{ "dataset": "sources", "description": "Treaties, letters, statutes, manuscripts, event records, and scholarly books with full citations.", "publisher": "Threads of Connection", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/data/sources.json", "license": { "name": "CC BY 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" }, "citation": "Threads of Connection, usmuslim.org/data/sources.json", "lastUpdated": "2026-10-22", "count": 34, "records": [ { "id": "mali-manuscripts", "title": "Islamic Manuscripts from Mali (Timbuktu libraries)", "author": "Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library; Library of Cheick Zayni Baye of Boujbeha", "year": 1550, "category": "Manuscript", "era": "Pre-Founding", "summary": "Over 30 digitized Arabic manuscripts from two private libraries of Timbuktu (the Mamma Haidara library dates from the 16th century), showing the manuscript culture of law, science, and theology that educated West Africans later enslaved in America, including Omar ibn Said and Bilali Muhammad.", "excerpt": "Manuscripts written in styles of Arabic script developed in Timbuktu and the surrounding regions of Mali and West Africa: the written tradition behind the Arabic literacy documented on American plantations.", "citation": "Islamic Manuscripts from Mali (16th century onward). Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library and the Library of Cheick Zayni Baye, Timbuktu; digitized in cooperation with the Library of Congress from 2004.", "href": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/islamic-manuscripts-from-mali/about-this-collection/", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#mali-manuscripts" }, { "id": "locke-1689", "title": "A Letter Concerning Toleration", "author": "John Locke", "year": 1689, "category": "Letter", "era": "Pre-Founding", "summary": "Locke argues civil authority should tolerate 'Mahometans, Jews, and pagans', an argument Jefferson paraphrased in his 1776 notes.", "excerpt": "\"Neither Pagan, nor Mahometan, nor Jew, ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the commonwealth because of his religion.\"", "citation": "Locke, John. A Letter Concerning Toleration. Trans. William Popple. London, 1689.", "href": "https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/goldie-a-letter-concerning-toleration-and-other-writings", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#locke-1689" }, { "id": "bluett-1734", "title": "Some Memoirs of the Life of Job", "author": "Thomas Bluett (on Ayuba Suleiman Diallo)", "year": 1734, "category": "Autobiography", "era": "Pre-Founding", "summary": "London-published account of the Fulani Muslim scholar enslaved in Maryland (1731), whose Arabic literacy secured his freedom and return to Africa in 1734.", "excerpt": "\"He wrote out three Copies of the Alcoran with his own hand, from memory, in the space of about four Months.\"", "citation": "Bluett, Thomas. Some Memoirs of the Life of Job, the Son of Solomon, the High Priest of Boonda in Africa. London: Richard Ford, 1734.", "href": null, "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#bluett-1734" }, { "id": "washington-1785", "title": "Letter to Tench Tilghman on Hiring Craftsmen", "author": "George Washington", "year": 1784, "category": "Letter", "era": "Founding", "summary": "Washington instructs his agent that hired workers at Mount Vernon may be of any faith, explicitly naming Muslims and atheists as acceptable.", "excerpt": "\"If they are good workmen, they may be of Asia, Africa, or Europe. They may be Mahometans, Jews, or Christian of any Sect, or they may be Atheists.\"", "citation": "Washington, George. Letter to Tench Tilghman, March 24, 1784. Founders Online, National Archives.", "href": "https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-01-02-0174", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#washington-1785" }, { "id": "va-statute-1786", "title": "Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom", "author": "Thomas Jefferson (drafted 1777, enacted 1786)", "year": 1786, "category": "Statute", "era": "Founding", "summary": "Jefferson's landmark law disestablishing religion in Virginia; his autobiography records the defeated amendment that would have named it a Christian statute: his 1821 account of why the legislature rejected it.", "excerpt": "\"The insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and infidel of every denomination.