Defining Legends : New

An Analysis of Afrocentric Writings Against Islam,

*[A5+] Large Hardback - 388 pages,

by Abdulhaq al-Ashanti,

Published by Dar al-Arqam.

Description :

Since the 1960s there has been a rapid and phenomenal increase of people in the West embracing Islām and the majority of those in the West who are turning to Islām are people of African origin in the UK and the USA. At the same time, Afrocentric ideology has also spread in the West which has, since the 1970s, argued that Islām itself was a religion of Arab conquerors that plundered Africa to the detriment of the African peoples themselves and this (Kemet Afrocentricity, various Hebrew Israelite cults or ‘black Orientalism’) has emerged to counter this growth of people of African origin turning to Islām.


Defining Legends will critically evaluate mainstream black Orientalism and extremist Afrocentric claims about Islām and bring new evidence to challenge their false assumptions. The documentary evidence presented in some Afrocentric literature about Islām will be analysed and dismissed where necessary. This study will mainly dismiss the anti-Islamic trend within some Afrocentric perceptions of Islām along with recourse to more corroborated criteria and demonstrate the incoherence of their arguments against Islām. Defining Legends also demonstrates how much of Afrocentric thought regarding Islām is in fact entrenched in a Eurocentric origin, therefore based upon anti-Islamic European Christian, Freemasonic and Zionist sources.


This book originally consisted of 75 pages during the year 1999, growing to its current size due to the author adapting, rejecting and supplementing material and reflecting upon the core themes of the book.

About the Author :

AbdulHaq al-Ashanti is British-born of Ghanaian origin, born and raised in Oxford, graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London having completed a BA in African History, an MA in African Studies, majoring in the History of Islam in Africa, and also Arabic. He completed Arabic grammar works such as al-Ajrumiyyah in 1998 and also studied privately with teachers, completing core books in Islamic creed with Shaykh Fahad al-Fuhayd (Professor of 'Usul al-Din at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University) and also in Hadith with Shaykh Asim al-Qaryuti (Professor of Prophetic Sunnah at Imam Muhammad ibn Sa'fid Islamic University).


AbdulHaq has lived and travelled in Africa and the Middle East, and in 2004 in Riyadh was one of the main authors of the ICO Islamic Studies Curriculum project, which is a key resource for Islamic schooling. He has also authored and translated many books into English.

Table of Contents :

---Acknowledgements,

---Foreword by Shaykh Dr. Khalid al-Anbari,

---Introduction,

---The Afrocentric Assault on Islam,

---Did either the Arabs or Almoravids Conquer West Africa?

------The Role of Dubious Arabic and Orientalist Sources,

------How and Why did these 'Conquer and Invasion' Myths and Theories become popular?

---Sudan :

------Sudan and Christian Missionary Activity,

------Catholic Missionaries in Sudan,

------Other Missionaries in Sudan,

------The Beginnings of Missionary and Evangelical Propaganda in Sudan,

------The Policy of Dealing with Islam in Sudan,

------Slavery in Sudan Hoaxes,

------Conclusions,

------The Darfur Crisis.

---Slavery and Early Islam;

------Shaykh 'Abdullah bin 'AbdurRahman Ali Bassam on the Manumission of Slaves in Islam,

------Castration and Slavery in the Muslim World,

------Nudity of Slaves in Slave Markets in the Muslim World,

------Slavery through Haram and Prohibited Kidnapping of Free People,

------Slavery in the Ottoman Empire,

------Slavery in Morroco,

------Basra and Iraq; the Zanj Slave Rebellion,

------Oman and Zanzibar,

------The Barbary Coast and Galley Slavery,

------Mauritania,

------Modern Slavery in Libya,

------Slavery and Racism in Tunisia,

------Modern-day Slavery in Europe and Contemporary Sexual Slavery in Europe, America, Japan and Israel,

------Conclusion.

---Arabs and Afrocentric/Black Orientalist Confusion,

------The Definition of an 'Arab'

------Black Definition in Practice,

------Black Orientalism and Evangelical Christian Propaganda.

---Does Islam Teach Racism?

---A Response to 'An African asks some Disturbing Questions of Islam'

------Culture and Confusion,

---Edward Blyden,

---African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas and the Caribbean,
------Jamaica,

------Trinidad,

------Brazil,

------'AbdurRahman al-Baghdadi,

------Origins of African Muslim Slaves in the Americas and Caribbean

------Conclusions.

---Conclusion.

Appendix One : Tawheed, Pharoah Akhenaten and the Kemet Afrocentrics,

---Akhenaten and His Supposed 'Monotheism'

Appendix Two : The New Age "Hebrew Israelite" Cult,

---Introduction,

---Background and History,

---Main Source and Texts of the Hebrew Israelite Cult,

---[1]. Sons of Ham or Shem?

---[2]. Black-Americans solely are "The Tribe of Judah"!? Hebrew Israelite's and the "Lost Tribe" myth,

------Hebrew Israelite similarities with the 16-17th century white European pilgrims, Missionary Puritans and the Mormon Church/So called "Latter-Day Saints."

---[3]. Historical Denial of Black Americans being Ethnically Associated with Africa,

---[4]. Slavery of Israelites confused with Trans-Atlantic Slavery,

---[5]. White People are "Devil Edomites" descended from Esau,

---[6]. The Bible as Authoritative and the Hebrew Israelite Reliance on the King James Bible.

---Bibliography.

Also see Inter-faith,

Also see Current Affairs.

Also see Literature.

*Dimensions : 24.6 x 16.8 x 3.8cm.