Youssef Mroueh
INTRODUCTION
Numerous evidence suggests that Muslims from Spain and West Africa
arrived to the Americas at least five centuries before Columbus. It
is recorded,for example, that in the mid-tenth century, during the
rule of the Ummayyed Caliph Abdul-Rahman III (929-961 CE), Muslims
of African origin sailed westward from the Spanish port of
DELBA(Palos) into the "Ocean of darkness and fog". They returned
after a long absence with much booty from a "strange and curious
land". It is evident that people of Muslim origin are known to have
accompanied Columbus and subsequent Spanish explorers to the New
World.
The last Muslim stronghold in Spain, Granada, fell to the
Christians in 1492 CE, just before the Spanish inquisition was
launched. To escape persecution, many non-Christians fled or
embraced Catholicism. At least two documents imply the presence of
Muslims in Spanish America before 1550 CE. Despite the fact that a
decree issued in 1539 CE by Charles V, king of Spain, forbade the
grandsons of Muslims who had been burned at the stake to migrate to
the West Indies. This decree was ratified in 1543 CE, and an order
for the expulsion of all Muslims from overseas Spanish territories
was subsequently published. Many references on the Muslim arrival
to Americas are available. They are summarized in the following
notes:
A: HISTORIC DOCUMENTS:
1. A Muslim historian and geographer ABUL-HASSAN ALI IBN AL-HUSSAIN
AL-MASUDI (871-957 CE) wrote in his book Muruj adh-dhahab wa maadin
aljawhar (The meadows of gold and quarries of jewells) that during
the rule of the Muslim caliph of Spain Abdullah Ibn
Mohammad(888-912 CE), a Muslim navigator, Khashkhash Ibn Saeed Ibn
Aswad, from Cortoba, Spain sailed from Delba (Palos) in 889 CE,
crossed the Atlantic, reached an unknown territory(ard majhoola)
and returned with fabulous treasures. In Al-Masudi's map of the
world there is a large area in the ocean of darkness and fog which
he referred to as the unknown territory (Americas).(1)
2. A Muslim historian ABU BAKR IBN UMAR AL-GUTIYYA narrated that
during the reign of the Muslim caliph of Spain, Hisham II
(976-1009CE), another Muslim navigator, Ibn Farrukh, from Granada,
sailed from Kadesh (February 999CE) into the Atlantic, landed in
Gando (Great Canary islands) visiting King Guanariga, and continued
westward where he saw and named two islands, Capraria and Pluitana.
He arrived back in Spain in May 999 CE.(2)
3. Columbus sailed from Palos (Delba), Spain. He was bound for
GOMERA (Canary Islands)-Gomera is an Arabic word meaning 'small
firebrand' - there he fell in love with Beatriz BOBADILLA, daughter
of the first captain general of the island (the family name
BOBADILLA is derived from the Arab Islamic name ABOU
ABDILLA.).Nevertheless, the BOBADILLA clan was not easy to ignore.
Another Bobadilla (Francisco) later, as the royal commissioner,
put Columbus in chains and transferred him from Santo Dominigo back
to Spain (November 1500 CE). The BOBADILLA family was related to
the ABBADID dynasty of Seville (1031-1091 CE). On October 12, 1492
CE, Columbus landed on a little island in the Bahamas that was
called GUANAHANI by the natives. Renamed SAN SALVADOR by Columbus.
GUANAHANI is derived from Mandinka and modified Arabic words. GUANA
(IKHWANA) means 'brothers' and HANI is an Arabic name.Therefore the
original name of the island was 'HANI BROTHERS'. (11) Ferdinand
Columbus, the son of Christopher, wrote about the blacks seen by
his father in Handuras: "The people who live farther east of Pointe
Cavinas, as far as Cape Gracios a Dios, are almost black in color."