\"", "citation": "Jefferson, Thomas. Autobiography (1821); Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, enacted January 16, 1786.", "href": "https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-17-02-0324-0002", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#va-statute-1786" }, { "id": "morocco-1786", "title": "Treaty of Peace and Friendship (Morocco)", "author": "Thomas Barclay & Sultan Mohammed III", "year": 1786, "category": "Treaty", "era": "Founding", "summary": "Signed at Marrakesh, ratified by Congress in 1787. Still the oldest unbroken treaty in U.S. history. Morocco opened its ports to American vessels in 1777, an act often described as early recognition of the United States.", "excerpt": "\"This is a Treaty of Peace and Friendship established between us and the United States of America, which is confirmed, and which we have ordered to be written in this Book and sealed with our Royal Seal…\"", "citation": "Treaty with Morocco, June 28 & July 15, 1786. U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian.", "href": "https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/bar1786t.asp", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#morocco-1786" }, { "id": "nc-debate-1788", "title": "North Carolina Ratifying Convention: the Religious Test Debate", "author": "Convention delegates (Elliot's Debates, vol. 4)", "year": 1788, "category": "Event Record", "era": "Founding", "summary": "Debating Article VI's ban on religious tests, delegates argued explicitly over whether 'Mahometans' could hold office, even the presidency. James Iredell, soon a Supreme Court justice, defended their inclusion as the price of religious freedom itself.", "excerpt": "\"But how is it possible to exclude any set of men, without taking away that principle of religious freedom which we ourselves so warmly contend for?\" (James Iredell, July 30, 1788)", "citation": "Debate in North Carolina Ratifying Convention, 30 July 1788. Elliot's Debates 4:191–215, in The Founders' Constitution (Univ. of Chicago Press).", "href": "https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/print_documents/amendI_religions52.html", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#nc-debate-1788" }, { "id": "franklin-autobio", "title": "Autobiography: on Religious Pluralism", "author": "Benjamin Franklin", "year": 1790, "category": "Autobiography", "era": "Founding", "summary": "Franklin describes his subscription for a Philadelphia hall open to preachers of any creed, including a hypothetical Mufti of Constantinople. Written c. 1788–1790, describing events of the 1730s.", "excerpt": "\"So that even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find a pulpit at his service.\"", "citation": "Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Written c. 1788–1790, describing events of the 1730s; posthumous publication 1791.", "href": null, "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#franklin-autobio" }, { "id": "newport-1790", "title": "Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport", "author": "George Washington", "year": 1790, "category": "Letter", "era": "Founding", "summary": "Washington's answer to Newport's Jewish congregation states the founding's inclusion principle in his own hand: religious liberty is an inherent natural right, not a majority's toleration. The same logic the ratification debates applied to 'Mahometans,' stated for another minority.", "excerpt": "\"For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens.\"", "citation": "Washington, George. To the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, 18 August 1790. Founders Online, National Archives.", "href": "https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-06-02-0135", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#newport-1790" }, { "id": "quran-1806", "title": "The first Qur'an printed in America", "author": "Printed by Henry Brewer for Isaiah Thomas Jr.", "year": 1806, "category": "Book", "era": "Early Republic", "summary": "A Springfield, Massachusetts press issues the first Qur'an printed in the United States, using Alexander Ross's 17th-century English translation. John Adams owned a copy: the only one known to have belonged to a U.S. president.", "excerpt": "The Koran, commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed, 'Springfield: Printed by Henry Brewer, for Isaiah Thomas, Jun.' (1806).", "citation": "The Koran, commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed. Springfield, MA: Henry Brewer for Isaiah Thomas Jr., 1806. Columbia University Libraries, The Quran in East and West.", "href": "https://exhibitions.library.columbia.edu/exhibits/show/quran/qurans/printed", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#quran-1806" }, { "id": "hyder-ally-1782", "title": "Hyder Ally and the capture of General Monk", "author": "Naval History and Heritage Command", "year": 1782, "category": "Naval Record", "era": "Founding", "summary": "A Pennsylvania armed merchant ship named after Haidar Ali of Mysore, who was then at war with Britain in India. Under Joshua Barney she captured the Royal Navy sloop General Monk off Cape May, at the mouth of Delaware Bay, on April 8, 1782.", "excerpt": "The Hyder Ally, bought for Pennsylvania's defense of Delaware Bay and commanded by Joshua Barney, captured the British sloop General Monk; the prize returned to American service