Islamic literature is literature written manuscripts with an Islamic perspective, in any language.

The most well known fiction from the Islamic world was The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights), which was a compilation of many earlier folk tales told by the Persian Queen Scheherazade. The epic took form in the 10th century and reached its final form by the 14th century; the number and type of tales have varied from one manuscript to another. All Arabian fantasy tales were often called "Arabian Nights" when translated into English, regardless of whether they appeared in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, in any version, and a number of tales are known in Europe as "Arabian Nights" despite existing in no Arabic manuscript.

This epic has been influential in the West since it was translated in the 18th century, first by Antoine Galland. Many imitations were written, especially in France.

Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, the national epic of Iran, is a mythical and heroic retelling of Persian history. Amir Arsalan was also a popular mythical Persian story, which has influenced some modern works of fantasy fiction, such as The Heroic Legend of Arslan.

Imam Muhammad al-Asi (Arabic: محمّد العاصي) is the Muslim imam (leader) who formerly led prayer at the Islamic Center of Washington, and currently spends most of his time teaching and working on the first Quranic exegesis to be written originally in English. Al-Asi was elected as the Imam of the masjid in 1981. In March 1983, al-Asi was expelled from the center for preaching views that were deemed antithetical to the Saudi establishment. Although he still identifies himself as Imam of the Islamic Center, the Center has stated that it has no affiliation with him. He still holds Jumu'ah khutbahs every Friday on the sidewalk in front of the Islamic Center.

Muhammad al-Asi was born in Grand Rapids, MI in 1951. At the age of 11 he moved to Lebanon. There, he completed high school and attended the Arab University of Beirut, where he intensively studied the Arabic language. In 1973, al-Asi returned to the U.S. and attended the University of Maryland, graduating with a degree in Government and Politics in 1979.

The term black people is used in some socially-based systems of racial classification for humans of a dark-skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups represented in a particular social context. Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class and socio-economic status also play a role, so that relatively dark-skinned people can be classified as white if they fulfill other social criteria of "whiteness" and relatively light-skinned people can be classified as black if they fulfill the social criteria for "blackness" in a particular setting.

As a biological phenotype being "black" is often associated with the very dark skin colors of some people who are classified as "black". But, particularly in the United States, the racial or ethnic classification also refers to people with all possible kinds of skin pigmentation from the darkest through to the very lightest skin colors, including albinos, if they are believed by others to have African ancestry, or to exhibit cultural traits associated with being "African-American". As a result, in the United States the term "black people" is not an indicator of skin color but of socially based racial classification.