American and Muslim Worlds before 1900 challenges the prevailing assumption that when we talk about "American and Muslim worlds", we are talking about two conflicting entities that came into contact with each other in the 20th century. Instead, this book shows there is a long and deep seam of history between the two which provides an important context for contemporary events -- and is also important in its own right.Some of the earliest American Muslims were the African slaves working in the plantations of the Carolinas and Latin America. Thomas Jefferson, a slaveholder himself, was frequently called an "infidel" and suspected of hidden Muslim sympathies by his opponents. Whether it was the sale of American commodities in Central Asia, Ottoman consuls in Washington, orientalist themes in American fiction, the uprisings of enslaved Muslims in Brazil, or the travels of American missionaries in the Middle East, there was no shortage of opportunities for Muslims and inhabitants of the Americas to meet, interact and shape one another from an early period.

Contributions from leading scholars including Denise Spellberg and Heather Sharkey

List of ImagesList of contributorsIntroductionPart One: Islam and the Making of the Early American Republic1. Benjamin Franklin, Islam and the Abolition of Slavery (Denise Spellberg University of Texas at Austin, USA)2. The Greek War of Independence and the Ideological Manifestations ofthe Clash of Civilizations Theory in the United States, 1821-1830, Karine Walther (Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Qatar)Part II: The Muslim Experience in the Americas3. Nicholas Said's America: Islam, the Civil War, and the Emergence of AfricanAmerican Narrative, Ira Dworkin (Texas A&M University, USA)4. Transcending Transcendentalism: An Islam Surface Reading ofAfrican Muslim Slave Narratives in Antebellum America, Zeinab McHeimech (Western University, Canada)5. Crossing Oceans, Transgressing Boundaries: Incorporating Muslims andMoriscos into Histories of Colonial Spanish America, Karoline Cook (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK)Part III: Muslim Worlds in the American Imaginary6. 'An Unwelcome Present': Simulation and Simulacra in the UnlikelyFriendship of General Lew Wallace and Sultan Abdülhamit II, Bill Hunt (Barton College, USA)7. The Lost Tribes of the Afghans: Religious Mobility andEntanglement in Narratives of Afghan Origins, William E B Sherman (UNC Charlotte, USA)8. Imagining Empire: Islamic India in Nineteenth-Century US Print Culture, Susan Ryan (University of Louisville, USA)Part IV: Islam and American Empire: The Case of the Philippines9. Subjugating the Sultan of Sulu: American Imperial Negotiations in theMuslim Philippines, Timothy Marr (University of North Carolina, USA)10. Native Americans, the Ottoman Empire, and Global Narratives of Islamin the US Colonial Philippines, 1900-1914, Joshua Gedacht (Rowan University, USA)11. An Ottoman Notable in America in 1915-1916: Sayyid Wajihal-Kilani of Nazareth, William G Clarence-Smith (SOAS, University of London, UK)Epilogue: The Global History of American and Muslim Worlds, Heather J Sharkey (University of Pennsylvania, USA)BibliographyIndex