In this student-produced mini-documentary, Richard Wright students provide historical reference and insight into the process of acquisition, digitization, and conservation of the Library of Congress' most recent acquisition, "The Life of Omar Ibn Said," the only known autobiography still in existence written by an enslaved person in the United States in 1831. Omar Ibn Said was a wealthy, Muslim scholar captured in West Africa, forced into slavery in the U.S., and wrote his manuscript in Arabic while he was enslaved in Fayetteville, North Carolina. This rare manuscript is one of 42 original documents in "The Omar Ibn Said Collection" now available online to the public through the Library of Congress. The collection provides an even deeper and more comprehensive look into the historical, cultural, social, political, theological, and economic context of that time, and across continents.
Zahra must go to work with her father, Hafeez the Oil Man, during the week because the family can’t afford camp.
Zahra is a very brainy, quick witted and driven 10 year old filled with curiosity. Full of ideas, she wants to help her father’s struggling business, selling Muslim oils, soaps, and i...
Over 500 years ago, driven out by the Spanish Inquisition, Ismael Diadié's ancestors left Al-Andalus for Timbuktu. In 2012, Ansar al Din salafist fighters and their al Qaeda allies threatened to destroy the 500-year-old ancient Islamic library belonging to Diadié and his ancestors, which they had...
In 1788 the slave ship Africa, set sail from West Africa and headed for America with its berth laden with a profitable but highly perishable cargo-hundreds of men, women and children bound in chains. Six months later the survivors were sold in Natchez, Mississippi. One of them, a 26-year-old man ...
