Arabic Literature in America: Sufi Poems Quoted by Omar ibn Said

Abstract

One of the most remarkable figures in the history of Islam in America was Omar ibn Said (ʿUmar b. Sayyid, 1770-1863), a Muslim scholar educated in West Africa, who was captured in warfare in his homeland and sold into slavery in America in 1807. For over half a century he lived in North Carolina, enslaved by the prominent Owen family of Fayetteville, and he left behind a small body of writings in Arabic that have for the most part been misread and misunderstood. In this article, I would like to present three short poems quoted by Omar in his writings, which provide a clear indication of the intellectual and theological range of materials that he was familiar with.

Keywords

• Omar ibn Said
• Islam in America
• al-Qaṣīda al-Dimyāṭiyya
• Maqṣūrat al-jawhara
• Wāsiṭat al-sulūk

Amerika’daki Arapça Literatür: Ömer bin Seyyid’in Atıfta Bulunduğu Tasavvufi Şiirler

Öz

İslam tarihinin Amerika’daki en dikkat çekici isimlerinden biri, Batı Afrika’da eğitim görmüş, anavatanında savaşta esir düşmüş ve 1807’de Amerika’da köle olarak satılmış Müslüman bir âlim olan Ömer bin Said’dir (1770-1863). Yarım asırdan fazla bir süre Kuzey Carolina’da yaşamış, Fayetteville’in önde gelen ailelerinden biri olan Owen ailesi tarafından köleleştirilmiş ve ardında, çoğunlukla yanlış okunmuş ve yanlış yorumlanmış Arapça küçük çaplı bir liretatür bırakmıştır. Bu makalede, Ömer’in yazılarında alıntı yaptığı ve âşina olduğu entelektüel ve teolojik malzeme yelpazesini âşikâr eden üç kısa şiir sunulacaktır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Ömer bin Said
• Amerika’da İslam
• Kasîde-i Dimyâtiyye
• Dîvânü Ebî Medyen
• Şerhu Vâsıtatü’s-sülûk

References

1. Abū Madyan Shuʿayb al-Ghawth. Dīwān. Edited by ʿAbd al-Qādir Suʿūd and Sulaymān al-Qurashī. Beirut: Kitāb-Nāshirūn, 1432/2010.
2. al-Dimyāṭī, Nūr al-Dīn. “al-Qaṣīda al-Dimyāṭiyya,” al-Ṣafḥa al-Rashīdiyya al-Idrīsiyya li-aḥbāb wa-tilāmidhat al-sayyid al-sharīf Maḥmūd ibn ʿUthmān Baṣrī (blog), 13 September 2018, https://hi-in.facebook.com/386896678322561/posts/729043544107871/, (accessed August 19, 2022).
3. Bencheneb, H.. “al-Sanūsī”, in EI2, ed. P. Bearman et al. 2012, http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_1001, (accessed August 18, 2022).
4. Gril, Denis, “Abū Madyan,” in EI3, ed. Kate Fleet et al., 2016, chttp://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_24740, (accessed August 19, 2022).
5. Hunwick, John. “‘I Wish to Be Seen in Our Land Called Afrika’: ’Umar b. Sayyid’s Appeal to Be Releasedfrom Slavery (1819),” in Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 5 (2003): 62–77.
6. Lo, Mbaye, and Carl W. Ernst. I Cannot Write my Life: Islam, Arabic, and Slavery in Omar ibn Said’sAmerica. Chapel Hill NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2023.
7. al-Sanūsī al-Ḥasanī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Yūsuf. Sharḥ wāsiṭat al-sulūk. Edited by Nizār Ḥammādī. Damascus: Dār al-Taqwā, 1440/2018.
8. Shafik, Ahmed. “Poema de Exhortación Piadosa: Maqṣūrat al-Ŷawhara de Abū Madyan: Traducción yNotas,” in al-Andalus Magreb: Estudios Árabes e Islámicos 23 (2016): 93–126.

9. Vimercati Sanseverino, Ruggero. “Al-Dimyāṭī, Nūr al-Dīn,” in EI3, 2015, http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_26037, (accessed August 19, 2022).