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Bilali Document
Bilali Document
Bilali Document
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The Bilali Muhammad Document is a handwritten, Arabic manuscript on West African Islamic law. It was written in the 19th century by Bilali Mohammet, an enslaved Guinean held on Sapelo Island of Georgia. The document is held at the Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library[1] at the University of Georgia as part of the Francis Goulding papers. It is referred to as the "Ben Ali (Bilali) Manuscript".[2]

History

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Bilali Mohammed was an enslaved Guinean on a plantation on Sapelo Island, Georgia. According to his descendant, Cornelia Bailey, in her history, God, Dr. Buzzard and The Bolito Man, Bilali was from the area of present-day Sierra Leone. He was a master cultivator of rice, a skill prized by Georgia planters.

William Brown Hodgson was among scholars who met Bilali.[3] Bilali was born in Timbo, Guinea sometime between 1760 and 1779 to a well-educated West African Muslim family.[4] He was enslaved as a teenager, taken to the Bahamas and sold to Dr. Bell, where he was worked as a slave for ten years at his Middle Caicos plantation. Bell was a Loyalist colonial refugee from the American Revolutionary War who had been resettled by the Crown at Middle Caicos. He sold Bilali in 1802 to a trader who took the man to Georgia.

Bilali Mohammed was purchased by Thomas Spalding and assigned as his head driver at his plantation on Sapelo Island. Bilali could speak Arabic and had knowledge of the Qur'an. "Due to his literacy and leadership qualities, he would be appointed the manager of his master's plantation, overseeing approximately five hundred slaves".[5] In the War of 1812, Bilali and his fellow Muslims on Sapelo Island helped to defend the United States from a British attack. Upon Bilali's death in 1857, it was discovered that he had written a thirteen-page Arabic manuscript. At first, this was thought to have been his diary, but closer inspection revealed that the manuscript was a transcription of a Muslim legal treatise and part of West Africa's Muslim curriculum.

The first partial translation of the document was undertaken in 1939 by Joseph Greenberg and published in the Journal of Negro History. Since the turn of the 21st century, it has been analyzed by Ronald Judy,[6] Joseph Progler,[7] Allan D. Austin[8] and Muhammed al-Ahari.

Synopsis

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The Bilali Muhammad Document is also known as the Ben Ali Diary or Ben Ali Journal. On close analysis, the text proves to be a brief statement of Islamic beliefs and the rules for ablution, morning prayer, and the calls to prayer. When it was translated, it was found that it had nothing of an autobiographic nature.

It could, justifiably, be called the "Mother Text" of American Islamic literature, according to researcher Muhammed al-Ahari, due to it being the first Islamic text written in the United States. A comprehensive extended commentary with citations from traditional Islamic texts and American Islamic texts, and related subject areas, is under preparation by al-Ahari as national secretary of the Noble Order of Moorish Sufis and long-time researcher on American Islamic history and literature.

The concept of a Matn (source text) with several extended commentaries is a traditional genre in Islamic literature. The commentaries may be linguistic, spiritual, and even have the function of relating the text to similar works. Further research on Bilali's life and his influence upon both American Islamic literature and to the Gullah dialect of English needs to be carried out in order to present a complete picture of this unique historical American Muslim author.

Errors in prior research

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Several reviewers of the manuscript have portrayed it as the scribblings of an old man copying from memory lessons of childhood. But, more expert translations of the text have shown it to be an original composition that drew from the Risalah of Abi Zayd of al-Qayrawan.

