From the Middle Ages until today, Muslims from African countries traveled as travelers, pilgrims, merchants, scholars, artists, nomads, travelers, and mystics, and before the 20th century millions of them were enslaved, and forcibly settled in foreign societies for them in Eurasia, the Americas, and even on the continent itself.

In his author, "Call of Bilal .. Islam and its Transformations in the African Diaspora," the American academic Edward Curtis considers that the African diaspora has become global since the opening of Andalusia at the beginning of the eighth century AD until today, as Muslims of sub-Saharan origin in Europe moved in, lived in, influenced and were affected by.

The professor at Indiana University, who specializes in African and American studies, added that while contemporary societies of black Muslim immigrants had a great influence on life in European countries such as Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, and the slave trade across the Atlantic brought over a million Muslims to the new world, most of them maintained the identity that they inherited for their children. According to the book published by the University of North Carolina Press, a large African Islamic community formed in the New World.

This book explores the religious practices of all these Muslims of African descent, those who have heard - at least symbolically - "Bilal's call", provides an account of the spread of Islam between the African and the world diaspora, and explains the different ways in which Islam is practiced by people of African descent, as It explores how Islam's practices are affected by this experience through the diaspora.

Bilal heirs

The writer says that the black or dark skin was not a stigma in the Arabian Peninsula, and the black color was not synonymous with slavery in the Middle East, as slaves were multi-ethnic and multicolored, and then can be found on bonded people with brown or white skin.

The author confirms that his book is not on the companion of Bilal bin Rabah, but on the echoes of his biography among African Muslims, as many Muslims of African descent consider Bilal's ethical heritage and his muezzin work as a model for creative and spiritual activity for African Muslims, and Bilal's biography is a reminder of early African presence in Islamic religion and society.

The term Sudan is used in the Arabic language to refer to the West, Central and East Africa regions, which today extend from Mauritania and Guinea to Ethiopia and Somalia.

The book traces the contribution of African Muslims to the expansion of the early Islamic state, and tells the stories of those who served in the armies of the caliphs and in the Umayyad and Abbasid Empires that opened different cities in Europe, Africa and Asia, and shows how African Muslims helped shape the Sunni and Shi’ite traditions that have become the most religious practices of Muslims in Islamic world.

The writer asserts that the African Muslims were the ones who established the institutions, networks and governments that contributed to the Islamization of large parts of the brown continent by the end of the seventh century AD, and the Africans were not forced to convert to Islam, but it took several centuries before the majority of the Berbers and other North African residents converted to Islam.

Shifts through time

The book specifically refers to the role of African Muslim mystics and powerful merchants and leaders in spreading Islam across many institutions, schools, and institutes, and deals with examples of African rulers such as Mansa Musa (died in 1337 AD) who ruled the wealthy gold empire of Mali and science institutes such as Sankuri University or the Great Mosque of Timbuktu , And Sunni Ali, who ruled the Songhai Empire in Mali, Niger and West Africa from 1464 to 1492 CE, and was succeeded by Askia Muhammad, who expanded the empire during his reign.

The author chronicles the transformation of the Swahili language into a popular Islamic language along the coast of East Africa from the 12th to the 15th century, and explained that for a greater number of African Muslims the experience of the diaspora is seen through the lens of a historical tragedy traced back to the physical dispersion from Africa to different regions around the world.

He continued, "The injustice and brutality of the slave trade is a common memory for African Muslims in the United Kingdom, the Caribbean and North America."

For many African Muslims, Islam is a legacy stolen by slavery and servitude, and therefore they do not convert to their indigenous African religious identity, but rather return to it. The history of the African diaspora is narrated in this way linked to a broader struggle against European colonialism and white supremacy.

America and the New World

In the fifth chapter of the book "African Muslims in Latin America and the Caribbean" the author reveals the faces of Islamic practice in politics by tracing the forms of black Muslim African participation in the new world, and says that Islamic practice has long been associated with the struggle against racism and other forms of resistance that She often sought to challenge slavery and anti-black racism.

In Latin America and the Caribbean the colonial authorities - Spanish and Portuguese - classified slave Muslims of African descent - whether they were from Andalusia, North or West Africa - "riotous", and in 1530 and again in 1532 - for example - the authorities banned In Santo Domingo (the capital of the Dominican Republic) more Moroccan slaves imported, but that did not change much. By the age of the end of the transatlantic slave trade in the 19th century, perhaps more than a million - out of the 12 million Africans transported across the ocean - were Muslims.

While tens of thousands of African Muslim slaves arrived in "British" North America and the early United States, the vast majority of them were transferred to colonies and countries throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, despite settlers' fears of repeated Muslim slave revolts.

The writer says in Chapter Six about African Muslims in North America that the movement of Africans across the Atlantic - which was first launched due to the slave trade - was the beginning of a recent migration movement that pushed Africans and others to seek capital in the economically developed world.

The book considers that slavery could have ended, but the forces that recruit labor and raw materials from Africa at a low cost have not ended, and Islam is often seen as a way to recover a broken and scattered self in one way or another, in what has often become a means of survival Even resilience to racism and other forms of repression for African Muslims in the global diaspora.