Up Next
Back to Show
American Muslims: A History Revealed
Is This One of America’s First Mosques?
Season 1
Episode 11
Among the millions of immigrants arriving in the United States at the turn of the 20th century were thousands of Muslims from Lebanon, then part of Greater Syria. In this film, host Aymann Ismail tells the story of two of these people, a woman named Mary Juma and her husband Hassen who homesteaded in North Dakota in the early 1900s. Traveling across the Midwest, Aymann explores how the community t
Support Provided By
23:46
Discovers how Muslim groups helped working-class Black Americans resist the confines of race.
Unlock with PBS Passport
24:45
A federal immigration file shows how early border laws shaped the Muslim experience in the U.S.
24:43
Host Aymann Ismail explores how Muslims shaped the imagination of America’s founding generation.
Unlock with PBS Passport
24:45
A photograph reveals the rise of Black Muslim life in northern cities during the Great Migration.
23:39
Asma Khalid travels to the American South West to tell the story of early South Asian migration.
Unlock with PBS Passport
24:45
A Lebanese homesteader recalls the building of one of the first mosques on the Great Plains.
22:24
Malika Bilal tells the story of an immigrant with a 200-page pension file detailing his experiences.
Unlock with PBS Passport
24:45
A Civil War pension file reveals the story of a Muslim man who fought for the Union.
23:19
Who was Mamadou Yarrow, and how did he make his way into this painting in his journey to freedom?
Unlock with PBS Passport
24:45
How Islam figured in debates about religious freedom and citizenship in the early Republic.
Unlock with PBS Passport
24:44
A 1819 portrait of a formerly enslaved man reveals the presence of Muslims at the nation’s founding.