(Adopted with permission from the book, Deeper Roots, Muslims in the Americas and the Caribbean from before Columbus to the Present, by Dr. Abdullah Hakim Quick, DPB Printers and Booksellers, Cape Town, South Africa. Those interested in further research are strongly urged to read Dr. Quik’s book.) Ancient America was not isolated from the old world as many historians and...

The Turks forced their way onto the world stage with thunderous momentum. Their galactic advance is marked by three critical events that provide historic benchmarks: the hiring of a Turkish guard by the Abbasid Caliph al Mu’tasim (833); the disappearance of the Samanid State based in Bukhara (999); and finally, the Battle of Manzikert (August 1072). After Caliph al Mu’tasim, the...

History is not created with a big bang. It moves in subtle, almost imperceptible steps in which all men and women participate. It is an edifice on which the action of every human, no matter how humble, has left its imprint. Great events do occur, but they merely mark the milestones in the continuing unfolding of history. In recreating the critical moments in Islamic history that have molded...