Muslim Spains Legacy
Date:
Channel: Abdullah Hakim Quick
Series: Abdullah Hakim Quick - Muslim Spain Legacy
File Size: 75.30MB
AI Generated Summary ©
The history and achievements of the century before Islam are discussed, including the use of shaming and stereotyping to portray Muslims as evil, the legacy of Islam, and the use of Deen as a way of life. The Arabic writing industry's rise and need for declared declared Muslim individuals have contributed to the cultural and political significance of the region. The transcript describes the history and culture of Islamic society, including the rise of Islam and the traditional architecture of the city of Fes, and provides a recommendation for a Spanish-speaking person namedroom Rafael. The Islam Awareness Week is also mentioned.AI Generated Transcript ©
In the name of Allah, most Gracious, Most Merciful, I begin with the greeting words of Paradise Salam aleikum, wa rahmatullah.
And as you heard these words mean Peace be upon you. And I hope and pray that the few moments we spend together would be a source of peace. And also, it would help us to understand each other more,
I think it is a very good idea to have topics that bring people together, of different nationalities, of different religions and different ways of life. And I was really glad to see that there were a number of student organizations who had sponsored today's event.
And
it is time really, for people to have more dialogue, to really begin to deal with topics, not only from what is given to us in the media, but But actually, as we say in America, from the horse's mouth, or as they say, in academia, from primary sources, going right to the primary source. And so tonight, we are hoping, inshallah, to look at part of the history of the Iberian Peninsula, what is known as Spain and Portugal today, and to bring to light some of the history that is not so well known in many of the institutions, but yet I feel is very crucial in understanding not only the history in the period that we'll deal with, but also an understanding what is going on today.
And
this topic, when we say Muslims legacy, it is important for the non Muslims who are here, just to shed some light on what Islam is itself. Because unfortunately, we have been targeted, we have been chosen for some political economic reason to be the bad guys, or to be the object of Hollywood, and the object of a lot of propaganda that is coming to the media.
When I was growing up by in America, the bad guys usually on television, in the movies with generally Germans, Japanese Russians, and of course the native people. So it's a given. But today in the media, or in the TV, the different situation programs and the movies. The bad guys are usually Spanish drug cartels,
Jamaican posses or Afro American gangs. But the most sinister character you can bring to the screen today would be an Arab terrorist. He seizes his hostages, and he announces to the world I will not release my hostages until you release my comrades from the prison. And then the forces of justice go into action, the Delta Force Chuck Norris, analyst, swats nigga, Steven Seagal, and a number of our folk heroes today go into action to rid the world of the new terror. This is stereotyping.
And many people have gone through this to Japanese, even Japanese Americans and Canadians were entered, they were put into prison during World War Two. And some of them were actually loyal to the country here.
And so stereotyping can be a really ugly thing. And there are a lot of people who suffer, even today. And in some parts of America, there are Irish Americans who are suffering because of what is going on in the United Kingdom.
There are Irish people who are being targeted and feel stereotype to a certain extent because of the IRA. And so, for us, it is important in the beginning to shed some light on really what is Islam? Because there is this tendency to think that Islam is connected to the Middle East, or it's a small group of people who is planning to destroy the world or conspiring to do something. But actually, right now, in a recent census poll, it was taken in Egypt. In a special world Institute which connected with us our university, which is a very famous University in the Middle East. They have now come to the point where their understanding is that Muslims make up about 23.1% of the of the
earth's population.
There are over 70 million Muslims even in China itself.
There are millions of Muslims in Europe, and as we know from the Bosnian situation, and according to our traditions, when we are talking about Islam, we are talking about monotheism.
We are actually talking about our relationship with the Creator, where the person
makes their devotion directly to the Creator, without any intermediary without using the sun, without using idols, without worshipping through people, the human being goes directly to the Great Spirit. And so within our teachings, there is a verse in the Quran itself, that actually tells us and an Arabic goes like this Well aka bothof, equally oma, Rasulullah Ananda de la ha, which Tony but toggled that we have sent to every nation, our messenger, that they would worship Allah or God, the Creator, and they would stay away from false deities. So based on that, coming from our traditions, we believe over 124,000 prophets and messengers came to every nation and every tribe.
Profits came to China, to Europe, to India, to Africa, here in the Americas, every nation while occurred Botha Fie Cooley oma,
every nation, a messenger has been sent. And in my travels, I've asked people about monotheism and found, for instance, that on the Nile, that there was there's a book,
which is written according to a teacher named pata hotep, and is considered to be one of the oldest writing forms Complete Book forms that exists today, the teachings of potato chip, and papayas. And in it, you'll find clear trace of monotheism. Also in ancient Egypt, there was a pharaoh named Akhenaten's. His wife's name was Nefertiti, you've probably heard that name before. And they say she was the first woman to be using cosmetics and feminine hygiene products, a number of things. But you will find in the Psalms of notton, you will find clear monotheism. And it is said that he himself had to do battle with the other people who believed in a many different gods in ancient Egypt. And
so the Psalms have acknowledged and in the Quran is a Surah hoogenraad. And you know, it is almost like you're reading sorts of hoogenraad. In some places, it talks about the tongues and the colors and the way that all people have been made, and that there is one God and so if not, 10, was really struggling to to institute the belief in the power behind the sun, not the sun.
In the Bantu religion, you will find some reference to the fact that and to me means the cosmic spirit. And so many of the Bantu people related directly to a great spirit, a universal spirit, and they looked actually toward oneness in Mandarin Chinese.
I went to China and I was speaking to the people and they have a term they call Shang T. And Shang t means the Creator, the main God, and the way they described their concept of Shang T, meaning there was a main God and there's like a court they said, there's a quote with other gods, it was almost the same way that the Meccans, the kodesh, the pagan Meccans, were describing a law at the time of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him is just similar to that they had one universal God and they had Latin and so on, and they had many different other gods that they will also relating to
the Cherokee Nation. Recently, I have come to understand that the Cherokee Nation in this part of the world, the Iroquois as well, there is a strong tradition of monotheism in the teachings. And so, what I am saying is that monotheism is not something which is particular to the Middle East.
It is not something which is Semitic, in our belief, but it is it is, it is an understanding, which relates to all peoples throughout the planet. The second point is that when we speak about Islam, and this is very important, and the people who are studying Islam today and think tanks, in universities, going to the primary sources, are recognizing when they look at history, that Islam is not a religion, in the western sense of the term. In the Western sense, your religion is your dogma, who you believe as God. And, you know, you might worship on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, but when Monday comes, you go back to work as an American.
But when we say in Arabic, in Edina and de la in Islam, that's surely the way of life the word Deen. Surely the way of life with the Creator is Islam. And so what that means is that the word Deen is a way of life.
So in other words in a Deen, it's not
gestire religious dogma, it is a belief that pervades everything that you do. So in other words, your economic life, your social life, your political life, all different aspects of your existence, are affected by your deen.
And this is very germane to what I am about to say, in terms of the the legacy of Islam, in Spain. And further on. The Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him we are taught, was the last of this long series of prophets and messengers. And he said that the prophets and messengers who included according to our belief, Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus, Jacob, and Noah, you, Joseph, and all the different prophets of monotheism, he said that it is like a building a beautiful building, and the people looked at the building, and there was one place that was empty. And he said, I am that brick, I am the last part of the building, and with me, is the seal of the finality of
prophethood.
Just before he died, a year before he died, he made what is called the arafat sermon.
And in the sermon, he established that the people should worship nothing but the Creator, that all of their business dealings should be done in economic purity, that all interest relationships are ended. Don't take interest. And usually, that's a serious statement. Because if the oil shacks, you're out the world, and the people in the Muslim world took their money out of the banks, and put it in a bank with no interest, you would change the economy of this planet. And that probably is the bottom line in terms of why some people are paranoid about an Islamic State is not the other things. But if you take those billions of dollars, and you start giving loans to people with no interest
than the people who are taking interest and exploiting you, they're in trouble.
And so he said, All economic relationships should be should be developed in purity. He also said do not harm other people, do not oppress other people so that you would not be oppressed yourself. He also confirmed for them, that there is no preference of white over black or black over white. There's no preference of Arab over non Arab or the non Arabs over the Arab, except for taqwa it is the piety in the right action that separates the people. He also established that men have rights over women, but women also have rights over men.
He also established that if you follow two things, he said, I've left you two things. This is the Quran, the Book of Allah and my son, not my way, if you follow them, you will never go astray.
And this was was the essence of the message that he left with his followers. And he told the people who are present, that they should take this message to the people who were upset. And they took it to different parts of the world. And we are coming to realize that
many of the words that we look at in English, if you could go back before the time of Queen Victoria, you get a dictionary before Queen Victoria's time, then they tell you the roots of the word. And so there are many words that have Arabic roots that have Turkish roots, Persian roots, you know many different languages, but you don't get the roots of these words. Even in America. There are many place names and there are many common terminologies that we are using that actually have roots that can go back directly to the Arabic language and to Islam.
Just some of the places that we had discussed the last time I was here, but some of the places there's been a lot a long list. When the Muslims went into the east coast of Africa,
they found a base of operations for the Persians and they called it maka, Shah and maka, the Shah became Mogadishu. They went down to the east coast of Africa and the base of a colony was set up by Moosa had been big moose I've been big Mozambique. They found some islands with a with a moon was really bright. So they call him Joseph, a comma.
chosen a comma is now Comoros islands. They went into the Indian Ocean into the South China Sea, and Harvard University team led by a man named Barry felled f e. ll, who wrote a book called saga, America found inscriptions all throughout the southwest of the United States. They also found a map. And on this map, it had Panama. It had Hudson Bay. It was showing North America
Also had islands and some qucik writing and then to other pages of this writing. They found they were describing these islands in the Pacific. And they said Joseph el Hawa, chisel Hawa, there's a lot of wind around these islands. And this just to Hawaii becomes Hawaii. also recently, another
researcher, also found some interesting information. He found, they, when they were traveling in the area of the Hawaiian Islands, they found a harbor. You know, there's pearls there. You know, the Pearl Harbor and World War Two, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor as a key point in history of World War Two. And so they said an Arabic pearl is Lulu.
Or you can say Lulu. That's another way of pronouncing Arabic. So they said Horner, Lulu. Jose, say Honolulu becomes Honolulu.
And so you have so many names that I could spend the whole evening, just going through the names of cities and places. It's an amazing study. Really, what is important for us tonight
is that in 711, Tarik, urban Ziad rahima Hola,
a Berber from North Africa, following the commands of his leader, whose name was Musab bin lusail Rahim Allah, who was the leader of the Muslims in North Africa at the time, when across the streets, which is now known as Gibraltar. He had stopped at a mountain so they called the mountain Jebel todich. So Jebel tonic is Gibraltar. So where it comes from, he stopped at the mountain. And they were actually responding to
a cry that was being given by monotheistic people who were living in the Iberian Peninsula. And when you study the history of the Iberian Peninsula, and the Gothic people, and you study that the Catholic Church and what was going on, right around that time, around 711, there was a king named Roderick, and he was ruling the area in a feudalistic way, in the sense that the people were really in grueling toil. And they were suffering underneath Israel. And the Jewish people who were living in the Iberian Peninsula, were being tortured. And it is a report that over 50,000 of them, were forced to accept Catholicism, they were forced to change their religion, and they were being
persecuted. And so a number of monotheistic people were being persecuted and they called out to Musab in New Zealand. And there is a report even of a ruler rodricks ruler, his name was Julian. And he was controlling suta and tengiz tunja. He was controlling this coastal parts of Morocco, for the king of the Iberian Peninsula. And you know, he was oppressed by the king. There's a long story about Julian, but Julian went to Musa Musa. And he said, the people are ready now for liberation. They're ready for somebody to take them out of this rule into a rule where they will live unto justice. And so Musa Musa Musa Rahim, Allah sent todich, Eben Ziad, and they went, and 711 across,
and they met Roderick in a decisive battle. And after this decisive battle, which was won by the Muslims, they continue to go north. As they went north, they found that the people were actually glad to see them. And they found that there was almost no resistance. And so by three years, within three years, and Musab Mendoza, actually, later on, caught up the topic and join the forces. And within three years, they had taken control of all of Spain except the northwest corner of Spain, the mountainous regions in the top, that's the only part of Spain that was left for them.
And they control the whole area. And that is interesting because there is a document which which was describing
a, a treaty that was made.
This was done between Abdulaziz Ibn Musa Eben new set and was in 713.
And it was between the Visigoths Prince of Mercia,
Theo de mer, and this was about the surrender of a particular city. Orihuela. I hope I'm pronouncing the word right. And when it when it discusses this treaty between Abdul Aziz and the prince of Mercia in the treaty. It clearly states that the Christians and the Jews who were living in the city would maintain their their synagogues and churches, that they would be allowed to have autonomy in the city that the princes and the rule is in modo sia would be able to maintain most of their belongings
They did not have to surrender their belongings to the Muslims, that just about all of the slaves in the city were immediately freed.
