Pre-Columbian Andalusian-Americas contact theories

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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.

Alleged explorers

Khashkhash

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.

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.

Ibn Farrukh

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.

Mugharrarin

Muhammad Al-Idrisi's geographical text, Nuzhatul Mushtaq, is often cited by proponents of pre-Columbian Andalusian-Americas contact theories. In this text, al-Idrisi 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 , 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 barques 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."

This translation by Dr Professor Muhammad Hamidullah is however questionable, since it tells us that, after having reached an area of "sticky and stinking waters", the Mugharrarin (also translated as "the adventurers") moved back and first reached an uninhabited island where they found "a huge quantity of sheep the meat of which was bitter and uneatable" and, then, "continued southward" and reached the above reported island where they were soon surrounded by barques and brought to "a village whose inhabitants were often fair-haired with long and flaxen hair and the women of a rare beauty". Among the villagers, one spoke Arabic and asked them where they came from. Then the king of the village ordered them to bring them back to the continent where they were surprised to be welcomed by Berbers.

Mu-Lan-Pi

See also: Sung Document

"Mu-Lan-Pi" is a land described in two Chinese sources: Ling-wai tai-ta {1178) by Chou Ch'ii-fei and Chu-fan chihg (1225) by Chao Ju-kua. They are together referred to as the "Sung Document", based on accounts by Muslim explorers in Song Dynasty China. It states that Muslim sailors reached a region called "Mu-Lan-Pi", which has been claimed to be some part of the Americas. Chou Ch'ii-fei states the following:

"The country of Mu-lan-p'i is to the west of the Ta-shih country. There is a great sea, and to the west of this sea there are countless countries, but Mu-lan-p'i is the one country which is visited by the big ships of the Ta-shih. Putting to sea from T'o-pan-ti in the country of the Ta-shih, after sailing due west for full an hundred days, one reaches this country. A single one of these (big) ships of theirs carries several thousand men, and on board they have stores of wine and provisions, as well as weaving looms. If one speaks of big ships, there are none so big as those of Mu-lan-p'i. The products of this country are extraordinary; the grains of wheat are three inches long, the melons six feet round", enough for a meal for twenty or thirty men. The pomegranates weigh five catties, the peaches two catties, citrons over twenty catties, salads weigh over ten catties and have leaves three or four feet long. "Rice and wheat are kept in silos (oiflg ) for tens of years without spoiling. Among the native products are foreign sheep, which are several feet high and have tails as big as a fan. In the spring-time they slit open their bellies and take out some tens of catties of fat, after which they sew them up again, and the sheep live on; if the fat were not removed, (the animal) would swell up and die". "If one travels by land (from Mu-lan-p'i) two hundred days journey, the days are only six hours long. In autumn if the west wind arises, men and beasts must at once drink to keep alive, and if they are not quick enough about it they die of thirst"

The assertion that "Mu-Lan-Pi" is a land to the west of the Muslim nations and that it takes the Muslim explorers a hundred days to reach and years to return, would have been too long for an east-west Mediterranean journey. If the document is authentic, and furthermore if the identification of "Mu-Lan-Pi" with America is correct, then it would be one of the earliest records of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic travel from the Eurasian continent to the Americas. This theory was proposed by the historian Hui-lin Li, and while Joseph Needham is also open to the possibility, he doubts that Arabic ships at the time would have been able to withstand a return journey over such a long distance across the Atlantic Ocean.

Notes

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.
Agha Hakim, Al-Mirza, Riyaadh Al-Ulama (Arabic), Vol. 2 (p. 386) and Vol. 4 (p. 175).
^ Mohammed Hamidullah (Winter 1968). "Muslim Discovery of America before Columbus", Journal of the Muslim Students' Association of the United States and Canada 4 (2): 7-9
^ Joseph Needham & Colin A. Ronan (1986), The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 3, Cambridge University Press, pp. 119–20, ISBN 0521315603
Idrisi, Nuzhatul Mushtaq - "La première géographie de l'Occident", comments by Henri Bresc and Annliese Nef, Paris, 1999
^ Hui-lin Li (1960–1961), "Mu-lan-p'i: A Case for Pre-Columbian Transatlantic Travel by Arab Ships", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 23, Harvard-Yenching Institute: 114–126 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |accessedate= ignored (help)CS1 maint: date format (link)
Joseph Needham & Colin A. Ronan (1986), The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 3, Cambridge University Press, p. 120, ISBN 0521315603

References

Youssef Mroueh, Pre-Columbian Muslims in the Americas.
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.
Pre Columbus & Pre Slavery Years

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