Satti Majid: A Sudanese Founder of American Islam

This article examines the institutional accomplishments and intellectual influence of Satti Majid, a Sudanese Muslim missionary who was active in Muslim American affairs from World War I until 1929. It recovers the pivotal role played by Majid in establishing Islam as an organized American religion during the 1920s. In this decade, Majid established a number of Muslim social welfare societies, attempted to create one of the first national Sunni Muslim umbrella groups in the United States, and achieved noteworthy success in converting American-born blacks to Islam. His most important follower, Daoud Ahmed Faisal, went on to become the premier Sunni Muslim religious leader of New York in the postwar period.