Imagining Islam: 19th Century Evangelical American Missionaries' Accounts of Islam

I am researching the accounts of Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons, Middlebury graduates of 1814 and the first American missionaries to establish a mission in the Holy Lands. Specifically, I am examining their depictions of Muslims... [ view full abstract ]

I am researching the accounts of Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons, Middlebury graduates of 1814 and the first American missionaries to establish a mission in the Holy Lands. Specifically, I am examining their depictions of Muslims and characterizations of Islam, depictions like this:

“What would you think of a man approaching you, of gigantick stature, long beard, fierce eyes, a turban on his head, which if stretched out would make a blanket of long flowing robes, a large belt, in which were four or five pistols and a sword? Tell me, my brother and sister, does the candle of the Lord shine round your dwelling? The God of Abraham bless you, and establish his covenant with your children.” (238, Parsons’ Memoir)

Their accounts are both products and legitimations of the expanding American Colonial mentality and American imagination of Islam. However, in each person’s accounts there are also subtler stories of interactions with Muslims. These stories contain traces of anomic experiences, which seemingly could undercut the Colonial mentality and dominant American view of Islam. Yet, both missionaries repeatedly reaffirm the American Colonial nomos, despite these encounters. When anomic experiences push our understanding of the world, what do we do?