Apparently the Americas were first discovered by muslim explorers :)

[Kyriakos]

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that the Americas were discovered by Muslims in the 12th century, nearly three centuries before Christopher Columbus set foot there.

"Contacts between Latin America and Islam date back to the 12th century. Muslims discovered America in 1178, not Christopher Columbus," the president said in a televised speech during an Istanbul summit of Muslim leaders from Latin America.

"Muslim sailors arrived in America from 1178. Columbus mentioned the existence of a mosque on a hill on the Cuban coast," Erdogan said.

The president also said that Ankara was prepared to build a mosque at the site mentioned by the Genoese explorer, the AFP news agency reported.

"I would like to talk about it to my Cuban brothers. A mosque would go perfectly on the hill today," he said.

Most history books say that Columbus set foot on the American continent in 1492, while seeking a new maritime route to India.

Some Muslim scholars have recently suggested a prior Muslim presence in the Americas, although no pre-Columbus ruin of an Islamic structure has ever been found.

In a controversial article published in 1996, historian Youssef Mroueh refers to a diary entry from Columbus that mentions a mosque in Cuba.

However, the passage is widely understood to be a metaphorical reference to the shape of the landscape.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middle...222841516.html



This is awesome Colombus surely could not have been using a metaphor. Current propaganda in western Europe made people forget what shapes mosques had anyway, so he was told of this term by the native chapter of Islam in Cuba.

*

You can discuss the glory of the reborn khaliphates and sultanates, now freed from the constraints of eurocentric fabrication of history.

[Stavros_Kalmpou]

well, he forgot to mention the vikings that were in the continent hundreds of years before Colombus and the supposed Muslims

[Kyriakos]

Giorgio Tsoukalos could name at least a few more

[Roma_Victrix]

Our glorious and brilliant leader Erdogan is never wrong. Ergo it must be true.

[Kyriakos]

Following the destruction of Troy Toledo by the marauding Greeks Iberians, refugees travelled to Italy 'Merica, to build again...

[Condottiere 40K]

The only ones that don't appear to have discovered America are the Indians.

[Visna]

That (almost) rivals Ghaddafi's idea that Shakespeare was actually an Arab called Sheik Espir whose name got lost in translation.

[Roma_Victrix]

Following the destruction of Troy Toledo by the marauding Greeks Iberians, refugees travelled to Italy 'Merica, to build again...

A perfect parallel to Virgil and his Aeneid. Thank you.

The only ones that don't appear to have discovered America are the Indians.

Apparently they discovered it via the Bering Strait from Siberia to Alaska some 10,000 years ago, in the Paleolithic Age. Quite frankly no one was "discovering" anything then, just wandering around and following herds of animals to hunt, kill, eat, and repeat.

That (almost) rivals Ghaddafi's idea that Shakespeare was actually an Arab called Sheik Espir whose name got lost in translation.

I never actually heard that one, but it is massively entertaining already. Gaddafi, ever so tacky, was such a storehouse for these ideas.

[Stavroforos]

I'm sorry Mr. Erdogan, but we have better sources in Greece that tell us Greeks first discovered America.



Κάμερα σε μένα!

[Tureuki]

I'm sorry Mr. Erdogan, but we have better sources in Greece that tell us Greeks first discovered America.



Κάμερα σε μένα!

Why am I not suprised would be good to see forum flame wars between Greeks and Turks over who discovered Americas first

[Kyriakos]

I'm sorry Mr. Erdogan, but we have better sources in Greece that tell us Greeks first discovered America.



Κάμερα σε μένα!

Likely equally idiotic as Erdogan (looks dumb as too), but at least he is not a major local political figure

(although our own politicians are in noted ways more verminous than Erdogan, but happen to just be puppets and act against the country, so it is not the same).

[Tureuki]

What is more ridiculous is, some important news agencies who are puppets of Erdoğan, actually tried to support this, like how important historians confirmed, how Islamic historians from 10th century narrates Berber Sultans reaching America etc.

[Stavroforos]

What is more ridiculous is, some important news agencies who are puppets of Erdoğan, actually tried to support this, like how important historians confirmed, how Islamic historians from 10th century narrates Berber Sultans reaching America etc.

I'm wondering, is there some sort of water that people in Russia and Turkey both drink? The similarities are so similar, I just hope you guys don't go down the Putin road...

[Kyriakos]

Putin>others

[Guy]

Could anyone more willing than me to open another tab and Google something confirm whether or not good ol' Chris actually saw a mosque on a hill?

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

No fair I thought Zheng He discovered America.

[Samraat Mahendra Maurya]

Now I can justify my Ottoman colonies in America in Empire total war!

[Condottiere 40K]

Considering all that gold lying about and conversion potential, hard to believe the Muslims wouldn't have followed up after that initial recon.

[Roma_Victrix]

As far as I know, in the 12th century neither the Islamic world or Christendom had ships that were worthy enough to traverse the Atlantic Ocean. This was the age before the carrack, when there were still galleys with rowers in the Mediterranean. The stern-mounted steering rudder had just been introduced as a new technology. Good luck rowing your way across the Atlantic!

Those crafty, conniving Han Chinese, however, already had the steering rudder since about the 1st century AD.

[Condottiere 40K]

If Ancient Egyptians were importing cocaine on papyrus boats, they'll find some entrepreneurial souls to risk the voyage.