| 1178 |
A Chinese document know as the Sung Document
records the voyage of Muslim sailors to a land know as Mu-Lan-Pi (America).
Mention of this document is contained in the publication, the Khotan Amiers,
1933. |
| 1310 |
Abu Bakari (Abu Bakar), a Muslim king of the Malian Empire,
spearheads a series of sea voyages to the New World. |
| 1312 |
African Muslims (Mandinga) arrive in the Gulf o Mexico
for exploration of the American interior using the Mississippi River as
their access route. These Muslim explorers were from Mali and other parts
of West Africa. |
| 1513 |
Pri Ries completes his first world map, including the American,
after research maps from all over the world. The practicality and artistry
of his map surpassed any from his time or before. |
| 1530 |
African slaves arrive in America. During the slave trade,
more than 10 million Africans were uprooted from their homes and brought
to American shores. Many of these slaves were from the Fulas, Fula Jallon,
Fula Toro, and Massiona as well as other areas of West Africa. These areas
were governed from their capital, "Timbuctu." These slaves were sent to
Mexico, Cuba, and South America. More than 30 percent of these 10 million
slaves were Muslim. They became the backbone of the American economy. |
| 1539 |
Estevanico of Azamor, a Muslim from Morocco, lands in Florida
with the ill-fated expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez in 1527. Estevanico
remained in America to become the first of three Americans to cross the
continent. At least two states owe their beginnings to this Muslim, Arizona
and New Mexico. |
| 1732 |
Ayyub ibn Sulaiman Jallon, a Muslim slave in Maryland,
is set free by James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia, and provided transportation
to England. He arrived home (Boonda, Galumbo) from England in 1735. |
| 1790 |
Moors from Spain are reported living in South Carolina
and Florida. |
| 1807 |
United States Congress prohibits the importation of slaves
into America after Jan. 1, 1808. Despite suppression of the slave trade
during the next 60 years, slavery reached its peak between 1840 and 1860.
The last Slave ships to be confiscates by the federal government were Wildfire,
Storm King, Williams, Erie, Echo, Cora, and Binita, all of which violated
the ban on importing slaves. |
| 1807 |
Yarrow Mamout, an African Muslim slave, is set free in
Washington DC, and later becomes one of the first shareholders of the second
chartered bank in America, the Columbia Bank. Yarrow may have lived to
be more than 128 years old, the oldest person in American history. Two
portraits of Yarrow done by well known artists are on public display. The
first, painted by Charles W. Peal in 1819 was done when Yarrow was 100
years old. It hangs in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. A second
portrait completed by James Simpson in 1828, almost a decade later, can
be seen in the Peabody Room at the Georgetown Public Library, Washington
DC. |
| 1809 |
Al Haj Umar ibn Sayyid is enslaved in Charleston after
running away. In jail, he is visited by John Owen and taken to Blade County
and placed on the Owen plantation. John Owen later became Governor of North
Carolina. It has been reported that Umar lived to be 100 years old. |
| 1828 |
Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori, a former prince from West
Africa and now a salve on a Georgia plantation, is freed by the order of
Secretary of State Henry Clay and President John Quincy Adams. He was known
to many during his lifetime as "The Prince of Slaves." A drawing of him,
done by Henry Inman, is displayed in the Library of Congress. His life
has also been well-documented. |
| 1839 |
Sayyid Sa'id, ruler of Oman, orders his ship The Sultana
to set sail for America on a trade mission. The Sultana touched port in
New York, April 30, 1840. Although the voyage was not a commercial success,
it marks the point of successful friendly relations between the two countries
that continue to this day. |
| 1856 |
The United States cavalry hire a Muslim by the name of
Hajji Ali to experiment with raising camels in Arizona. |
| 1865 |
The American Civil War ends. During the war, the "scorched
earth" policy of the North destroyed churches, farms, schools, libraries,
colleges, and a great deal of other property. The libraries at the University
of Alabama managed to save one book from the debris of their library buildings.
On the morning of April 4, when Federal troops reached the campus with
order to destroy the university, Andre Deloffre, a modern language professor
and custodian of the library, appealed to the commanding officer to spare
one of the finest libraries in the South. The officer, being sympathetic,
sent a courier to Gen. Croxton at his headquarters in Tuscaloosa asking
permission to save the Rotunda. The general's reply was no. The officer
reportedly said, "I will save one volume as a memento of this occasion.
