They can be seen as a subversive means of communicating his continued Islamic faith and his continued resistance to his enslavement. To the contrary, these verses, claims Mary-Jane Deeb-chief of the Library’s African and Middle Eastern Division-tell us quite a lot about Said, perhaps as much as the main text itself. “These might be omitted as not autobiographical,” the 1925 translator wrote, “though it has been thought best to print the whole.” ![]() He also opens his text, which is addressed to a “Sheikh Hunter,” with several verses quoted from the Qu’ran. He became “an object of fascination to white Americans,” after converting to Christianity, “but he does not appear to have forsaken his Muslim religion.” Said praises his owner copiously in the sketch of his life, with many expressions of Christian piety. Said “gives a brief sketch of his life in Africa,” in the 15-page autobiography, the Library of Congress notes, “but enough to create a portrait of a highly educated and well-to-do individual.” His learning and literary talents so impressed his owner James Owen, brother of North Carolina governor John Owen, that he was given an English Qu’ran, “in the hope that he might pick up the language,” writes Brigit Katz at Smithsonian. It is one written, moreover, by a man who had been a writer and Islamic scholar for 25 years before his enslavement in what is now Senegal. What made him a minorly famous figure in his own time-variously known as “Uncle Moreau” (or just “Morro” or “Moro”) and Prince Omeroh-as well as an important historical figure in ours, was that his is the only known surviving account in Arabic. Like millions of Africans, Said had been captured and enslaved, brought to Charleston, South Carolina in 1807, escaped, then been captured, jailed, and enslaved again in North Carolina. This is hardly surprising given Said’s story, both a common and very uncommon one. It is a confusing document, in English at least: fragmented not only in its style but also in its shifting identifications.
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