Columbus Saw a Mosque in Cuba: Now It's the Muslims Who Discovered America

The history of Cuba and the history of the United States are so enmeshed that it is impossible to tell one without also telling the other. This is not the case with every country on earth because the U.S. has not figured as prominently or continuously in the histories of other peoples as it has in ours (for which, if they are not European, they should feel grateful). Still, immigrants to the U.S., as part of the assimilation process, have always endeavored to discover or, if necessary, invent historic links to their adopted homeland. Swedish immigrant in the late 19th century buried and unburied stone plaques that confirmed that their ancestors were the first Europeans to visit America. Norsemen, of course, could appeal to the legend of Leif Erikson, or the Irish to St. Brendan.

And for Italians, of course, there was Christopher Columbus, who by most popular accounts was born in Genoa, which is now part of Italy but which was not part of Italy in 1492, because there was no Italy then nor would there be for another 400 years. This didn't stop Italian immigrants from laying claim to Columbus, nor from taking credit for the discovery of America. Everywhere but in the U.S. such a fantasy is met with riotous laughter, even in Italy itself. But here history is compartmentalized into months and homesteaded on a "first come, first served" basis regardless of actual title. So it is that Spain's discovery and colonization of the New World is celebrated in this country as a kind of "Italian Appreciation Day." Western civilization owes more to the Romans than to any other people, and I have no problem recognizing modern-day Italians as heirs to that legacy. What they didn't do, however, is discover America.

Following the example of Italian-Americans and other immigrant groups, it is not surprising, then, that Muslim newcomers should also lay claim to the discovery of America. It is in fact a hopeful portent that despite the hostility with which they have been met here, and the doubts which have been raised about their allegiance and capacity to adapt to American life, they nevertheless desire nothing more than to belong here.

Muslim-Americans have not laid claim to Columbus, as have both Christians and Jews. If they had, Columbus would have bested Jesus Christ as the world's most disputed historical figure (or religious figure, since the Catholic Church tried for 200 years to canonize him despite his very worldly life). What Muslims contend is that they were in America before Columbus and that Columbus himself, no Muslim, attested as much in his Journal of Discovery. As Muslim historian Amir Muhammad notes, "while [Columbus'] ship was sailing near Gibara on the northeast coast of Cuba, he saw a Mosque on the top of a beautiful mountain." I suppose that should be qualified to read "what he thought was a mosque." Columbus had a great imagination and an even greater capacity for self-delusion. He did, after all, think that he was exploring the kingdom of the Great Mogul. Columbus' supposed sighting of a mosque in Cuba was not an anomaly, however; for, according to Dr. Muhammad, "ruins of Mosques and minarets with inscriptions of Qur’anic verses have been discovered in Cuba, Mexico, Texas, and Nevada." He also contends that the Pima Indians, one of the continent's most ancient people, have a vocabulary which is partially of Arabic origin, which presupposes that they are either descendants of Muslims themselves or were in contact with Muslims at some time in pre-Colombian history.

The earliest Muslim to journey to America is identified by Dr. Muhammed as Sultan Abu Bakri II of Mali, who, in 1312, supposedly explored North America with a fleet of 400 ships via the Mississippi River and brought elephants from Africa to Arizona, where ancient pictographs exist of animals resembling them.

If the Abu narrative is not to your liking, there are others to chose from that do not so greatly tax conventional wisdom. The brothers Martín Alonso Pinzón and Vicente Yanex Pinzón, the captains respectively of the Pinta and the Santa María, were allegedly kinsmen of Abuzayan Muhammad III, the Moroccan Sultan of the Marinid Dynasty (1196-1465). It was Martín Pinzón who directed Columbus towards land and is celebrated in his hometown of Palos de la Frontera, in Huelva, as the real discoverer of America.

The Muslim presence in the Americas was not limited to the Caribbean and Southwest, where one might expect to find them among the Spaniards. According to Dr. Muhammed, when the first English settlers arrived in Jamestown in 1609 they were told by the Indians that within a six-days walk were "a people like you," which he describes as a tribe of bearded Moors who wore European clothing, mined for silver and "dropped to their knees to pray many times daily." He identifies these people with the Melungians of southern Appalachia, whose origins are still in dispute. If Amir Muhammad is correct, then the painting in the Capitol building which shows the English settlers being welcomed by the Indians should be modified to include Muslims in the allegorical first reception.

Now that the Arabs have become Castro's sponsors, too, perhaps they should mount an expedition to find the remains of the mosque that Columbus spotted atop a mountain in Gibara.

Muslims in America: Pre-Columbus and Pre-Slavery

H/T: CB