Ayuba bin Suleiman Diallo to His Father (ca. 1733)

Ayuba bin Suleiman Diallo to His Father (ca. 1733)

Topic 2.7

Ayuba bin Suleiman Diallo (Job Ben Solomon), A Letter to Solomon, His Father, the Sixth Day of the Month of Ramadan (ca. 1733)

In the name of Allah, the most compassionate, the most merciful, and his blessings upon our Master Muhammad, the Most Generous Prophet. O Muslims in the land of Bundo, Ayuba bin Suleiman [says] peace be upon you. O Muslims, in the land of Bundo in the land of Futa in the land of Kalam, Auyba bin Suleiman [says] peace be upon you.—O all Muslim men in the land of Bundu and all Muslim women, Ayuba bin Suleiman [says] peace be upon you. His two wives’ names are Funta bin Sidiq Baas, and mother of bin Bobu Keita, her children’s names are Samba bin Ayuba, Demba bin Ayuba, Fatimata bin Ayuba: O Muslim men and women in the land of Bunu, this is Ayuba in the land of the Christians. There is no good in the land of the Christians for a Muslim.—O Hamad bin Suleiman, do not worry, Ayuba prays and keeps the fast [of Ramadan], behold Muslims in the land of Bundu, this is, without doubt, Ayuba; O Muslims in the land of Bundu, [says to] his two wives, do not marry in the month of Ramadan.—O all Muslim men and women in the land of Bundu, this is Ayuba bin Suleiman Hamad bin Suleiman, no dispute and no doubt about it; O Funta bin Sidiq, O mother of bin Bubo Keita, do not marry. It is Ayuba, it is the sixth day of the month of Ramadan.

A letter written in Arabic.

Ayuba [bin] Suleiman Diallo to his father, ca. 1733. From the British Library Archive, Add. 20783a. Translation by Samia Abdullah, in Michael L. Thurmond, James Oglethorpe, Father of Georgia: A Founder’s Journey from Slave Trader to Abolitionist (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2024), pp. 179–180.