Is there a possibility that the Islamic civilization visited America before Columbus?
score:57
Columbus was not, in fact, the first to cross the Atlantic. There were Norse communities living in Greenland from the 10th Century. They even had some temporary settlements in North America proper. However, the Norse weren't as good at eking out a living in the North Atlantic as the Inuit, and (after 500 years) eventually got wiped out by some combination of their attacks and climate change.
However, this was far before the printing press, and at the extremes of European settlement, so it wasn't well-known in Europe.
There are several other tales of possible transatlantic crossings. However, none of them left the physical evidence behind that the Vikings did, so they are all generally regarded as just tales.
To be fair, we should also note that Inuit peoples regularly crossed to America from Asia, as did all the other indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere at some point. The island chains between Siberia and Alaska aren't all that much of a barrier for people used to living in that ecosphere. There is also indirect evidence of Polynesian contact with South America across the tropical Pacific.
What was important about Columbus was not his primacy. It was that when he came back, all of Europe (and probably the educated all over the Old World eventually) heard about it in detail, thanks to the recently invented printing press. Additionally, the society he came back to had both the means and the motivation to follow up. This is what the Norse, and the folks behind any other tall tales of Atlantic crossings that may happen to be true, did not have.
Upvote:-3
Something that has not being mentioned here is Piri Reis map.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piri_Reis_map
It used ten Arabian sources, four Indian maps sourced from the Portuguese and one map of Columbus
If accurate, most of the maps were previous to Columbus discovery, therefore someone "discovered" America before him, probably someone from Arabia or India...
Upvote:5
It's technically not impossible, but extremely unlikely. Thor Heyerdahl proved Polynesians could travel to South America. It still is an open question if they ever did that.
Claims of Mohammedans crossing the Atlantic I take with a grain (read: ton) of salt. Claiming is easy enough. Proving those claims is a very different matter. There is absolutely no proof at all they ever did.
That doesn't say it didn't happen. We have found evidence the Vikings did set up camps in Newfoundland. So far that is only evidence they visited America. Not that they settled down permanently. Until that proof of mohammedans visiting America is found, I don't think they ever went there.
Upvote:6
There is absolutely no evidence that various Islamic Caliphates "visited America before Columbus".
Now of course Islamic civilization has been present in Morocco for 1300 years and the Iberian Caliphate was present in Southwest Europe for nearly 800 years. The Medieval Muslims of the greater Iberian peninsula, as well as Morocco would have known about the Atlantic Ocean, since it was their backyard-(certainly in the cases of Western Morocco, as well as the Portuguese coast). However, in all likelihood, the Atlantic Ocean, for the Muslims, would have been just that..... an Ocean; a large, seemingly eternal waterway with no imaginable peoples or tangible lands in distant sight.
I am doubtful that the Medieval Muslims would have known about the Incas, Aztecs or the Cherokee and Mohawk nations within the Eastern region of Ancient America. If they had any knowledge of their existence, it did not appear to be a high priority for future conquest and conversion. However, the Medieval Muslims would have been aware of the Canary Islands-(West of Morocco), as well as the Atlantic coastal regions of Spain, France and Britain, though probably not beyond the West European coast. As far as I know, there are no maps, travel writings, historical texts or other primary sources which document, state or sketch a Muslim expedition to the Americas during Medieval times. Of course, with advancements in archaeological technology, as well as Geographic Information Systems/GIS, one may discover a retrieve a lost history that would prove the existence of such expeditions. However, until such a discovery materializes, there is currently no evidence that the Medieval Muslims "visited America before Columbus".
Upvote:26
Sure, it's possible. Many things are possible. Likely, however, is another question.
The link you posted describes a vague story of sailing west into the Atlantic, finding an island, trading with the locals, and returning home. Could the island be in the New World? It could, but it could just as easily be one of the islands in the Atlantic.
For me to consider the story at all plausible, I'd want to see an account of the journey that describes something you'd only find in the Americas and was definitely written before 1492. To move it from plausible to probable, I'd want to see physical evidence of the contact.
More post
- 📝 Where do the ethics of shounen anime come from?
- 📝 Did Lincoln "usurp" his war powers?
- 📝 Has there ever been a cold war other than between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.?
- 📝 How prevalent were American disinformation campaigns during the Cold War?
- 📝 Where can I find more details about "historian" André Du Nay?
- 📝 What is this (possibly Swedish) military uniform? Perhaps cavalry?
- 📝 What caused the 1979 Iranian revolution to become Islamic?