Some accounts, including that of Reverend Dwight York (aka Imam Isa), who claimed that Bilali was his great-grandfather, have conflated Bilali Muhammad (aka Ben Ali, BuAllah, Bilali Smith, and Mahomet Bilali) with individuals with similar names. He is not the same person as Joseph Benenhaly,[9] or either of the Wahab brothers of Ocracoke Island.[10]

Legacy

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The Bilali Muhammed Historical Research Society, named for him, was established in Chicago in 1987; it published a one-issue journal, Meditations from the Bilali Muhammad Society (1988), in Charleston, South Carolina. The research institute has since been renamed the Muslim American Cultural Heritage Institute. It has a new board and is planning to become incorporated as a 503c corporation in Chicago.[citation needed]

References

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Further reading

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[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Bilali Document

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from Grokipedia
The Bilali Document is a thirteen-page handwritten manuscript summarizing key , including ablutions, prayer rituals, and dietary laws, composed around the 1820s by , an enslaved Fula scholar born circa 1770 in Timbo, (present-day ). Educated in West African Islamic traditions prior to his capture and transatlantic transport via the to Thomas Spalding's plantation in Georgia around 1803, Bilali maintained literacy and religious observance amid enslavement, overseeing enslaved laborers in cultivation while leading daily prayers in for his community. The document, reflecting influences prevalent in his homeland, was discovered among his possessions after his death circa 1857 and represents the sole surviving legal text produced by an enslaved African in antebellum , underscoring the persistence of pre-colonial intellectual traditions despite systemic efforts to suppress them. Currently preserved in the of Georgia's Hargrett Rare and Library, it offers primary evidence of autonomous Islamic scholarship and communal piety among West African forcibly relocated to the American South.
Bilali's role extended beyond authorship; as a trusted foreman, he negotiated accommodations for religious practices, such as exemptions from work during Fridays and Ramadan, and reportedly introduced techniques for rice pestle use derived from African methods, contributing to the hybrid Gullah-Geechee culture of Georgia's Sea Islands. His family, including wife Phoebe and numerous children, perpetuated elements of Fula heritage, though conversion pressures and isolation eroded full Islamic continuity post-emancipation. The manuscript's partial translations and scholarly examinations reveal orthographic variations suggesting self-taught adaptation rather than formal scribal training in captivity, highlighting individual agency in cultural transmission under duress. No major controversies surround the document itself, though debates persist on the extent of its direct textual sources versus original synthesis, with analyses favoring derivation from familiar West African treatises.

Bilali Muhammad's Background

Origins and Enslavement

Bilali Muhammad, also known as Ben Ali, was born around 1770 in Timbo, a region in the Futa Jallon highlands of present-day , to a family of the Fulani (Fula) ethnic group. As a member of a Muslim scholarly lineage, he received education in and Islamic texts during his youth, reflecting the Islamic intellectual traditions prevalent among Fulani communities in the region. Captured as a teenager during intertribal conflicts or raids associated with the transatlantic slave , Bilali was sold into bondage along the West African coast. He endured the , first arriving in the Caribbean—likely —where he was held on a under British enslavement. This initial phase of captivity separated him from his homeland but allowed him to maintain aspects of his Islamic faith amid diverse enslaved populations. Around 1802–1803, Bilali and several family members, including multiple wives and children, were purchased by Thomas Spalding, a prominent Georgia planter, and transported to off the coast of Georgia. Spalding, recognizing Bilali's literacy and leadership qualities, appointed him as a slave driver overseeing up to 80 enslaved individuals on the , a position that afforded relative autonomy compared to field laborers. Despite this, Bilali remained legally enslaved until his death circa 1857, embodying the systemic violence of the American chattel system that commodified millions from .

Life and Islamic Practice in Georgia

Bilali , born around 1770 in Timbo, Futa Jallon (present-day ), was transported into slavery via and arrived on , Georgia, circa 1803, where he was purchased by plantation owner Thomas Spalding. As an ethnic Fula with prior Islamic education in , he adapted to plantation labor in , , and lumber production while rising to the position of head driver, supervising dozens of enslaved workers. This role granted him relative authority and respect from both peers and Spalding, who entrusted him with significant responsibilities, including command of 80 muskets to defend the island during the War of 1812. Despite the coercive environment of enslavement, Muhammad negotiated with his owner and demonstrated resilience, rejecting Christian proselytization efforts while maintaining his . He married an enslaved woman named Phoebe, with whom he had children, and the family resided on the until his after 1851, after which he relocated to the mainland; he died around 1857 at approximately age 80. Muhammad practiced Islam openly, wearing a fez-like cap and , and performing ritual prayers facing east on a or rug at designated times, including sunrise, noon, and sunset, with his wife Phoebe joining using . He adhered to by abstaining from pork and observed fasting as well as associated feasts, elements of which were documented by contemporaries like plantation visitor , who described him as a " of the Mahomedan ." These practices extended to community influence, as taught the to his children and others, and Islamic customs persisted among descendants, such as monthly "saraka" charity feasts involving honey cakes and invocations of "Ameen." His authorship of the Bilali Document—a 13-page outlining prayer rituals and Islamic —further evidenced the centrality of worship in sustaining his faith amid bondage.

