10:21:05:
MUSLIMS IN THE AMERICAS BEFORE COLUMBUS
by
Dr. Youssef Mroueh
Introduction
Numerous evidence suggests that Muslims from Spain and West Africa
arrived in the Americas at least five centuries before Co1umbus. It is
recorded, for example that in the mid-tenth century during the rule of
the Umayed Caliph Abdul-Rahman III (929-961), Muslims of African origin
sailed westward from the Spanish port of Delba (Palos) into the “Ocean
of darkness an 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 in the Americas are available. They are summarized in the
following notes:
Historic Documents
l. 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
al-Jawhar’ (The Meadows of Gold and Quarries of Jewels) that during the
rule of the Muslim Caliph of Spain Abdullah Ibn Muhammad (888 - 912 CE),
a Muslim navigator Khashkhash Ibn Saeed Ibn Aswad of Cordoba, 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 (the Atlantic ocean) which he referred to as the
unknown territory (the Americas).
-
A Muslim historian Abu Bakr Ibn Umar Al-Gutiyya narrated that during
the reign of the Muslim Caliph of Spain, Hisham II (976 -1009 CE),
another Muslim navigator Ibn Farrukh of Granada sailed from Kadesh
(February 999 CE) 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.
-
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 Abouabdilla). 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
Domingo back to Spain (November 1500 CE). The Bobadilla family was
related to 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.’ [Click
here for corrupted names of Arabic origin, such as those starting with
Guad-, al-, Medina and others.]
Ferdinand Columbus, the son of Christopher, wrote about the blacks seen
by his father in Honduras: “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 person who leads the Prayer,
or in some cases, the chief of the community, and/or a member of the
Imami Muslim community.
- 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.
Geographic Explorations
-
The famous Muslim geographer and cartographer Al-Sharif Al-Idrisi
(1099 - 1166 CE) wrote in his famous book ‘Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi-Ikhtiraq
al-Afaq (Excursion of the longing 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.
-
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 Tarfay (south
Morocco) during the reign of the King Abu-Yacoub Sidi Youssef (1286 -
1307 CE) sixth of the Marinid dynasty, to Green Island in the Caribbean
sea in 1291 CE (690 AH). The details of his ocean journey are mentioned
in Islamic references, and many Muslim scholars are aware of this
recorded historical event.
-
The Muslim historian Chihab Addine Abul-Abbas Ahmad ben Fadhl
Al-Umari (1300 - 1384 CE, 700 - 786 AH) described in detail the
geographical explorations beyond the sea of fog and darkness of Male’s
sultans in his famous book ‘Masaalik al-absaar fi Mamaalik al-amsaar
(The Pathways of Sights in The Provinces of Kingdoms).
-
Sultan Mansa Kankan Musa (1312 - 1337 CE) was the world renowned
Mandinka monarch of the West African Islamic empire of Mali. While
traveling to Makkah on his famous Hajj in 1324 CE, he informed the
scholars of the Mamluk Bahri Sultan court (an-Nasir-eddin Muhammad III,
1309 - 1340 CE) in Cairo that his brother, Sultan Abu Bakari I (1285 -
1312 CE) 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.
-
Columbus and early Spanish and Portuguese explorers were able to
voyage across the Atlantic (a distance of 24,000 Kilometers) thanks to
Muslim geographical and navigational information, in particular maps
made by Muslim traders, including Al-Masudi (871 - 957 CE) in his book
‘Akhbar Az-Zaman’ (History of The World) which is based on material
gathered in Africa and Asia. As a matter of fact, Columbus had two
captains of Muslim origin during his first transatlantic voyage: Martin
Alonso Pinzon was the captain of the Pinta, and his brother Vicente
Yanex Pinzon was the captain of the Nina. They were wealthy, expert ship
outfitters who helped organize the Columbus expedition and repaired 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 - 1465 CE).
Arabic (Islamic) Inscriptions
l. Anthropologists have proven that the Mandinkas 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.
-
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 the top of a beautiful mountain. The ruins of mosques
and minarets with inscriptions of Qur’anic verses have been discovered
in Cuba, Mexico, Texas and Nevada.
-
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 Guanine, a word of West African derivation meaning ‘gold
alloy.’ Oddly enough, it is related to the Arabic world ‘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
percent), six parts silver (18.75 percent and eight parts copper (25
percent), the same ratio as the metal produced in African metal shops of
Guinea.
-
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 the these handkerchiefs
resembled the head dresses and loincloths of Guinea in their colors,
style and function. He referred 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. Hernando Cortez, 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.
- 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 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 old
western US, 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 levels. The language of instruction was North
African Arabic written with old Kufic Arabic script. 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.
- There are 565 names of places (villages, towns, cities, mountains,
lakes, rivers, etc.) in USA (484) and Canada (81) which are derived from
Islamic and Arabic roots. These places were originally named by the
natives in pre-Columbian period. Some of these names carried holy
meanings such as: Mecca (Indiana) - 720 inhabitants, Makkah Indian tribe
(Washington), Medina (Idaho) - 2100, Medina (NY) - 8500, Medina and
Hazen (North Dakota) - 1100 and 5000, respectively, Medina (Ohio) -
12,000, Medina (Tennessee) - 1100, Medina (Texas) - 26,000, Medina
(Ontario) -1200, Mahomet (Illinois) - 3200, Mona (Utah) - 1100, Arva
(Ontario) - 700, and many others. 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 evidence, a
call to celebrate the millennium of the Muslim arrival to the Americas
(996-1996), 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.