The volume selected was a rare copy of the Qur'an. |
| 1870 |
The Reverend Norman, a Methodist missionary, converts to
Islam. |
| 1889 |
Edward W. Blyden, noted scholar and social activist, traveled
throughout the eastern and southern parts of the United States, proclaiming
Islam. In a speech before the Colonization Society of Chicago, Blyden told
his audience that the reasons Africans choose Islam over Christianity is
that, "the Qur'an protected the Black man from self-depreciation in the
presence of Arabs or Europeans." |
| 1893 |
Muslim immigrants from the Arab provinces of the Ottoman
Empire, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, etc. arrive in North America. They are
mainly Turks, Kurds, Albanians, and Arabs. |
| 1913 |
Timothy Drew (Noble Drew Ali) establishes an organization
in Newark, NJ, known as the Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA). Drew
Ali reportedly was commissioned by the Sultan of Morocco to teach Islam
to Negroes in the United States. The MSTA is also responsible for many
of today's African-American converts to Islam. |
| 1915 |
Albanian Muslims build a Masjid in Maine and establish
an Islamic association. By 1919, they had established another Masjid in
Connecticut. Theirs was one of the first associations for Muslims in the
United States. |
| 1920 |
The Red Crescent, a Muslim charity modeled after the International
Red Cross, is established in Detroit. |
| 1921 |
A branch of the Ahmadiyya Movement is founded in Chicago
by Dr. Mufti Muhammad Sadiq. This movement converted many African Americans
to Islam. |
| 1926 |
Duse Muhammad Ali, mentor of Marcus Garvey and the person
who had a considerable impact upon Garvey's movement, establishes an organization
in Detroit known as the Universal Islamic Society. It's motto was: "One
God, One Aim, One Destiny." |
| 1926 |
Polish-speaking Tatars build a mosque in Brooklyn, NY which
is still in use. |
| 1930 |
African American Muslims establish the First Muslim Mosque
in Pittsburgh, PA. |
| 1933 |
The Nation of Islam (NOI), one of the most significant
organization sin American Muslim history, is founded. It is responsible
for converting a high percentage of African Americans to Islam. It was
also effective in highlighting American Christians' difficulties combating
the effects of slavery and racism among African Americans. The NOI's philosophy
was introduced in the United States by Fard Muhammad (Wallace Ford), a
Muslim mystic who disappeared in 1933. The late Elijah Mohammed, who succeeded
Fard in 1933, helped build the organization into a strong ethnic movement
advocating Islam as a way of life. Two of the most famous African Americans,
Muhammad Ali, and Al Hajj Malik al-Shabazz (Malcolm X), were early adherents
of this movement. Both later embraced the broader multiethnic concepts
of Orthodox Islam. |
| 1934 |
The Lebanese Community of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, opens its
first Masjid. |
| 1939 |
The Islamic Mission Society is founded in New York City
by Sheikh Dawood. It publishes a magazine entitled "Muslim Sunrise." |
| 1952 |
Muslims in the Armed Services sue the federal government
to be allowed to identify themselves as Muslims. Until then, Islam was
not recognizes as a legitimate religion. |
| 1955 |
The State Street Masjid in New York City is established
by Sheikh Dawood Ahmed Faisal. It is still in use today and represents
a special point in the development of the American Muslim community. From
this Masjid was born the Dar-ul-Islam movement. |
| 1960 |
The NOI's University of Islam schools flourished and drew
the attention of the American media. Coverage focuses upon the Black Muslims'
self-help programs for Blacks, but considered them a "threat" to the white
establishment. |
| 1962 |
The Dar-ul-Islam movement, another important groups among
the African American Muslim community is born. Until its disappearance
in 1982-1983, it made a serious impact upon the development and practice
of traditional Islam in America. |
| 1962 |
The newspaper Muhammad Speaks is launched. It later becomes
the largest minority weekly publication in the country and reached 800,000
readers at its peak. In subsequent years, it underwent some name changes,
and the NOI itself underwent various transformations. It has also been
know as Bilalian News the A.M. Journal and currently, the
Muslim Journal. |
| 1963 |
The Muslim Students Association (MSA) is established as
an organization to aid foreign Muslims students attending schools in the
United States. MSA now has more than 100 branches nationwide. In the 1970s,
it gave birth to the Islamic Medical Association (IMA), The Association
of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS), and the Association of Muslim Scientists
and Engineers (AMSE). |
| 1965 |
Al Hajj Malik al-Shabazz (Malcolm X) is assassinated in
New York . He was one of the most outstanding Muslims in American history
as well as a dedicated fighter for justice and equality for African Americans
and other oppressed people. |
| 1968 |
The Hanafi Movement is founded by Hamas Abdul Khaalis.
The Hanafi Madh-hab Center was established in New York, but later moved
to Washington DC. This movement had a membership of more than 1000 in the
United States. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar a famous basketball player, is one of
the Muslims who first came into contact with Islam through this movement.
In 1977, Khaalis and some of his followers seized control of three District
of Columbia buildings, holding hostages for more than 30 hours. One man
was killed. Khaalis is now incarcerated in Washington DC, serving a sentence
of 41 to 120 years. This movement marks a challenging period in American
Muslim History. |
| 1971 |
The Association of Muslim Scientists and Engineers is established. |
| 1972 |
The Association of Muslim Scientists is launched. |
| 1975 |
Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, dies and
is succeed by his son Warith Deen Mohammed, who has been credited with
moving the NOI toward the broader universal concepts of Islam. He is now
regarded as one of the leading Muslim spokesmen in the United States. |
| 1981 |
The first American Islamic library is established in Plainfield,
Indiana. |
| 1982 |
The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) is established
in Plainfield, IN. ISNA is now an umbrella organization for many active
Islamic groups seeking to further the cause of Islam in the United States. |
| 1986 |
Dr. Isma'il R. Al-Faruqi and his wife are murdered in their
home outside Philadelphia. Dr. and Mrs. Faruqi are the authors of the Cultural
Atlas of Islam as well as many other books and research papers. Dr. Faruqi
is the founder of AMSS and the International Institute of Islamic Thought,
located in Northern Virginia. This truly remarkable Muslim family is responsible
for some of the most constructive programs to promote Islam in the United
States. |
| 1990 |
Muslims hold the first solidarity conference called "Muslims
Against Apartheid." This was the first conference of its kind in support
of Muslims for the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. The conference
was organized by the American Muslim Council. |
| 1991 |
Imam Siraj Wahhaj offers an invocation (opening prayer)
to the United States House of Representatives. He was the first Muslim
to do so. |
| 1991 |
The Muslim Members of the Military (MMM) organization hold
their first "Unity in Uniform" conference. The conference took place at
Bolling Air Force Base in Washington DC. According to the Untied States
Department of Defense, there are more than 5000 Muslims in uniform on active
duty in the military. |
| 1991 |
Charles Bilal, Kountze, TX becomes the nation's first mayor
in an American city. |
| 1992 |
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed gives the invocation in the Senate. |