Creation and Physical Description

Circumstances of Writing

Bilali Muhammad composed the document in the 1820s while enslaved on , Georgia, under plantation owner Thomas Spalding, who had acquired him around 1803 following his transit through . As a trusted supervising other enslaved laborers in and cane production, Bilali enjoyed limited privileges that permitted open adherence to , including leading prayers, donning a fez and , and observing dietary laws, though he remained legally bound until partial in 1851. The writing occurred amid these constraints, with Bilali relying solely on memory to transcribe excerpts from Maliki jurisprudence texts familiar from his Fula education in Timbo, Futa Jallon (modern ), without access to printed sources. Scholars assess the manuscript's creation as an intentional act to instruct fellow Muslim slaves in core rituals such as prayer and purification, opening with Quran 51:55—"And remind [believers to obey Allah], for verily reminders are beneficial to the believers"—to underscore its didactic intent. This effort countered cultural erasure under enslavement by recreating a communal learning environment, preserving West African Islamic traditions like those of the Risala by Muhammad ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani, and affirming Bilali's scholarly authority among the island's estimated community of up to 80 Muslim laborers. No singular precipitating event is documented, but the document's production aligns with Bilali's lifelong piety, evidenced by his maintenance of Arabic literacy and rejection of Christian conversion pressures. Some accounts specify 1829 as the composition date, aligning with the early-to-mid phase of Bilali's plantation tenure before his later years. The thirteen-page text, penned in a Sudani variant of on unbound sheets, was later entrusted to Presbyterian minister Francis R. Goulding, reflecting Bilali's strategic preservation of it beyond his death in the late 1850s.

Manuscript Features and Preservation

The Bilali Document consists of a small, leather-bound volume containing thirteen pages of handwritten . The script represents a rudimentary form of a West African variant, characterized by irregular letter forms and spacing consistent with authorship by an individual who wrote infrequently. Notable physical imperfections include ink bleeding from one side of the pages to the other, which obscures portions of the reverse text, and the absence of at least one double-sided page. Preservation of the manuscript began after Bilali Muhammad's death circa 1857, when it was retained in private hands, likely among descendants or associates on Sapelo Island, for more than a century. It entered institutional custody as part of the Francis Goulding Papers and is now held in the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the Libraries. Scholarly access has included early twentieth-century analysis by linguist H. Greenberg in 1940, with subsequent examinations addressing transcription challenges posed by the degraded ink and incomplete folios.

Content and Textual Fidelity

Structure and Topics Covered

The Bilali Document consists of 13 pages of handwritten Arabic text, structured as a selective compilation of excerpts from classical Maliki school (madhhab) fiqh works, rather than a narrative diary or chronological record. Its organization mirrors the pedagogical sequence of introductory Islamic legal texts, commencing with doctrinal foundations and transitioning to practical rituals of worship. The content draws predominantly from the Risala fi al-Fiqh by the tenth-century North African scholar Abu Zayd 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani, a foundational treatise on Maliki jurisprudence. Core topics addressed include the essentials of faith (aqida), such as monotheism (), belief in Allah's oneness, and affirmation of prophets and scriptures; procedures for ritual ablution () and purification; recitation of the call to prayer (); and step-by-step guidance on the obligatory prayers (salat), encompassing timings, postures, and recitations. These elements prioritize immediate religious duties for personal devotion, reflecting the document's utility as a portable for maintaining orthodoxy amid enslavement. No extended theological discourses or personal anecdotes appear, underscoring its focus on prescriptive over exposition.

