Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas

Beginning with Latin America in the fifteenth century, this book, first published in 2005, 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.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments; Prologue; 1. Ladinos, Gelofes and Mandingas; 2. Caribbean crescent; 3. Brazilian sambas; 4. Muslims in New York; 5. Founding mothers and fathers of a different sort: African Muslims in the Early North American South; Interlude. In a Glass darkly - elisive communities; 6. Breaking away - noble Drew Ali and the foundations of contemporary Islam in African America; 7. The nation; 8. Malcolm; Epilogue.

About the Author :
Michael A. Gomez is Professor of History at New York University. He is the author of Pragmatism in the Age of Jihad: The Precolonial State of Bundu (Cambridge, 1992) and Exchanging our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South (1998). His research, teaching interests, and publications include the African diaspora, Islam, and West African history. He currently serves as director of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora.

Review :
'Michael A. Gomez has bought together a tremendous amount of interesting and useful information in Black Crescent ... Black Crescent is an important reference for scholars studying Islam among African slaves and for those studying the Moorish Science Temple and the Nation of Islam.' Ethnic and Racial Studies 'Black Crescent is a remarkable book. It is thoroughly researched, well-written and very insightful. Both academic and general readers of African American History, Atlantic History, African History, and Islamic Studies will find it an invaluable source ' History