Ottoman scholar tries to convert indigenous Brazilians to Islam?

In the 1860s, 'Abd al-Rahman al-Baghdadi, an Ottoman Arab scholar ('ulama or Muslim cleric), spent a few years in Brazil mostly trying to improve the decaying state of the Islamic faith among the African slave community. He left behind a travel account, and in one part he discusses the indigenous Brazilian Indians:

In those lands, live nations of Human beings, originally the people of this country who were not civilized and did not come under the control of any power. The kings of the states were not able to subjugate them. They live in the forest and vast lands.
[...]
Several times I thought of going to these people to convert them to Islam, but the Muslims [the Afro-Brazilian Muslim community] prevented me from doing so. They said that these people would not accept me especially since I do not know their language. "Perhaps they will do violence against you. Mind your business so that you do not encounter unwanted situations."​

What might have happened if Al-Baghdadi had headed out west into the Amazon anyways, aiming to convert the Indians to Islam?
 
I'm not very familiar with the indigenous natives of Brazil but I can't imagine he'd have much success. Aside from the risk of being misunderstood and killed/injured/captured/etc, one dude can't make much headway in converting people. Especially people that have 0 incentive to convert (and that do have reasons not to convert).

If you'd just like more native Brazilian Muslims, then a PoD that strengthens the Ottoman state would probably work better. It would have more leeway to engage in non-essential preaching and outreach. I think Islam could do quite well amongst the poor and oppressed in Brazil, if given more backing.
 
Nothing special, I doubt that the Natives had any incentive to convert to a religion that antagonizes the rest of the Brazilian population, in fact the most of the natives that weren't murdered choose to convert to Catholicism and even tried to integrate in Brazilian society.

al-Baghdadi may get a handful converts, but there is nothing preventing them from abandoning it later if that meant be on the government's good eyes as good Christians (or just murdered by people wanting their land, after all there are full blown heathens, amirite?)
 
He'd probably have more luck converting the Afro-Brazilians, as well as a longer career due to lack of death from hostile tribes or the dangerous environment of the Amazon.

But might the Turks find a way to invest in Brazil and get to send explorers as the British and Americans did? A bigger Turkish presence in Brazil could mean something (whether the Ottomans can or will project power that way is another matter). It isn't like they'll never find converts amongst indigenous peoples, considering the fact that the Syriac church in Guatemala in the past years has made huge amounts of indigenous converts. You could have indigenous groups that end up practicising Islam. But most Brazilian Muslims would end up being Afro-Brazilians, the former slaves, and those are the group I think these Turks would most want to target simply because they'd be much easier to convert than the indigenous peoples.

I don't know if you could end up with something like a Muslim version of SIL International or something like it. But that would presumably be the best result from a mission like this.
 
He'd probably have more luck converting the Afro-Brazilians, as well as a longer career due to lack of death from hostile tribes or the dangerous environment of the Amazon.

But might the Turks find a way to invest in Brazil and get to send explorers as the British and Americans did? A bigger Turkish presence in Brazil could mean something (whether the Ottomans can or will project power that way is another matter). It isn't like they'll never find converts amongst indigenous peoples, considering the fact that the Syriac church in Guatemala in the past years has made huge amounts of indigenous converts. You could have indigenous groups that end up practicising Islam. But most Brazilian Muslims would end up being Afro-Brazilians, the former slaves, and those are the group I think these Turks would most want to target simply because they'd be much easier to convert than the indigenous peoples.

I don't know if you could end up with something like a Muslim version of SIL International or something like it. But that would presumably be the best result from a mission like this.
He wasn't there to convert anyone. The people he was minding were already Muslim when he arrived.
 
What might have happened if Al-Baghdadi had headed out west into the Amazon anyways, aiming to convert the Indians to Islam?

Authorities wouldn't be amused, at all. The Male Rebellion, even though it was a slave rebellion(or perhaps, because of it), made people quite wary of Muslims(that's why the Islamic faith was decaying among the slaves, and the Islamic community wanted to keep their heads down - having the attention of the authorities wasn't something good for them). Also, the Catholic Church would be quite... annoyed at someone trying to poach on their potential flock. I'd reckon what the Muslim community warned him of was quite likely to happen.
 
he would never be seen again, between hostile tribes, disease, wildlife if he went alone, or without enough people and supplies he is a goner, especially unarmed. Plus every nation surrounding the Amazon would give him 0 support, they do not want a unified native force sweeping out of the jungle.
 
Islam could have definitely found ground to establish itself in the Amazon at around this period as this era was the height of the rubber boom. Indigenous people provided the bulk of construction, harvesting, and even commercial navigation. One area where Abd al-Rahman or his students' teaching could catch on is within the areas populated by so called "settled Indians," enslaved indigenous people whose ethnic or cultural identity was eroded in the wake of forced settlement programs. They just might latch onto Islam and practice it underground in order to create a transcendent identity. I'm imagining a highly syncretic faith that Abd al-Rahman wouldn't like but would be necessary for a lasting indigenous Muslim community.

So rather than reworking the Christianity spread by missionaries we instead have a subversive form of syncretic Islam. This belief system and the community networks that accompany it could become the core of one of the millennialist movements that arose in the northern Amazon from the Guianas to the upper Rio Negro. Someone similar to, say, Venancio Kamiko, could use a prophetic syncretic Islam as a means to unify disparate native groups against rubber barons and missionaries. Or perhaps these movements are few but syncretic Islam persists as an anti-establishment community building tool.

For some other ways to get Islam into Brazil, maybe earlier in the colonial period (I'm thinking Iberian Union) we have the Moriscos deported to Brazil, where they eventually escape into the hinterland with Afro Brazilian Muslims, merging with the native community that offers them shelter. All three of these groups could find common ground in that they were all either the victims of slave raids or forced migrations. I can see Islam being used as a way to unite a few groups of natives that otherwise would've been indifferent to each other. Subsequently established quilombos might have a better time spreading their form of Islam with an older community of indigenous Muslims in their number.
 
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