Slave narrative author’s legacy reconsidered

He was a slave from Senegal who wrote in Arabic. Or was he an Arab prince? He was a scholar who memorized vast passages of the Qur’an and mastered numerous Islamic texts. Or were his writings unintelligible? He was a devout Muslim. Or did he convert to Christianity?

These are just some of the conflicting narratives about Omar ibn Said (or more correctly Sayyid), a black Muslim scholar captured in Senegal in 1807 and transported by boat to Charleston, South Carolina. He eventually fled to North Carolina and lived out his days as a house slave to James Owen and Owen’s brother, onetime North Carolina governor John Owen.

Two North Carolina university professors are now editing what may be the first comprehensive transcription and translation of 15 existing documents written by Said in Arabic—including his short autobiography—and in the process hoping to correct the historical record about the mysterious Muslim polymath.