The Middle Eastern Studies’ Jay R. Schochet Cultural Event Series, in collaboration with Comparative Literary Studies, and the departments of Africana Studies, History, and Religion, presents “The Autobiography of Omar ibn Said: An Enslaved African Scholar,” a lecture and conversation with Professor Mbaye Lo.

Omar Ibn Said (1770-1863), a West African Muslim scholar who was enslaved in North Carolina for over half a century, left behind a small body of Arabic writings that became a source of both wonder and incomprehension. This book for the first time identifies the Arabic texts quoted by Omar. It restores the Islamic and West African meanings of Omar’s texts, in a way that illuminates contemporary American debates on racism, demonstrating that Islam is an American religion, and Arabic is an American language.

Mbaye Lo is associate professor of the practice of Asian and Middle Eastern studies and international comparative studies at Duke University.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Please register in advance.

For public attendees, visitor parking is available in the Davis Parking Garage. The gate to Founders Lot will also open at 4:30 p.m.