Turtle Island-North Amexem Another Ancient Name for North America
The term “Moors” refers primarily to the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, and Malta during the Middle Ages. The Moors initially were the Berber autochthones of the Maghreb. The name was later also applied to Arabs.
I knew several [people] who must have been, from what I have since learned, Mohamedans [Muslims]; though at that time, I had never heard of the religion of Mohamed. There was one man on this plantation… who prayed five times every day, always turning his face to the east, when in the performance of his devotion.
CHARLES BALL
1837
The Moorish Kingdom of Granada continued for three more centuries in southern Iberia. On 2 January 1492, the leader of the last Muslim stronghold in Granada surrendered to the armies of a recently united Christian Spain (after the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragón and Isabella I of Castile, the “Catholic Monarchs”). The Moorish inhabitants received no military aid or rescue from other Muslim nations. The remaining Jews were also forced to leave Spain, convert to Roman Catholic Christianity, or be killed for refusing to do so. In 1480, to exert social and religious control, Isabella and Ferdinand agreed to allow the Inquisition in Spain. The Muslim population of Granada rebelled in 1499. The revolt lasted until early 1501, giving the Castilian authorities an excuse to void the terms of the Treaty of Granada (1491). In 1501, Castilian authorities delivered an ultimatum to the Muslims of Granada: they could either convert to Christianity or be expelled.
The founding fathers were aware of Islam and the presence of Muslims in America. Thomas Jefferson, who owned a copy of the Qur’an, included Islam in many of his early writings and political treatises. Campaigning for religious freedom in Virginia, Jefferson argued in the proposed “Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom” that, “neither Pagan nor Mahamedan [Muslim] nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion.” Unfortunately, this language was amended before ratification to remove references to non-Christian groups. Jefferson was not the only statesman who recognized religions other than Christianity in his work. However, their knowledge of and theoretical openness to Islam did not stop them from enslaving African Muslims.
Despite significant obstacles, enslaved Muslims used their faith and bilingual literacy to build community, resist slavery, and pursue freedom. They left numerous written accounts of their experiences in America in the form of letters, diaries, and autobiographies, most of them in Arabic. And they strategically used Arabic to communicate with one another and to undermine slavery. Bilali Mohammad and Salih Bilali were known to be “intimate friends”; Omar ibn Sayyid and Lamine Kebe wrote letters to one another; and Ayuba Suleiman Diallo sent an Arabic letter to his father in Africa. They also wrote pages of Arabic for their slaveholders and their friends. But instead of writing what the recipients believed was a Bible verse or the Lord’s Prayer, they wrote Qur’anic verses that condemned slavery, made genealogical lists, and even pled to return home to Africa.
However, Muslims also experienced open hostility and hardship when practicing their faith. Ayuba Suleiman Diallo was pelted with dirt by a white boy in Kent Island, Maryland, as he prayed; others were forced to wear sacrilegious clothing, ignore dietary rules and religious fasting, or abstain from the required prayers. An unnamed “Moorish slave” in Louisiana confirmed this hardship in 1822 when he “lamented… that his situation as a slave in America, prevents him from obeying the dictates of his religion.” Nevertheless, they persevered and lived their faith. Many became pseudo-converts to Christianity (called taqiyah) to protect themselves and their families and they had to hide their true beliefs. Lamine Kebe pretended to convert to Christianity in order to secure passage back to Africa through the American Colonization Society. However, after returning to Africa, Kebe disappeared into Sierra Leone, surely “still retaining his Mohammedan creed.” Others, like Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, refused to budge in their faith and were rewarded for it. His faith impressed his slave owner so much that he was freed and provided passage back to Africa, receiving a royal welcome in England on the way.
