Muslim Sailors Reached America Before Columbus?

In a 2014 speech addressing Muslim leaders in Latin America, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed that Muslim sailors discovered the Americas long before Christopher Columbus set sail. “Contacts between Latin America and Islam date back to the twelfth century,” said Erdogan, “Muslims discovered America in 1178, not Christopher Columbus.” He went on to say, “Muslim sailors arrived in America from 1178.” Perhaps his most shocking statement was that “Columbus mentioned the existence of a mosque on a hill on the Cuban coast.” 

Naturally, most were quick to dismiss Erdogan’s bold claims of pre-Columbian Islamic contact in the New World; it is a radical departure from what our history books tell us. However, he may have been right. 

Erdogan was echoing the words of the Islamic scholar, Dr. Youssef Mroueh, who, in 1996, wrote a paper titled “Pre-Columbian Muslims in the Americas.” In it, Mroueh said, “numerous evidence suggests that Muslims from Spain and West Africa arrived to the Americas at least five centuries before Columbus.” He referenced several historical documents and discussed early movements into the New World, such as this: 

A Muslim historian and geographer ABUL-HASSAN ALI IBN AL-HUSSAIN AL-MASUDI (871–957 CE) wrote in his book Muruj adh-dhahab wa maadin aljawhar (The meadows of gold and quarries of jewels) that during the rule of the Muslim caliph of Spain Abdullah Ibn Mohammad (888–912 CE), a Muslim navigator, Khashkhash Ibn Saeed Ibn Aswad, from Cortoba, Spain sailed from Delba (Palos) in 889 CE, crossed the Atlantic, reached an unknown territory (ard majhoola) and returned with fabulous treasures. In Al-Masudi’s map of the world there is a large area in the ocean of darkness and fog which he referred to as the unknown territory (Americas). 

Mroueh, Youssef. “Precolumbian Muslims in the Americas.” Paper presented at the Preparatory Committee for International Festivals to celebrate the millennium of the Muslims arrival to the Americas (996–1996 CE), 1996.

Mroueh claimed that Ibn Farruk, a Muslim navigator, sailed into the Atlantic and stopped in the Canary Islands. From there, he headed west and saw two islands, which he named Capraria and Pluitana. This occurred in the year CE 999. Little is known about the locations of Capraria and Pluitana, but it is fair to wonder if perhaps these were the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. 

In his paper, Mroueh names other navigators who allegedly reached the Americas well before Columbus. According to Mroueh, were it not for Muslim cartographers, the Spanish and Portuguese may not have arrived in the New World when they did. The knowledge handed down from prior Muslim voyagers made it all possible. 

Maybe the most persuasive argument that Mroueh presented is the names of places in the United States and Canada derived from Islamic and Arabic roots. Said Mroueh: 

There are 565 names of places (villages, towns, cities, mountains, lakes, rivers…etc.) in U.S.A. (484) and Canada (81) which derived from Islamic and Arabic roots. These places were originally named by the natives in precolumbian periods. Some of these names carried holy meanings such as: Mecca–720 inhabitants (Indiana), Makkah Indian tribe (Washington), Medina–2100 (Idaho), Medina–8500 (N.Y.), Medina–1100, Hazen–5000 (North Dakota), Medina–17000/Medina–120000 (Ohio), Medina–1100 (Tennessee), Medina–26000 (Texas), Medina–1200 (Ontario), Mahomet–3200 (Illinois), Mona–1000 (Utah), Arva–700 (Ontario)...etc. A careful study of the names of the native Indian tribes revealed that many names are derived from Arab and Islamic roots and origins, i.e. Anasazi, Apache, Arawak, Arikana, Chavin, Cherokee, Cree, Hohokam, Hupa, Hopi, Makkah, Mahigan, Mohawk, Nazca, Zulu, Zuni...etc. 

Mroueh, Youssef. “Precolumbian Muslims in the Americas.” Paper presented at the Preparatory Committee for International Festivals to celebrate the millennium of the Muslims arrival to the Americas (996–1996 CE), 1996.

Skeptics are quick to point out that archaeological evidence to back Mroueh’s controversial claims is scant. They may be correct; but what if the archaeological record is not where we should be looking? Instead, the best evidence might be found in the DNA of certain families in southwestern Virginia, eastern Kentucky, northeast Tennessee and beyond. For more on this, read my book Strange Tales From Virginia's Mountains...

Further Reading:

Mroueh, Youssef. “Precolumbian Muslims in the Americas.” Paper presented at the Preparatory Committee for International Festivals to celebrate the millennium of the Muslims arrival to the Americas (996–1996 CE), 1996.

Tharoor, Ishaan. “Muslims Discovered America before Columbus, Claims Turkey’s Erdogan.” Washington Post, November 15, 2014. Accessed February 22, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/11/15/muslims-discovered-america-before-columbus-claims-turkeys-erdogan/


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