under her earlier name, General Washington.", "citation": "U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, entry: General Washington.", "href": "https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/g/general-washington.html", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#hyder-ally-1782" }, { "id": "omar-1831", "title": "The Life of Omar ibn Said, Written by Himself", "author": "Omar ibn Said", "year": 1831, "category": "Manuscript", "era": "Early Republic", "summary": "The only known Arabic autobiography by an enslaved person in the United States. Opens with Surat al-Mulk, affirming God's sovereignty over all kingdoms.", "excerpt": "\"In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate… Blessed is He in whose hand is the kingdom.\"", "citation": "Said, Omar ibn. Life of Omar ibn Said, Written by Himself. 1831. Library of Congress, Arabic Manuscript Collection.", "href": "https://www.loc.gov/item/2018371864/", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#omar-1831" }, { "id": "bilali-doc", "title": "The Bilali Document", "author": "Bilali Muhammad", "year": 1829, "category": "Manuscript", "era": "Early Republic", "summary": "A thirteen-page Arabic manuscript on Islamic law and daily practice, written by an enslaved West African imam on Sapelo Island, Georgia.", "excerpt": "A jurisprudential compendium (fiqh) with sections on ablution, prayer, and ritual: evidence of a maintained Muslim community in the antebellum South.", "citation": "Muhammad, Bilali. Bilali Document (Ben Ali Diary), c. 1829. Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Georgia.", "href": "https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/bilali-mohammed/", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#bilali-doc" }, { "id": "peale-1819", "title": "Portrait of Yarrow Mamout", "author": "Charles Willson Peale", "year": 1819, "category": "Manuscript", "era": "Early Republic", "summary": "Oil portrait of a free Muslim of Washington, D.C., who purchased freedom and became a property owner. Peale's diary records their conversation about Yarrow's faith.", "excerpt": "\"He is comfortable in his situation, having food and cloathing… He professes to be a mahometan, and is often heard singing praises to God.\" (Peale's diary)", "citation": "Peale, Charles Willson. Portrait of Yarrow Mamout, 1819. Philadelphia Museum of Art; Peale Family Papers.", "href": null, "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#peale-1819" }, { "id": "ibrahima-1828", "title": "Freedom of Abd al-Rahman Ibrahima", "author": "U.S. State Department correspondence", "year": 1828, "category": "Letter", "era": "Early Republic", "summary": "The Fulbe prince, enslaved in Mississippi for 40 years, was freed after the Sultan of Morocco petitioned President John Quincy Adams on his behalf.", "excerpt": "Adams and Secretary Clay authorized his manumission and return to Africa, a direct product of the U.S.–Morocco diplomatic relationship.", "citation": "Alford, Terry. Prince Among Slaves. Oxford University Press, 1977; State Department records, 1828.", "href": null, "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#ibrahima-1828" }, { "id": "said-1863", "title": "55th Massachusetts Regiment enlistment (Nicholas Said)", "author": "US Army / Commonwealth of Massachusetts", "year": 1863, "category": "Military Record", "era": "Reconstruction", "summary": "Enlistment of Muhammad Ali ben Said in the 55th Massachusetts Colored Infantry.", "excerpt": "Regimental muster rolls record Said's service and promotion to sergeant in the 55th Massachusetts Colored Infantry, one of the earliest African American regiments in the Union Army.", "citation": "Massachusetts Adjutant General, muster rolls of the 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Colored), 1863–1865; National Park Service.", "href": "https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/55th-massachusetts-regiment.htm", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#said-1863" }, { "id": "ross-1929", "title": "The Ross, North Dakota Mosque", "author": "Community and historical archives", "year": 1929, "category": "Photograph", "era": "20th Century", "summary": "The first purpose-built mosque in the U.S., erected by Syrian-Lebanese homesteaders; demolished 1979, commemorative mosque rebuilt on the site in 2005.", "excerpt": "A modest prairie structure served the farming community of Ross until it fell into ruin. A commemorative mosque was rebuilt on the original site in 2005.", "citation": "Ross Mosque, Ross, North Dakota (1929). Community and state historical archives.", "href": "https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/oldest-mosque-in-the-united-states", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#ross-1929" }, { "id": "mother-mosque-1934", "title": "Mother Mosque of America", "author": "Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids", "year": 