ballandalus.wordpress.com: Islamic civilization currently encompasses every culture, ethnicity, race, and language on the planet. The foundations of Islam are quite egalitarian and encourage diversity, a fact which has attracted various peoples to its teachings across the centuries. The pages of Islamic history are filled with the emergence of many different ethno-linguistic groups, from regions as far apart as West Africa and Central Asia, as important political and cultural forces, which greatly impacted the direction of Islamic civilization. Unfortunately, despite this reality, Muslim history has often been presented as a series of accomplishments revolving around Arabs, Persians, and Turks, to the exclusion of all other groups; this is equally the fault of Western Orientalists and Muslim historians. The rich histories of hundreds of Muslim ethnic, racial, and linguistic groups have too often been overlooked or overshadowed by this mistaken approach towards Muslim history and expropriated by the master narrative which seeks to identify Muslim history with a very specific cultural and geographic context.

The marginalization of the historical legacy of African Muslims needs to be understood within this broader context.  Black Muslims, or Muslims of African origin, have played—and continue to play— a particularly important role in Islamic civilization as ascetics, reformers, leaders, revolutionaries, and scholars. In many ways, the egalitarian and diverse spirit of Islam is most clearly manifested in this history, the impact of which extended far beyond Africa and the influence of which has left a significant historical legacy. Yet, many Muslims are ignorant of this rich history. How many Muslim youths are familiar with the story of Usāma ibn Zayd? When we speak of revolution and justice, who today speaks of the Zanj rebellion, an ultimately unsuccessful struggle, colored by messianic tendencies, waged by African Muslims in order to transform an unjust social and political order? Moreover, in theological circles, while we examine the works of Ibn al-Qayyim, al-Ghazālī, and Ibn Arabī—volumes of which have been translated and are readily available—the reformist thought of Usmān dan Fodio, Nānā Asmā’u and Amadou Bamba remains a mystery to most Muslims, many of whom have scarcely heard the names of these great scholars from West Africa. It is important for many Muslims to reclaim this history, which has too often been forgotten or marginalized. This process of reclamation begins with the recognition of those individuals who shaped this history and who contributed to Islamic civilization. Among the most important of these men and women are:

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