At some Muslim sites, it is claimed that the Pinzón brothers, Martin Alonso Pinzón, the captain of the Pinta, and his brother Vicente Pinzón, the captain of the Niña, were Muslims. There is even the further claim that the Pinzón family were related to Abuzayan Muhammad III, the Moroccan Sultan of the Marinid Dynasty. I have read everything about the Pinzón brothers I could find online. Should you wish to do as well, you could start here.
Having done so, I have been unable to find a single Western historian who believes that the Pinzóns were Muslims, or of Muslim descent.
I did find a Muslim website that asserts the following:
On his first voyage to India, Columbus had two captains with Muslim family backgrounds, Martin Alonso Pinzon, the captain of the Pinta, and his brother Vicente Yanez Pinzon, the captain of the Niña. The Pinzon family was related to Abuzayan Muhammad III, the Moroccan Sultan of the Marinid Dynasty (1196-1465).
No sources are supplied for this claim. Just after this assertion, on the same Muslim website, comes another remarkable, because baseless, claim, about the Chinese admiral Zheng He, who was indeed born a Muslim but later, devotion to Tianfei (the patron goddess of sailors and seafarers) became the dominant faith to which he adhered.
A Chinese Muslim, Admiral Zheng He, visited Americas during his seven maritime expeditions between 1405 and 1433.
A link is then given to a story which, presumably, supplies the evidence for this assertion. I dutifully clicked on that link. Then I read it, and discovered that there is no reference — none — to Zheng He’s travels to “the Americas during his seven maritime voyages.” The article mentions only travels to Asia and Africa. There apparently were no travels by Zheng He to the Americas.
The Muslim writer of this website apparently believes that if he gives a link, many people will assume the supporting material is there, and not bother to check. He may be right.
The same writer makes several other, equally baseless, claims about landings of Muslims in America before Columbus. There is, for example, this: “In 1312, Muslim explorers from Mali and other parts of West Africa arrived in the Gulf of Mexico for exploration of America’s interior using the Mississippi River as their access route.’”
I again searched for any evidence for this claim; I could find nothing anywhere on the Internet, except the crazed paper by that same notorious “scholar” Youssef Mroueh, who lists a series of claims about Muslims landing in America long before Columbus. To understand the scope of his wild claims, read his paper on “Precolumbian Muslims in the Americas” here.
Thus, the same Muslim who wants us to believe without any evidence that the Pinzón brothers were Muslims, also wants us to believe, again without evidence, that Admiral Zheng He landed in America, though he never claimed to have done so, and to believe, also without any evidence, that in 1312, sailors — from the desert kingdom of Mali (where did they acquire the ships, and where the seafaring experience?) — arrived in the Gulf of Mexico and then sailed up the Mississippi to explore the American heartland. Again, no evidence is presented.
These are all fables. But the truth doesn’t much matter for Muslim propagandists. Let these claims appear, at some website, assertions without any evidence. Then one or more or all of them be reposted, at another website, again without any evidence. And then let them be reposted yet again, still without evidence. By now these claims have appeared in enough places so that for many it becomes the truth. Why? Because when a story appears in several places, many think it must be true. For they assume that had it been false, then surely it would not have been reposted.
There are even reports of Chinese Muslims making it to American shores, in California, in the 9th century. They arrived as pirates or fleeing religious persecution.
There is not a shred of evidence that “Chinese Muslims” made it to California in the 9th century. There is a 1763 copy of a Chinese map of the world that, it is claimed, was made in 1417, said to have been produced by Zheng He. But there are many reasons to think that the map is a much later forgery, because it describes the Himalayas as the highest mountain range, which became known only in the 19th century. There is no evidence that Zheng He ever made it to the New World. He recorded in great detail everywhere he went, from Ceylon to East Africa to Arabia, but nowhere does he mention sailing anywhere outside of Asia and Africa.
“We have autobiographies, we have oral histories, we have mosques, cemeteries, tombstones. We also have a lot of conjectural evidence: For example, the way people are buried facing Mecca (Islam’s holiest city, in Saudi Arabia),” said Rashid.
“Autobiographies” and “oral histories” — yes, but how many? There are the narratives of Job ben Solomon, two autobiographical pieces by Muhammad Said of Bornu, the Arabic autobiography of ‘Umar ibn Said, the reports about Bilal Muhammad at Sapelo Island. But does that entitle Hussein Rashid to claim that one-fourth to one-third of slaves in America — which would mean several hundred thousand people — were Muslims?
Hussein Rashid mentions “mosques” as evidence of Muslim slaves. But where are these early mosques in America? All the historians agree that the first mosque in America dates from 1929. Had any earlier mosques been found, Muslims would have shouted that news from the rooftops, posted photographs of the sites, with full details of when the mosques were built and for how long they were in operation, and who served as imam, and who attended them. But no such reports have been forthcoming. Nor have there been verified reports about early Muslim “cemeteries” and “tombstones.” Where are these Muslim cemeteries, supposedly dating from before the 20th century? Anyone can make a claim, including Hussein Rashid, but the absence of evidence is glaring.
What about Rashid’s noting that some slaves were buried “in the direction of Mecca”? From America, the direction of Mecca is simply to the east. That does not mean that if a body is buried facing east that must mean that the dead person is a Muslim. There are, after all, only four directions toward which a coffin can be turned. “Conjectural evidence” indeed.
mortimer says
I have heard Muslims spout the most outrageous half-truths similar to what you have noted above.
I was reminded of what was said by Dyden (the diplomat played by Claude Raines in Lawrence of Arabia) :
“And a man who tells lies, like me, merely hides the truth.
But a man who tells half-lies has forgotten where he put it.”
That explains most of the Muslims I have met whenever they discuss a topic that contradicts Islam.
mortimer says
There were certainly NO early mosques in America! Neither was there any early mosque or any other early building in Mecca earlier than 750 AD … more than 100 years after the death of Mohammed!! If they had found any archeology in Mecca before 750AD, they would make much of it …
But, in fact, Mecca is entirely INVENTED and FABRICATED … all the Saudis at the top know this. That’s why the undercroft around the Kaaba has been ENTIRELY dug up. No archeological findings were ever discovered there from the time of Mohammed. They all know it. How could they not know it?
StacyGirl says
The invention of this faux history is theft. Jesus was a moslem, Moses was as well. Poof- Christianity and Judaism belong to Islam because we said so.