Customer Reviews

Wanderings: Sudanese Migrants and Exiles in North America (The Anthropology of Contemporary Issues)

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I bought this book to gain insight on a Sunni Muslim, one Sati Majid. According to the book Mr Majid ventured from the Sudan to America in 1904. And he stayed until 1929. He propagated Islam in New York, Pittsbugh and a few other major cities.

The book includes the correspondence of Majid to Noble Drew Ali. Sati Majid thought the teachings of Prophet Noble Drew Ali to be falsehood. So he left America and sought a fatwa against Noble Drew from Al Azhar university. The book mentions how hard this was to obtain for Majid. At any rate with the abolishment of the Caliph a fatwa no longer held much judicial weight in 1929. However after obtaining said fatwa Majid was not allowed to return to America. What I didn't know was Majid sought counsel in this matter from clerics in Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan, Egypt, Jerusalem, Afganistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and other Muslim countries. He was pretty obsessed with this mission. But, it didn't appear the clerics overseas shared his same zeal.

There is a letter alledgedly written from Elijah Muhammed to Majid also in the book this correspondence is favorable. However. The book contains good information on the lost boys & girls & (Bahhara) of the Sudan and magnifies awareness to the suffering terror and death associated with this people who are subjected to a gruesome civil war.

My only question of the info on Majid is, if he came to America in 1904 and stayed until 1929. Why hasn't anyone recorded this in an official way? I just wonder whether the discovery of Majid now in (1904) when D Ali established the M.S.T. in 1913. Is just orthodox propaganda to discredit Drew Ali in some way? They make Majid out to be the original Islamic trailblazer in America.

Widespread circulation of the Quran didn't come until the 1930s, so what volume of sacred law was Majid using while in America in the early 1900s?

Overall not a bad read. You get a better understanding of the Sudan and Nubia.