Omar H. Ali, Author at

Academic Historian

Omar H. Ali is Dean of Lloyd International Honors College and Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is the author or editor of eight books including, Malik Ambar: Power and Slavery Across the Indian Ocean, Islam in the Indian Ocean World: A Brief History with Documents, and a co-editor of Afro-South Asia in the Global African Diaspora (3 Vols.). He also wrote the series of essays for The New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture exhibit “The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean World.” A graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science, he received his Ph.D. in History from Columbia University.

Malik Ambar (1548 -1627)

Malik Ambar was among the tens of thousands of men, women, and children captured in Africa and sold into slavery in the Middle East and India over nearly nine centuries. His story is also an indication of the ability of some in the predominantly Muslim … Read MoreMalik Ambar (1548 -1627)

Islam and the African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean World

In the following article historian Omar H. Ali explores a lesser-known aspect of the global African Diaspora, the spread of African peoples and their cultures throughout the Indian Ocean basin. Africans had become a visible part of the Indian Ocean world long before the advent … Read MoreIslam and the African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean World