IN THE latter half of the 19th century, a French bookstore in Rio de Janeiro sold a large number of copies of the Koran to the city's blacks. The capital of the Empire boasted a Muslim community, partly comprised of former slaves who had migrated from Bahia, and which was still active in the early 20th century, to the point of maintaining a Koranic school. However, with the end of direct contact between Brazil and Africa, Rio's islamites became increasingly isolated and their descendants eventually converted to other beliefs.
