the Americas had a potentially large source of supply of Korans: the Muslim themselves. Benjamin Larten, a Mandingo enslaved in Jamaica, had written his own copy and showed it to Richard Madden. [32] At the end of a basic Koranic education, a student must be able to recite the Koran by rote, and the best can also write it. Larten's work, produced in the most difficult circumstances, is an extraordinary testimony of piety, an indication of the degree of education reached by the scribe, and, as if such were needed, another example of the immense waste caused by the slave trade. To accomplish such an endeavor Larten needed patience, time, and will and, more prosaically, ink and paper, which were expensive items. That he was willing and able to get these materials in such quantity points to an achievement that meant months or maybe years of savings. Benjamin Larten personified the dedicated Muslim at his best, sure of his faith and willing to go to great lengths to preserve it. Yet he, too, had to repudiate Islam publicly and state in front of Madden that he had written his Koran before he became a Christian. The Muslims' fake professions of fake must have broken their hearts.
-Sylviane A. Diouf, Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas, p. 117
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