Script Variant and Linguistic Elements

The Bilali Document employs the Maghribi variant of the , a cursive style prevalent in North and among Muslim communities during the period of Bilali Muhammad's origin in the Futa Jallon region. This script features rounded letter forms and connected ligatures characteristic of Maghribi handwriting, adapted for use with reed pens on paper, though the manuscript's execution shows irregularities such as inconsistent proportions and occasional disconnected letters, suggesting the scribe's limited practice in writing. Linguistically, the document is composed entirely in , the liturgical and juridical register of Islamic texts, without incorporation of vernacular dialects like Fulfulde (the language of Bilali's Fulani ethnic group) or local African linguistic substrates. The vocabulary and syntax adhere to the conventions of Maliki literature, reproducing phrases from established works on ritual purity, prayer, and daily observances, such as standardized terms for ablution (wudu') and the call to prayer (). This fidelity to formal Arabic underscores Bilali's scholarly training in West African Islamic centers, where such texts were memorized and copied as part of talim education, rather than reflecting creolized or hybridized forms that might arise in oral traditions. Scholars note the absence of phonetic adaptations or loanwords, attributing this to the document's purpose as a personal for religious observance amid enslavement, prioritizing orthographic accuracy over stylistic flourish. The script's West African provenance is evident in minor orthographic preferences, such as elongated final letters, but no systematic deviations from standard morphology or grammar are present, distinguishing it from Ajami writings that intersperse with African languages.

Scholarly Examination

Initial Translations and Misinterpretations

The Bilali Document, a thirteen-page manuscript composed by the enslaved West African Muslim Bilali Muhammad around 1823, received limited scholarly attention until the early twentieth century following its donation to the Georgia State Library in 1930 by Benjamin Goulding, son of the missionary Francis Goulding to whom Bilali had entrusted it before his death circa 1859. Early examinations often mischaracterized it as a personal "" or plantation record, a label originating from family accounts and perpetuated in popular , despite its content consisting primarily of excerpts on Islamic rather than autobiographical entries. This implied a narrative of daily life or enslavement experiences, overlooking its structured religious purpose as a reproduction of Maliki legal texts. Sensationalized accounts further distorted its interpretation; for instance, in 1896, described it in The Story of Aaron as the journal of an Arab slave trader, erroneously portraying Bilali as a non-African figure involved in the capture of slaves, a claim that persisted in some retellings and reflected assumptions of exotic origins incompatible with Bilali's documented Fula heritage from Timbo in Futa Jallon. Attempts at translation in the 1930s, such as Gertrude Mathews Shelby's unsuccessful effort in , highlighted challenges posed by the manuscript's Sudani —a West African variant with cursive features unfamiliar to many Arabists—leading to perceptions of indecipherability. The first partial scholarly translation appeared in 1940 by linguist in the Journal of Negro History, identifying portions as derivations from the Risala of Abu Zayd al-Qayrawani, a foundational Maliki text on topics like ablutions, , and , thus confirming its Islamic legal content but suggesting Bilali reproduced it imperfectly from memory due to observed orthographic variations and omissions. Greenberg's analysis, while advancing recognition of its scholarly nature over , underestimated Bilali's proficiency by attributing discrepancies to rote memorization in rather than deliberate or access to source materials, an interpretation influenced by presumptions of enslaved illiteracy and cultural isolation. Concurrent unpublished work by Harold Glidden reinforced the view of it as a mechanical copy of the Risala, yet both early efforts overlooked self-edits and unique insertions evident in the script, such as non-Risala terms like "sakinah," which later analyses revealed as intentional deviations. These initial readings collectively downplayed the document's fidelity and Bilali's agency as a , framing it instead as a relic of faded amid enslavement.

