The
old poem that most American school children recognize begins “In 1492, Columbus
sailed the ocean blue…” Indeed, in the year 1492, Christopher Columbus (whose
real name in Italian was Cristoforo Colombo) sailed across the Atlantic in the
name of the Spanish crown and landed in the Caribbean part of North America.
For hundreds of years, it has simply been accepted that Columbus was the first
explorer to valiantly sail across the sea and “discover” the Americas. However,
this theory no longer stands up to modern scholarship.
It
goes without saying that the first people to truly discover America were the
ancestors of the Native Americans, who probably crossed into North America
through Russia and Alaska about 12,000 years ago. Discussion of the “discovery”
of the Americas by Europeans, Africans, or Asians is an insult to the history
of its indigenous peoples. That said, the first daring souls to cross the
Atlantic Ocean by boat are important to know, and the theory of Columbus does
no justice to their story.
While
the common knowledge about Columbus is that he lived in a time where everyone
assumed the world was flat, this is clearly not the case. Ancient Greek
scholars such as Aristotle and Pythagoras suggested that the earth was in fact,
round. It was during the Muslim Golden Ages (c. 750-1100s) that advanced
scholarship into the shape and size of the earth began. Contrary to what most
people may believe, in those years, it was common understanding that the earth
was not flat. The debate, instead, was about exactly how large the earth was.
In the early 800s, the Abbasid Caliph al-Ma’mun assembled the brightest minds
of the day (including al-Khawarizmi) in Baghdad who calculated the earth’s
circumference and were off by only 4% of it’s actual size.
Knowing
that the earth was round, and knowing its size to a very good degree of
accuracy (without the modern technology we have today), some intrepid Muslims
must have attempted to go around the world, hundreds of years before Columbus.
The proof of these voyages is in front of us, in black and white.
Muslim
Spain
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Al-Masudi’s world map of 956, showing the “unknown land” across the Atlantic across from Africa
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The
great Muslim historian and geographer, Abu al-Hasan al-Masudi wrote in 956 of a
voyage in 889 from al-Andalus (Muslim Spain). The voyage left from the port of
Delba (the same place Columbus’ voyage would begin) and sailed for months
westward. They eventually found a large landmass across the ocean where they
traded with the natives, and then returned to Europe. Al-Masudi records this
land across the ocean in his famous map and refers to it as “the unknown land”.
Two
more voyages from Muslim Spain to the Americas are recorded in history. One was
in 999 and was led by Ibn Farrukh, from Granada. The other is recorded by the
genius mind of the geographer al-Idrisi, who worked in the multi-cultural and
religiously tolerant Sicily of King Roger II in the 1100s. He wrote of a group
of Muslims who sailed west from Lisbon for 31 days and landed on an island in
the Caribbean. They were taken prisoner by the Native Americans on that island
for a few days. Eventually, they were freed when a translator who lived among
the natives that spoke Arabic arranged for their release. They eventually
sailed back to al-Andalus and told their tale. The important part of this
account is the existence of an Arabic speaker among the natives, indicating
that there must have been more unrecorded contact between the Arab world and
the Americas.
West
Africa
There
is another part of the Muslim world that had contact with the Americas before
Columbus. In West Africa in the 1300s, a powerful and incredibly wealthy empire
called Mali existed. The most famous leader of this empire was Mansa (king)
Musa. The most memorable event of his reign was his epic hajj journey in 1324.
The caravan of over 60,000 people made an impression everywhere they went,
including Egypt, where Mansa Musa told the story of how he came to power. His
brother, Abu Bakr was the Mansa before he was. During his reign, Abu Bakr sent
a fleet of 400 ships to explore the Atlantic Ocean. Only 1 ship returned, but
reported that they found a land across the ocean. Mansa Abu Bakr then outfitted
a fleet of 2000 ships, which he sailed with personally, that sailed west into
the ocean. They were never heard from again.
