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Today I found a book in a library that had a translation of the dairy of an Muslim Iman who had traveled to Brazil in the second half of the XIX century. He came aboard a ship with an official mission on the part of the Ottoman empire. He said that when they disembarked in Rio, he was greated by a Black [1] Brazilian saying "salam alekum". He didn't spoke Arab, so the Iman concluded he only knew this words somebody had tought them, and didn't gave them importance. But later that day, when he and his fellow countrymen where praying, a group of black men approached and started praying with them.

He found out that their parents (or themselves when they where very young) had come to Brazil in the early years of the XIX century, from "Sudan" (which could mean any part of Subsaharan Africa).

The next day he went to visit them, and tried to instruct them on Islamic matters (as he had found they ignored essential stuff), but found it very hard, because they didn't speak Arab, and he didn't spoke Portuguese. He later found a translator weho spoke Arab and Portuguese, but he didn't probe himself very reliable.

A few days later his Ottoman captain prohibited him to continue visiting the local Muslims, because he feared that the Brazilian authorities might prohibit the entrance of Ottoman ships if they thought they where proseliting Islam. He said that Muslims here had to keep a low profile and to often "pass as Christians", and that it was better to leave things that way. The Iman entered in a dispute with the captain, saying it was against God's will to abandon their brothers in the faith without having given them the proper instruction.

He said there where 5000 Muslims in Rio. I don't know the date of the trip, but it must have been around 1870.

They later went to Bahia, in Northern Brazil. He found more Muslims, but said that most of the kids felt so atracted by Christian music, dance, dresses and stuff that they eventually tended to become Christians. He was also shocked because Muslim women weren't "covered".

I couldn't help wondering: what if the Ottoman empire had made a commercial treaty with Brazil that included a clause which would allow the envoy of Muslims Imans for the Muslim community? Could something of the sort be accepted by Brazil, or is it ASB? If it had been accepted, could this have led to a strong Muslim revival amond the black commuity in Brazil? what consequences could this have had in the long term?

[1] I don't think he used the word "Black". Something that I found surprising about the dairy is that, at least in the parts of the book I read, he practically never refered to the local muslims as "blacks". For him, they where just Muslims.
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