Pre-Columbian Andalusian-Americas contact theories

Pre-Columbian al-Andalus contact theories are theories which contend that medieval Muslim explorers from Al-Andalus (Islamic Iberia, comprising modern Portugal and Spain) and the Maghreb (Northwest Africa) may have reached the Americas, and possibly made contact with the indigenous peoples of the Americas, at some point before Christopher Columbus' first voyage to the Americas in 1492. Proponents of these theories cite as evidence reports of expeditions and voyages conducted by navigators and adventurers who they allege reached the Americas from the late 9th century onwards. These theories are generally not credited by mainstream historians, however.

Proponents cite Arabic sources written during the Caliphate of Cordoba which report sailors from al-Andalus traveling into the Atlantic Ocean between the 9th and 14th centuries. Proponents allege that some of these sailors may have traveled as far as the Americas.

The earliest report cited by proponents is the "Muruj adh-dhahab wa maadin aljawhar" ("The meadows of gold and quarries of jewels") of the Muslim historian and geographer Ali al-Masudi (871-957). Ali al-Masudi stated that during the rule of the Muslim caliph of al-Andalus, Abdullah Ibn Mohammad, a Muslim navigator Khashkhash Ibn Saeed Ibn Aswad, from Cordoba, sailed from Delba (Palos) in 889, crossed the Atlantic, reached an unknown territory (Ard Majhoola) and returned with fabulous treasures. [Tabish Khair (2006). "Other Routes: 1500 Years of African and Asian Travel Writing", p. 12. Signal Books. ISBN 1904955118.] [Ali al-Masudi (940). "Muruj Adh-Dhahab" ("The Book of Golden Meadows"), Vol. 1, p. 138.] Ali al-Masudi, in "The Book of Golden Meadows" (947), wrote:

In Ali al-Masudi's map of the world (between 896-956), there is a large area in the ocean, southwest of Africa, which he referred to as "Ard Majhoola" (Arabic for "the unknown territory"). Some have alleged that "Ard Majhoola" may be a reference to the Americas. [Agha Hakim, Al-Mirza, "Riyaadh Al-Ulama" (Arabic), Vol. 2 (p. 386) and Vol. 4 (p. 175).]

According to the Muslim historian Abu Bakr Ibn Umar Al-Gutiyya, another Muslim navigator, Ibn Farrukh, from Granada, sailed across the Atlantic in February 999, landed in Gando (Canary islands) where he visited the guanche King Guanariga, and continued westward where he eventually saw and named two islands, Capraria and Pluitana. He arrived back in the Al-Andalus in May 999.

The cartographer and geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi (1100-1166), in his geographical text "Nuzhatul Mushtaq", wrote the following on the Atlantic Ocean:

If this translationis correct where it says 'red skin', it raises questions as to who they were. Early descriptions of Native Americans rarely referred to them as red. For instance, "a 1702 history of New Sweden, which did not describe Indians as red but as differing "in their colour; in some places being black, and in others, brown or yellow," and "the earliest European explorers of the Southeast, the Spanish, and described Indians as "brown of skin". [How Indians Got to be Red, Nancy Shoemaker, The American Historical Review, Vol. 102, No. 3. (Jun., 1997), pp. 625–644.] This is both a possible explanation of 'blacks' seen by early European explorers and settlers and casts doubt about comments on 'red skin' referring to Native Americans.

See also

*Khashkhash Ibn Saeed Ibn Aswad
*Islamic Golden Age
*Islamic geography
**Piri Reis map
*Pre-Columbian Africa-Americas contact theories
*Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
*Timeline of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact

Notes

References

*Dr Youssef Mroueh. [http://www.mediamonitors.net/youssefmroueh1.html Pre-Columbian Muslims in the Americas] .
* [http://www.muslimsinamerica.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=28 Pre Columbus & Pre Slavery Years]
*Amir Nashid Ali Muhammad. "Muslims in America - Seven Centuries of History 1312-2000". ISBN 0-915957-75-2.
*Salih Yucel. [http://www.fountainmagazine.com/articles.php?SIN=f33a07b0a2&k=823&15713013&show=part1 "Islam and Muslims in America before Columbus"] .