While
there is no record in Mali of the result of that voyage, there is evidence of
their arrival in the Americas. There are numerous archaeological sites in North
and South America that attest to that Malian presence. Early Spanish explorers
and pirates recorded abandoned cities in Brazil that had inscriptions identical
to the language of the Mandinka (the people of Mali). More inscriptions in the
Mandinka language were found in the United States as well. Near the Mississippi
River, many inscriptions exist that recorded their exploration of the Americas.
In Arizona, an inscription was found that reads “The elephants are sick and
angry. At present there are many sick elephants”. This inscription also
includes a rough sketch of an elephant. Elephants are not native to the
Americas. They were brought by the Mandinka to the Americas, and the
inscriptions are proof of Mansa Abu Bakr’s successful journey over 100 years
before Columbus.
The
Ottoman Empire
In
1929, an amazing discovery was made in Istanbul, Turkey. A map drawn in the
year 1513 by the Ottoman cartographer, Piri Reis was found. Reis wrote that his
map was based on earlier sources, including ancient Greek and Arabic maps,
including maps by Christopher Columbus, who had sailed only 21 years earlier.
What is remarkable about this map is the level of detail of the map, which
forced historians to re-evaluate the Columbus theory of exploration.
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The Piri Reis map of 1513
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The
map clearly shows the eastern coast of South America, which is in the correct
position with regards to Africa. The coast of Brazil is shown in incredible
detail, with many rivers accurately placed on the map. Although Reis used
Columbus’s maps as a source, Columbus never went to South America, so Reis must
have gotten that from earlier Muslim maps that he used as sources. Furthermore,
Reis’s map includes the Andes Mountains, which were not even explored by
Europeans until the 1520s, a full decade after the drawing of Reis’s map!
Piri
Reis based his map on earlier sources, which clearly had a very good
understanding of the Americas and had explored the area well before the first
Europeans. The map is perhaps the strongest physical evidence of Muslim exploration
of the Americas before Columbus
What
Did Columbus Say?
With
all of this evidence of Muslim exploration before Columbus’s voyage in 1492, is
it possible that Columbus himself knew he was not the first? It’s more than
likely to be the case. Columbus sailed from Spain in the same year the last
Muslim dynasty of Iberia was destroyed in the Reconquista. Many of the people
of Iberia were still Muslims, and carried with them the knowledge of the Muslim
Golden Ages. Numerous people on Columbus’s voyage were Moriscos, Muslims who
were forced to convert to Catholicism or die. Columbus could have heard from
Spain’s Muslims of the New World and was thus inspired to go exploring.
Once
he got to the Americas, Columbus records numerous examples of Muslims already
present. He commented on the gold that the natives had, which was made the same
way, in the same alloy, as the Muslims of West Africa did. Furthermore,
Columbus records that the native word in that area for gold is guanin, which is
very similar to the Mandinka word for gold, ghanin, which probably comes from
the Arabic word for wealth, ghina’.
In
1498, Columbus recorded seeing a ship loaded with goods, heading towards
America, filled with Africans who were probably on their way to trade with
Native Americans. Columbus also records in his journal that Native Americans
told him of black Africans who came regularly to trade with them.
Even
Columbus knew that he was not the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
Conclusions
Clearly,
the theory that Columbus discovered America is nothing but an old tale that has
not stood the test of time. There is no doubt that the Columbian Era was a
pivotal time in world history that changed the way of life in the Americas and
Europe forever. However, he was not the first to make the crossing to the
Americas. Evidence exists from the Arabs, West Africans, and Ottomans of Muslim
voyages to the Americas well before Columbus and Christian Europe. For whatever
reason, the textbooks continue to extoll the voyage of Columbus and the courage
of his crew, the “first” to make it across the Atlantic. This idea clearly
needs to be re-examined in light of evidence from earlier Muslim explorations,
to bring their contributions to the general public.
Sources:
Dirks
, J. (2006). Muslims in American History . Beltsville, MD: Amana Publications.
Morgan,
M. (2007). Lost History. Washington D.C. : National Geographic Society.
Quick,
A. H. (2007). Deeper Roots. (3rd ed.). Cape Town: DPB Printers and Booksellers.
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