Arabic Bibles in the South and other cultural blatherings

A fascinating note from an 1859 edition of the Southern Presbyterian review on a Georgia slave - named London - who copied the Gospels into English by way of Arabic script. Long before there were Eastern Orthodox Christians in the United States reading the Gospels in Arabic, Christian slaves in the South were making and reading copies of the Bible in anglicized Arabic:

The Gospels, written in the Negro Patois of English with Arabic Characters. By a Mandingo slave in Georgia.

At a regular meeting of the Ethnological Society of New York, on the 13th of October, 1857, a paper bearing the above title was read by W.B. Hodgson, Esq., of Savannah, in explanation of a manuscript in Arabic characters submitted by him to that society. The writer was a Mandingo slave, by the name of London, owned by Mr. Maxwell of Savannah. Besides these chapters of the Gospel, he wrote a book of hymns in Arabic letters, which has not been preserved. "The manuscript of London is remarkable," says Mr. Hodgson "in the use of the vowel points - harcat of the Arabic grammar. I infer that as London was accustomed to use them in making copies from the Koran, with the same reverential sentiment, he used the vowel points, in copying the bible of his adopted religion. Not having been instructed in English Grammar and Analysis, he could only write the words as their sounds affected his ear. Thus his vocalization was on this wise: - First chapter of John.

"Fas chapta ob jon.
Inde beginnen wasde Wad;
ande Wad waswid Gad,
ande Wad was Gad."

The thought of the Gospel being read and preached from an Anglicized Arabic transliteration at some fire-lit slave barbecue/prayer meeting inflames my soul. These words especially, because they are so pregnant with meaning, and have such a huge bearing on orthodox Christology. How did anyone convey to them what those things meant? It reminds me of the Ethiopian Eunuch encountered by St. Philip the Evangelist in the Book of Acts - he could not understand the Scriptures without someone explaining them to him, hence the need for some form of oral tradition, for the Scriptures do not interpret themselves.

There are other similar instances that occurred throughout the South. Mr. Hodgson, perhaps the South's preeminent Orientalist, collected many of the manuscripts written in Arabic by slaves. Another famous incident which predated the above manuscript, occurred in a jailhouse in Fayetteville, NC, in the early 19th century. A Muslim slave by the name of Omar ibn Said was arrested after fleeing from his master's plantation in South Carolina. The circumstances of Omar's arrest are interesting to me, for he managed to make his way across country to Fayetteville before being arrested for trying to enter a church to pray. Omar was a Muslim - why would he enter into a church to pray? My historian senses get all tingly when I think about that. Maybe the church didn't look like a church - maybe Omar thought it was a mosque? When you consider how barren so many Protestant churches look in this country, it isn't hard to imagine them being easily converted into mosques, or resembling mosques in the minds of tired, weary, Muslim slaves who have been on the run for days.

(I'm reminded of a funny story a friend told me about her Greek step-father. The family surprised him and his wife with a service to renew his vows at a Baptist church. Being raised Orthodox, he had his reservations when he first laid eyes on the church. "This is Christian?")

Or maybe Omar made no distinction between the two? Perhaps he was more "enlightened" in a sense than many Christians and Muslims in that one was as good as the other.

But I digress, back to our Muslim protagonist. Omar, while in prison, did something that I wish I could have witnessed - probably more so than many other singular events in American history - he began writing verses from the Qur'an, in Arabic, on the walls of his jail cell, much to the amazement of those who were there. Omar was in fact posting gris-gris on the walls of his cell, which was practiced among Africans as a means to ward off evil. Omar became a sort of celebrity and was purchased by a gentleman by the name of Owen from Bladen County. Omar lived with the Owen family for the rest of his life and was supposedly converted to Christianity, although to what extent he believed in the Gospel message is unknown.

There is reason to believe that Omar may have simply done so out of obedience to his master, while engaging in the Islamic practice of taqiyya, which is the practicing of Islam in secret when Muslims are subjected by non-Muslim rulers. Despite Omar's ambiguous relationship with Christianity, he did encourage efforts to Christianize Africans. I get the sense that Omar was not as dogmatic in matters of religion as his Christian masters. He saw the salutory effects of Christianity and Islam, and perhaps regarded them equally, seeing no theological contradiction in Mohammed and Christ (fittingly, there was a mosque named after Omar in Fayetteville). In this regard he came very close to what many southern intellectuals and divines held - that Islam was a faith that had foundations in reason, Biblical principles, and that it encouraged civilization. It had lifted Africans out of what they supposed to be barbarism and "gree gree worship," although Omar himself illustrates that Islam did not stamp that practice out totally. Although most would assert the superiority of Christianity, many would allow for Islam's place in a sort of scale of religious progress from barbarism to enlightenment.

For instance, Thomas Jefferson organized his books on religion thusly: works on paganism, followed by works on Judaism, Islam, and finally works on Christianity. I don't know for certain, but I'd like to think that Jefferson placed the crowning achievement - his translation (or rather redaction) of the Gospels last in that pantheon, in which all of the miraculous events of Christ's life were removed, along with His passion and resurrection, and Christianity reduced to the Christian System.

But I digress again (this is something which I am deeply interested in, so you must forgive me). The aforementioned Mr. Hodgson gave Omar an Arabic copy of the Bible, which still survives today, and is in the collection of Davidson College. The frontispiece can be seen here.

Omar refused repeated offers to return to Africa with the Colonization Society, and died in North Carolina in his 90s. He remains one of the most widely studied slaves in American history, and one of my favorite historical figures.

Omar looking fly in his pea coat.