Corrections and Accurate Identifications

Early scholarly examinations of the , preserved at the Libraries, initially misinterpreted it as a personal or autobiographical journal penned by Bilali Muhammad, an enslaved Fulani Muslim on , Georgia, reflecting daily life or personal reflections under bondage. This view persisted for over a century following its donation to the library around 1859 by Francis R. Goulding, who acquired it from Bilali's descendants. Such characterization stemmed from limited Arabic expertise among early American observers and a tendency to project European conventions onto non-Western manuscripts, overlooking its ritualistic and doctrinal structure. Linguist Joseph Greenberg's analysis in the 1940s marked a pivotal correction, identifying the 13-page not as original composition or but as a memorized rendition of excerpts from the Risala fi al-Fiqh (Treatise on ), a canonical text authored by the 10th-century Tunisian scholar (d. 996 CE). This identification confirmed the document's fidelity to established Islamic legal precepts on purification (tahara), (salat), and (aqida), rather than personal narrative, with passages closely paralleling the Risala's sections on ablution (wudu), ritual supplications, and Quranic invocations. Subsequent translations, including those by modern scholars like An-Najmi, reinforced this by rendering the text's emphasis on (tawhid) and soul purification as derived directly from al-Qayrawani's work, underscoring Bilali's role in transmitting orthodox West African Islamic scholarship from memory amid enslavement. Further accurate identifications addressed the script's variant: an informal sudani or West African Arabic style, characterized by phonetic adaptations such as substituting "s" for "th" (e.g., sala for sala), "k" for "q" (reflecting Fulani ), and elongated vertical strokes for emphasis, diverging from classical Maghrebi but retaining legibility for Maliki-trained readers. These features align with manuscripts from Bilali's likely origin in Futa Jallon (modern ), where Fulani scholars memorized texts during the 18th-century under Usman dan Fodio's influence, correcting earlier dismissals of the handwriting as crude or idiosyncratic. Authenticity as Bilali's handiwork is supported by descendant testimonies to Goulding and the absence of anachronistic elements, though minor deviations from the Risala source—attributable to oral memorization—highlight adaptive fidelity rather than verbatim copying. This revised understanding repositions the document as a pedagogical tool for sustaining Islamic practice among enslaved , countering narratives of cultural erasure.

Historical and Cultural Significance

Evidence of Islamic Continuity in America

The Bilali Document provides direct evidence of the transmission and preservation of Islamic textual knowledge from to the antebellum American South. Written circa 1820 by Bilali , an enslaved Fula Muslim originally from Timbo in present-day , the 13-page manuscript reproduces portions of the Risala by , a foundational treatise on Islamic , likely from memory. This act of replication underscores the endurance of Arabic literacy and expertise among a subset of enslaved Muslims, who comprised an estimated 10-15% of the transatlantic slave trade captives from regions like the and Futa Jallon, where had been established since the 11th century. Bilali's documented practices on , Georgia, where he resided from approximately 1803 until his death around 1857, further attest to lived Islamic continuity amid enslavement. Contemporary accounts describe him performing the five daily salat prayers, observing fasts, and constructing a rudimentary mosque-like structure oriented toward , while donning a fez and —customs tolerated by his enslaver, Thomas Spalding, due to Bilali's utility in managing rice cultivation using West African techniques. These behaviors, corroborated by Spalding family records and local oral histories, indicate not only individual fidelity but also communal influence, as Bilali reportedly instructed fellow enslaved Africans in Islamic rituals, fostering a small Muslim enclave on the plantation. Post-emancipation traces among Bilali's descendants in the Gullah-Geechee communities of Sapelo and nearby islands reveal partial cultural persistence, including retained Muslim surnames (e.g., Ben Ali), eastward prayer orientations in some rituals, and echoes of supplications blended into folk practices. While overt Islamic observance waned under Christian proselytization and social pressures by the late , these remnants—preserved in family lore and ethnographic records—counter claims of total religious erasure, highlighting how the document and Bilali's legacy exemplify resilient knowledge networks among enslaved . Scholars note similar patterns with contemporaries like Salih Bilali in , whose and Quranic recitations were observed into the 1850s, suggesting broader, if fragmented, Islamic substrata in coastal Georgia's African-descended populations.

