The Islamic Antiquarian Society of the Americas

Preserving the Documentary History of Islam in the Americas

The Islamic Antiquarian Society of the Americas is a scholarly and educational initiative dedicated to preserving, documenting, and advancing research on the printed, manuscript, and archival history of Islam and Muslims throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Muslim presence in the Americas spans centuries and reflects a wide range of historical experiences, including enslavement, migration, trade, intellectual exchange, institution-building, and community formation. Yet the documentary record of these histories remains widely dispersed across private collections, institutional archives, community holdings, and rare printed materials. Much of this record remains difficult to access and, in some cases, vulnerable to permanent loss.

IASA seeks to address this gap by identifying, preserving, digitizing, and making accessible the bibliographic and documentary heritage of Islam in North America, South America, and the Caribbean. The Society is especially concerned with rare books, pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, manuscripts, ephemera, organizational records, and other historical sources that illuminate Muslim intellectual and communal life in the Americas.

While the Society’s primary focus is the Western Hemisphere, Islam in the Americas cannot be understood in isolation from the wider global Islamic intellectual tradition. Accordingly, IASA also values books, catalogues, reference works, and archival materials produced outside the Americas when they provide essential historical, bibliographic, or scholarly context.

Scope of Work

The Society’s work includes archival recovery, bibliographic description, source-based research, digitization planning, and the publication of historically grounded studies. IASA is especially interested in materials that help document early Muslim presence, Muslim communities, Islamic institutions, and the movement of Islamic texts and ideas across the Atlantic world.

Research Priorities

• Archival recovery and documentation of early Muslim presence in the Americas
• Identification and preservation of rare printed and manuscript materials
• Bibliographic and historiographical research on Islam in the Western Hemisphere
• Publication of scholarly articles, source notes, and documentary studies
• Development of digital resources for scholars, students, and the public
• Institutional partnerships with libraries, archives, museums, and research communities

Long-Term Vision

IASA aims to cultivate a broader scholarly network dedicated to the study of Islam in the Americas. Its long-term vision includes the solicitation of scholarly papers, the development of digital bibliographic resources, and the organization of conferences, symposia, and other forms of academic exchange.

The Society’s website serves as an initial foundation for building the institutional support necessary to establish a lasting research and preservation initiative. Future development may include digitization infrastructure, the securing of reproduction rights, and the creation of a durable platform for research, documentation, and publication.

Through research, documentation, and publication, the Islamic Antiquarian Society of the Americas seeks to ensure that the printed and manuscript history of Islam and Muslims in the Americas is preserved with care, studied with rigor, and made accessible for future generations.