Description
On October 3, 1807, Thomas Jefferson was contacted by an unknown traveler urgently pleading for a private "interview" with the President, promising to disclose "a matter of momentous importance". By the next day, Jefferson held in his hands two astonishing manuscripts whose history has been lost for over two centuries. Authored by Muslims fleeing captivity in rural Kentucky, these documents delivered to the President in 1807 were penned by literate African slaves, and written entirely in Arabic. Jefferson's Muslim Fugitives reveals the untold story of two escaped West Africans in the American heartland whose Arabic writings reached a sitting U.S. President, prompting him to intervene on their behalf. Recounting a quest for emancipation that crosses borders of race, region and religion, Jeffrey Einboden unearths Arabic manuscripts that circulated among Jefferson and his prominent peers, including a document from 1780s Georgia which Einboden identifies as the earliest surviving example of Muslim slave authorship in the newly-formed United States. Revealing Jefferson's lifelong entanglements with slavery and Islam, Jefferson's Muslim Fugitives tracks the ascent of Arabic slave writings to the highest halls of U.S. power, while questioning why such vital legacies from the American past have been entirely forgotten.
About the Author
Jeffrey Einboden is Professor of English at Northern Illinois University and a 2017 Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies. Einboden's most recent books include The Islamic Lineage of American Literary Culture (Oxford, 2016) and Islam and Romanticism (2014). He is the recipient of two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, including a 2011 award supporting Einboden's recovery, translation and teaching of Arabic slave writings.
Reviews
The author has eloquently portrayed the interplay between specific American political undercurrents, especially during the early history of the US with the African representation of the Islamic culture in the North and West African regions from the 18th century onward. * Amidu Olalekan Sanni, Fountain University, Nigeria, The Muslim World Book Review *
...revelatory...His book offers even more for scholars eager to understand how Islam and Arabic figure into the early history of the United States. * Jacob Berman, Early American Literature *
[...] with such an enthralling premise as Arabic slave writings in the early United States - including archival jewels unearthed for the first time - the book makes a new contribution despite the odds. Einboden reveals a bank of forgotten moments tournants in which Islam and Arabic shaped America's founding. * Kevin Blankinship, Hedgehog Review, (UVA, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture) *
Jefferson's Muslim Fugitives is a fascinating exploration of intersections between the lives of West African Muslim slaves and leading early American intellectuals. Using extraordinary and rare Arabic and English archival evidence, Einboden masterfully reconstructs the history of a number of these slaves, the circulation of their writings, as well as their impact on pivotal figures of early American history. * Asma Sayeed, author of Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam *
Taking as its point of departure previously unpublished letters by enslaved Muslims in America,Jefferson's Muslim Fugitives provides new perspectives on early America's engagement with Arabic and with Islam. Along the way it takes fascinating detours into American experiments with cyphers and secret codes, hypotheses about possible links between Arab and Native American cultures, and the bizarre story of how two Africans in Kentucky came to be accused of being spies. An erudite and intriguing study. * Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Stanford University *
Einboden's adept sleuthing deciphers lost Islamic sources that recircuit the multilingual geographies of Jefferson's career. The scholarship embraids together wide-ranging conjunctions that dramatize how a deeper liberty requires the struggle to try to know the fugitive in all its human forms. * Timothy Marr, author ofThe Cultural Roots of American Islamicism *
Einboden's groundbreaking work on the presence of Muslims in the United States uncovers previously unknown documents related to Thomas Jefferson and his circle. Einboden has developed a fresh and timely narrative that will stimulate conversation among a wide range of readers. * Jeffrey Barbeau, Professor of Theology, Wheaton College and David Lobina *
Book Information
ISBN 9780190844479
Author Jeffrey Einboden
Format Hardback
Page Count 320
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 648g
Dimensions(mm) 238mm * 164mm * 25mm
About the Author
Jeffrey Einboden is Professor of English at Northern Illinois University and a 2017 Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies. Einboden's most recent books include The Islamic Lineage of American Literary Culture (Oxford, 2016) and Islam and Romanticism (2014). He is the recipient of two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, including a 2011 award supporting Einboden's recovery, translation and teaching of Arabic slave writings.
Reviews
The author has eloquently portrayed the interplay between specific American political undercurrents, especially during the early history of the US with the African representation of the Islamic culture in the North and West African regions from the 18th century onward. * Amidu Olalekan Sanni, Fountain University, Nigeria, The Muslim World Book Review *
...revelatory...His book offers even more for scholars eager to understand how Islam and Arabic figure into the early history of the United States. * Jacob Berman, Early American Literature *
[...] with such an enthralling premise as Arabic slave writings in the early United States - including archival jewels unearthed for the first time - the book makes a new contribution despite the odds. Einboden reveals a bank of forgotten moments tournants in which Islam and Arabic shaped America's founding. * Kevin Blankinship, Hedgehog Review, (UVA, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture) *
Jefferson's Muslim Fugitives is a fascinating exploration of intersections between the lives of West African Muslim slaves and leading early American intellectuals. Using extraordinary and rare Arabic and English archival evidence, Einboden masterfully reconstructs the history of a number of these slaves, the circulation of their writings, as well as their impact on pivotal figures of early American history. * Asma Sayeed, author of Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam *
Taking as its point of departure previously unpublished letters by enslaved Muslims in America,Jefferson's Muslim Fugitives provides new perspectives on early America's engagement with Arabic and with Islam. Along the way it takes fascinating detours into American experiments with cyphers and secret codes, hypotheses about possible links between Arab and Native American cultures, and the bizarre story of how two Africans in Kentucky came to be accused of being spies. An erudite and intriguing study. * Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Stanford University *
Einboden's adept sleuthing deciphers lost Islamic sources that recircuit the multilingual geographies of Jefferson's career. The scholarship embraids together wide-ranging conjunctions that dramatize how a deeper liberty requires the struggle to try to know the fugitive in all its human forms. * Timothy Marr, author ofThe Cultural Roots of American Islamicism *
Einboden's groundbreaking work on the presence of Muslims in the United States uncovers previously unknown documents related to Thomas Jefferson and his circle. Einboden has developed a fresh and timely narrative that will stimulate conversation among a wide range of readers. * Jeffrey Barbeau, Professor of Theology, Wheaton College and David Lobina *
Book Information
ISBN 9780190844479
Author Jeffrey Einboden
Format Hardback
Page Count 320
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 648g
Dimensions(mm) 238mm * 164mm * 25mm
