Pre-Columbian Andalusian-Americas contact theories

Pre-Columbian Andalusian-Americas 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 Córdoba 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. 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."

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.

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:

"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."

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". 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

• 1421: The Year China Discovered the World
• Geography in medieval Islam
• Islamic Golden Age
• Khashkhash Ibn Saeed Ibn Aswad
• Piri Reis map
• Pre-Columbian Africa-Americas contact theories
• Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
• Timeline of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact

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.