Primary Source Analysis Guide
To navigate the complexities of primary sources, we invite you to use our Primary Source Analysis Guide.
We encourage everyone who engages with this history to think critically about the narratives presented in these primary sources and the ways they have been interpreted. For example, recent translations of Arabic documents reveal that some of the sources have been mistranslated and mischaracterized. The new translations suggest that the narratives of enslaved Muslims, even in their own words, had been altered and erased.
It is also important to think carefully about the author of each document. Who is speaking? What kind of authority do they hold? What were their biases? Included in the primary sources, for example, are legal documents written to control and persecute Muslims and Jews. To make their point, the authors of these sources often draw on dangerous stereotypes. We are not presenting these documents as facts. Rather, they are included to reveal the mindset of those in power at the time.
It is also important to think carefully about the author of each document. Who is speaking? What kind of authority do they hold? What were their biases? Included in the primary sources, for example, are legal documents written to control and persecute Muslims and Jews. To make their point, the authors of these sources often draw on dangerous stereotypes. We are not presenting these documents as facts. Rather, they are included to reveal the mindset of those in power at the time.