And when you see this when this treaty came about the people were were with Joyce, the taxes that were on them in rodricks time were lifted from them.
And so this type of justice was established in a practical way, the news of this spread throughout Spain. And this is really, I believe, the reason why the Muslims were successful in taking so much of the territory in such a short time. Because if they were a terrible force, and were oppressing people, surely that people would have resisted. And when you look at the numbers of the Muslims, you will find that the number was very small. Some reports say that when todich Mehta, Roderick tonics, forces were only somewhere between 16 to 20,000 men rodricks forces were over 100,000. That's the type of odds that they were facing, but the people were suffering under oppression. And so they were
able to establish themselves in the Iberian Peninsula. What developed out of that was what I would call a multicultural society. It's a multicultural society, where people were allowed to be non Muslims and have their own houses of worship, they were allowed to carry on with their arts and sciences, they will also allow to a certain extent to even judge themselves, in small matters, Jewish law or Christian law would apply to the people within their enclaves within their areas. The general law of the land was the law of Islam.
Also, it was a common thing to find the person in what the Muslims called Al Andalus. It was a common thing to find a person who could speak Arabic, and a dialect of Spanish and could read Latin. So with this ability, being able to speak Arabic speak Spanish read Latin, they were they were prime, our sources of translation. And so that multicultural context that they were living in, allowed them to be sources of information where they could go from Latin, right over to Arabic, they could go from Arabic into Spanish into Latin. And so that kind of a society developed to such an extent that even in Jewish literature, may mon Maimonides, Eben maamoun, was one of the famous
philosophers and scientists of Jewish literature. He existed during this time, and it was considered to be during the Muslim rule one of the Golden Ages, for the Jewish in terms of Arts and Sciences, they called the country Al Andalus. This is an Arabic word, and it means something to the effect of to become green, at the end of summer,
to become green, like a garden at the end of the summer. And it was such a beautiful place, and the way they describe
the cities in Al Andalus, of, of Toledo and Seville and you get an NA or Granada and quote unquote Abba Valencia. And the area's the descriptions that come in the literature is beautiful descriptions of people being able to live what I would call in a holistic fashion. They were able to develop science in such a way that the science did not destroy the environment. This is a very important accomplishment they made. It wasn't the size of their buildings. It was not the size of their guns, but they were able to for instance, take water and bring the water down from a mountain using aqueducts using canals and canal at all through the cities so that every house had access to running
water. And they did that without destroying anything or damming anything up or blocking anything. They did it in such a way they were using gravity. This is a holistic way of approaching things. And if you go to Grenada today, you will still see the waterworks are being used from the time of the Muslims. The water is flowing all over the place. And this was a great accomplishment that they made among the products that were introduced into the West through Al Andalus. I'll name a few of these products to you. Cotton, paper, glass mirrors, street lamps, salt, colored glass, silk, satin, pepper, cinnamon, handkerchiefs, deodorant, kerosene, linen, firearms, cotton balls, paper money,
postage stamps, bookbinding clocks ceramic
tiles, nitric acid, soap, Astro labs, campuses for navigation, slide rules, rulers, surgical instruments, windmills, spinning wheels, Rose Water maps, Globes, citrus and nectar fruits, carpets, eyeglasses, curtains, test tubes, porcelain, fine furs, velvet almanacs, and encyclopedias. So you can see right away that some of the contributions that they have made, that's a legacy in itself, because we are benefiting from this and I can go on with the the the different aspects of culture that the Muslims developed in that part of the world and other parts of the Muslim world. And they made it in such a way that it was usable for Western society. And it helped Europe to come out of
the dark ages. Because again, if you read in most of the history books, after the fall of the Roman Empire, then they say is the Dark Ages, right? And the lights go out and use your little chapter, then the Renaissance, the Renaissance is back in the lights are on and everything has got what happened between the year 700. Okay to 1500. What happened in that time, the Dark Ages, it was the golden age of Islam. It was the golden age of Islam. And I want to just talk about some of the contributions that were made by Muslims. And this can get very complicated, but just want to talk about some of them tonight, just to show you some of the legacy that came from Spain and from
Baghdad and from Cairo and Al Qaeda. One is Morocco and all over the Muslim world in mathematics.
Howard is me sabut Alma honey.
Even Yunus
even Hamza is a number of names Mohammed bin, I've met some of the achievements made, they found they found that they began algebra, in symbols and equations, develop Arabic numerals, cifa, zero, Arabic numeral system, they establish a logarithm.
They found it general the general formula for solving third degree equations.
They founded trigonometric ratios, formulas and equations. And you can continue to go on and you'll see calculus and trigonometry and all of these areas of math have a debt to Islam in physics. He'd been Haytham. He'll be Rooney. You've been Eunice. There's a number of names they established the science of power of mechanics. They describe the center of gravity. They describe gravity. So when the apple hit Newton and his hit, okay, he was probably reading an Arabic book and it woke him up from asleep and then he turned to the page on gravity. But what comes to us the apple hit him in his head and they say he discovered gravity. Muslim said he had described gravity in details, long
before Isaac Newton
also
described mechanical properties of geometric bodies.
They developed the hydro meter arrow meter, the lever, balance scale, they measured specific gravity of different substances invented the pendulum, the spring and wall clock.
Also you find in chemistry holiday been yazeed, Java Eben Hi, Yan, Al Kindi our Razi, you find the introduced Atomic Theory of matter. They develop processes of evaporation, sublimation, crystallization, distillation, filtration, pigmentation melting, they introduce methods of steelmaking, metalwork, they develop procedures for dyeing of cloths and textiles. They established preparations, preparation methods of chemicals, sulfuric, nitric and hydrochloric acids, ammonium chloride, silver nitrate, macura oxide, chloride sulfide sodium, they develop chemical chemical processes and methods for manufacturing of glass, soaps, perfumes, resins, oils, paints, paper,
sugar, gunpowder, to introduce the uses of jars and flasks, scales and tubes and you can go on in terms of the things they were introducing in astronomy alibaug, Tawny lb Rooney and farahani.
You can go on, they develop Astro
And sextants prepared stock catalogs and tables of planetary motion, named over 200 stars with Arabic names. They prove the earth as a spherical shape. They calculated the length of terrestrial degree, determine the earth circumference and diameter. They measured solar inclination angle. They charted the positions and orbits of stars and planets in medicine, you find a Razzie even see now they call him Event Center and his in his work upon noon, tip the law in medicine, you'll find they performed gynecology obstetrics. They wrote medical encyclopedias, they perform therapy procedures. They prepared mercury ointment. They discovered a blood circulation and describe the pulmonary
circulation and the function of lungs. They recognize the contagious nature of tuberculosis and the distribution of disease by water and soil. They perform surgical treatment of ice is and teeth. They used and describe over 200 surgical instruments over 200 surgical instruments. It's amazing. They describe 130 eye diseases and they characterize 143 drugs
in pharmacology, Java 11, Haryana, even lb tar Tao oohed
Lee even Isa. They prepared alcohol acids nitrates carbonates, they introduce the use of
picrotoxin. They prepared chemical medicaments in pills and solutions. They established chemists shops for dispensing prescriptions. They introduced to Europe quite a number of medicines and herbs which betray the Arabic name Allah Cana alcohol alcohol, alcohol is Arabic word Allah Cali alfalfa camfil cotton Hakeem Jasmine saffron, etc. in geography, he Sharm el Kelby and Jacobi had been jubair, al idrisi, Elon Musk, Rudy, and you can go on. They invented many geographic and surveying instruments and devices. They prepared many accurate and detailed, nautical and land roadmaps of the world. They calculated and prepared ephemeris tables of ocean tides and seasonal winds, they
describe the lands and the natives of the new world in their reports. Now someone would say well, how do they know this? And you go on and astronomy history a number of subjects? How would they be so good in these subjects, I want to take two areas in the area of geography and astronomy. So what is important about the stars and direction? What is important about the geography of the world, all of the Muslims, up until now
are concerned with direction. Because every time we pray, we pray toward Mecca. So therefore, wherever you are, you have to determine where Mecca is, I walk around with a compass on
and Wherever I am, I can just do my compass. And you know, I can figure it out based on knowing you know which direction it is then find where Mecca is. So therefore, it was a natural thing for Muslims to get into the direction, and always to be looking at the sun. To know what time of day it is, because of the cycle of prayer. It's a natural thing. Also pilgrimage to Mecca. Every Muslim should try to make pilgrimage to Mecca, once in a lifetime. And so therefore, these complicated works in geography, like road international roadmaps were developed, especially for Muslims to be able to travel from, say, China or India or West Africa, or Northern Europe, and travel to Mecca. So
you find these complicated the same way today. If I want to go to Dallas, Texas, I go to the AEA and I say I'd like to go to Texas, okay, we'll give you triptychs. And they give you they say okay take route such and such. And then you go south on that route. And they'll give you the maps all the way right. So this is a similar thing. They show you the geography and they'll show you and stuff and many of these books are still existent today. You got to be able to read Arabic, and they'll show you you take this route and there's water on this side. There are hostile people over here. There's poison poisonous snakes in this area. They describe the way for you. So you can make it safely by
land or by sea to get to Mecca. So it was a natural thing for the Muslims to be able to determine the different areas
Getting back to Spain. Now, we find that
after todich Eben Ziad Rahim Allah in the year 756 ad, a man by the name of updraft man, a sucker,
man, the Falcon, who came from Damascus, he was part of the immediate dynasty for those Muslims or those who are studying history. He was part of the Omega dynasty. He fled because of an internal war that was going on. He fled to Andalusia. And he established the people accepted him as their ruler. And he established a dynasty, a very important dynasty of Romanians who were living there. And he was able to immediately establish his capital, he took Cordoba, we would say Cordoba, he took it as his capital. And he ruled from 756 to 788. From for amongst his achievements, he built the Great Mosque of Cordoba, and I, in my slides, I'm going to show you some pictures of the of the cathedral,
it's been changed into a cathedral. And he built the Great Mosque of Cordoba and 786. He also used an aquaduck. And he brought water into Cordoba. And he made bath bath houses, bridges, castles, he built universities. And he made Cordoba in the ninth and 10th century, it would be what we would call like one of the wonders of the world, they use this terminology of the wonders of the world, Cordoba at that time, would have been one of the wonders of the world. And the reason why I say that is because
at that time, there were over 200,000 houses, this is the ninth and the 10th century of the Dark Ages, right. So that there's no other major city functioning in Western Europe. 200,000 houses, 600 mosques, 900 public baths, 50 hospitals, you could go in any direction, and the streets were lit for 10 miles lighted streets. This is when the capitals we know as London and Paris, and the great cities in Europe, we're in darkness. And many cases, you have to go to mud, if it rains out this deep paved streets in Spain. And so the the great leaders and intellectuals of Europe, went down into Andalusia to Toledo and to Seville, to the universities to study and then took it back to the
different areas of Europe. And they were able to develop the great universities that we know today. And so we find that up, Dr. Matta Sokka, was able to establish a mighty dynasty. And after his time, there are a number of different dynasties. And if people want to talk about that in the question period, we can go into a little more details. What is important
for us is two things. The first point
is that many Muslims might ask now that people might ask, why if they were so powerful, why did they go down?
Why after such heights of civilization, you find them losing strength. When we look at the society itself, and even Haldane and his mocha Dhamma talks about the cyclical nature of history, that is a cycle. When you have strong dynamic generations, then you will find your civilization is powerful, but when corruption sets in, then weakness sets in. And so, you know, they became weak, because they started to look at each other as nations and tribes, Arab and non Arab, African and Berber, European and Turkish, Persian. Then the rich separated from the poor.
And then the drinking of wine.
And then all types of corruption set in and so they were, they were conquered. They were literally conquered, and the forces of Ferdinand and Isabella made their way down from the north, the northwest corner the mountainous areas, they had not gone into this area and they move from the mountainous areas down slowly taking back section by section, they took backspin.
The second point which is important to us that is that in geography and astronomy, the great scientists and historians and geographers like Elon Musk, Rudy altomare, etc. They described America
they described America and must Udi in his book malucia dhaba 956
he described a journey of a man named khachkars. Inside this book is still existing now in Arabic in the libraries. He describes the journey of a man who went across
The ocean and he came back with goods and everybody in Spain knew about this journey.