At the same time, in this very same region, lived a tribe of Muslim
natives known as ALMAMY. In Mandinka and Arabic languages, ALMAMY
was the designation of "AL-IMAM"or "AL-IMAMU", the leader of the
prayer,or in some cases, the chief of the community,and/or a member
of the Imami Muslim community. (12)
4. A renowned American historian and linguist, LEO WEINER of
Harvard University, in his book, AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF
AMERICA (1920) wrote that Columbus was well aware of the Mandinka
presence in the New World and that the West African Muslims had
spread throughout the Caribbean, Central, South and North American
territories, including Canada,where they were trading and
intermarrying with the Iroquois and Algonquin Indians. (13)
B: GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORATIONS:
1. The famous Muslim geographer and cartographer AL-SHARIF
AL-IDRISI (1099- 1166CE) wrote in his famous book Nuzhat al-mushtaq
fi ikhtiraq al-afaq (Excursion of the longing one in crossing
horizons) that a group of seafarers (from North Africa) sailed into
the sea of darkness and fog (The Atlantic ocean) from Lisbon
(Portugal), in order to discover what was in it and what extent
were its limits. They finally reached an island that had people and
cultivation...on the fourth day, a translator spoke to them in the
Arabic language. (3)
2. The Muslim reference books mentioned a well-documented
description of a journey across the sea of fog and darkness by
Shaikh ZAYN EDDINE ALI BEN FADHEL AL-MAZANDARANI. His journey
started from Tarfaya (South Morocco) during the reign of the King
Abu-Yacoub Sidi Youssef (1286-1307CE) 6th of the Marinid dynasty,
to Green Island in the Caribbean sea in 1291 CE (690 HE). The
details of his ocean journey are mentioned in Islamic references,
and many Muslim scholars are aware of this recorded historical
event..(4)
3. The Muslim historian CHIHAB AD-DINE ABU-L-ABBAS AHMAD BEN FADHL
AL-UMARI (1300-1384CE/700-786HE) described in detail the
geographical explorations beyond the sea of fog and darkness of
Mali's sultans in his famous book Massaalik al-absaar fi mamaalik
al-amsaar (The pathways of sights in the provinces of kingdoms).(5)
4. Sultan MANSU KANKAN MUSA (1312-1337 CE) was the world renowned
Mandinka monarch of the West African Islamic empire of Mali. While
travelling to Makkah on his famous Hajj in 1324 CE, he informed the
scholars of the Mamluk Bahri sultan court (An-Nasir Nasir Edin
Muhammad III-1309-1340 CE) in Cairo, that his brother, sultan Abu
Bakari I (1285-1312CE) had undertaken two expeditions into the
Atlantic ocean. When the sultan did not return to Timbuktu from
the second voyage of 1311 CE, Mansa Musa became sultan of the
empire. (6)
5. Columbus and early Spanish and portuguese explorers were able to
voyage across the Atlantic (a distance of 2400 Km's) thanks to
Muslim geographical and navigational information. In particular
maps made by Muslim traders, including AL-MASUDI (871-957CE) in his
book Akhbar az-zaman (History of the world) which is based on
material gathered in Africa and Asia (9). As a matter of fact,
Columbus had two captain of muslim origin during his first
transatlantic voyage: Martin Alonso Pinzon was the captain of the
PINTA,and his brother Vicente Yanez Pinzon was the captain of the
NINA. They were wealthy, expert ship outfitters who helped organize
the Columbus expedition and prepared the flagship, SANTA MARIA.
