ABSTRACT
T HIS TEXT is an introduction to some of the diverse community histories, beliefs, and practices that comprise African American Islam. The African American Islamic population consists of from 1.5 to 4.5 million persons distributed across at least seventeen distinct communities, and comprises the single largest ethnic group amongst Muslims in America. The presence of Islam amongst African Americans can be traced to the earliest days of their forcible exportation to this continent. Although Western literature has encouraged the notion that most African slaves practiced traditional African religions and were first introduced to monotheism via Christianity, the areas in West Africa that were raped for slaves were in fact predominantly Muslim, and had been so for six to seven hundred years prior to the slave trade. Hence, contrary to orthodox belief, a large portion of the Africans brought to this country as slaves were Muslims, and this fact is becoming increasingly clear through the discovery, translation, and interpretation of Arabic slave narratives.
