The Life Journey of Ben Ali Mohammed

November 11, 2007 by editor.

Hidden Treasures of AmericaAn American Muslim Scholar, Author, and a Community LeaderFrom the 19^th Century Birth and Early Childhood

The life journey of Mohammed Ben Ali started around the year of 1770. He was born in Timbo, the capital of Futa Jallon, a mountainous region of northwest Guinea in Western Africa. Tibmo was a beautiful city from which flew the headwaters of three major rivers in West Africa, the Gambia, Niger, and Senegal rivers. That is why it is often called: the “Water Tower” of West Africa, or “the Switzerland of West Africa.”

In addition to its natural wonders, Futa Jallon, as David Robinson stated, was “a magnet of learning, attracting students from Kankan to the Gambia, and featuring Jakhanke clerics at Tuba as well as Fulbhe teachers. It acted as the nerve centre for trading caravans heading in every direction. The more enterprising commercial lineages, of whatever ethnic origin, established colonies in the Futanke hills and along the principal routes. It served their interests to send their sons to Futanke schools, to support the graduates who came out to teach, and in general to extend the vast pattern of influence that radiated from Futa Jalon”

Under this rich learning environment did Mohammed Ben Ali spend his childhood. He joined the prestigious Futa Jalon’s schools, studying subjects of Quran, Arabic, Islamic faith and jurisprudence. The Fula boy showed great integrity, intelligence, and dedication in his studies.

Enslaved

Having a busy port over the Atlantic Ocean and being a highly populated area made Futa Jallon an attractive place for a distinctively different purpose than its beautiful landscape: slaves’ haunting. In fact, many of the Early American Muslims trace back their roots to that part of the world. Namely: Kunta Kinte, Omar Ibn Sayyid and the “Prince of Slaves”, Ibrahim AbdulRahman all came from the same region.

So Ben Ali Mohammed encountered the same destiny as those pioneer American Muslims. By year 1792, Mohammed was captured by slave haunters and brought to Bahamas Islands where he served as a slave for about 10 years.

The Business Manager

Ten years later, in 1802, Muhammad left the Bahamas to Sapelo Island in Georgia. There, he worked for Thomas Spalding, a prominent Georgian master. Ben Ali’s skills and leadership led him to quickly gain the admiration of his master. He became the head driver and manager on Thomas Spalding’s plantation. 

The Imam and Muslim Community Leader

Ben Ali Mohammed’s more remarkable impact in the American Muslim history was in being the founder and the leader of one of the earliest known Muslim communities in America.

The early Muslim community led by Ben Ali Mohammed built villages similar to those in Africa. There, according to the available historic records, Ben Ali was the Imam of about 80 Muslim men in Spalding’s plantation. He led their five daily prayers, provided lectures and counseling services on Islamic Faith and Jurisprudence. The Muslim community was also reported to have been celebrating the two Muslim holidays, Eidul Fitr and Eidul Adha.

Ben Ali was known to be wearing traditional attire, a Fez (a red hat that Muslims from West Africa used to wear) and a long coat. The man also observed eating only Halal food. In various personal recollections, he was”eating food that was prepared differently from that of other slaves” (2)

“The Message”

Part of Ben Ali’s legacy was a thirteen pages’ booklet in Fiqh, or Islamic Law, named: “Arrisalah”, or “The Message”.  The Rissalah was a hand written text on subjects of Islamic beliefs and the rules for ablution, Morning Prayer, and the calls to prayer. According to historians, it was a brief summary of the Rissalat of Aby Yazid of Al-Qayrawani. The Risala was a book in the Maliki school of Fiqh (Islamic Law). The subjects included in the document are believed to be part of West Africa’s Muslim curriculum at that time.

The manuscript was written in a mixture of classical Arabic and Fullar dialect that was also written using the Arabic alphabet. This was the custom of the Fulbe scholars. They used to write their literature in Fulbe dialect using the Arabic alphabet, which they referred to as: Ajamiyya. The hand writing calligraphic style used in the manuscript was the Northern African writing style, which was the widespread calligraphic style in Western Africa.

Part of the difficulty in deciphering the content of the manuscript was due to the fact that it had some errors and mixing up of some consonants.  Dr. Joseph Greenberg, the Northern University anthropologist who was the first to decipher the manuscript, stated that: “at the time of the writer’s departure from Africa he was still a young student. Books are first taught by oral memorization; and it is apparent that this manuscript was written by a man who had memorized the text, using a pronunciation of Arabic in which many consonants were not distinguished, making the errors that might be expected when he attempted to reproduced what he knew in writing.” (3)

Some recent tests on the document’s parchments show that the paper itself came from West Africa. This was an interesting finding that led to question whether Ben Ali Mohammed brought the paper with him from West Africa, or did he buy it from underground market in Georgia. At that time, literacy among slaves was most often times considered illegal and dangerous, and many Muslim slaves sought underground market to purchase papers in order to keep their faith alive, and pass it on to the next generation.

Bilali’s document is currently situated in the Library of the University of Georgia. It is also referred to as: The Bilali Muhammad Document or the Ben Ali Diary or Ben Ali Journal, since in the beginning it was thought that the document consisted of a diary before it was discovered that it is in fact a book in Islamic Law.

Bilali kept the document with him until his death in 1857. The manuscript is probably the mother text of American Islamic literature.

The Family Man

Ben Ali Mohammed got married to Phoebe, a young slave woman from his plantation. They had 12 sons and 7 daughters. His children held Muslim names  including: Yarrobah, Medina, Bintu, and Fatima. One of his sons is thought to be linked as the author of the famous children’s novels Briar Rabbit!

Believers of True Faith, and Defenders of the Country

In 1812, when President Jefferson declared war against Great Britain after the latter seized American ships and captivated American Seamen, Ben Ali Muhammad was ready to take his part in defending his country. He told his master, Thomas, that he has “80 believers of true faith that are willing to help defend the land and the country”.

A Short Life, an Eternal Legacy

In 1857, Muhammad Ben Ali passed away. In his last breaths, he asked his family to bury him with two most beloved items: his Quran and his prayer rug. Ben Ali Muhammad is still buried in Georgia, laying next to the two items that he held to so dearly, his Quran, and his prayer rug. He left behind a 13 pages’ book of Islamic Law, one of the first booklets on Islam written in the American History.

Ben Ali Muhammad was a true hidden treasure in the history of America. He founded and led one of the earliest known Muslim communities in America; he wrote one of the first known Muslim literatures in America; he excelled in his workplace – even while being a slave; and he spent his lifetime serving and defending his faith and his country without compromising anyone of them. He truly is an inspirational role model for a lot of us, Muslims of America.

References:

(1)    David Robinson. The Holy War of Umar Tal: the Western Sudan in the mid-nineteenth century. Clarendon Press. Oxford. 1985.

(2)  Harold Courlander. A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore: The Oral Literature, Traditions, Recollections, Legends, Tales, Songs, Religious Beliefs, Customs, Sayings and Humor of Peoples of African American Descent in the Americas. Marlowe & Company. 1996.(3)  Joseph Greenberg. The Decipherment of the ‘Ben-Ali Diary” A Preliminary Statement. The Journal of Negro History. July 1940, pp 373-74.(4)  Moving Beliefs: Migrations and Multiplicities in Black Atlantic Islam, Moustafa Bayoumi, Brooklyn College, CUNY.(5)  Wikipedia.com.

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