They did this at their own expense for both commercial and
political reasons. The PINZON family was related to ABUZAYAN
MUHAMMAD III (1362-66 CE), the Moroccan sultan of the Marinid
dynasty (1196-1465CE). (10)
C: ARABIC( ISLAMIC )INSCRIPTIONS:
1. Anthropologists have proven that the Mandinkos under Mansa
Musa's instructions explored many parts of North America via the
Mississippi and other rivers systems. At Four Corners, Arizona,
writings show that they even brought elephants from Africa to the
area.(7)
2. Columbus admitted in his papers that on Monday, October 21,1492
CE while his ship was sailing near Gibara on the north-east coast
of Cuba, he saw a mosque on top of a beautiful mountain. The ruins
of mosques and minarets with inscriptions of Quranic verses have
been discovered in Cuba,Mexico,Texas and Nevada. (8)
3. During his second voyage, Columbus was told by the indians of
ESPANOLA (Haiti), that black people had been to the island before
his arrival. For proof, they presented Columbus with the spears of
these African muslims. These weapons were tipped with a yellow
metal that the indians called GUANIN, a word of West African
derivation meaning 'gold alloy'. Oddly enough, it is related to the
Arabic word 'GHINAA' which means 'WEALTH'. Columbus brought some
GUANINES back to Spain and had them tested. He learned that the
metal was 18 parts gold (56.25%), 6 parts silver (18.75%) and 8
parts copper (25%), the same ratio as the metal produced in African
metalshops of Guinea. (14)
4. In 1498 CE, on his third voyage to the new world, Columbus
landed in Trinidad. Later, he sighted the South American continent,
where some of his crew went ashore and found natives using colorful
handkerchiefs of symmetrically woven cotton. Columbus noticed that
these handkerchiefs resembled the headdresses and loinclothes of
Guinea in their colors, style and function. He refered to them as
ALMAYZARS. ALMAYZAR is an Arabic word for 'wrapper','cover','apron'
and/or 'skirting' which was the cloth the Moors (Spanish or North
African Muslims) imported from west Africa (Guinea) into Morocco,
Spain and Portugal. During this voyage, Columbus was surprised
that the married women wore cotton panties (bragas) and he wondered
where these natives learned their modesty. Hernan Cortes, Spanish
conqueror, described the dress of the Indian women as 'long veils'
and the dress of Indian men as 'breechcloth painted in the style of
Moorish draperies'. Ferdinand Columbus called the native cotton
garments 'breechclothes of the same design and cloth as the shawls
worn by the Moorish women of Granada'. Even the similarity of the
children's hammocks to those found in North Africa was uncanny.(15)
5. Dr. Barry Fell (Harvard University) introduced in his book 'Saga
America-1980' solid scientific evidence supporting the arrival,
centuries before Columbus, of Muslims from North and West Africa.
Dr. Fell discovered the existence of the Muslim schools at Valley
of Fire, Allan Springs, Logomarsino, Keyhole, Canyon, Washoe and
Hickison Summit Pass (Nevada), Mesa Verde (Colorado), Mimbres
Valley (New Mexico) and Tipper Canoe(Indiana) dating back to
700-800 CE. Engraved on rocks in the arid western U.S, he found
texts, diagrams and charts representing the last surviving
fragments of what was once a system of schools - at both an
elementary and higher level. The language of instruction was North
African Arabic written with old Kufic Arabic scripts. The subjects
of instruction included writing, reading, arithmetic, religion,
history, geography, mathematics, astronomy and sea navigation. The
descendants of the Muslim visitors of North America are members of
the present Iroquois, Algonquin, Anasazi, Hohokam and Olmec native
people..(16)
6. There are 565 names of places (villages, towns, cities,
mountains, lakes, rivers,.. etc. ) in U.S.A. (484) and Canada (81)
which derived from Islamic and Arabic roots. These places were
originally named by the natives in precolumbian periods. Some of
these names carried holy meanings such as: Mecca-720
inhabitants (Indiana), Makkah Indian tribe (Washington),
Medina-2100 (Idaho), Medina-8500 (N.Y.), Medina-1100, Hazen-5000
(North Dakota), Medina-17000/Medina-120000 (Ohio), Medina-1100
(Tennessee), Medina-26000 (Texas), Medina-1200 (Ontario),
Mahomet-3200 (Illinois), Mona-1000 (Utah), Arva-700
(Ontario)...etc. A careful study of the names of the native
Indian tribes revealed that many names are derived from Arab and
Islamic roots and origins, i.e. Anasazi, Apache, Arawak, Arikana,
Chavin, Cherokee, Cree, Hohokam, Hupa, Hopi, Makkah, Mahigan,
Mohawk, Nazca, Zulu, Zuni...etc..
Based on the above historical, geographical and linguistic notes, a
call to celebrate the millennium of the Muslim arrival to the
Americas, five centuries before Columbus, has been issued to all
Muslim nations and communities around the world. We hope that this
call will receive complete understanding and attract enough
support.
FOOTNOTES:
(1)See ref 4 (2)See ref. 9 (3)See ref. 3 (4)See ref. 1, 2 and 5
(5)See ref. 6 (6)See ref. 14 (7)See ref. 21 and 22 (8)See ref. 15
(9)See ref. 4 (10)See ref. 15 (11)See ref. 15 (12)See ref. 6
(13)See ref. 20 (14)See ref. 16 (15)See ref. 7 (16)See ref. 10 &12
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