- 📝 What does King Henry III have on his lap in this illustration from a Matthew Paris chronicle?
- 📝 Why do people refuse to acknowledge the Holocaust?
- 📝 Why did so many countries agree to the Non-Proliferation Treaty?
- 📝 What are these "Papal States" in Germany after 1648?
- 📝 Internal customs in the Roman Empire
- 📝 Why did the film "The Longest Day" have the "cricket" training scene if the Allies received no intelligence about the hedgerows in Normandy?
- 📝 How prevalent were recreational drugs in the ancient world?
- 📝 Why wasn't awareness of Australia more widespread in pre-colonial Asia?
- 📝 Was the Kara-Khanid Khanate founded by Karluks or Uyghurs?
- 📝 The importance of sugar plantations
- 📝 How widespread was the Arabic Language in Syria before Islamic conquest?
- 📝 What effect did awareness of devastating bombing at home have on the fighting spirit of German troops on the Eastern front?
- 📝 What were the plans for governance of the Jerusalem International Zone?
- 📝 How do Tamahagane, Damascus, and Toledo Steel compare?
- 📝 When and how did the Han ethnic group become by far the biggest ethnic group in China?
- 📝 Early attempts to abolish slavery in USA
- 📝 Please help to identify these coins
- 📝 Did Japanese officers refuse to engage in kamikaze attacks?
- 📝 Why were Japanese submarines not able to defend in the Battle of the Philippine Sea?
- 📝 What was the motivation for the Church of England to begin recording births, marriages and deaths in 1538?
- 📝 Was there any treaty during WWI and II with the world countries and Sir Henry Dunant's Red Cross to respect those with Red Cross?
- 📝 What did male motorcyclists wear in 1930s England?
- 📝 Is the Alexandria, Va. "Republican shooting" the first mass shooting of its kind in the USA?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Is there a possibility that the Islamic civilization visited America before Columbus?
- 📝 Is there a civilization that never believed in God in the ancient times?
- 📝 Why is there no Islamic architecture with glass in windows before the 18th century?
- 📝 Is there any evidence that the book of Isaiah was written before Cyrus?
- 📝 What proportion of the Arab population of Palestine pre-1948 came from families that lived there before 1880?
- 📝 Were there any assassinations of high-profile Austrian officials before that of the Archduke Ferdinand?
- 📝 Is there any evidence to support the claim that the United States was "suckered into WW1" by Zionists, made by Benjamin Freedman in his 1961 speech?
- 📝 What led some people to (correctly) believe that there was no land under the ice cap at the North Pole?
- 📝 Were there any drunk driving laws before the automobile?
- 📝 Is there any evidence that Cleopatra and Caesarion considered fleeing to India to escape the Romans?
- 📝 Is it true that there are more slaves in the world now than ever at one point in history?
- 📝 What were the reasons that the British colonies in North America rebelled but not others?
- 📝 What evidence is there of the vision aids people used before the invention of eyeglasses in about 1286?
- 📝 Is there any evidence that the Catholic Church slowed innovation during the Middle Ages?
- 📝 Is there any evidence to support the claim that the US Strategic Defense Initiative played any significant role in undermining the USSR?
- 📝 Is there any documentation that indicates the Aztecs were as violent as they are made out?
- 📝 Had there been instances of national states banning harmful imports before the mid-19th C Opium Wars?
- 📝 Was there a pre-determined arrangement for the division of Germany in case it surrendered before any Soviet forces entered its territory?
- 📝 Is there a historical source that might explain why so many countries use 35 as a minimum age for the president / the highest office person?
- 📝 Is There A Term For The Old Maps That Had Lines Connecting Pin-Wheels?
- 📝 Were there weapons that a private citizen could not legally own in 1789 in the US?
- 📝 Are there any historians who believe that the crusades were not motivated as a distraction from internal conflicts?
- 📝 Were there any pilots that declined to carry out the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
- 📝 Is there convincing evidence that the language of Bulgars (proto-Bulgarians) was not Turkic, but Indo-European?
- 📝 Is there any country(former colony) in the world that obtained independence and then again tried to join its colonist ruler?
- 📝 In Europe, why were there few portraits showing a real likeness of the subject before the 15th century?
- 📝 In the United States government, has there been cases that electoral colleges don't vote for the candidate the majority of their state voted for?
- 📝 Is there any truth to the claim that freed slaves who moved to Liberia enslaved the local population?
- 📝 Is it true that slavery was banned from discussion on the Senate and/or House floor before the American Civil War?
- 📝 Is there any evidence besides the scriptures that the Ark of the Covenant existed?