Writing in Arabic won an enslaved Muslim his freedom and royal access

Evidence

Through a confusing series of events, James Oglethorpe, a member of the British Parliament and founder of Georgia, discovered this letter and the unusually well-educated man who wrote it. In 1733, Oglethorpe ordered the letter translated into English and was so impressed by Job’s story that he purchased Job’s bond and had him brought to England, where he introduced him to nobles and members of the Royal Court. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 357

Categorization

• XREF: Reinforces the chapter’s running thread (from the earlier discussion in the book) that literacy and Arabic writing were a kind of passport for enslaved Muslims, echoing how the same tool later became suspect.