Pre-Columbian Islamic contact theories

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Pre-Columbian Islamic contact theories are theories which contend that medieval Muslim explorers (from the Al-Andalus, Africa or China) 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 Muslim 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.

[edit] Claims regarding the Caliphate of Cordoba

Proponents of pre-Columbian Islamic contact theories cite Arabic sources written during the Caliphate of Cordoba which report Muslim sailors from the Al-Andalus (Islamic Iberia, comprising modern Portugal and Spain) and Northwest Africa 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.^[1][2][3] Ali al-Masudi, in The Book of Golden Meadows (947), wrote:

"In the ocean of fogs [the Atlantic] there are many curiosities which we have mentioned in detail in our Akhbar az-Zaman, on the basis of what we saw there, adventurers who penetrated it on the risk of their life, some returning back safely, others perishing in the attempt. Thus a certain inhabitant of Cordoba, Khashkhash by name, assembled a group of young men, his co-citizens, and went on a voyage on this ocean. After a long time he returned back with booty. Every Spaniard knows this story."^[4]

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.^[5]

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.^[2]

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

"The Commander of the Muslims Ali ibn Yusuf ibn Tashfin sent his admiral Ahmad ibn Umar, better known under the name of Raqsh al-Auzz to attack a certain island in the Atlantic, but he died before doing that. [...] Beyond this ocean of fogs it is not known what exists there. Nobody has the sure knowledge of it, because it is very difficult to traverse it. Its atmosphere is foggy, its waves are very strong, its dangers are perilous, its beasts are terrible, and its winds are full of tempests. There are many islands, some of which are inhabited, others are submerged. No navigator traverses them but bypasses them remaining near their coast. [...] And it was from the town of Lisbon that the adventurers set out known under the name of Mugharrarin [seduced ones], penetrated the ocean of fogs and wanted to know what it contained and where it ended. [...] After sailing for twelve more days they perceived an island that seemed to be inhabited, and there were cultivated fields. They sailed that way to see what it contained. But soon barks encircled them and made them prisoners, and transported them to a miserable hamlet situated on the coast. There they landed. The navigators saw there people with red skin; there was not much hair on their body, the hair of their head was straight, and they were of high stature. Their women were of an extraordinary beauty."^[4]

[edit] Claims regarding the Mali Empire

Main articles: Abubakari II and Pre-Columbian Africa-Americas contact theories

Two accounts drawn from contemporary reports regarding the Mali Empire have been cited by proponents of early Muslim or African contact theories to suggest that expeditions from this Muslim West African empire may have crossed the Atlantic to reach the Americas.

In his book [[Massaalik al-absaar fi mamaalik al-amsaar]] (The pathway of sight in the provinces of the kingdoms), the Muslim historian Chihab Ad-Dine Abu Abbas Ahmad bin Fadhl al Umari (1300-1384) describes in detail the geographical exploration of the Atlantic by the Sultan of Mali, Abu Bakari I.^[6]

Sultan Mansa Musa (1312-1337) was the Mandinka monarch of the West African Islamic empire of Mali. While traveling to Makkah on his famous Hajj in 1324, he informed the scholars of the Mamluk Bahri sultan An-Nasir Nasir Edin Muhammad III (1309-1340) in Cairo, that his brother, sultan Abubakari II (1285-1312) had undertaken two expeditions into the Atlantic Ocean. When the sultan did not return to Timbuktu from the second voyage of 1311, Mansa Musa became sultan of the empire.^[7][8]

Ibn Fadlullah al-Umari (1300-1348), in his encyclopaedia [[Masalik Al-Absar]], quoted Sultan Mansa Musa Ibn Amir Hajib as saying:

"We belong to a family where the son succeeds the father in power. The ruler who preceded me did not believe that it was impossible to reach the extremity of the ocean that encircles the earth, and wanted to reach to that and obstinately persisted in the design. So he equipped two hundred boats full of men, as many others full of gold, water and victuals sufficient enough for several years. He ordered the chief [admiral] not to return until they had reached the extremity of the ocean, or if they had exhausted the provisions and the water. They set out. Their absence extended over a long period, and, at last, only one boat returned. On our questioning, the captain said: 'Prince, we have navigated for a long time, until we saw in the midst of the ocean as if a big river was flowing violently. My boat was the last one; others were ahead of me. As soon as any of them reached this place, it drowned in the whirlpool and never came out. I sailed backwards to escape this current.' But the Sultan would not believe him. He ordered two thousand boats to be equipped for him and for his men, and one thousand more for water and victuals. Then he conferred on me the regency during his absence, and departed with his men on the ocean trip, never to return nor to give a sign of life."^[4]

