From Afghanistan to Virginia – the Muslims who fought in the American Civil War

The short documentary series ‘American Muslims: A History Revealed’ features six films that explore the often overlooked ways in which of Muslims and Islam have helped to shape the United States. In this instalment, the US presenter Malika Bilal investigates the stories of two Muslim men who fought for the Union in the American Civil War. Speaking with historians, archivists and other interested citizens, Bilal introduces Mohammed Kahn, who emigrated to the US from Afghanistan in 1861, volunteered for the Union Army under the influence of alcohol and, rather surprisingly, fought in an ‘all-white’ regimen. Investigating Kahn, she also stumbles on the story of Nicholas Said who, born in the Borno region of modern Nigeria, emigrated to the US in 1860 and used his language talents to become a Union Army clerk. In doing so, Bilal highlights how Muslims and the tenets of Islam intersected with the internal American conflict – and especially its reckoning with slavery – as well as the many ways in which the war was an international fight.