The Kentuckian in New-York: Rare Book of the Week

The Kentuckian in New-York by William Alexander Caruthers is this week's Rare Book of the Week, a rare early representation of enslaved Muslims in America offered by Peter Harrington at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair which ends today (May 5).

This 1834 first edition features a facsimile of a handwritten Qur’anic verse, what is believed to be the earliest example of Arabic script in an American literary work, a printed facsimile of Al-Fatiha, the opening surah of the Qur’an. Only two copies have been recorded at auction in the past century and it is offered at £7,500 at the fair.

The novel follows a group of Virginia college friends including its narrator Beverly Randolph as they encounter Charno, an enslaved Fula Muslim. On learning that Charno is literate, Randolph asks for a writing sample, prompting Charno to reproduce the Qur’anic verse in Arabic. The facsimile was probably prepared by Caruthers' cousin, Princeton Professor James W. Alexander and is written in the Sahrawi script typical of the West African Sahel.

The novel provides a rare early representation of enslaved Muslims in America, where literacy distinguished them from others forcibly brought from oral cultures. Cartwright notes that Charno’s Arabic text briefly led Caruthers to reconsider assumptions of African “difference”. 

William Alexander Caruthers (1802–1846) was a Virginia-born novelist and physician, one of the first notable fiction writers of the American South. His works explored themes of slavery, regional identity, and social reform. Largely forgotten today, Caruthers was part of an early literary movement grappling with the moral and cultural contradictions of antebellum America.