Also al idrisi in his famous geography book, he describes the journey of seafaring people who went to a deserted island, went to another island they were blindfolded and captured, and the king spoke to them through an interpreter who could speak Arabic. That's in the 12th century, Allah Almighty reported the journey of Mansa Musa, the West African Islamic ruler, who made pilgrimage to Mecca with over 72,000 followers. He changed he carried so much gold with him, he changed the economy of a country that he reached when they came into Egypt. And they asked him about his authority. He said, I'm from a lineage and my predecessor, Abu Bakar, crossed the Atlantic with 2000 ships. These are
men Dinka have the mandate, language group. And mandate writing is found in Brazil. It is found in Panama. It is found in Mexico. It is found in the southwest of the United States. And a man by the name of Leo whiner, Harvard University scholar, and his book called Africa and the discovery of America showed that the men didn't come Muslims actually came into America and they mix with the Iroquois and Algonquin, First Nation people. And so a powerful legacy is they're coming out of Andalusia, North Africa and West Africa, of people crossing.
And those of us who truly read the memoirs of Columbus, not toto just watch the movie read his memoirs. Columbus knew he went to Iceland first. Then he went down to West Africa. And he described dugout canoes, huge canoes going Africans going across.
If you if you look and see that people who traveled with him, many of the people who traveled with Columbus, and the early Spanish and Portuguese are Conquistador days, they were our what we call mode escos. Now, what is moresco morasco is we find that in 1482, the Spanish Inquisition began.
And in this Inquisition, they would take you to an Inquisitor.
And they check you out. Are you a Catholic or not? If you say you're not, they'll burn you at the stake. They'll torture you to death. And so 1000s of people were dying in the Inquisition. Some people could not take the torture, the Jews were called medanos, who could not take it the Muslims were called moriscos. Now what they had done when they were coming down, they conquered Muslims, and they made them slaves is another term comes from Buddha. Would that john Arabic is like a like a name of ridicule. So mu dodges these people as slaves. And there was rules that would be passed with the Jews and the Muslims would be used as slaves by Ferdinand Isabella and the forces of Aragorn and
Castilian when they were coming down. And so in 1492,
the importance of that from our point of view, and it's always good to see history from two sides, right. 1492, like they said in 1992, it is the Age of Discovery, right? Find the Quint quincentennial 500 celebration of the celebration of the Age of Discovery. And I'm asking myself, and many people, especially if you're a native person, right, and many of us have native blood. My grandmother is a mohawk. Right? So I'm saying if you have this blood, you know, you're asking yourself when Columbus landed on the shore, okay, the people were standing there looking at him.
So how can you discover a place when the people are standing and looking at you? And they've been there for 10,000 years? They have great civilizations. The Aztecs, the Incas, the Old mac people, the Mayan people, they had pyramids. This pyramids in Mexico,
go to Belize. Go to Mexico, you see pyramids, in Peru, there's pyramids.
Mexico City was larger than any city in Western Europe. The Aztecs had a complicated our society. constitutions government did the the Aztec calendar is the similar to the Egyptian calendar, the ancient Egyptian calendar, the Cherokee Nation in the United States. They had three storey apartments.
But you don't hear you hear Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. What I would say is that Christopher Columbus was discovered in 1492.
Because he was lost, and he bumped into the Caribbean.
He thought he was going to India. So the great Han, right. So you said your Indians, Indians, the people who they don't know India, but your Indians, okay? But what is interesting for us now, which
tracing the names and you find on the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. You find you trace some of these names the captain, I think it's of the of the of the Pinta is Bob Dylan. He has a name Bob dill. This is a moresco name, Abu Abdullah.
Okay, and you find Rodrigo de Triana, you find this message the person who cited land first, he was a motorcycle.
So many of the people who came into the region here, and I had the opportunity to live in Jamaica for a while to travel, I went to Honduras to Costa Rica, to Panama, to Curacao, to Belize, to the islands in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, asking different people check in the names of the people checking the history. And what we come to realize is that actually what happened in the in the region was a genocide. The native people were exterminated, disease and treachery, that the native people who populated the islands and the region suffered under this rule. And one of the worst things that was done by the Conquistador days was they used to burn the books,
they would come into an area and they would burn the books. And when you burn people's books you destroy in their history you destroy and their memories of themselves. And this is part of the reason why we're confused. And researchers and historians who are trying to do research, you got to like, get a lot of pictographs. And while writings and things because we can't find the writings and the people could write.
And so
we find this legacy in the region. And I wanted to touch on just In conclusion, before we go into the question and answer period. I want to touch on the fact that there is a book and anybody was interested in this book. I have the name of the book, and it's about a group called Malaysians. And these Malaysian people, there's a man called Brent Kennedy. And he had this disease, sarcoidosis. And you know, we have these people in the south, and many Afro Americans may have a like an ancestor, like in the south, you're like native, or your white American or is another one called geese.
They're not natives and they're not Afro Americans. They call them geechie. Like Portuguese, okay? Now, this man of the Geechee people are looking for his disease when they got a grant, I think it's a Ford Foundation. And they and he found out that his disease the gene pool is similar to people who live all around the Mediterranean region, especially in North Africa. And in Turkey.
He also found out that the Malaysian people, that these people were actually the people who are working on the boats. And when Santa Alina was conquered by the British when they came into America, because you know, the Spanish were first air right? So So when the British came in, and it were conquering territory, these Malaysian people went into the mountains, and they mixed with the native people. And so there are actually literal reports, which are coming out of Jamestown, Virginia, which are coming out of North Carolina, South Carolina, where the people are actually writing about individuals who dropped down to pray five times a day facing east. One group called himself Mecca
Indians. They found Qurans the PO Hatton Indians description of Paradise is exactly as the Quran is. And so these Malaysian people, and it's a very interesting study, because these Malaysian people have played a role in history. Nancy Hanks, the wife of Abraham Lincoln, was a Malaysian
and this is a serious study it's going on right now. And people who are coming from that part of the world, you know, who have names like Bennett and Coleman and Adkins and go ins and Williams, if you're coming from that part, you probably would be one of these Malaysian people.
And so they may they had an impact, which is not being discussed in the history books. Also, when the Spanish were opening up the Southwest, there were Muslims, as I said, moriscos some of them they brought right in from Morocco. One famous guide esta vansickle esta vaniqa went all the way to Arizona, and opened up a lot of the territory in Arizona. And so el Cal de system, the Spanish were using el Cal de system of law. It is from the Arabic el cardies which means the judge Amir, like the Amir is the that means the ruler of the leader is the mayor.
Right a mirror the Rahal is the admiral,
the Sharif meaning the controller with the gun is the sheriff. Some people even look into California and look at the word halifa.
In terms of California, it's amazing. And you know there's a study that was done by a brother use of motor work. We did
To study and interesting study, and he found you could in America, there were names being used by the natives, Arabic names. Now, I'm not saying that the whole of the native culture was for Muslims, no, they integrated with the population. But Mecca is found almost
100 times, Medina, you know, there's a city called Quran, Louisiana
is Mecca, California, Medina, Ohio. There's the meccan Indians live in Seattle, Washington area called Mecca Indians. And so you will find these names being used all throughout the Americas, that there was a contact being made, you know, and that it was through the legacy of these people who had fled the Inquisition, and had come to this part of the world, and had brought their culture in mixed with the people here, there was an interchange going back and forth. And the legacy of what happened out of Al Andalus still affects the world today, the basis of the computer age, to your number system, the scientific method, the historical method, the basis of many of the sciences, that we are
studying in this university. And so this is part of the legacy of Muslim Spain. And, you know, I would also change that that title of the Dark Ages, you know, and really, it is the bright ages, it is the age of light, because light was all over the world at the time. Okay, and so darkness maybe was for some people, but it was not for all people. And I think that the only way we can really go forward as one race, the human race, is that we have to appreciate the histories and the struggling, and the suffering of all people tell Columbus's story from both sides.
Tell it from both sides. What did the people think when he came? When he said to them in Spanish, I conquer you in the name of the king and the queen? They probably said cool down man drink some water.
probably try to calm him down.
Okay, you have to tell a story from two sides, right? And I'm not getting on Chris. Because Chris, he's only it's the mentality.
It's a mentality.
of bellboy, he discovers the Pacific right people on the Pacific. For so long, another one discovers the source of the Nile. And they knew it for 10,000 years.
Now, the one Vasco de Gama, the Cape of Good Hope, Good Hope of what you want to go around the Muslim world and get to India and China. That's the hope.
And so tonight's contribution really is to try to tell the story from another point of view, and I hope and pray inshallah, that this can be the beginning of a period of understanding, and that the rest of our lectures this week would give more awareness has to the legacy of Muslims and Islam, and the need for people of conscience to come together in the coming years as we go into the 21st century. So I leave you in peace of Solomonic.
Now, we, I want to open up the floor for a couple minutes for any questions that anybody may have any any feedback that you have, because for some, this may be kind of different in terms of basically this stuff about coming across the Atlantic before Columbus, I got a book too. Okay. So if you want the sources, you really want to get into the sources you Everything is documented inside of the book that we have in the back by one open up the floor for questions, so please feel free
to ask any question that's on your mind. flows open.
Yes, sir.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, that that that is another area. And really, it's a very important area to tonight we were focusing on the legacy and Muslim Spain. So I didn't go into that area, but actually in the Bahia section, in Brazil, there is there's a number of documents and traces and some of the people are still there today, of Muslims who are coming especially from what is now known as Nigeria, hausa, and Fulani, and they were taken down in large numbers by the Portuguese, and there are a series of revolts. And many of them revolted so vigorously that they were actually allowed to go back. And you can find now in Lagos in Nigeria, there are mosques houses of worship of Muslims that are built by
Brazilian Muslims, and you can go so that's the Brazilian mosque. So they say, these are people who are captured, taken to Brazil, and returned. Now, what is interesting is to see how religion changes, you know, as time goes by and when people lose contact
With the source of the religion, and what is happening now, and that's one of the places I want to visit myself. But what is happening now is that the people
are starting to get reintroduced to the religion again. But I read one article sometime in the past where the only thing that was left for some of the people in Bahia for the prayers was that women would stand in a circle, and they clap their hands. And the man, you know, dances, the type of jig, and he says, you know, something, which in a broken mandate language, mixed with Portuguese says La ilaha illAllah, which means there's no God, but Allah. So he's saying this. And that's the only thing left to the prayer. So the study of Bahia section of Brazil is a very important study. And there are a few works done in Portuguese.
There's a certain I don't have I don't have it right here. But there's some works being done. Now. you familiar with the works then? Right. Right. So so he I saw some of the work that he did, and it's a very interaction, they have Arabic documents, too. I saw some of the Arabic documents they had from that area.
Well, actually, all over the Caribbean, there's documentation coming now. What we're finding is about 30% of the slaves were Muslims, coming from the guinea coast of West Africa. And what I found that I've got some in my research in the back there, like for instance, in Jamaica, in 1821, there was a document being passed around in Arabic watseka. And they had a big revolt in the Manchester section of Jamaica. in Suriname, there was Muslims leading the revolt, to salt low, which was one of his generals was called Macondo. He was an Imam. I went to I went to Bahamas, and they had these documents. They told me it was Amharic. It was Ethiopian. But when I went in there, it was Arabic.
And an American. He wrote your like Saurus his chapters of the Quran that were familiar with, when you're seeking refuge and God from evil. He wrote NASS follow up Kula had Ayah to courtesy, you know, is the administrate on, that's what he was trying to do. And they said, it's a panic, because they didn't know that it was Arabic. And so there's a series of things coming also the names of people, because of the
the attitude
that the early Portuguese and Spanish had coming and they were so paranoid of Muslims, because of the war they were fighting, that they they would not use the name Muslim, when they describe somebody who was a slave. So you won't find the name Muslim being used. See, and this would threw people off for a long time, because you didn't see a name, but now we'll be reinvestigating the names and you find names like
Boubacar or Booker, which actually is aboubaker. You find like Wally, you find a lot of
West African names Jolo, and Kaaba. And these are very well known Muslim names. And you can actually trace the ports on the guinea coast of West Africa, where they were taken. This is how the percentages are now being realized. And in terms of, you know, knowing, you know, the percentage of Muslims who came is a large percentage, actually, the Maroons in Jamaica, in the maroon territory, there's a Quran up there. So the Maroons, who were originally they call Simone Ace, like wild horses, because they escaped from the Spanish they were fighting the Spanish. They were they were a conglomeration of different tribes. So anybody who would escape you go to Maroon territory, but the
Muslims were one of the powerful groups. While off mandinka. how soft Fulani, they one of the groups powerful groups will resisting the slavery so there's this slave revolt and in America, you know, there's a book called
African Muslim, African Muslims in antebellum America. It's by a man named Alan Austin. And you can get the name of it back there my book, he actually brings the primary documentation for a lot of places, even for the United States. And so there's a series of people does act as a book called a fortunate slave.
