Islam in America: A Global History

This course explores the history of Muslims in America — and American discourses about Islam — from 1492 to the present. We follow five historical contexts bridging Spain and Portugal, West Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and North America, including: (1) Iberian-Ottoman rivalry from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean and European colonization of the Americas; (2) transatlantic slave trade and the roots of African-American Islam; (3) the U.S. Founders’ ideas about Muslims and religious freedom, plus diplomatic engagement with Morocco, the Ottoman Empire, and Persia; (4) large-scale immigration of Asian Muslims following the 1965 Civil Rights Act; and (5) racialization of Muslim Americans — and oft-misidentified minorities including Arab, Iranian, Sikh, Jewish, Black, and Latinx Americans — before and after 9/11 and U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.