The Islam brought to America by enslaved Africans did not survive long, but it left traces that are still visible today. The practice of Ring Shout, a form of religious dance in which men and women rotate counterclockwise while singing, clapping their hands, and shuffling their feet, was directly inherited from enslaved Muslims such as Bilali Mohammed and Salih Bilali in the Georgia Sea Islands. It originally mimicked the ritual circling (or shaw’t) of the Kaaba in Mecca by Muslim pilgrims. Interviews of formerly enslaved people collected by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s contain reminiscences of rice cakes called saraka, which were handed out during rituals and feast days. From the Arabic word sadaqah, or freewill offering, this charity is an aspect of zakat, one of the Five Pillars of Islam. And early blues singers, like those recorded by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax in “Levee Camp Holler,” employed singing styles reminiscent of the adhan, or call to prayer. They use sweeping and extended vocalizations to fill the words with intense emotions.
Did you know that in the 1500s, a Muslim explorer reached the shore of America? Did you know that President Thomas Jefferson owned a Quran? Did you know that the American Muslim population is roughly 11 million*? Did you know that American Muslims were musicians and sports stars? Did you know that roughly 30% of enslaved Africans were Muslims? Did you know that there are two towns in America named, Mohamet? Mahomet /məˈhɒmɪt/ is a town in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 7,258 at the 2010 census. Mahomet is located approximately ten miles west of Champaign at the junction of Interstate 74 and IL 47. Local legends concerning the origins of Mahomet, Illinois and Morocco and Mecca, Indiana, reveal no links to the Tribe of Ishmael. In the case of Mecca, however, they do suggest a possible connection to Islam. According to one local story, in the 1890s a tile plant was built in the vicinity of the town, “and they needed cheap workers, so they sent over to the Near East and got these Moslems… When they got paid, they’d come to town and say it was almost like coming to Mecca, and so they called the town Mecca.” Another local tradition traced the genesis of the towns name to the 1880s, when Arab workers from the Middle East were supposedly brought in to train Arabian horses. 1. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, 2. Damascus, Oregon, 3. Alexandria, Virginia, 4. Jordan, Minnesota, 5. Palestine, Texas, 6. Morocco, Indiana,7. Tyre, New York, 8. Cairo, Georgia, 9. Mecca, Indiana, Lebanon, 10.New Hampshire, 11.Damascus, Maryland, 12.Bagdad, Florida, 13.Cairo, Illinois, 14.Bethlehem, New Hampshire, 15. Nazareth, Pennsylvania, 16.Mecca, California, 17. Jordan, New York.
Did You Know In Georgia:
In Georgia: In 1803, Bilali (Ben Ali) Muhammad and his family arrived in Georgia on Sapelo Island. Bilali Muhammad was a Fula from Timbo Futa-Jallon in present day Guinea-Conakry. By 1806 he became the plantation manager for Thomas Spalding, a prominent Georgian master. Bilali and his wife Phoebe had 12 sons and 7 daughters. One of his sons is reported as being Aaron of Joel Chandler Harris’ work, author of Uncle Remus and Br’er Rabbit stories. His daughters” names were Margaret, Hester, Charlotte, Fatima, Yoruba, Medina, and Bint. All his daughters but Bint could speak English, French, Fula, Gullah, and Arabic. Bilali was well educated in Islamic law. While enslaved Bilali became the community leader and Imam of at least 80 men. During the War of 1812 Bilali told his slave master that he had 80 men of the true faith to help defend the land against the British.
Bilali was known for regularly wearing his fez, a long coat, praying five times a day facing the east, fasting during the month of Ramadan, and celebrating the two holidays when they came. Bilali was buried with his Qur’an and prayer rug. In 1829 Bilali wrote a 13 page hand written Arabic text book called a “Risala”about some of the laws of Islam and Islamic living. The book is known as Ben Alis”Diary, housed today at the University of Georgia in Athens.
Bilali “Ben Ali” was the leader of one of America’s earliest known Muslim communities. It’s documented that in 1812 there were at least eighty Muslims living on a plantation controlled by Ben Ali from 1806 to the late 1830s. Bilali was known for regularly wearing his fez, a long coat, praying five times a day facing the east, fasting during the month of Ramadan, and celebrating the two holidays when they came. Bilali was buried with his Qur’an and prayer rug.