1934, "category": "Building Record", "era": "20th Century", "summary": "Oldest surviving purpose-built mosque in the United States (per NPS); listed on the National Register of Historic Places May 15, 1996 (as \"Moslem Temple\"); profiled by the National Park Service. Same community founded the first Muslim National Cemetery in Cedar Rapids in 1948.", "excerpt": "Completed February 1934 by a Syrian-Lebanese community during the Great Depression; renovated by the Islamic Council of Iowa in the early 1990s. NPS: listed May 15, 1996; 1948 Muslim National Cemetery donations associated with the Aossey family.", "citation": "National Park Service, 'Iowa: The Mother Mosque of America'; Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids history.", "href": "https://www.nps.gov/articles/mothermosque.htm", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#mother-mosque-1934" }, { "id": "cabeza-de-vaca-1542", "title": "Cabeza de Vaca, La Relación (journey with Estevanico)", "author": "Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca", "year": 1542, "category": "Manuscript", "era": "Pre-Founding", "summary": "Primary Spanish narrative of the Narváez survivors' 1528–1536 crossing of the future U.S. Southwest, including Estevanico (Esteban de Dorantes), described as a negro alárabe from Azamor, as one of four survivors pressed into itinerant healing among Indigenous nations.", "excerpt": "\"Until then Dorantes and the negro had not made any cures, but we found ourselves so pressed by the Indians coming from all sides, that all of us had to become medicine men.\"", "citation": "Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, La Relación (Zamora, 1542); English excerpt via The American Yawp.", "href": "https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/making-an-atlantic-world/alvar-nunez-cabeza-de-vaca-travels-through-north-america-1542/", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#cabeza-de-vaca-1542" }, { "id": "nps-esteban-dorantes", "title": "NPS: Esteban de Dorantes (Coronado National Memorial)", "author": "National Park Service", "year": 1539, "category": "Event Record", "era": "Pre-Founding", "summary": "National Park Service public-history page connecting Esteban de Dorantes (Estevanico) to the Coronado Expedition story: with Fray Marcos de Niza he led the 1539 reconnaissance to Cíbola; NPS describes him as the first non-native person to visit the southern Colorado Plateau region of today's Arizona and New Mexico.", "excerpt": "Esteban de Dorantes is presented as a central, still partly mysterious figure of African descent whose journey linked the Narváez survivors to the later Spanish entrada into the Colorado Plateau region.", "citation": "National Park Service, Coronado National Memorial, 'Esteban de Dorantes.'", "href": "https://www.nps.gov/coro/learn/historyculture/esteban-de-dorantes.htm", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#nps-esteban-dorantes" }, { "id": "tsha-estevanico", "title": "Handbook of Texas: Estevanico", "author": "Texas State Historical Association", "year": 1528, "category": "Event Record", "era": "Pre-Founding", "summary": "Reference entry on Estevanico: a native of Azamor on Morocco's Atlantic coast, baptized a Christian in Spain before 1527 and enslaved by Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, who crossed the Texas coast and the Southwest with the Narváez survivors and was killed near the Zuni pueblo of Hawikuh in 1539. It records his baptism; it does not record his earlier religion.", "excerpt": "Estevanico was a native of Azamor on the Atlantic coast of Morocco; in Spain before 1527 he was baptized a Christian and became the slave of Andrés Dorantes de Carranza.", "citation": "Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas Online, 'Estevanico.'", "href": "https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/estevanico", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#tsha-estevanico" }, { "id": "daifallah-1973", "title": "Death of Nagi Daifallah, UFW strike captain", "author": "United Farm Workers", "year": 1973, "category": "Event Record", "era": "20th Century", "summary": "The union's own account of the Yemeni immigrant strike captain killed by a sheriff's deputy during the 1973 Delano grape strike, and the funeral march that followed.", "excerpt": "Daifallah organized farmworkers in Arabic, Spanish, and English; thousands of mourners (Yemeni, Mexican, and Filipino) marched at his funeral in Delano, César Chávez among them.", "citation": "United Farm Workers, '50 years since UFW strikers Nagi Daifallah & Juan De La Cruz gave their lives to build the UFW' (2023).", "href": "https://ufw.org/50-years-since-ufw-strikers-nagi-daifallah-juan-de-la-cruz-gave-their-lives-to-build-the-ufw/", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#daifallah-1973" }, { "id": "alianza-1987", "title": "Alianza Islámica founded in East