Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the Founders (70 page)

73.
Cotten, “Henry Abbot,” 1:1.

74.
Elliot,
Debates
, 4:191.

75.
Ibid., 4:192. Abbot may have remembered “an agreement between King Charles II of England and Louis XIV of France, the Sun King—that memory, and a network of old fears and resentments coming down from the Reformation,” according to Bradford,
Original Intentions
, 82.

76.
Elliot,
Debates
, 4:192; Bradford,
Original Intentions
, 82.

77.
Elliot,
Debates
, 4:192; Pauline Maier,
Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010), 420.

78.
Elliot,
Debates
, 4:192.

79.
Bradley, “No Religious Test,” 698.

80.
Louise Irby Trenholme,
Ratification of the Federal Constitution in North Carolina
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1932), 120; Whichard,
Iredell
, 45.

81.
Don Higginbotham, “James Iredell, Sr.,” in
Dictionary of North Carolina Biography
, 3:253.

82.
Whichard,
Iredell
, 43–86.

83.
Ibid., 56; quoted in McRee,
Life and Correspondence
, 2:225–39.

84.
Higginbotham, “Iredell,” 3:254.

85.
Bailyn, “Biographical Notes,” in
Debate on the Constitution
, 2:982.

86.
Higginbotham, “Iredell,” 3:254.

87.
Bailyn, “Biographical Notes,” in
Debate on the Constitution
, 2:982.

88.
“Answers to Mason’s ‘Objections’: ‘Marcus’ [James Iredell] I–V,” in
Debate on the Constitution
, 1:363–98.

89.
Whichard,
Iredell
, 56.

90.
McRee,
Life and Correspondence
, 1:174; Higginbotham, “Iredell,” 3:253.

91.
Elliot,
Debates
, 4:192–93.

92.
Ibid., 4:193.

93.
Ibid., 4:193–94.

94.
Ibid., 4:193.

95.
Papers of Thomas Jefferson
, 1:548.

96.
Elliot,
Debates
, 4:194; Maier,
Ratification
, 420.

97.
Elliot,
Debates
, 4:194.

98.
Ibid.

99.
Ibid.

100.
Bret E. Carroll,
Routledge Historical Atlas of Religion in America
(New York: Routledge, 2000), 90–95.

101.
Quoted in Jacob R. Marcus,
The Colonial American Jew, 1492–1776
, 3 vols. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1970), 1:502.

102.
Marcus,
Colonial American Jew
, 1:503.

103.
Elliot,
Debates
, 4:195.

104.
Ibid., 4:195–96.

105.
Ibid., 4:196.

106.
Ibid.

107.
Ibid., 4:193.

108.
Ibid., 4:212.

109.
Ibid., 4:215.

110.
Ibid., 4:196.

111.
Borden,
Jews, Turks, and Infidels
, 6.

112.
Cohen,
Jews in Christian America
, 13.

113.
Elliot,
Debates
, 4:196–97.

114.
Ibid., 4:196.

115.
Ibid.

116.
Ibid., 4:197–98.

117.
This gesture of respect has a precedent in Hindu law under British rule; see Georg Bühler, trans.,
The Laws of Manu
, vol. 25 of
The Sacred Books of the East
(1886; repr., Delhi: Motilal Benarsidass, 1964), 42–43, 54–55. I am grateful to Xinru Liu for this reference.

118.
Elliot,
Debates
, 4:198.

119.
Bailyn, “Biographical Notes,” in
Debate on the Constitution
, 2:986.

120.
Anna Withers Bair, “Samuel Johnston,”
Dictionary of North Carolina Biography
, 3:306–7.

121.
Bailyn, “Biographical Notes,” in
Debate on the Constitution
, 2:986.

122.
Bair, “Samuel Johnston,” 3:307–8.

123.
Elliot,
Debates
, 4:198.

124.
Ibid.

125.
Ibid.

126.
Ibid., 4:198–99.

127.
Ibid., 4:199.

128.
Ibid., 4:194.

129.
Blackwell F. Robinson, “David Caldwell,” in
Dictionary of North Carolina Biography
, 1:300.

130.
Ibid., 1:301; Bailyn, “Biographical Notes,” in
Debate on the Constitution
, 2:971.

131.
Robinson, “David Caldwell,” 1:301.

132.
Bailyn, “Biographical Notes,” in
Debate on the Constitution
, 2:971. The number of acres owned is disputed at 550 by Robinson, “David Caldwell,” 1:301.

133.
Elliot,
Debates
, 4:199.

134.
Ibid.; Thomas S. Kidd,
God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution
(New York: Basic Books, 2010).

135.
Elliot,
Debates
, 4:200.

136.
Ibid., 4:199.

137.
Trenholme,
Ratification
, 108. Unfortunately, less is known about Lancaster than other delegates.

138.
Elliot,
Debates
, 4:215.

139.
Ibid.

140.
Borden,
Jews, Turks, and Infidels
, 54–58.

141.
Ibid., 25.

142.
Whichard,
Iredell
, 74.

143.
Quoted in Trenholme,
Ratification
, 183.

144.
Whichard,
Iredell
, 74.

145.
Trenholme,
Ratification
, 152–55.

146.
James Iredell, “To the People of North Carolina,” August 18, 1788, in
The Papers of James Iredell
, ed. Donna Kelly and Lang Baradell, 3 vols. (Raleigh, NC: Division of Archives and History, Department of Cultural Resources, 2003), 3:418.

