Celebrating our African historical
personalities, discoveries, achievements and eras as proud people with rich
culture, traditions and enlightenment spanning many years.
Famous Historical Muslims of African/Black Origin
Islamic civilization currently encompasses every
culture, ethnicity, race, and language on the planet. The pages of Islamic
history are filled with the emergence of many different ethno-linguistic
groups, from regions as far apart as West Africa and Central Asia, as important
political and cultural forces, which greatly impacted the direction of Islamic
civilization. Unfortunately, despite this reality, Muslim history has often
been presented as a series of accomplishments revolving around Arabs, Persians,
and Turks, to the exclusion of all other groups. The rich histories of hundreds
of Muslim ethnic, racial, and linguistic groups have too often been overlooked
or overshadowed by this mistaken approach towards Muslim history and
expropriated by the master narrative which seeks to identify Muslim history
with a very specific cultural and geographic context.
The marginalization of the historical legacy of
African Muslims needs to be understood within this broader context. Black
Muslims, or Muslims of African origin, have played—and continue to play— a
particularly important role in Islamic civilization as ascetics, reformers,
leaders, revolutionaries, and scholars. In many ways, the egalitarian and
diverse spirit of Islam is most clearly manifested in this history, the impact
of which extended far beyond Africa and the influence of which has left a
significant historical legacy. Yet, many Muslims are ignorant of this rich history.
How many Muslim youths are familiar with the story of Usāma ibn Zayd? When we speak of revolution and justice,
who today speaks of the Zanj rebellion, an ultimately unsuccessful struggle,
colored by messianic tendencies, waged by African Muslims in order to transform
an unjust social and political order? Moreover, in theological circles, while
we examine the works of Ibn al-Qayyim, al-Ghazālī, and
Ibn Arabī—volumes of which have
been translated and are readily available—the reformist thought of Usmān dan Fodio, Nānā Asmā’u and Amadou Bamba remains a mystery to most Muslims,
many of whom have scarcely heard the names of these great scholars from West
Africa. It is important for many Muslims to reclaim this history, which has too
often been forgotten or marginalized. This process of reclamation begins with
the recognition of those individuals who shaped this history and who
contributed to Islamic civilization. Among the most important of these men and
women are:
Sumayya b. Khayyāṭ (d. 615).
Sumayya was one of the first women to embrace Islam during the Meccan period,
shortly after the declaration of the Prophet’s mission in 610 A.D. She was the
wife of Yāsir b. ‘Āmir and mother to ‘Ammār b. Yāsir. Originally a slave, she was later freed following
the birth of her son. Sumayya, her husband, and her son were the first instance
in the history of the faith of an entire family embracing Islam. Due to the
staunch opposition of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca to the new faith, however,
Sumayya and her family (lacking tribal protection, since they were of humble
origins) bore the brunt of the persecution of the Meccans as they attempted to
destroy the nascent Islamic faith. Due to their refusal to abandon their new
faith, both Sumayya and Yāsir were
publicly tortured before being executed (in front of their son, ‘Ammār) by the Qurashi tribal chieftain Abū Jahl ‘Amr b.
Hishām in 615 A.D. As such,
Sumayya is considered to be the first martyr in Islam according to Muslim
tradition.