[edit] Nautical feasibility

See also: Thor Heyerdahl and The Ra II expedition

In 1969, Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian adventurer crossed the Atlantic ocean from the North African port of Safi, arriving in Barbados, West Indies. His craft was made by local Africans of indigenous papyrus. For his journey he relied on the southbound Canary Current off the coast of the Iberian peninsula and the western coast of Africa, and the Northeast Tradewinds that blow westward towards the Caribbean region. The voyage has been suggested to indicate that it was technically possible to cross the Atlantic in medieval western Africa.^[9]

[edit] Claims regarding Zheng He of China

Main article: 1421 hypothesis

Zheng He was born in 1371 of the Hui ethnic group and into the Muslim faith in the modern-day Yunnan Province of China.^[10] Between 1405 and 1433, the Ming government sponsored a series of seven naval expeditions. The Yongle Emperor designed them to establish a Chinese presence, impose imperial control over trade, and impress foreign peoples. He also might have wanted to extend the tributary system, by which Chinese dynasties traditionally recognized foreign peoples. Zheng He was placed as the admiral in control of the fleet and armed forces that undertook these expeditions. Zheng He's first voyage consisted of a fleet of 317 ships holding almost twenty-eight thousand armed troops. Many of these ships were mammoth nine-masted "treasure ships" which were by far the largest marine craft the world had ever seen.^{[citation needed]}

In January 2006, BBC News and The Economist both published news regarding the exhibition of a Chinese sailing map claimed to be dated 1763, which was further claimed to be a copy of another map purportedly made in 1418 by Zheng He. The map has detailed descriptions of both Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians. According to the map's owner, Liu Gang, a Chinese lawyer and collector, he purchased the map in 2001 for $500 USD from a Shanghai dealer.

According to Liu, after he read the book "1421: The Year China Discovered the World" by Gavin Menzies, he realized the significant potential value of the map. The map has been tested to verify the age of its paper, but not the ink. Even though the map has been shown to date from a period that could cover 1763, the question remains as to whether it is an accurate copy of an earlier 1418 map, a copy of a contemporary 18th-century European map, or a modern forgery drawn on ancient paper.

A number of authorities on Chinese history have questioned the authenticity of the map. Some point to the use of the Mercator-style projection, its accurate reckoning of longitude and its North-based orientation. Also mentioned is the depiction of the erroneous Island of California, a mistake commonly repeated in European maps from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.

Geoff Wade of the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore has strongly disputed the authenticity of the map and has suggested that it is either an 18th or 21st-century fake. He has pointed out a number of anachronisms that appear in the map and its text annotations. For example, in the text next to Eastern Europe, which has been translated as "People here mostly believe in God and their religion is called 'Jing'", Wade notes that the Chinese word for the Christian God is given as "Shangdi", which is a usage that was first coined by Jesuit missionaries in the 16th century.

In May 2006, it was reported by the Dominion Post that Fiona Petchey, head of the testing unit at Waikato University, had carbon dated the map. The carbon dating indicated with an 80% probability a date for the paper of the map between either 1640-1690 or 1730-1810.^[11]

The 1421 hypothesis has been dismissed by Sinologists and other professional historians.

[edit] Alleged influence on Columbus

When Christopher Columbus made his first voyage to the Americas in 1492, he was accompanied by several Muslim sailors (Andalusian Moors) who travelled with him to the New World,^[12] as well as Andalusian Jews who attempted to speak Arabic to the Tainos in Cuba.^[13]

It has been claimed that Columbus' son, Fernando Colón, also records that his father learned in Genoa from Muslim shipmen that visited the place that it was possible to reach India by sailing west of the European continent as an alternative to sailing eastwards.^[4]

[edit] See also

• Islamic Golden Age
• Piri Reis map
• Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
• Timeline of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
• Norse colonization of the Americas

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Dr Youssef Mroueh. Pre-Columbian Muslims in the Americas.
• 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. Islam and Muslims in America before Columbus.