There are:29 towns and cities have the name Lebanon
19 towns and cities have the name Cairo
17 towns and cities have the name Egypt
13 towns and cities have the name Jordan
12 towns and cities have the name Medina
12 towns and cities have the name Palestine
12 towns and cities have the name Damascus
8 towns and cities have the name Mecca
7 towns and cities have the name Mina
6 towns and cities have the name Alhambra
6 towns and cities have the name Bagdad
6 cities and towns have name Arabia
4 towns have the name Andalusia
4 towns and cities have the name Jerusalem
4 towns and cities have the name Alger
3 towns and cities have the name Lebanon Historical
2 towns and cities have the name Alida
2 towns and cities have the name Algiers
2 towns and cities have the name Arabi
2 towns and cities have the name Aquilla
2 towns and cities have the name Turkey
2 towns and cities have the name Mahomet
2 towns and cities have the name Lebanon Heights
2 towns and cities have the name Sultan
2 towns and cities have the name Soudan
2 towns and cities have the name Sudan
2 towns and cities have the name Syria
2 towns and cities have the name Turkey
1 town has the name Africa
1 town has the name Africa Historical
1 town has the name Ali Ak Chin
1 town has the name Ali Chukson
1 town has the name Allah
1 town has the name Arab
1 town has name Arabian Acres
1 town has the name Babylon
1 town has the name Dafur
1 town has the name Dahomy
1 town has the name Elkader
1 town has the name Ishmael
1 town has the name Islamorada
1 town has the name Islamberg
1 town has the name Mahtomedi
1 town has the name Media
1 town has the name Mesopotamia
1 town has the name Morocco
1 town has the name New Medina
1 town has the name New Palestine
1 town has the name New Lebanon
1 town has the name Lebanon Junction
1 town has the name Lebanon Lake Estates
1 town has the name Lebanon Center
1 town has the name Lebanon Independent
1 town has the name Lebanon Springs
There are more than 500 names of places, villages, streets, towns, cities, lakes, rivers, etc . . . in the United States in which there name are derived from African, Islamic, and Arabic words.
Facts About the Moors
1. The Spanish occupation by the Moors began in 711 AD when an African army, under their leader Tariq ibn-Ziyad, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from northern Africa and invaded the Iberian peninsula ‘Andalus’ (Spain under the Visigoths).
2. A European scholar sympathetic to the Spaniards remembered the conquest in this way:
a. [T]he reins of their (Moors) horses were as fire, their faces black as pitch, their eyes shone like burning candles, their horses were swift as leopards and the riders fiercer than a wolf in a sheepfold at night . . . The noble Goths [the German rulers of Spain to whom Roderick belonged] were broken in an hour, quicker than tongue can tell. Oh luckless Spain! [i]
[i] Quoted in Edward Scobie, The Moors and Portugal’s Global Expansion, in Golden Age of the Moor, ed Ivan Van Sertima, US, Transaction Publishers, 1992, p.336
3. The Moors, who ruled Spain for 800 years, introduced new scientific techniques to Europe, such as an astrolabe, a device for measuring the position of the stars and planets. Scientific progress in Astronomy, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Geography and Philosophy flourished in Moorish Spain
4. Basil Davidson, one of the most noted historians recognized and declared that there were no lands at that time (the eighth century) “more admired by its neighbours, or more comfortable to live in, than a rich African civilization which took shape in Spain”
5. At its height, Córdova, the heart of Moorish territory in Spain, was the most modern city in Europe. The streets were well-paved, with raised sidewalks for pedestrians. During the night, ten miles of streets were well illuminated by lamps. (This was hundreds of years before there was a paved street in Paris or a street lamp in London.) Cordova had 900 public baths — we are told that a poor Moor would go without bread rather than soap!