Another one by Philip curtain called Africa remembered. And these books trace Muslim slaves in the United States. Actually, just recently, there's a there was one slaves name is Omar bin siete, because it's a South Carolina, and they actually had handwritten Arabic letters and documentation. It was sold in New York City, and there's a library now it's going to be in Detroit, they bought it in Detroit, and they're going to have it on display soon. It's Arabic handwritten document by whom I've been site.
And so there's a number of things works like this. That you will find. Okay, yes, sir.
Okay.
Okay, if if some if somebody wants to write a question on a piece of paper, oh, we have a brother that's going to collect you know, some of the brothers and sisters set up who collect them. Okay, go ahead.
I've heard some things about the colonies in the last
In America
sooner somehow was transferred that in Spain failed. A lot of the Muslims were expelled. And that a lot of traditions like go to a house with the Spanish ladies, they were behind the screen. Is there something that you? Well, there's a lot of trace, actually, when you read the memoirs of Ferdinand Columbus and Christopher whatnot, you see, and many of the early Spanish and Portuguese who came, they ran into African people in the region, early aspect, they ran into Muslims. One piece, one writing in the memoir when Columbus came into Cuba, and he came into a certain Bay and I read this thing. And they said, there's a mosque on the top of the hill.
That's how they describe it. So there's a mosque on the top of the hill. So it was unbelievable man, when fernet Columbus writes, when they went to Honduras, they said the people the women had heavy golden ear, and it just like in West Africa and Mali, they had so much gold that it was a style to wear a big piece of gold, so like extend your elope.
And then the names like one name is called El mammies, which is from le ma ma, ma ma ma l l al Imam. That's a West African way of saying the new leader of the prayer. And that is a grouping of people in Honduras.
So it's all over the place, you know, in terms of they even in Columbus also writes about one of the memoirs, he's writing about, they a boat came by them.
And they said, when they looked at the boat, the men on the boat had on a type of cloth, which had the same patterns as the cloth in Grenada. And some of the women on the boat had a veil over their face. Like some of the women in Granada used to we're going to describe this boat. They said, this is in the Caribbean, they ran across this. So like, you know, they're running across these things all the time. But then but you don't get that,
you know, the data you they filter out that aspect?
Yeah.
I haven't heard any connection between them. Alexa.
Alexa is the the furthest musk or the fireplace? Yeah. I don't know. I mean, there's a lot of names that you can start to get things out of
one question he has, as a historian, do you find that many of your non Muslim colleagues argue and disagree with Muslim contributions? Yes, actually, this would be considered revisionist, a type of revisionist history that, you know, you know, some of the sisters like I know, know, in certain circles, but but when I put out my first issue of deeper roots, this book I have here, the geography department of McGill University in Canada, they challenged me and they brought me there and fed me lunch and everything and set me up and said, Okay, now give it to us. So I, you know, I spoke to them for about an hour straight, right, going through all these contributions and all this stuff.
When I was done. There was silence for about five minutes. Nobody said anything. And deleted. You know, the head of the department said, You have challenged everything that we stand on. Like everybody was silent. Then they started to come at me. Now did geography. I'm not a geographer, right? They admitted that it was possible to cross the Atlantic. They freely admit that because so high a doll, the Scandinavian, you know, scientist, took a number of journeys, he went, he used Papyrus materials, and he went from Morocco. And he went across using the currents. And he went right into Brazil in the Caribbean. So so they admitted as possible what they were arguing me They
said, how they get back.
And they would they wanted me to prove like, you know, geographically, I'm not a geographer, man. You know, there was just only point that they could get me on, you know, which current it was they came to go back and all that, but they admitted freely, that it was possible for people to cross we know even that the Celtics, like Viking people from the north, the Phoenicians, many people cross the Atlantic man, they got stuck on this Columbus syndrome.
But maybe Chris was late. He was very late. Like many people will go on across the Atlantic and the Pacific, the Polynesian people, Chinese people, they made contact with the Americas on the Pacific side. And if you go into the culture of the people, you will see Polynesian blood Polynesian traces, if you go on the Pacific side.
So it's just a matter of going through the documentation and looking at it from another people's point of view. That's all it is.
Well, you know, I mean, I could say If a person's you know, European
You know that he's biased when he writes a history book that says Christopher Columbus discovered America, they call it eurocentrism. Okay, but you know, in historical circles, the bottom line is your documentation. It's your it's your argumentation, which comes out of your documentation. So I don't care what you are, the bottom line is like, what's your proof? Bring it to me.
Show me your reasoning and show me your documentation. So it doesn't matter what you are. If you're open minded, and you have the documentation, and really, you know, the documentation is there. It's not like it's not there. It is there. But just for a long time, it has not been resourced or not been brought out to the public, as to you know, what is really happening in America before Columbus. You know, not now people are changing the mentality about Columbus, but they still try to push this thing. In 1992. They still try to push it
to make people think that everything started with him. Another question is about other a lot of Muslims in Jamaica today. And how they received well, there are a number of Muslims in Jamaica, you know, Jamaica itself is in Spanish town. And there isn't Black River and in Clarendon and Kingston in Kingston, this is a big mosque in Kingston, and now Montego Bay, they have land in Port Maria area on the north coast. They're Muslims. I lived in Jamaica for four years. So there's a number of Muslims there. And it's one of the places where a lot of people are accepting Islam. But the problem there is that this is an economic problem. So unless you have employment or some way for people to
you know, deal with their life, economically, it's hard to really practice a way of life that's very different from society, unless you've got an economic base, and I think that's the problem that Muslims have today is a practical way where people can accept Islam and it can really changed your life completely. That's the problem. It's not a problem with people listening to Islam, and especially in Jamaica because of the Rastafarian movement. And Marcus Garvey, there's a consciousness in terms of of African culture and, you know, Middle Eastern culture that people are open minded like there are some people do that there are a number of people Jimmy cliff, if you
don't even know Jamaican culture, Jimmy cliff, he's a Muslim. Name, his name Bashir is named Jimmy cliff.
Okay. Anybody else have a question?
Yeah.
Yeah, also one of the propaganda things I said, just like, you know, the terrorists thing that comes today, like historically, they say that Islam was spread by the sword. And, you know, they have this image, they say, Saracens, you know, what happened was, because when you really look at the crusades, the crusades, I believe, were really more economic and political wars, as opposed to religious wars. Because really, when you study Islam, there's not that much difference really, between early Christianity, Judaism and Islam. And Christians and Jews were living in the Middle East at that time, and they didn't have any problems. But economically when Marco Polo came back,
and the princes in Europe realized about the treasures in the Middle East, and India and in China, they needed to open up the trade routes to go through the areas of the Middle East is that central zone, so they want it to control it. So really, I believe it was more economic and political than it was actually a religious war. And so you find that a body of literature comes out of the crusades, where they describe, they say muhammet, meaning Mohammed, they say he was a devil worship me when they say Saracens, Michel de Yun, Eastern people, Turks, and whatnot, and they just start to describe Muslims of this curve. So except a samurai chop off your head. But the Quran says there's
no compulsion in religion. Truth stands clear from falsehood. What you do find for those of you who have studied history, in the seventh century, at the time when the proud morpc bottom came, there was the Byzantine Roman Empire. Okay, Eastern Orthodox, the capital was Constantinople. And there was the Persian Empire sassanid dynasty, okay, in present day Iran. And so these were the two world powers in the Middle East. And so they attack the Muslims, the Romans attack from the north, and the Persians attack from the east. So the Muslims responded to the attack. When they responded to the attack. The sassanid dynasty was in in a corrupt state, and it felt and so they opened up all the
Persian holdings, the Byzantines were also in a weak state. And so they took the Byzantine holdings and Palestine, and they went right around North Africa. They were all Byzantine Mediterranean holdings. So it was it was a war going on between the Muslims and the Byzantine Roman Empire. Other places. When you look at the spread of Islam and other places, you find its meaning
merchants and it's mainly people of knowledge, who are spreading Islam. It's not the sort the largest Muslim country 170 million is Indonesia. No army went to Indonesia, only merchants by the sea. And Allah ma scholars when that's all there's no
no armies went there. So again, it's it's um, you know, it's it's a, like a stereotype, I will be honest with you though is that we have the right to defend ourself. And some people don't like that.
And that's one of the aspects of Islam. The Quran says, if somebody does you harm, then do back to them what they did for you, or you can forgive them. Right? Like it's not totally eye for eye, tooth for tooth is not totally turned the other cheek, you got two alternatives. So the verse says, if somebody does you harm, do to him what he did to you, or you can forgive him. And the end of the verse says, and forgiveness is probably better for you if you only know.
So but it gives you the right to establish justice. And so Muslims, that's why in the slavery period, many times the Muslims with people in leading the revolts resistance
because people have a right for self determination. And they have a right to defend their land. And I think that's a principle that everybody trashes in America, that is a founding principle of the country with the British, right? In all of the countries, right? I mean, it wasn't for everybody. But I'm just saying on paper, right? It's a founding principle. So everybody has that. So we have the right to say that we have the right to self defense, we have the right you know, not to be oppressed. And that's a clear you know, statement that comes out of Islam. I think this is what makes some people paranoid. But but but but but the whole propaganda, you know about the sword is
really something that was made up were Muslims or new Christians. Important at Prince Henry the navigators school in Portugal,
where their crew members on Portuguese ships exploring African coast. Did Prince Henry use the maps? Yes, the Muslims were crucial
to the Portuguese and the Spanish.
And I would say probably the majority of the seafaring information that was being used by Prince Henry, the navigator came from the Muslims. Because if you look at the civilization, you're going to find the majority of their technical knowledge. I mean, Muslims were in Spain for 700 years. 700 years, America is only 200 years, right? 700 years, and you start going into Spanish, and you'll see all these Arabic words, which are, which are regular Spanish words. Now, so many Arabic words. So 700 years, and especially in navigation, that the Portuguese is well known. They went down, you know, Cape Verde Islands, they went to West Africa. Vasco de Gama, you know, was actually they they
led him around there. Muslims helped him showed him the way.
So yes, it was it was very important. And the maps were very important. I have a map on the cover of my book there of must Rudy Alamosa, DS map and 956 is the oldest map in the world that shows America on the map. 956 is the oldest in the world. And must Rudy did a map for the king of Sicilia or Sicily, the king of Sicily, did a map for him.
And so you find that it was very crucial for the people in those days. Now, the question is, is it not also important to suggest that today's Muslims could contribute meaningfully meaningfully to civilization? Yes, and really, actually, you know,
Muslims are making a tremendous contribution today. But it's not mentioned, even if you go to Cape Canaveral, right? And you look at the scientists names,
you know, you look in American universities, engineers and doctors, and you're going to find a significant proportion, have Arabic or Turkish, or ODU, or some Muslim name, a significant proportion of scientists today in America
have these names. So there's contributions being made right now, but it's not being recognized, you know, as a body partially because, you know, we don't seek recognition just for the name itself, you know, it's like raw, like, so showing off, you know, like that type of thing. But
there is a great contribution, you know, being made, but I think Muslims just need to be more.
More forward, not be ashamed to come forward with the culture. We was here before Columbus Smith.
So you know, they give you a green card and say you're an alien or something like your alien, right?
Okay, and then you know, they're calling you an alien. is so we're not aliens, man. We were here before Columbus.
So, how can you be an alien? See this point? Anyway the whole earth is belongs to a lot anyway, like people have been, you know, cultures have been interchanging.
So these are just some, you know, 20th century hangups, you know that people have any other questions Anybody else?
Yes, sir.
Yeah, inshallah, we're gonna, we're gonna show the slides, we're gonna take a break. And then we're going to show some of this. I have some slides for those of you before you go at some slides on Spain, and Cordoba and Granada, Gibraltar.
And then something from North Africa as well. fez and Marrakech, robot, some from robot, showing the architecture and you know, some of the different things. Okay, so I think I'm going to stop here. And we will take a break anybody who has any other questions you can ask me, straightforward. And then afterwards, I will come back, inshallah Salaam Alaikum.
But the Rock of Gibraltar is a very strategic position, because it sits in at the mouth of the Mediterranean. So people have fought over this rock in this position for a long time for 1000s of years. And so that that was the first part for me to go to the rock. And again, the rock, Gibraltar is Jebel todich. So that itself has a connection with Islam. Also, you look at the walls there.
And when you when you're in Gibraltar,
you know, if you can look at structures, and see the size of the bricks, like the wall that's there, and the inner wall, and then the houses, you can see different time periods. And you're, you'll be able to start to recognize what they call morish morish. Architecture, the Moore's they use that terminology.
It's referring to people of color, but actually the Moore's means the Muslims. Were living in Spain, I guess the famous most famous one here in America has probably, Othello, the Shakespeare, Othello, right, that they had a movie with a fellow to it. So now he's famous, said Fishburne knife is
now on the rock itself.
As you go up,
that's a that's the, that's a fort built by the Muslims. That's as you're going up. And when you get up near the top, actually, inside.
