(Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas) [By: Gomez, Michael A.]

by Michael A. Gomez

Beginning with Latin America in the fifteenth century, this book is a social history of the experiences of African Muslims and their descendants throughout the Americas, including the Caribbean. The record under slavery is examined, as is the post-slavery period into the twentieth century. The experiences vary, arguably due to some extent to the Old World context. Muslim revolts in Brazil are also discussed, especially in 1835, by way of a nuanced analysis. The second part of the book looks at the emergence of Islam among the African-descended in the United States in the twentieth century, with successive chapters on Noble Drew Ali, Elijah Muhammad, and Malcolm X, with a view to explaining how orthodoxy arose from varied unorthodox roots.

Genres: Islam, History, Religion, Nonfiction, Africa, Politics

Paperback

First published March 21, 2005

About the author

Michael A. Gomez is the Silver Professor of History and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University. His books include Black Crescent: African Muslims in the Americas; Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South; Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora; and Pragmatism in the Age of Jihad: The Precolonial State of Bundu.

Reviews

[Tatyana Williamson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow but some great perspective and lots to learn from the book.

[Andee Nero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four for effort. He is trying to start something new in the scholarship and his sources are often pretty weak. There is an awful lot of speculation in this book. Still, he worked with what he had an produced something substantial. One issue though... could he have said the word "foregoing" more? There are so many synonyms available that are in much more common usage in the English language!

[Elijah Meeks · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent review of Islam in the Americas, with great detail on Noble Ali and the predecessors of the Nation of Islam, as well as hard-to-find details on the cultural effect of Muslim slaves in the American South.

[Habeeb Akande · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book, learn a great deal about the connection of black Muslims from West and North Africa to North America to South America. Deals with the issue objectively and discusses the implications slavery has had on the people from these regions.