Erdogan Muslims America - The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stated that the Muslims were the ones who "discovered" America back in 1178, instead of Columbus in 1492.
The claim happened during a Conference of Latin American Muslim Leaders that took place in Istanbul, BBC noted. Erdogan didn't exactly open a discussion on the subject or supported his statement thoroughly. He simply made a remark.
"Contacts between Latin America and Islam date back to the 12th century. Muslims discovered America in 1178, not Christopher Columbus."
"Muslim sailors arrived in America from 1178. Columbus mentioned the existence of a mosque on a hill on the Cuban coast," Erdogan said on a televised speech and Aljazeera shared.
After this, RT investigated the claim and it turns out that it comes from a 1996 paper, published by Youssef Mroueh.
The paper alleged that on Oct. 21, 1492, Columbus passed sailing on a ship and saw a mosque on top of a mountain. This was taken from Columbus papers. But Mroueh was inaccurate.
The actual quote came from Bartolome Casas' retelling of Columbus journeys. The date was Oct. 29 and not Oct. 21 in there. Also, Columbus passed through a different part of Cuba than Mroueh stated.
And the last and most interesting detail was that Casas mentioned a mosque Columbus had seen as a metaphor. He didn't truly see a mosque, but something resembling a "graceful mosque."
So, Erdogan apparently based himself on not completely accurate facts to claim that "Muslims discovered America." Still, Erdogan wouldn't be the first person to think of the Muslims as previous in America than Europeans.
In 1980, a paper by a Harvard academic, Barry Fell, claimed that some of the ancient engravings in the American caves and stones resembled the Muslim fonts, to name one.
So, Erdogan might have not explained completely his theory of the Muslims "discovering" America before Columbus, but once more, he wouldn't be the first one.