There is there's a series of underground tunnels. And World War Two, it was a very strategic position. And the Allied forces built an under a network of underground tunnels there, and they were living inside of there, and they were storing equipment. And when you look closely up there, if you can get close,
you'll see that there are monkeys, there's monkeys up there, too. They live all up in the side. And the British have a superstition that as long as the monkeys are there
in Gibraltar, they will control the mountain. So they actually replenish the monkeys. It's like a superstition they have but the British control the Spanish are angry about this too. And so that there's a problem is going on, you know, I'm coming from Canada. And so I was I had a problem because at that time, if you know what was happening in 95, you know, there was a big boycott because of the fish with the Spanish, right? We Canadians, so I made it just in time as I was leaving the Spanish authorities gave me a lot of trouble when I was leaving, you know, so I was coming out of Canada.
So this is right up at the Ford itself. And it says when the Moors recaptured Gibraltar from the Spanish in 1333. They rebuilt an earlier tower, ruined in the fighting into the solid tower of homage which has since withstood 10 sieges. So this is a tower that you will meet when you first go into Gibraltar.
This is the inside of it, that they're doing it over again to show
how the Muslims lived on the inside of the tower itself.
Now when you're standing on the top of the rock this this is a shot from the Top of the Rock of Gibraltar and then you're looking down on the Spanish coastline.
So you're facing east
and you can see the the airport runway down on the bottom. That's the runway.
Now that this is on the left side, that's like the rest of the runway
and it goes right out. You know if he doesn't have brakes, you're going to go right back into the ocean again.
But you go around there to Al Jazeera us that's another Arabic with Al Jazeera. So they say Al Jazeera us and you go around to the town of Al Jazeera and it is from there, you can catch the train that will take you up to Cordoba so this is one of the fastest ways to go. Also you can catch a boat over there which will take you to Morocco to tunja and I eventually came back down and took the boat from there Al Jazeera and we went to to tunja and then from there into Morocco
so after taking the train and getting off in Cordoba now we're coming to the city itself and this is a river on going out the quality of our if I'm if I'm pronouncing it wrong, anybody speak Spanish? Hmm. Yeah, quarter by the city, but quite qualitative. I think it's quite a devout River. Anyhow, this is also like, it's a Muslim name, name of the river. It's It's It's dry. It was it was a dry season.
But you can see that the tower that's there, that's a Morrish that's Muslim. Also, you can see the architecture.
And this is also right across the bridge from the main city. And this is a Muslim tower that was there. And a man by the name of Roger Garuda, he
was a person who were accepted Islam. He was given a large grant. And so he's he has a display inside of this tower, which is a very interesting display.
And this is from the roof of the tower. And you can see in the middle and aquaduck you can see the old how they move the water
or water wheel or water wheel that's on the top of the tower. So that takes you across and in the middle there. The big building in the middle is the cathedral, which used to be el Jamia this was the Jami main mosque and Cordova, which is originally built by object mounted soccer.
You know, it's the first major halifa was in the area then.
So as you're going across the bridge, this is a like some victory symbol that they were using there.
When they when they took the stand for the conquest.
Now, it's interesting when you're in quarter by and many of these cities, you know to note the streets there. Now those of you who are from Muslim countries, it's like you're in Morocco. And you know, you could be in a lot of places. I mean, I remember being in a city called Lambo, which is in Kenya, right? The Swahili coast is exactly like this. It's exactly the same type of narrow streets and the way that the buildings are built, because the buildings are built in such a way that the emphasis is not placed on the street, the emphasis is inside the building. Because the Muslim emphasis is that your home would have a big courtyard where your family can be, you know, inside
there and relax themselves and have courtyard and have everything they want right inside the house complex itself.
And now we're coming to the cathedral. And when the Spanish took over,
they converted this from the main Jamia mosque, which was probably the largest mosque in Europe at the time,
they converted it to a cathedral.
This is a shot from inside the the courtyard of the cathedral.
Now you can see it's a little dark. But this is something left there on the wall, where you can see totally the Islamic doorway. And the designs and everything there is still there left intact. This is one that was left intact.
But this is how they convert it. The door is there. And then you look on the top and you start to see other types of sculpturing. And they add on to it. This is what they did in terms of making the conversion. So you find this all over the structure itself.
And now this is inside. And from what I was reading in one
tract, that the people who took this place, they actually wanted to destroy everything, including the columns and everything. But the king at the time, had some appreciation for architecture and he said do not destroy the columns. So the columns are still there. That's the Islamic style
call. But you see, if you look down on the bottom there you see the squares on the bottom. These are graves.
The aristocrats were given portions of the cathedral to bury their family members in it. So these are grapes all throughout it you have sections where it has graves and they put gargoyles and all types of creatures and things on the wall and statues and images and unfortunate
Nita says really, for us that's really defacing a mosque. Because the graves are not supposed to be inside of the mustard. And you're not supposed to have statues and pictures and things inside of your master also.
Now, this is the main man Rob. And, you know,
it really hurt me because he is dealing with the versus, you know who Allahu la de la ilaha illa, who Allah baby with Shahada. And then at the end, it says, So panna la Yama, usually cool. Allah is glorified and above all that they associate with him. And in shark is all inside this place. polytheism is all in the placement. And it really hurt to read those verses, you know, and there was a, there was a tour guide, who was who was had a group of Spanish people, and they were touring. And, and so I asked one of the brothers who was with me was and Lucien Muslim was taking me around. So I asked the brother, I said, stand in the crowd, and just listen, tell me what he's saying to
them. So he stood in the crowd. And he came back and he said, what they say is, this is the mirror up. And the Muslims believe that Mohammed lives in the mirror up.
And so if you do anything that you know, if you if you make any evil or do anything, he will come out and get you.
That's what he was saying that. So patola. So this is really is really unfortunate, you know what is going on. And they will not let you make a lot. They're
like some brothers want to make two haircuts, they will stop you, they'll pull you out of salad. And I'm God, you cannot pray inside that building.
The ceiling right next to the merabh is still the Islamic design is still in there.
Now, this is Medina design.
And the halifa a nasef. This is one of the later kalif. It's in the immediate period after object meta saga. And this is when they started to get corrupt. He built a city outside of Cordova. And he built it to keep his own capital there. And to keep his power, he did not want to be associated with the people in Kota by itself. So he built this beautiful city outside in and they say it was one of the wonders of the world at the time. And
you know, he had like a manmade lake. And he had a sitting place in the middle of the lake with pearls and gems and water falling all around him and all types of wonders were inside of this place. But you know, they brought a shark one time from North Africa, he was considered to be known for I was what they call zone in Arabic zone. Which means that you know, you don't, you're not into the material world. He was austere. And when the Shaq came here and saw this, he said in a poem or Medina to Zara, you know you every house in Andalusia has contributed to your building. And one day, you will help to build every house in Andalusia. And sure enough, within a few weeks after the chef
made this prediction, there was an internal revolt that went on, and it was destroyed.
And the people took all the riches, they couldn't take it anymore, because this is when the Muslims that they have become corrupted.
And so all that's left now of the city is the ruins. But you can see the complicated rooms and waterways and a number of things that are still left in the ruins.
You always see these channels how they used to channel their water and
they had an interesting system. And the channel goes from up to down it's like built in such a way that gravity carries the water.
It carries it right to your apartment.
Some of the ruins, Medina tizona.
This This would have been his, his main court, they said was in this area.
Now this is an artist's conception of the halifa himself. And there are European dignities who are visiting the court of what you know, Medina to Sahara could have looked like actually when the Khalifa nasi was there.
Now, what is interesting by the mercy of Allah, that after centuries after the Inquisition, and after resistance continued in Granada for a long time.
They have found now that the people maintain their faith, and it's actually what they call our Jimmy script, which is which is Spanish is a dialect of Spanish, written in Arabic. And so they they did what we call toughness.
Yeah, explanations of Quran, Hadith, a number of books in this Arabic script, which is actually Spanish language. And they're finding them now in excavations underneath houses and buildings that they're bringing these these scripts up and as a Dr. Ali cattani, who's written a book in Arabic, and be out of Islam, for Andalus. And he has actually bringing these things to the surface. And it's very interesting to see this, the script being used.
So now what has happened when the Spanish government allowed freedom of religion,
the anti Lucien people, and there was nationalism, so each province looked into its history. If you from Aragon or you're from Valencia, or Castilian, wherever you're from, everybody looked at their own province, what is my history? So the andalusi, and people found that they were Muslim, like they didn't even know it, but when they really started looking, they found that they're probably descendants of Muslims. So now there are hundreds of them who are accepting Islam, and many of them are former members of the Communist Party. So they're like really good organizers.
They're really good organizers. They need some spirituality, though. You know, but they're really good organizers. And so they have organized here, and one of the brothers was there in this place. This is a restaurant. So it's a restaurant. You see el halaal maka Mata, so it's a restaurant and coffee house. And so the Spanish people come in here, and they upset if you really like it, and they sell couscous and hummus and many different you know, Arabic Muslim foods, and you go inside and they also give you Tao. They they give you like the message of Islam. It's a very nice place. Inside here. This is the Jemaah islamiah bill Andalus. This is the Aqua. There. That's how it looks on the
inside.
It's kind of a dark shot. It's not so clear. But this is what it looks like.
Now as you go along, another miracle, I would say is now the Muslims have their own Jamia their own mosque, again, right down the street from the cathedral.
So as you turn the corner, in this small street, that's what you look at. And you look up the top, you can see it there. This is the master day. And all this is the complex where the Muslims are have reestablished themselves there in Cordova.
So this is the most general Andalus and also it has International Islamic University,
International Islamic University, if there's anybody who's interested in contacting the Islamic University there, and they have some courses and they can teach you Spanish and they have scholars coming from Morocco with teaching there also, they opened up in 1995 in the spring, in the fall, anybody who's interested in that I have a little brochure with me, which I can leave with Hasib and the brothers and sisters here. If anybody's interested in this, you can contact them you can even go to school there.
Of course, it's an International Islamic University.
So this is the master there and I went I went to the we had Juma Salah, and the hottie gave the football and Arabic and Spanish,
Arabic and Spanish.
That's the masjid now hamdulillah and they built it like a scale model of what the whole quarter one was two, very small, you know, but hamdulillah it's really well done really well that they really use the space. Well, they, they economize on the space.
Now, this is some shots. This is where the university is where the classes are and dormitories and whatnot there.
That's another shot on the inside with the university.
And the flag they're using actually is the flag used by the Muslim leaders in Al Andalus. While our haleiwa illallah that's what they used to say, there is no conqueror, or no irresistible force except for Allah. And when you go to console Hamra Alhambra, and many other places you will find this written all over the place well, Lavalle but Illallah that was their, their their theme, and lucea. So that now is the flag the brothers have, and sisters have resurrected the flag. This is a very significant move that they make an excellent it's very significant.
Now going on from from quality by now, these are just a few shots that I'm able to show you here because of time. Now as you go south Granada and Granada was the last stronghold of Islam. And I think part of the reason why Granada was able to resist Islam
Just because the Muslims had some special army or something down there it is because it is naturally protected by the mountains. It is protected by mountains on all sides. And it goes right down to the sea. And so you can see in the back I think it's I don't know if it's, it's a Sierra Nevada on Sierra Nevada is a big mountain range that look, it's it's snow on top of it. So all you got to do is God the mountain pass. And so they were able to hold off Ferdinand and Isabella, for like, even I think it's about 150 years more than the other parts of our Andalusia.
So Grenada was the last place in in 1492, Abu Abdullah, known as Bob dill, he signed, he surrendered Grenada. And what was sad is that in his treaty, and you can see written copies of the treaty,
it was said that as long as you pay your taxes and you accept Ferdinand Isabella, as your ruler, you can have your mosques, your women will be honored home addresses will continue within 20 years, they destroyed all the mosques, raped the woman and ruin the ruin the schools. Totally, that was really sad. And they, they they, they even had to go back in the mountains again and resist. And they resisted for another 100 years after that. But they will finally put down and many of them went across. And they they settled in Morocco, in Libya, in Tunisia, in Cairo, Egypt. Even as far as Sarajevo, Bosnia, there was another cosmopolitan place, there was some andalusians that made all the
way to Bosnia. So that they were like scattered all over the place. And probably a lot of them also came to America on the ships.
So this is going now to Alhambra palace. And they, they they didn't destroy this, I guess it was so beautiful, that they didn't destroy this, but they destroyed the other masters and places in the city.
Now when you're coming in, you can see the imposing size size of these doors and everything.
And this is the fortress pot, this they had a military pot on the outside to defend them. Look at the size of this, this wall man see the doorway, they're
sick Wally meat.
As you look from the top down, this is where they kept their ammunition. And this is the military section where they would defend it against people who are attacking.