Debates on Authenticity and Context

The authenticity of the Bilali Document has not faced substantive challenges as a , with scholars affirming its genuineness through paleographic examination of its thirteen-page leather-bound format, Sudani-script consistent with 19th-century West African conventions, and alignment with Maliki excerpts on rituals like and ablution. Physical provenance traces to Bilali Muhammad's possession on , Georgia, where plantation records from 1803–1859 document his literacy and Islamic observances, including a qibla-oriented and reported Quran recitation. Early 20th-century analyses by linguists like Lorenzo Dow Turner further validated its non-diary nature as a of Islamic legal texts rather than , countering initial mislabeling as a "diary." Debates center instead on contextual interpretation, particularly the document's purpose and implications for Islamic persistence in antebellum America. Proponents of robust "Islamic continuity" highlight its production amid West African jihads and madrasa expansions in Futa Jallon (circa 1725–1896), arguing Bilali compiled it as devotional resistance to cultural erasure under slavery, evidenced by its focus on portable rulings adaptable to isolation. This view posits the manuscript as emblematic of elite Muslim slaves—estimated at 10–15% of imports from Muslim-majority regions like —maintaining orthodoxy despite prohibitions, though empirical data on communal practice remains sparse beyond individual cases like Bilali and Salih Bilali. Critics caution against overextrapolation, noting the document's singularity amid low slave rates (under 5% overall, rarer in ) and post-1865 Gullah-Geechee where Islamic elements diluted into folk . Historiographical analyses attribute interpretive variances to identity-driven narratives, with some post-1960s scholarship amplifying Muslim agency to counter assimilationist tropes, potentially sidelining causal factors like family separations and conversion incentives that eroded group cohesion. Syed Amir's 2009 reframes these tensions via "multiple contexts," linking Bilali's output to both African revivalism and hierarchies, while urging scrutiny of silences in Euro-American records that underplay non-Christian literacies. Such debates underscore the document's value as empirical artifact over ideological symbol, with ongoing calls for comparative analysis against over 300 surviving slave manuscripts to assess representativeness.

References

  1. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/bilali-mohammed/
  2. https://libguides.ccga.edu/muslims
  3. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Muhammad-62
  4. https://aihmuseum.org/belali-muhammad/
  5. https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/african-muslims-in-the-south/five-african-muslims/salih-bilali-bilali-mohammed
  6. https://studyal-islam.com/the-teachers-new
  7. https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=history_honors
  8. https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/african-muslims-in-the-south/five-african-muslims/georgia-sea-islands
  9. https://www.whyislam.org/bilali-muhammads-legacy-of-islamic-scholarship-in-america/
  10. https://africaaccessreview.org/http-discoverafricaintheworld-org/united-states/discover-africa-in-georgia/bilai-muhammad/
  11. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40583090
  12. https://mtws.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Bilali_Muhammad_Document_.pdf
  13. https://wisconsinmuslimjournal.org/muslims-in-america-a-forgotten-history/
  14. https://www.academia.edu/2463088/From_Beneath_the_Sinking_Sands_of_Time_Maliki_Fiqh_Texts_in_Slave_Era_America
  15. https://www.academia.edu/103575585/Bilali_Muhammad_Muslim_Jurisprudent_in_Antebellum_Georgia
  16. https://www.icit-digital.org/articles/ben-ali-and-the-arabic-diary-part-one
  17. https://cfas.howard.edu/sites/cfas.howard.edu/files/2024-01/Bouctou-Issue2_1.pdf
  18. http://progler.blogspot.com/2015/06/ben-ali-and-arabic-diary-part-two.html
  19. https://www.academia.edu/38083616/Bilali_Muhammad_article_from_Minaret_Magazine
  20. https://www.caribbeanmuslims.com/the-bilali-diary/
  21. https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0058213
  22. https://www.[jstor](/page/JSTOR).org/stable/40583090
  23. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-american-islam/african-muslim-slaves-and-islam-in-antebellum-america/60FDB5F4EE0987088C654EE10BE186B4
  24. https://www.[academia.edu](/page/Academia.edu)/2463088/From_Beneath_the_Sinking_Sands_of_Time_Maliki_Fiqh_Texts_in_Slave_Era_America
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