6. The Great Mosque of Córdoba (La Mezquita) is still one of the architectural wonders of the world in spite of later Spanish disfigurements. Its low scarlet and gold roof, supported by 1,000 columns of marble, jasper and and porphyry, was lit by thousands of brass and silver lamps which burned perfumed oil.
7. Education was universal in Moorish Spain, available to all, while in Christian Europe ninety-nine percent of the population were illiterate, and even kings could neither read nor write. At that time, Europe had only two universities, the Moors had seventeen great universities! These were located in Almeria, Cordova, Granada, Juen, Malaga, Seville, and Toledo.
8. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, public libraries in Europe were non-existent, while Moorish Spain could boast of more than seventy, of which the one in Cordova housed six hundred thousand manuscripts.
9. Over 4,000 Arabic words and Arabic-derived phrases have been absorbed into the Spanish language. Words beginning with “al,” for example, are derived from Arabic. Arabic words such as algebra, alcohol, chemistry, nadir, alkaline, and cipher entered the language. Even words such as checkmate, influenza, typhoon, orange, and cable can be traced back to Arabic origins.
10. The most significant Moorish musician was known as Ziryab (the Blackbird) who arrived in Spain in 822. The Moors introduced earliest versions of several instruments, including the Lute or el oud, the guitar or kithara and the Lyre. Ziryab changed the style of eating by breaking meals into separate courses beginning with soup and ending with desserts.
11. The Moors introduced paper to Europe and Arabic numerals, which replaced the clumsy Roman system.
12. The Moors introduced many new crops including the orange, lemon, peach, apricot, fig, sugar cane, dates, ginger and pomegranate as well as saffron, sugar cane, cotton, silk and rice which remain some of Spain’s main products today.
13. The Moorish rulers lived in sumptuous palaces, while the monarchs of Germany, France, and England dwelt in big barns, with no windows and no chimneys, and with only a hole in the roof for the exit of smoke. One such Moorish palace ‘Alhambra’ (literally “the red one”) in Granada is one of Spain’s architectural masterpieces. Alhambra was the seat of Muslim rulers from the 13th century to the end of the 15th century. The Alhambra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site
14. It was through Africa that the new knowledge of China, India, and Arabia reached Europe. The Moors brought the Compass from China into Europe.
15. The Moors ruled and occupied Lisbon (named “Lashbuna” by the Moors) and the rest of the country until well into the twelfth century. They were finally defeated and driven out by the forces of King Alfonso Henriques. The scene of this battle was the Castelo de Sao Jorge or the ‘Castle of St. George.’
Historical Facts
Prophet Noble Drew Ali traveled to see President Woodrow Wilson and here he sat and they challenged him. Drew Ali raised his right hand and light filled the room. Noble Drew Ali asked the President to teach his people, and they asked him, “Are you talking about the ‘Negroes’?” He replied, “There are no Negroes, Colored Folks, Black People, or Ethiopians! They are descendants of the Ancient Moabites, who inhabited the Northwest and Southwest Shores of Africa! I came for the flag of Our Ancient Forefathers.” The President stated, “It is not yet your time!” Ali answered, “I have been appointed in due time by Allah (Ur Ra, Heru Ur, Amen Ra) the Great God of the Universe.” One of the President’s counsels asked, “What kind of flag is your flag?” Drew Ali said, “YOU HAVE IT HIDDEN IN YOUR VAULT!” So they went to the vault room. They began to bring out all kinds of modern day flags. Ali stated, “You know it is much older than these!” They began to dig deeper and came up with a red flag and said, “This is the flag of Morocco.” The Prophet stated, “I am here for the Moorish flag, that which you called a cherry tree.” Then they dusted off an old flag that was red with a five pointed green star in the center. The President and counsel stared amazed at the exactness of the Holy Prophet. The President the said, “We have had them so long that they will not follow anyone else and to tell them would be like putting pants on a mule.” The Prophet stated, “My flock knows my voice.” After a while, he left and returned to his people (Note: There is no documented proof of this ever happening outside of the MSTA).