Then as you go inside, you're coming to the court of the lions. And this is one of the famous places inside.
It was a very, it's an amazing building. It's an amazing book.
You always find water, water was all around the place. And that is because Muslims have a preoccupation with the Hata with purification. And so water is there and you're always you finding the water being used, and then they had ways of running it in and running it out.
Now, when you look at this, you also see how they have influenced Spanish architecture.
And so if you go to California, even buildings here, you can sit right especially in Miami, look at some of the houses, right? Are they the roofs of the houses, the you know, the red roof. Let's cut those like tiles, that's from them. It's Muslim, this is the legacy
is actually
the Biltmore Biltmore Hotel, if you go to to check that which part of Miami is that it
is right around here.
The brother who's with me, I'm on the right. And as a Portuguese brother, he left from he was sent by the Jamal in court about to take me to Granada. And so he's on the left there. He's originally Portuguese, he accepted Islam. And he's one of the students in the university there. And he's doing very well he's learning Arabic and he's doing very well. understudies. Now
this is a little niche where you keep your arm utensils and whatnot and you find these things all over.
It's very everything as as as beautiful calligraphy and artwork all over the place. Really amazing man.
Now this is a shot it shows like the bedroom bedrooms, places where they would you know, bedrooms and little niches. Everything is amazed. It's amazing rooms and
and this is a special part that I really used to like this picture here.
I had this picture when I was in Medina and I always kept this picture with me and I finally made it to this picture with
This is the quarter the lions.
See the water in the middle there moving the water around.
I mean, part of this also shows actually, to be honest, part of this thing was it's a little bit too heavy. Part of it is I mean, they want paradise on earth.
You know? And so like this is part of the reason why they went down because they went too far. I mean, it shows how artistic they were right? But really, I mean, a Muslim is supposed to want gender like you're supposed to want paradise man. They will you know this, this is like you you're in this place, you think you're in Paradise, and somebody wanted to be in paradise before they died, actually, when they built this place, but as you go outside, you move to another section. I think it took us about four hours to walk to this place for hours, and we didn't see it all. It's an amazing complex. So you look they have their olives growing there and oranges. They like especially citrus
fruit today. You know oranges grow really well in Spain and Portugal. And the word portugal is the Arabic word for oranges bought a call.
So bought a call Portugal
out of the water called the land of the oranges. And up until now you get really good oranges that come from Spain and from Portugal.
This is as you're walking along. You see these. This is where the water flows. Where the darkness is you see it's going up to down and they are this is how they build it. So right there as you walk by that you hear the water trickling.
So the water is moving all the time inside of the city. It's amazing waterworks
and that's another section.
Hacienda Hacienda all these things are comes from this
you know, we used to watch Zorro, Zorro, the Z,
all that chivalry riding on the horse and all that the Hacienda and the nobility show that's all from Islam, from Islam.
This is what they call the summer section when they wanted to go and relax, especially in the nice weather. So this is this is another section altogether.
It's a really beautiful section two.
He wanted to touch the yield, touch it even tuck the hill unharmed and genda man he was a gentleman I didn't want paradise man.
And this is the Islamic community in Spain as you asked me if he Espana and that is in Grenada, one of the places in Grenada
and this I want to show him I'm Sergio Hodge. I got this for him. This is master taqwa. He massages the amount of Marcia Tucker in Brooklyn. I said to your mom, this is your chapter in Grenada.
It's miskito. A taqwa. But you see the Arabic Masjid a taco. So that's master tequila Grenada branch.
Now, we left
Grenada and we took a bus and went down by the coastline there and
now we're crossing from Al Jazeera. We crossed over to tunja this is North Africa you're looking at and so you will find the Islamic cities
made like this. This is going close to tunja Tangiers.
This is the Straits of Gibraltar
now went to Rabat. And then from there to Marrakech, I have just a few shots here of Morocco. But again, you can see the continuity in terms of the buildings in Morocco and in Spain. Because, you know, the the people who are controlling Spain were also controlling North Africa. And they were controlling West Africa. So you will find also in Senegal and other places the same type of architecture. There was actually an interchange going on between Senegal, West Africa, North Africa and Spain. They were all they were constantly moving back and forth the people called the Moors.
And this is the old time Cadillacs.
They're near the wall of the camels in Marrakech.
What is interesting about
the city there too, it's the red city because they use the local sand. It's like a reddish color. So the whole of Morocco is made from this red clay.
There, they're very interesting.
Now this type of structure here, you see the way they make the tower there. So the minarets in this structure you find
These, this is how it was done in Spain, not an all over North Africa and in Senegal also is the same dysmenorrhea type. And I was surprised when I went to speak in the University of Texas, the main center is like that. They took the same one putting the University of Texas and Stanford to Stanford
and the Biltmore
that's where it comes from. So that's part of your legacy right there architecture.
And this is a Masjid, there in Marrakech. Now, this one was built by Alma Robbie tune and Marathi tune, we're
not into being too fancy.
But they but they have a way of doing the architecture. It's simple, but it's still very artistically done. You know, it's got flavor to it, but it's not as overly ornate as some of the other people. Yeah.
And this one was built by Elmo, he Dune. That's the group that came after Robbie tune. They would say Elmo holidays in English, they say Elmo holidays, and they call me Robbie tune. almoravids.
So Allah, Allah ye doon.
They, this was a place that was built by them. It was a training center. And also it's an irrigation center. And they brought the water in is a huge lake there, manmade lake.
And according to what they were telling us, what they would do, the people, the Berbers were coming off the desert. And when you're in the desert, the only water you have you drink that water. So they don't know how to swim.
And they were bringing recruits across the Straits of Gibraltar to go to Spain. So they bring you here and they teach you how to swim.
So this is like the old the first swimming pools like an old swimming pool. You take your swimming lessons in there,
get prepared for you know struggle, and then they take you up north to the Strait of Gibraltar cuz you gotta cross the streets, man, if you can't swim from the desert, and you go across the streets, man, you gotta have a problem that lets you learn how to swim. So why don't we using this as a, and also it irrigates the land around there, olive groves and date palms, and many different fruits are growing there. It's an irrigation Center
also is a very rich culture there in Morocco.
The coup feasts and caps and different types of work being done by the women there this marketplace is a really nice marketplace, man. For those of you into marketplaces.
There's a lot of stuff here man, you can stay here all day.
And this is also another open market. I was there in the springtime and they have a special springtime season. It's like a everybody from all over the country. All the young people come to Morocco. In the spring, it's like a spring break like we would call spring break. So they come here for the spring break. And in this marketplace at night it's really nice at nighttime because at nighttime the lights are on and they're making like kebabs like we call burgers like kebabs and you know different samosa and foods and you know, of course, course and barbecue, and it's really nice at night, cane juice. And people are just like talking mingling with each other. And it's a nice
atmosphere there in the evening. But they're also known for magic. The maracas people. They have some dangerous Voodoo.
A Sahara
and
the Sahara. They're in Morocco. And this is a Moroccan tofi. Man. They have the cell.
And this is an amazing shot here, right? This is one of the side this is the site. These are live snakes, man.
So I talked to him in Arabic. I said, What do you got? What do you got, man? So he said he pulled these snakes out. You see the snakes? They're alive. And he pulls them out to me. And he shows me the thing and he's carrying on and trying to scare me. You know that after the fizzy puts in here and says yellow, hot, hotter, flus. Give me some money.
I said, Brother, I'm not giving you no money, man for pulling out the snake. Then he starts cursing me. May your children hate you and all stop. Stop for Allah. He's cursing me, man. I said look, I'm not afraid of you, man. I'm afraid of a llama. Not afraid of you. But some people would be really scared at this guy is like a obeah man. Oh, Buddha, man. They really scared of his curse like right.
It's a dangerous guy.
Look at it.
real character.
This is another good shot too. This is another character hit. This is a water carrier.
Now
right
Before seven up, and Coca Cola and before ice cubes, this man was a very important person, you know?
That's right, and all the Muslim cities because he carries water and 80 flavors, the water, you get like rose water. And, you know, so he was like he was like The Walking seven up Coca Cola man.
And usually he still maintains the traditional dress. There are as very interesting,
his dress.
Then we went overland, and we went to fests. And this all fails. This is also another very historic town. And one of the sense centers of Islamic culture. One of the famous centers of learning and knowledge in the Muslim world was in the city of faith, not from the mountain overlooking Fest, you look right down into the city itself.
Now, you see, the design now is a little bit different here. And this wall is famous on one side, it's blue, on the other side is green.
And so there's different sections of fests and there are different quarters that people know the quarters and the sections of Fes. There are different people that are woodworking people living in one section silversmiths and the other section. Quran readers, you know, different types of people living in different sections of Fes.
And again, you see the streets and you think of Spain, right?
And that street there. And that's your taxi right there. That's the text. You have to ride donkey. You can't ride any cars and fifths, because the streets are too narrow, right?
Which is good because no pollution and the things that that automobiles bill, if any of you know Kenya, Lhamo the city of La mo is just like this off the coast of Kenya, it's an island. It's exactly like this.
This is the old madressa I'll get on this. This is one of the old centers of learning in
Fes. And it's now it's
just for display now. Because very old, but you can see the the architecture is still there.
It used to be a dormitory and school where the students would stay studying Islamic Studies.
This is now the modern architecture. This is part of the king's palace, in fits. And so he's taking the old style and putting the modern thing.
And this is the role of famous masjids they're also
in
the Moroccan flavor. That's what you make you will do you make your ablution there before the prayers in that place.
And this is another Masjid in Rabat. This is in Rabat.
And, you know, I took this one because it's a classical mosque. I mean, they have taken, you know, different forms of those of you who are into architecture and geometric design. This is a classical mosque.
Because they've taken the anti Lucien style. And the Moroccan style and is this is the heights is like the heights of a lot of the design in this particular mosque.
That's the inside.
The Mirabeau is there with the mom stands is right there. And then
I look at the work they do on the walls.
It's amazing. It's an amazing set of work
is Arabic writing there and everything.
Now, those of you into geometrical designs and whatnot, you can look into this, you can like spend a long time looking in and you can see how they
move around the objects and
you get lost inside of this. And the six pointed star actually the Star of David is was was used, there was not a symbol of Zionism or anything, it was just actually they save after the time of Jesus. So they slam that many of the tribes of Israel migrated to North Africa. And so you will they have an old tradition in the desert area and in Morocco, a very old tradition. So the Star of David is one of their normal symbols and you find it on the hats and a lot of the things but it does not have a political meaning at that point in time.
geometrical, just geometrical.
This is the same MOS showing the place for ablution.
Again, when you see the roof, then you can see a lot of the roofs and the houses here in Miami and whatnot. The style of building the roof
And this is a person sorry this slide is backwards but this is
one of the people that Berbers off the desert that this is what the Morabito looked like this is what that's what they look like that talk Tarik, you've been Ziad and you know whatnot and they cover their faces in the desert because the you know the sand and whatnot and
ah boy, I got the slide backwards. This is a slide of Mansa Musa.
Maybe I'll try to fix them.
Here it says the great African King Mansa Musa, King of medieval Mali, but also popularly known as King of the Maus this map is taken from a European galleys of the 1600s this African ruled in the 1300s the empire of Mali was larger than all of the states of Western Europe combined. It dwarfed the Holy Roman Empire
so this is a map that was made by the Europeans actually when they were
because gold was coming out of West Africa that's why they even called gold guineas were Guinea was originally being used. It's coming out of West Africa.
And this is the map I was talking about Barry felt sorry it's it's it's I got it backwards and change. But this is the map the old map that they found out which show you just turn around your eyes, but it shows on Hudson Bay in Panama. It's an early map of America.
Okay.
Okay. Any questions that anybody has about anything?
Okay, so I want to thank you for your patience.
And inshallah, hope to see you again soon. And those of you who have come those non Muslims, we want to invite you to continue to come to the Islam Awareness Week, the some other very good speakers who will be here your mom's Raja Hodge. And also what's the other brother's name? Rafael Rafael is a very interesting Spanish speaking person who was very, very, you know, spirited speaker. So if you can see him you really benefit from his approach. So particular who would become deconditioned when they land a stock Fukuda to relate Bismillah R Rahman Rahim, Allah interland serigraphy host Illallah Dena amanu Amita solly had to also will have to also basalt was, was a lot to say that
Mohammed Ali, he was rbh main waka de Juana Al Hamdulillah. Horrible alameen wa salam aleikum, wa rahmatullah Peace be upon you and have a safe journey home.
Vasco de Gama, you know, was actually they they led him around the Muslims helped him showed him the way.
