1492 Seven Centuries of Islamic Rule ends in Spain, where Arabic is a predominant language among Christians, Jews and Muslims. Christopher Columbus sets sail from Spain to seek the New World, only later to realize he has discovered what comes to be known as the Americas.

1527 Estevanico of Azamor, a Spanish Muslim from Morocco, lands in Florida with the ill-fated expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez. More than a decade later he becomes the first of three Americans to cross the continent. At least two states owe their beginnings to him - Arizona and New Mexico. He would go on to become the first visitor from Europe or Africa to live among the Pueblo Indians. He was also a guide for the Franciscan friar, Marcos de Niza and was in this capacity until he was killed in an Indian attack in 1539.

1530’s First African Muslim slaves are brought to America by force.

1732 Ayyub ibn Sulaiman Jallon, a Muslim slave in Maryland, is set free by James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia. 

1753 Muslims from North Africa, appear in the records of South Carolina Council Journal, No. 21, Pt. 1, pp. 298-299. The two men, Abel Conder and Mahamut (Mohammed), petition the South Carolina royal authorities in Arabic for their freedom.

1770’s The African Muslim Wahhab brothers are shipwrecked on the coast of North Carolina where they then settle, marry and start a farm. Their ancestors today own one of the largest private hotel chains in North Carolina. Around this same time a ship of 70 Moorish (Muslims from Spain) slaves land in Maryland, while others are reported to be living in South Carolina and Florida

1777 Morocco, a Muslim nation, is the first country to officially recognize the newly independent USA.

1806 Bilali, a freed Muslim slave, becomes the leader of one of America's earliest known free African Muslim communities. An estimated 80 Muslims live and work on his plantation where they are able to practice their faith openly. And Yarrow Mamout, an African Muslim slave, is set free in Washington, D.C., and later becomes one of the first shareholders of the second chartered bank in America, the Columbia bank. His portraits hang today in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the Georgetown Public Library, Washington D.C.

1828 African Muslim Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori, a prince from West Africa turned slave is freed by the order of Secretary of State Henry Clay and President John Quincy Adams. He is known as the “Prince of Slaves.” A drawing of him is displayed in the Library of Congress.

1856 The United States cavalry hires six Muslims to experiment with raising camels in Arizona. The team of three Arabs, Two Turks, and Hadji Ali, are part of the short-lived U.S. camel calvary corp setup by Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis. For the experiment, 77 camels were brought over from the East, but the experiment was abandoned when war between the States broke out. Hadji Ali is the only one to remain in the U.S. and settles in Arizona, where his descendants still live till today.

1870 The Reverend Norman, a Methodist missionary who went to Turkey, is the first known white American convert to Islam.

1884 Tombstones throughout the West are found depicting the Islamic symbol of God's Oneness – a single raised finger.

1888 Muhammad Alexander Russell Webb becomes the second known white American convert to Islam. In the same year, he appears at the First World Congress of Religions in Chicago and delivers two lectures on Islam.  Another white convert and noted scholar, Edward W. Blyden, travels through the eastern and southern parts of the U.S. preaching Islam.

		Muhammad Alexander Russell Webb
		Born in 1846 in Hudson, NY, Muhammad Alexander Russell Webb is the second known white American to convert to Islam.  Prior to his conversion, he was a journalist and prominent American diplomat appointed United States Consul to Manila, Philippines. It was there that he studied, and joined, Islam. After converting he devoted the rest of his life to Missionary work and represented the Muslim World at Chicago's World Exposition Conference on World Religions