## Introduction  
During the time of the transatlantic slave trade, West African Muslims were enslaved all over the Americas, and a variety of witnesses recorded their presence, activities, and particularities (Diouf, 2013). In the form of accounts of missionaries, planters and travellers, runaway notices, police reports, newspaper articles and the Muslims' own manuscripts, the trace left by these hundreds of thousands of men, women and children can be found in more than 20 colonies and countries in the Caribbean region and in South, Central and North America.  
Among the captives were teachers, students, memorizers of the Qur'an, longdistance traders, pilgrims travelling to Mecca, soldiers, farmers, and herders. They were prisoners of wars and raids or victims of kidnappings. They came from diverse geographic areas, were of varied ethnic origins, and spoke different languages. Yet Muslims were linked, in the Americas and in West Africa alike, by not only their common faith, but also Arabic, a language that the most educated could speak, write, and read. Bilali Mohamed, who was from Guinea and was enslaved in the state of Georgia, expressed this well when, during the War of 1812, he told his owner he could 'answer for every Negro of the true faith, but not for the Christian dogs you own'. The Muslims on the plantation were diverse in their origins and languages, but they were united in their 'true faith' (Coulter, 1940, pp. 83-84).