Harlem", "author": "Latino USA (Futuro Media)", "year": 1987, "category": "Event Record", "era": "20th Century", "summary": "The nation's first Latino Muslim organization, founded by Puerto Rican converts in Spanish Harlem with a storefront mosque, La Mezquita del Barrio, and GED, ESL, and drug-counseling programs.", "excerpt": "From the late 1980s to the mid-2000s, Alianza Islámica was the largest and most influential Latino Muslim organization in the United States, run from a storefront on Lexington Avenue.", "citation": "Latino USA, 'Alianza Islámica: Islam in the Barrio' (December 2016).", "href": "https://www.latinousa.org/2016/12/02/alianza-islamica-islam-barrio/", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#alianza-1987" }, { "id": "ellison-2007", "title": "Ellison oath on Jefferson's Qur'an", "author": "Library of Congress", "year": 2007, "category": "Event Record", "era": "21st Century", "summary": "The first Muslim member of Congress takes his ceremonial oath on Thomas Jefferson's 1764 copy of George Sale's Qur'an translation.", "excerpt": "Rep. Keith Ellison's ceremonial oath used Jefferson's own Qur'an, held in the Library of Congress's Rare Book and Special Collections Division.", "citation": "Library of Congress press release, January 2007.", "href": "https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-07-001/", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#ellison-2007" }, { "id": "mamdani-quran-2026", "title": "A mayoral oath on a Schomburg Qur'an", "author": "PBS NewsHour / Associated Press", "year": 2026, "category": "Event Record", "era": "21st Century", "summary": "New York City's first Muslim mayor takes his midnight oath on a centuries-old Qur'an from the New York Public Library's Schomburg collection, assembled by Arturo Schomburg, the Black Puerto Rican historian and collector.", "excerpt": "Zohran Mamdani was sworn in on January 1, 2026: the first time a New York mayor took the oath of office on the Qur'an.", "citation": "PBS NewsHour, 'Zohran Mamdani officially sworn in as New York City's mayor on a Quran full of symbolism,' January 1, 2026.", "href": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/zohran-mamdani-officially-sworn-in-as-new-york-citys-mayor-on-a-quran-full-of-symbolism", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#mamdani-quran-2026" }, { "id": "bald-2013", "title": "Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America", "author": "Vivek Bald (Harvard University Press)", "year": 2013, "category": "Book", "era": "20th Century", "summary": "Documents Bengali Muslim sailors who settled in U.S. port cities and married into African American and Puerto Rican communities.", "excerpt": "Bald traces lascars who left British ships in New York, New Orleans, and Baltimore, forming some of America's earliest South Asian Muslim communities.", "citation": "Bald, Vivek. Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America. Harvard University Press, 2013.", "href": "https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674503854", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#bald-2013" }, { "id": "abdelkader-elkader", "title": "Emir Abdelkader & the Naming of Elkader, Iowa", "author": "Abdelkader Education Project", "year": 1846, "category": "Book", "era": "20th Century", "summary": "In 1846, lawyer Timothy Davis named a new Iowa settlement after Emir Abdelkader, the Algerian scholar who later sheltered thousands of Christians in 1860 Damascus. Elkader is a rare U.S. city named for an Arab and Muslim figure.", "excerpt": "Abdelkader received honors from world leaders after 1860, including a gift of pistols from the US president (inscribed 1860, during Buchanan's term; often popularly attributed to Lincoln). Elkader and Mascara, Algeria have been sister cities since 1984.", "citation": "Abdelkader Education Project, Elkader, Iowa; Little Village, 'Founders of Elkader named their town after an Algerian freedom fighter' (2023).", "href": "https://abdelkaderproject.org/the-emir", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#abdelkader-elkader" }, { "id": "diouf-1998", "title": "Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas", "author": "Sylviane A. Diouf (NYU Press)", "year": 1998, "category": "Book", "era": "Modern Scholarship", "summary": "The foundational study of enslaved African Muslims in the Americas: their numbers, literacy, religious practice, resistance, and legacy. The source behind this site's treatment of Bilali Muhammad, Omar ibn Said, and the contested population estimates.", "excerpt": "Diouf estimates enslaved Muslims in the hundreds of thousands across the Americas and documents how they sustained prayer, fasting, dietary law, and Arabic literacy under bondage.", "citation": "Diouf, Sylviane A. Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas. New York University Press, 1998 (15th anniversary ed. 2013).", "href": null, "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#diouf-1998" }, { "id": "gomez-2005", "title": "Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas", "author": "Michael A. Gomez (Cambridge University Press)", "year": 2005, "category": "Book", "era": "Modern Scholarship", "summary": "A sweeping scholarly history connecting enslaved African Muslims to the later rise of Black American Islam: the Moorish Science Temple, the Nation of Islam, and the turn to Sunni orthodoxy.", "excerpt": "Gomez traces a line of memory and reinvention from Senegambian Muslims in the antebellum South to twentieth-century Black religious movements.", "citation": "Gomez, Michael A. Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas. Cambridge University Press, 2005.", "href": null, "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#gomez-2005" }, { "id": "curtis-2009", "title": "Muslims in America: A Short History", "author": "Edward E. Curtis IV (Oxford University Press)", "year": 2009, "category": "Book", "era": "Modern Scholarship", "summary": "The standard concise survey, from enslaved West Africans through immigrant communities and Black American movements to the post-9/11 era. The best single-volume starting point.", "excerpt": "Curtis narrates four centuries of Muslim American life in under 150 pages, built on primary documents and the major community archives.", "citation": "Curtis, Edward E., IV. Muslims in America: A Short History. Oxford University Press, 2009.", "href": null, "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#curtis-2009" }, { "id": "ghaneabassiri-2010", "title": "A History of Islam in America", "author": "Kambiz GhaneaBassiri (Cambridge University Press)", "year": 2010, "category": "Book", "era": "Modern Scholarship", "summary": "The most comprehensive single-volume academic history of Islam in America, from the Atlantic world of the sixteenth century to the twenty-first, arguing Muslims have continuously shaped, and been shaped by, American religious life.", "excerpt": "GhaneaBassiri reframes American religious history to include Muslims as participants from the colonial era onward, not late arrivals.", "citation": "GhaneaBassiri, Kambiz. A History of Islam in America: From the New World to the New World Order. Cambridge University Press, 2010.", "href": null, "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#ghaneabassiri-2010" }, { "id": "spellberg-2013", "title": "Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the Founders", "author": "Denise A. Spellberg (Alfred A. Knopf)", "year": 2013, "category": "Book", "era": "Modern Scholarship", "summary": "A leading study of the founding generation's engagement with Islam: Jefferson's 1765 purchase of the Qur'an, the 'Mahometan' test case in ratification debates, and, it argues, the deliberate constitutional inclusion of future Muslim citizens. Contested by critics such as David Forte.", "excerpt": "Spellberg argues the Founders argued about Muslim citizens on purpose: imagining a Muslim officeholder was the way they tested whether religious liberty was truly universal.", "citation": "Spellberg, Denise A. Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the Founders. Alfred A. Knopf, 2013.", "href": null, "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#spellberg-2013" }, { "id": "howell-2014", "title": "Old Islam in Detroit: Rediscovering the Muslim American Past", "author": "Sally Howell (Oxford University Press)", "year": 2014, "category": "Book", "era": "Modern Scholarship", "summary": "Archival history of Detroit's early twentieth-century Muslim communities, among the nation's oldest, documenting mosque-building, women's leadership, and the everyday institutional life behind the 'first mosque' debates on this site.", "excerpt": "Howell recovers the pre-1965 Muslim Midwest: Highland Park's 1921 mosque, autoworker congregations, and the organizers, many of them women, who kept them alive.", "citation": "Howell, Sally. Old Islam in Detroit: Rediscovering the Muslim American Past. Oxford University Press, 2014.", "href": "https://global.oup.com/academic/product/old-islam-in-detroit-9780199372003", "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#howell-2014" }, { "id": "hussain-2016", "title": "Muslims and the Making of America", "author": "Amir Hussain (Baylor University Press)", "year": 2016, "category": "Book", "era": "Modern Scholarship", "summary": "A short, readable argument that there has never been an America without Muslims, told through music, sports, and culture, from enslaved Africans to Muhammad Ali. A natural companion to this site's culture sections.", "excerpt": "Hussain's thesis in one line: Muslims did not just come to America; they helped make it.", "citation": "Hussain, Amir. Muslims and the Making of America. Baylor University Press, 2016.", "href": null, "url": "https://usmuslim.org/sources#hussain-2016" } ] }