By Manning Marable and Hishaam D. Aidi. The Critical Black Studies Series celebrates its fourth volume, Black Routes to Islam. The authors included in this volume explore different dimensions of the more than century-long interaction between Black America and Islam. Starting with the 19th century narratives of African American travelers to the Holy Land, the following chapters probe Islam’s role in urban social movements, music and popular culture, gender dynamics, relations between African Americans and Muslim immigrants, and the racial politics of American Islam with the ongoing war in Iraq and the US’s deepening involvement in the Orient. Palgrave Macmillan (2009), English, Paperback: 336 pages.
The series, under the general supervision of Manning Marable, features readers and anthologies examining challenging topics within the contemporary black experience--in the United States, the Caribbean, Africa, and across the African Diaspora.
Erudite yet easy to read, these timely and stimulating essays cover a wide variety of fascinating topics. They revealingly map the unique and intriguing landscape of Islam among contemporary African-Americans...”--Sylviane A. Diouf, author of Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas
“This impressive and sweeping collection of essays examines the hidden history of the ‘Muslim presence’ in North America that began with the enslavement of significant numbers of Muslim Africans. It shows how the development of US racial categories and hierarchies has long been suffused with assumptions about the Muslim world. And, it powerfully suggests the historical centrality of Islamic discourse and practice to the sense of common oppression and linked fate central to the emergence of modern black freedom struggles.”--Nikhil Pal Singh, Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History, New York University
“...the ultimate value of this quite insightful book may be the bright light it shines on how the U.S.--and, indeed, the entire international community--grapples with what may be the most important issue of this century: how to engage Islam and the Muslim world.”--Gerald Horne, author of' The End of Empires: African-Americans and India
About the Authors/Editors. The late Manning Marable was M. Moran Weston and Black Alumni Professor of African-American Studies and Director of the Center for Contemporary Black History at Columbia University. Leith Mullings is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.
Hishaam D. Aidi is a Lecturer at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a contributing editor of Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Culture, Politics and Society
