Course Summary
This course will survey the encounter between Islam and the black community in America, from the time that blacks were inducted into the New World, through the 19th and 20th centuries and into the era and phenomenon of Hip Hop. Our inquiry will assume the multi-layered contexts of race, religion, culture, politics and history in America, as well as the relationship between America and the broader Muslim world. Among the key questions to be entertained is why Islam spread among Blackamericans to the point of constituting the only religion to do so on a communal scale after Christianity. What particular challenges and opportunities does this raise for Islam; for Christianity; for the black community; for America? We will also look at the ways in which Blackamericans have sought to appropriate Islam and the various challenges it has confronted in seeking to indigenize the religion and establish its own authority within it.
You will learn about the following topics:
Islam: From Arabia to Africa to the West
Black Religious Cosmology: From Africa to America
America, Whiteness, and Blackness
African Muslims in America Under Slavery
Black Religion and the Rise of Black Proto-Islam
The Moorish Science Temple and Nation of Islam
The Ahmadiyyah Mission
Malcolm X
Imam W.D. Muhammad / Minister Farrakhan
Five Percenters, Ansar-Allah and other groups
Independent Sunni Movements, Dar al-Islam, Salafi Movement
Black Orientalism
Blackamericans, Immigrants and the American State
Blackamerican Islam and Gender
Navigating this Course
This course is divided into a series of Modules, each containing recorded lecture videos, quizzes, and related information.
Course readings and handouts may also be available for download. These materials serve as background reading and resources related to the course content.
Use the navigation buttons to proceed through the sequence of course modules. You can always re-watch a lecture in this entirely self-paced course. Take the optional quizzes to check your learning.
About your Instructor
Jackson
Dr. Sherman Jackson is the King Faisal Chair of Islamic Thought and Culture, and Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California (USC). He was formerly the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Visiting Professor of Law and Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor).
Dr. Jackson received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and has taught at the University of Texas at Austin, Indiana University, Wayne State University and the University of Michigan. From 1987 to 1989, he served as Executive Director of the Center of Arabic Study Abroad in Cairo, Egypt. He is the author of several books, including Islamic Law and the State: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Shihâb al-Dîn al-Qarâfî (E.J. Brill, 1996), On the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam: Abû Hâmid al-Ghazâlî’s Faysal al-Tafriqa (Oxford, 2002), Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking Towards the Third Resurrection (Oxford, 2005) Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering (Oxford, 2009), and most recently Sufism for Non-Sufis? Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah al-Sakandari’s Taj al-‘Arus (Oxford, 2012).
Course Readings
The main course book is:
Jackson, Sherman. Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking Toward the Third Resurrection. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Paperback. ISBN: 978-0199782383. Kindle version available.
Please find selected additional readings for the course (articles and book sections within fair use parameters) in the Downloads section on the right.
Patrick Jones - Course author
Dr. Sherman Jackson
King Faisal Chair of Islamic Thought and Culture, and Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity; University of Southern California (USC) | Visiting Faculty; Bayan
Learning Objectives
You will learn about the following topics:
- Islam: From Arabia to Africa to the West
- Black Religious Cosmology: From Africa to America
- America, Whiteness, and Blackness
- African Muslims in America Under Slavery
- Black Religion and the Rise of Black Proto-Islam
- The Moorish Science Temple and Nation of Islam
- The Ahmadiyyah Mission
- Malcolm X
- Imam W.D. Muhammad / Minister Farrakhan
- Five Percenters, Ansar-Allah and other groups
- Independent Sunni Movements, Dar al-Islam, Salafi Movement
- Black Orientalism
- Blackamericans, Immigrants and the American State
- Blackamerican Islam and Gender
You will learn about the following topics:
Islam: From Arabia to Africa to the West
Black Religious Cosmology: From Africa to America
America, Whiteness, and Blackness
African Muslims in America Under Slavery
Black Religion and the Rise of Black Proto-Islam
The Moorish Science Temple and Nation of Islam
The Ahmadiyyah Mission
Malcolm X
Imam W.D. Muhammad / Minister Farrakhan
Five Percenters, Ansar-Allah and other groups
Independent Sunni Movements, Dar al-Islam, Salafi Movement
Black Orientalism
Blackamericans, Immigrants and the American State
Blackamerican Islam and Gender
Navigating this Course
This course is divided into a series of Modules, each containing recorded lecture videos, quizzes, and related information.
Course readings and handouts may also be available for download. These materials serve as background reading and resources related to the course content.
Use the navigation buttons to proceed through the sequence of course modules. You can always re-watch a lecture in this entirely self-paced course. Take the optional quizzes to check your learning.
About your Instructor
Jackson
Dr. Sherman Jackson is the King Faisal Chair of Islamic Thought and Culture, and Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California (USC). He was formerly the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Visiting Professor of Law and Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor).
Dr. Jackson received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and has taught at the University of Texas at Austin, Indiana University, Wayne State University and the University of Michigan. From 1987 to 1989, he served as Executive Director of the Center of Arabic Study Abroad in Cairo, Egypt. He is the author of several books, including Islamic Law and the State: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Shihâb al-Dîn al-Qarâfî (E.J. Brill, 1996), On the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam: Abû Hâmid al-Ghazâlî’s Faysal al-Tafriqa (Oxford, 2002), Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking Towards the Third Resurrection (Oxford, 2005) Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering (Oxford, 2009), and most recently Sufism for Non-Sufis? Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah al-Sakandari’s Taj al-‘Arus (Oxford, 2012).
Course Readings
The main course book is:
Jackson, Sherman. Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking Toward the Third Resurrection. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Paperback. ISBN: 978-0199782383. Kindle version available.
Please find selected additional readings for the course (articles and book sections within fair use parameters) in the Downloads section on the right.