So yes, it was it was very important. And the maps were very important. I have a map on the cover of my book there have must Rudi elements to this map. And 956 is the oldest map in the world that shows America on the map. 956 is the oldest in the world. And must Rudy did a map for the king of Sicilia or Sicily, the king of Sicily, did a map for him,
until you find that it was very crucial for the people in those days. Now, the question is, is it not also important to suggest that today's Muslims could contribute meaningfully meaningfully to civilization? Yes, and really, actually, you know,
Muslims are making a tremendous contribution today. But it's not mentioned. Even if you go to Cape Canaveral, right? And you look at the scientists names,
you know, you look in American universities, engineers and doctors, and you're going to find a significant proportion, have Arabic or Turkish, or ODU, or some Muslim name, a significant proportion of scientists today in America
have this names. So there's contributions being made right now, but it's not being recognized, you know, as a body partially because, you know, we don't seek recognition just for the name itself, you know, it's like raw, it's like sort of showing off, you know, like that type of thing. But there is a great contribution you know, being made, but I think Muslims just need to be
More
more forward not be ashamed to come forward with the culture. We was here before Columbus Smith.
So you know, they give you a green card or say you're an alien or something like your alien. Right?
Okay, and then you know they're calling you an alien. isn't so we're not aliens, man, we were here before Columbus. So how can you be an alien? See this point? Anyway the whole earth is belongs to a lot anyway. Like people have been, you know, cultures have been interchanging.
So these are just some, you know, 20th century hang ups. You know that people have any other questions. Anybody else?
Yes, sir.
Yeah, inshallah, we're gonna have we're gonna show the slides want to take a break. And then we're going to show some of this. I have some slides for those of you before you go. It's some slides on Spain, and Cordoba and Granada, Gibraltar.
And then something from North Africa as well. fez and Marrakech. Robot, something robot, showing the architecture and you know, some of the different things. Okay, so I think I'm going to stop here. And we will take a break. Anybody who has any other questions, you can ask me, straightforward. And then afterwards, I will come back and Charlotte was Salaam Alaikum.
But the Rock of Gibraltar is a very strategic position, because it sits in at the mouth of the Mediterranean. So people have fought over this rock in this position for a long time for 1000s of years. And so that that was the first part for me to go to the rock. And again, the rock, Gibraltar is Jebel todich. So that itself has a connection with Islam. Also, you look at the walls there.
And when you when you're in Gibraltar,
you know, if you can look at structures, and see the size of the bricks, like the wall that's there, and the inner wall, and then the houses you can you can see different time periods. And you're, you'll be able to start to recognize what they call morish morish. Architecture, the Moore's they use that terminology. It's referring to people of color, but actually the Moore's means the Muslims. Were living in Spain, I guess the famous most famous one here in America is probably Othello, the Shakespeare, Othello, right, that they had a movie with a fellow to it. So now he's famous. So Fishburne knife is
now on the rocket self.
As you go up,
that's a that's a, that's a fort built by the Muslims. That's as you're going up. And when you get up near the top, actually, inside,
there is there's a series of underground tunnels. And World War Two, it was a very strategic position. And the Allied forces built an under a network of underground tunnels there, and they were living inside of there, and they were storing equipment. And when you look closely up there, if you can get close,
you'll see that there are monkeys, this monkeys up there, too. They live all up in the side. And the British have a superstition that as long as the monkeys are there,
in Gibraltar, they will control the mountain. So they actually replenish the monkeys. It was like a superstition they have, but the British control the Spanish are angry about this too. And so that there's a problem that's going on, you know, I'm coming from Canada. And so I was I had a problem because at that time, if you know what was happening in 95, you know, there was a big boycott because of the fish with the Spanish right? With Canadians. So I made it just in time as I was leaving the Spanish authorities gave me a lot of trouble when I was leaving you. So I was coming out of Canada.
So this is right up at the Ford itself and says when the Moors recaptured Gibraltar from the Spanish in 1333. They rebuilt an earlier tower ruin than the fighting into the solid tower of homage which has since withstood 10 sieges. So this is a tower that you will meet when you first go into Gibraltar.
This is the inside of it, that they're doing it over again to show
how the Muslims lived on the inside of the tower itself.
Now when you're standing on the top of the rock this this is a shot from the Top of the Rock of Gibraltar and then you're looking down on the Spanish coastline.
So you're facing east
and you can see the the airport runway down on the bottom. That's the runway.
Now that this is on the left side, just like the rest of the runway,
and it goes right out, you know, if he doesn't have breaks, you're gonna go right back into the ocean again. But you go around there to Al Jazeera us that's another Arabic word Al Jazeera. So they say Al Jazeera us and you go around to the town of Al Jazeera and it is from there, you can catch the train that will take you up to quarterback. So this is one of the fastest ways to go. Also you can catch a boat over there which will take you to Morocco to tunja and I eventually came back down and took the boat from there. Al Jazeera us and we went to to Tanja and then from there into Morocco
so after taking the train and getting off in Cordoba now we're coming to the city itself and this is a river on going out the quality of our if I'm if I'm pronouncing it wrong, if anybody speaks Spanish Hmm. Yeah, quarter by is the city but quite qualitative, I think it's called devout River. And you know, this is also like a, it's a Muslim name, the name of the river. It's, it's it's dry. It was it was a dry season.
But you can see that the tower that's there, that's a Morrish that's Muslim. Also you can see the architecture.
And this is also right across the bridge from the main city. And this is a Muslim tower that was there. And a man by the name of Roger Garuda, he
was a person who were accepted Islam. He was given a large grant. And so he's he has a display inside of this tower now, which is a very interesting display.
And this is from the roof of the tower. And you can see in the middle and aquaduck you can see the old how they move the water
or water wheel or water wheel that's on the top of the tower. So that takes you across and in the middle there. The big building in the middle is the cathedral, which used to be el Jamia this was the Jami main mosque and Cordova, which was originally built by subject matter soccer.
The first major halifa was in the area.
So as you're going across the bridge, this is a like some victory symbol that they were using there.
When they when they to stand for the conquest.
Now, it's interesting when you're encouraged to buy and many of these cities, you know to note the streets there. Now those of you who are from Muslim countries, it's like you're in Morocco. And you know, you could be in a lot of places. I mean, I remember being in a city called Lambo, which is in Kenya, right? The Swahili coast is exactly like this. It's exactly the same type of narrow streets and the way that the buildings are built, because the buildings are built in such a way that the emphasis is not placed on the street, the emphasis is inside the building. Because the Muslim emphasis is that your home would have a big courtyard where your family can be, you know, inside
there and relax themselves and have a courtyard and have everything they want right inside the house complex itself.
And now we're coming to the cathedral. And when the Spanish took over,
they converted this from the main Jamia mosque, which was probably the largest mosque in Europe at the time,
they converted it to a cathedral.
This is a shot from inside the courtyard of the cathedral.
Now you can see it's a little dark, but our This is something left there on the wall, where you can see totally the Islamic doorway. And the designs and everything there is still there left intact. This is one that was left intact.
But this is how they convert it. The door is there. And then you look on the top and you start to see other types of sculpturing. And they add on to it. This is what they did in terms of making the conversion. So you find this all over the structure itself.
And now this is inside. And from what I was reading in one
tract, that the people who took this place they actually want to destroy everything, including the columns and everything. But the king at the time, had some appreciation for architecture and he said do not destroy the columns. So the columns are still there. That's the Islamic style
column, but you see if you look down on the bottom
See the squares on the bottom. These are graves.
The aristocrats were given portions of the cathedral to bury their family members in it. So these are graves all throughout it, you have sections where it has graves and they put gargoyles and all types of creatures and things on the wall and statues and images. And unfortunately, this is really, for us that's really defacing a mosque. Because the graves are not supposed to be inside of the mustard. And you're not supposed to have statues and pictures and things inside of your master also.
Now, this is the main man Rob. And, you know,
it really hurt me because he is dealing with the versus you know, who Allahu la de la ilaha illa who Allah baby with Shahada. And then at the end it says suparna la Yama usually qu Allah is glorified and above all that they associate with him, and in shirk is all inside this place. polytheism is all in the placement. And it really hurt to read those verses, you know, and there was a there was a tour guide, who was was had a group of Spanish people, and they were touring. And, and so I asked one of the brothers who was with me, and the Lucien Muslim was taking me around. So I asked the brother, I said, stand in the crowd, and just listen, tell me what he's saying to them. So he stood
in the crowd, and he came back and he said, what they say is this is the mirror up and the Muslims believe that Mohammed lives in the mirror up.
And so if you do anything that he'll if you if you make any evil or do anything, he will come out and get you.
That's what he was saying man, so upon Allah. So this is really is really unfortunate, you know what is going on. And they will not let you make salata
like, like some brothers want to make two haircuts, they will stop you, they'll pull you out of slot. And I'm God, you cannot pray inside that building.
The ceiling right next to the merab is still the Islamic design is still in there.
Now, this is Medina Dizaei. And the halifa inositol. This is one of the later Khalifa it's in the immediate period after object metal soccer. And this is when they started to get corrupt. He built a city outside of Cordoba. And he built it to keep his own capital there. And to keep his power, he did not want to be associated with the people in Kota by itself. So he built this beautiful city outside in and they say it was one of the wonders of the world at the time. And
you know, he had like a manmade lake. And he had a sitting place in the middle of the lake with pearls and gems and water falling all around him and all types of wonders were inside of this place. But you know, they brought a shack one time from North Africa, he was considered to be a known foe is what they call zealot, an Arabic zealot, which means that you know, you don't, you're not into the material world. He was austere. And when the Shaq came here and saw this, he said, in a poem, all Medina tazara you know, you, every house in Andalusia has contributed to your building. And one day, you will help to build every house in Andalusia. And sure enough, within a few weeks after the
chef made this prediction, there was an internal revolt that went on, and it was destroyed.
And the people took all the riches they couldn't take it anymore, because this is when the Muslims that they have become corrupted.
And so all that's left now of the city is the ruins but you can see the complicated rooms and waterways and a number of things that are still left in the ruins.
You always see these channels how they used to channel their water in
their interesting system. And the channel goes from up to down it's like built in such a way that gravity carries the water carries it right to your apartment.
Some of the ruins, Medina tizona.
This This would have been his arm. His main court, they said was in this area.
Now this is an artist's conception of the halifa himself. And there are European dignities who are visiting the court of what you know, Medina to Zahara could have looked like actually when the halifa Nasim was there.
Now what is interesting by the mercy of Allah, that after centuries have
After the Inquisition, and after resistance continued in Granada for a long time.
They have found now that the people maintain their faith. And it's actually what they call a Jimmy script, which is, which is Spanish is a dialect of Spanish, written in Arabic. And so they they did what we call Tafseer explanations of Quran, Hadith, and a number of books in this Arabic script, which is actually Spanish language. And they're finding them now in excavations underneath houses and buildings, that they're bringing these these scripts up and as a Dr. Ali caetani, who's written a book in Arabic, and be out of Islam, to Andalus. And he has actually bringing these things to the surface. And it's very interesting to see this, the script being used.
So now what has happened when the Spanish government allowed freedom of religion,
the anti Lucien people, and there was nationalism, so each province looked into its history. If you from Aragon or you're from Valencia, or Castilian, wherever you're from, everybody looked at their own province, what is my history? So the and the Lucien people found that they were Muslim, they like they didn't even know it, but when they really started looking, they found that they're probably descendants of Muslims. So now there are hundreds of them who are accepting Islam. And many of them are former members of the Communist Party. So they're like really good organizers.
Really good organizers. They need some spirituality, though. You know, but they're really good organizers. And so they have organized here, and one of the brothers was there in this place. This is a restaurant. So it's a restaurant, you see al halaal maka Mata, so it's a restaurant and coffee house. And so the Spanish people come in here, and the people really like it. They sell couscous and homeless and many different you know, Arabic Muslim foods, and you go inside and they also give you Tao. They they give you like the message of Islam. It's a very nice place. Inside here. This is the Jemaah islamiah bill Andalus. This is the Aqua. There. That's how it looks on the inside.
It's kind of a dark shot. It's not so clear. But this is what it looks like.
Now as you go along, another miracle, I would say is now the Muslims have their own Jamia their own mosque, again, right down the street from the cathedral.
So as you turn the corner, in this small street, that's what you look at. And you look up the top you can see it there. This is the masjid there. And all this is the complex where the Muslims are have reestablished themselves there in Cordova.
So this is the masjid Al Andalus. And also it has International Islamic University,
International Islamic University, and there's anybody who's interested in contacting the Islamic University there. And they have some courses and they can teach you Spanish. And they have scholars coming from Morocco we're teaching they're also they opened up in 1995. In the spring, in the fall, anybody who's interested in that I have
a little brochure with me, which I can leave with Hasib and the brothers and sisters here. If anybody's interested in this, you can contact them you can even go to school there. And of course, it's an International Islamic University.
So this is the master data and I went to the we had Juma Salah, and the hottie gave the football and Arabic and Spanish,
Arabic and Spanish.
