasons Africans choose Islam over Christianity is that, "the Qur'an protected the Black man from self-- depreciation in the presence of Arabs or Europeans."

1893 Muslim immigrants from the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, etc. arrive in North America. They are mainly Turks, Kurds, Albanians, and Arabs.

1913 Timothy Drew (Noble Drew Ali) estab- lishes an organization in Newark, NJ, known as the Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA). Drew Ali reportedly was commissioned by the Sultan of Morocco to teach Islam to Negroes in the US. The MSTA is also responsible for many of today's African-American converts to Islam.

Muslims in America

1915 Albanian Muslims build a Masjid in Maine and establish an Islamic association. By 1919, they had established another Masjid in Connecti- cut. Theirs was one of the first associations for Muslims in the US.

1920 The Red Crescent, a Muslim charity mod- eled after the International Red Cross, is estab- lished in Detroit.

1921 A branch of the Ahmadiyya Movement is founded in Chicago by Dr. Mufti Muhammad Sadiq. This movement converted many African Americans to Islam.

1926 Duse Muhammad Ali, mentor of Marcus Garvey and the person who had a considerable impact upon Garvey's movement, establishes an organization in Detroit known as the Universal Islamic Society. It's motto was: "One God, One Aim, One Destiny."

1926 Polish-speaking Tatars build a mosque in Brooklyn, NY which is still in use.

1930 African American Muslims establish the First Muslim Mosque in Pittsburgh, PA.

1933 The Nation of Islam (NOI), one of the most significant organization sin American Muslim his- tory, is founded. It is responsible for converting a high percentage of African Americans to Islam. It was also effective in highlighting American Chris- tians' difficulties combating the effects of slavery and racism among African Americans. The NOI's philosophy was introduced in the US by Fard Muhammad (Wallace Ford), a Muslim mystic who disappeared in 1933. The late Elijah Mo- hammed, who succeeded Fard in 1933, helped build the organization into a strong ethnic move- ment advocating Islam as a way of life. Two of the most famous African Americans, Muhammad Ali, and Al Hajj Malik al-Shabazz (Malcolm X), were early adherents of this movement. Both later embraced the broader multiethnic concepts of Orthodox Islam.

1934 The Lebanese Community of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, opens its first Masjid.

1939 The Islamic Mission Society is founded in New York City by Sheikh Dawood. It publishes a magazine entitled "Muslim Sunrise."

1952 Muslims in the Armed Services sue the federal government to be allowed to identify themselves as Muslims. Until then, Islam was not recognizes as a legitimate religion.