147.
Whichard,
Iredell
, 81; McRee,
Life and Correspondence
, 2:235.

148.
Bailyn, “Biographical Notes,” in
Debate on the Constitution
, 2:982.

149.
Quoted in Higginbotham, “Iredell,” 3:254.

150.
E. Millicent Sowerby, ed.,
Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson
, 5 vols. (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1952–53), 2:388.

151.
Whichard,
Iredell
, 90–91; Bailyn, “Biographical Notes,” in
Debate on the Constitution
, 2:982.

152.
Bailyn, “Biographical Notes,” in
Debate on the Constitution
, 2:982.

153.
Bair, “Samuel Johnston,” 3:307.

154.
Bailyn, “Biographical Notes,” in
Debate on the Constitution
, 2:982.

155.
The classic biography of Ibrahima is by Terry L. Alford,
Prince Among Slaves
(New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977), xvi; see also Michael A. Gomez,
Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 168.

156.
The study of specific Muslim slaves in North America includes at least seventy-five men before the Civil War, including both
Ibrahima Abd al-Rahman and
Omar ibn Said; see Allan D. Austin,
African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles
(New York: Routledge, 1997), 30, 54–83, 128–56. In his earlier volume, he includes primary sources: Allan D. Austin,
Africans in Antebellum America: A Sourcebook
(New York: Garland, 1984), 121–263, 445–523. Hereafter cited as
Sourcebook
. There is also a PBS documentary of Ibrahima, based on Terry Alford’s biography,
Prince Among Slaves
, directed by Andrea Kalin (n.p.: National Black Programming Consortium and Unity Productions, 2008), DVD. For Omar ibn Said, the earliest Arabic autobiography with the translation of Isaac Bird (d. 1876), a Christian missionary to Syria, with the revision of Dr. F. M. Moussa, secretary of the Egyptian legation in Washington, is presented by J. F. Jameson, “Autobiography of Omar ibn Said, Slave in North Carolina, 1831,”
American Historical Review
30, no. 4 (1925): 787–95. A reprint of this exact translation may be found in Muhammad A. al-Ahari,
Five Classic Muslim Slave Narratives
(Chicago: Maghribine Press, 2006), 187–200. A new translation, featuring Arabic-English facing pages of the original manuscript is provided by Ala A. Alryyes, trans., “The Life of Omar Ibn Said, Written by Himself,” in
The Multilingual Anthology of American Literature
, ed. Marc Shell and Werner Sollors (New York: New York University Press, 2000), 58–93 (Arabic-English), 712–14. The newest, stand-alone translation, also with original Arabic text and English translation, may be found in Ala Alryyes, ed. and trans.,
A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar ibn Said
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2011), 48–79. My references to the Arabic and English are to this edition, cited hereafter as
Life
. See also Gomez,
Black Crescent
, 169–72, 176–79, 181–82 (Ibrahima Abd al-Rahman), and 168, 172, 176–79 (Umar [Omar] ibn Said). For a recent, brief overview of Omar, see Jonathan Curiel, “The Life of Omar ibn Said,”
Saudi Aramco World
61, no. 2 (March/April 2010): 34–39.

157.
For the racial implications for Ibrahima and Omar of their Arabic literacy, see Jill Lepore,
A Is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States
(New York: Knopf, 2002), 111–35.

158.
For the best linguistic and historical analysis of Omar’s Arabic, see John Hunwick, “ ‘I Wish to Be Seen in Our Land Called Afrika’: Umar B. Sayyid’s Appeal to Be Released from Slavery (1819),”
Journal of Arabic Studies
5 (2003–2004): 62–77; see also John Hunwick, “West Africa and the Arabic Language,”
Sudanic Africa
15 (2004): 133–44.

159.
Austin,
African Muslims
, 80; Austin,
Sourcebook
, 224; Gomez,
Black Crescent
, 169.

160.
Austin,
African Muslims
, 70.

161.
Quoted ibid., 81.

162.
Ibid., 69.

163.
Ibid., 70.

164.
Ibid.

165.
Quoted ibid., 71.

166.
Ibid., 71–72.

167.
Austin,
Sourcebook
, 127, says that the meeting took place around 1807.

168.
Ibid., 128.

169.
Austin,
African Muslims
, 72.

170.
Quoted in Alford,
Prince
, 78.

171.
Ibid., 98.

172.
Quoted in Gomez,
Black Crescent
, 181–82.

173.
Alford,
Prince
, 99–101.

174.
Ibid., 101.

175.
Quoted ibid., 102.

176.
Austin,
Sourcebook
, 128.

177.
Quoted in Alford,
Prince
, 103.

178.
Ibid., 104.

179.
Austin,
African Muslims
, 73.

180.
Quoted ibid., 66.

181.
Ibid.

182.
Quoted in Alford,
Prince
, 119–20.

183.
Ibid., 120.

184.
Quoted ibid.

185.
Ibid., 120, 129.

186.
Gomez,
Black Crescent
, 172; Austin,
African Muslims
, 74–75, figures 11 and 12. The comment about the
Fatiha
is found in Muhammad M. Pickthall, trans.,
The Meaning of the Glorious Qur’an: Text and Explanatory Translation
(New York: Muslim World League, 1977), 1.

187.
Austin,
African Muslims
, 76.

188.
Ibid., 65.

189.
Alford,
Prince
, 183.