That's the masjid now hamdulillah and they built it like a scale model of what the whole quarter by one was two, very small, you know, but hamdulillah it's really well done really well that they really use the space. Well, they, they economize on the space.
Now, this is some shots. This is where the university is where the classes are in dormitories and whatnot there.
That's another shot on the inside with the university.
And the flag they're using actually is the flag used by the Muslim leaders in Al Andalus while our hollyball illallah that's what they used to say, there is no conqueror or no irresistible force except for Allah. And when you go to carcillo Hamra Alhambra, and many of the places you will find is written all over the place will have Ali Baba Illallah. That was their, their their theme, and and lucea. So and that now is the flag the brothers have and sisters have resurrected the flag. This is a very significant move that they make and actually it's very significant.
Now going on from from Kota by now, these are just a few shots that I'm able to show you here because of time. Now as you go south Grenada, and Grenada was the last stronghold of Islam. And I think part of the reason why Granada was able to resist is not just because the Muslims had some special army or something down there it is because it is naturally protected by the mountains. It is protected by mountains on all sides, and it goes right down to the sea. And so you can see in the back, I think it's I don't know if it's a Sierra Nevada, or no, Sierra Nevada, but it's a big mountain range there. Look, it's it's snow on top of it. So all you got to do is God the mountain
pass. And so they were able to hold off Ferdinand and Isabella, for like, even I think it's about 150 years more than the other parts of our Andalusia.
So Granada was the last place in in 1492, Abu Abdullah, known as Bob dill, he signed, he surrendered Granada. And what was sad is that in his treaty, and you can see written copies of the treaty,
it was said that as long as you pay your taxes and you accept fernet Isabella as your ruler, you can have your mosques, your women will be honored, your addresses will continue and within 20 years, they destroyed all the moss, raped the woman and ruin the ruin the schools. Totally. And that was really sad. And they, they they, they even had to go back in the mountains again and resist. And they resisted for another 100 years after that. But they will finally put down and many of them went across. And they they settled in Morocco, in Libya, and Tunisia, in Cairo, Egypt. Even as far as Sarajevo. bosnia is another cosmopolitan place, there was some andalusians that made all the way to
Bosnia. So that they were like scattered all over the place. And probably a lot of them also came to America on the ships.
So this is going now to Alhambra palace. And they they they didn't destroy this, I guess it was so beautiful. That they they didn't destroy this, but they destroyed the other masters and places in the city.
Now when you're coming in, you can see the imposing side size of these doors and everything.
And this is the fortress pot this they had a military pot on the outside to defend them. Look at the size of this of this wall man, see the doorway, they're
sick Wally meat.
As you look from the top down, this is where they kept their ammunition. And this is the military section where they would defend it against people who are attacking.
Then as you go inside, you come into the court of the lions. And this is one of the famous places inside.
It was a very, it's an amazing building. It's an amazing book.
You always find water, water was all around the place. And that is because Muslims have a preoccupation with Shahada with purification and so on water is there and you know, always you finding the water being used, and then they had ways of running it in and running it out.
Now, when you look at this, you also see how they have influenced Spanish architecture.
And so if you go to California, even buildings here, you can sit right especially in Miami. Look at some of the houses, right Are they the roofs of the houses, the you know, the red roof. It's got those like tiles, that's from them. It's Muslim, this is the legacy
hotel here
is actually
the Biltmore Biltmore Hotel, if you go to to to check that which part of Miami is that? It
is right around here.
Brother was with me I'm on the right. And as a Portuguese brother, he left from he was sent by the Jamal in court about to take me to Granada. And so he's on the left there. He's originally Portuguese, he accepted Islam. And he's one of the students in the university there. And he's doing very well he's learning Arabic and he's doing very well in his studies now.
This is a little niche where you keep your arm utensils and whatnot and you find these things all over.
It's very everything is as his beautiful calligraphy and artwork all over the place. Really amazing man. Now this is a shot it shows like the bedroom bedrooms, places where they would you know, bedrooms and
Little niches, everything is amazed. It's a maze of rooms and
and this is a special part that I really used to like this picture here.
I had this picture when I was in Medina and I always kept this picture with me and I finally made it to this picture with
this is the quarter the lions
see the water in the middle, they move in the water around.
I mean, part of this also shows actually, to be honest, part of this thing was it's a little bit too heavy. Part of it is I mean, they want paradise on earth.
You know, and so like this is part of the reason why they went down. Because they went too far. I mean, it shows how artistic they were right? But really, I mean, a Muslim was supposed to want gender like he was the one paradise man. They were, you know this, this is like you you're in this place, you think you're in Paradise, and somebody wanted to be in paradise before they died, actually when they built this place, but as you go outside, you move to another section. I think it took us about four hours to walk to this place for hours. And we didn't see at all
it's an amazing complex. So you look they have their olives growing there and oranges. They like especially citrus fruits, they you know, oranges grow really well in Spain and Portugal. And the word portugal is the Arabic word for oranges bought a call.
So bought a call Portugal
out of the border to call the land of the oranges and up until now you get really good oranges that come from Spain and from Portugal.
This is as you're walking along you see these this is how the water flows. Where the darkness is you see it's going up to down and they are this is how they build so right there as you walk by that you hear the water trickling.
So the water is moving all the time inside of the city. It's amazing waterworks
and that's another section.
Hacienda Hacienda all of these things are comes from this
you know, we used to watch Zorro, you know, zero, the Z,
all that chivalry riding on the horse and all that the Hacienda and the nobility show that's all from Islam, from Islam.
This is what they call the summer section when they want it to go and relax. Especially in the nice weather. So this is another section altogether.
It's a really beautiful section.
He wanted to touch on the yield. Touch it even talked to him on harmony genda man, he was Jen nothing.
You want paradise man.
And this is the Islamic community in Spain xerostomia de Espana. And that is in Grenada. One of the places in Grenada
and this I want to show you mom Suraj I got this for him. This is master taqwa. imaams Raj is the email of Marcia Tucker in Brooklyn. I sent an email with this is your chapter in Granada.
It's Miss kita a taqwa. But you see the Arabic Masjid a taco. So that's Masha tequila Granada branch.
Now, when we left
Grenada, we took a bus and went down by the coastline there and
now we're crossing from Al Jazeera. We crossed over to tunja. This is North Africa you're looking at and so you will find the Islamic cities amid like this, this is going close to tunja Tangiers.
This is the Straits of Gibraltar.
Now, went to a robot and then from there to Marrakech. I have just a few shots here of Morocco. But again, you can see the continuity in terms of the buildings in Morocco and in Spain. Because, you know, the the people who were controlling Spain were also controlling North Africa, and they were controlling West Africa. So you will find also in Senegal and other places the same type of architecture. There was actually an interchange going on between Senegal, West Africa, North Africa and Spain. They were all they were constantly moving back and forth the people called the moss
and this is the old time Cadillacs.
There near the wall of the camels in Marrakech.
What is interesting about
the city
too, it's the red city, because they use the local sand. It's like a reddish color. So the whole of Morocco is made from this red clay.
They're very interesting.
Now this type of structure here, you see the way they make the tower there. So the minarets in this structure, you find these, this is how it was done in Spain, not and all over North Africa, and in Senegal also is the same dysmenorrhea type. And I was surprised because when I went to speak in the University of Texas, the main center is like that. They took the same one, but University of Texas, and Stanford to Stanford,
and the Biltmore
that's where it comes from. So that's part of your legacy, right there architecture.
And this is a Masjid, there in Marrakech. Now, this one was built by Elmo, Robbie tune, and Marathi tune, we're
not into being too fancy.
But they but they have a way of doing the architecture. It's simple, but it's still very artistically done. You know, it's got flavor to it, but it's not as overly ornate as some of the other people. Yeah.
And this one was built by Alma, he Dune. That's the group that came after Robbie tune. They would say Elmo holidays in English and say almohadas and they call me Robbie to almoravids.
So, Allah ye doon.
They, this was a place that was built by them. It was a training center. And also it's an irrigation center. And they brought the water in is a huge lake there, man made lake.
And according to what they were telling us, what they would do the people, the Berbers were coming off the desert. And when you're in the desert, the only water you have you drink that water. So they don't know how to swim.
And they were bringing recruits across the Straits of Gibraltar do go to Spain. So they bring you here and they teach you how to swim.
So this is like the old the first swimming pools like an old swimming pool. You take your swimming lessons in there,
get prepared for you know struggle, and then they take you up north to the Strait of Gibraltar cuz you got to cross the straits. If you can't swim from the desert, and you go across the streets, man, you're gonna have a problem that lets you learn how to swim. So why don't we using this as a and also it irrigates the land around there olive groves and date palms, and many different fruits are growing there. It's an irrigation Center
also is a very rich culture there in Marrakech, the coup feasts and caps and different types of work being done by the women there. This marketplace is a really nice marketplace, man. For those of you into marketplaces.
There's a lot of stuff here and you could stay here all day.
And this is also another open market. I was there in the springtime. And they have a special springtime season. It's like a everybody from all over the country. All the young people come to Morocco. In the spring, it's like a spring break like we would call spring break. So they come here for the spring break. And in this marketplace at night, it's really nice at nighttime because at nighttime the lights are on and they're making like kebabs like we call burgers like kebabs and you know different samosa and foods and you know, couscous and barbecue and it's really nice at night, cane juice. And people are just like talking mingling with each other. And it's a nice atmosphere
there in the evening. But they're also known for
magic. The maracas people. They have some dangerous Voodoo.
A Sahara
and
the Sahara. They're in Morocco. And this is the Moroccan tofi. Man. They have the cell.
And this is an amazing shot here, right? This is one of the side this is the side. These are live snakes, man.
So I talked to him in Arabic. I said, What do you got? What do you got, man? So he said, he pulled these snakes out. You see the snakes? They're alive. And he pulls them out to me. And he shows me the thing and he's carrying on and trying to scare me. You know that afterwards? He says he puts his hand and says yellow hearts loose. Give me some money.
I said brother, I'm not giving you no money, man for pulling out the snake. Then he starts cursing me. May your children hate you and all that stuff. Stop for Allah. He's cursing me, man. I said look, I'm not afraid of you, man. I'm afraid of Alabama. Not afraid of you. But some people will be really scared at this guy is like an obeah man or Voodoo man. They really speak
of his curse like right
to dangerous guy.
Look at it
real character
This is another good shot to this is another character hit this is a water carrier
now
right before seven up and Coca Cola and before ice cubes this man was a very important person you know?
That's right in all the Muslim cities because he carries water and 80 flavors the water you get like rose Waldo and you know so he was like he was like The Walking seven up Coca Cola man.
And he still maintains the traditional dress. There are as very interesting
his dress.
Then we went overland and we went to Fes and this office. This is also another very historic town. And one of the sense centers of Islamic culture. One of the famous centers of learning and knowledge in the Muslim world was in the city of faith that's from the mountain overlooking as you look right down into the city itself.
Now you see the design now is a little bit different here. And this wall is famous on one side, it's blue and the other side is green.
And so there's different sections of fests and there are different quarters that people know the quarters and the sections of Fes. There are different people that are woodworking people living in one section silversmiths and the other section. Quran readers, you know, different types of people living in different sections of Fes.
And again, you see the streets and then you think of Spain, right?
And that street there. And that's your taxi right there. That's the taxi. You have to ride donkey. You can't ride any cars and fifths because the streets are too narrow right?
Which is good because no pollution and the things that that automobiles bill, if any of you know Kenya Lambo, the city of Lambo is just like this off the coast of Kenya, it's an island is exactly like this.
This is the old madressa I'll get on this, this is one of the old centres of learning in
fez. And it's now it's
just for display now, because very old, but you can see the the architecture is still there.
It used to be a dormitory and school where the students would stay studying Islamic Studies.
This is now the modern architecture. This is part of the king's palace, in fits. And so he's taking the old style and couldn't modern thing.
And this is the role of famous masjids they're also
infamous.
The Moroccan flavor, that's what you make you will do you make your ablution there before the prayers in that place.
And this is another Masjid in robot, this is a robot.
And you know, and I took this one because it's a classical mosque. I mean, they have taken, you know, different forms of those of you who are into architecture and geometric design. This is a classical mosque.
Because they've taken the anti Lucien style, and the Moroccan style. And this is the heights. This is like the heights of a lot of the design in this particular mosque.
That's the inside.
The Mirabilis there with the Imam stands is right there. And then
I look at the work they do on the walls.
It's amazing. It's an amazing set of work
is Arabic writing there and everything.
Now, those of you into geometrical designs and whatnot, you can look into this, you can like spend a long time looking in and you can see how they
move around the objects and
you get lost inside of this. And the six pointed star actually the Star of David is was was used, there was not a symbol of Zionism or anything, and it was just actually they save after the time of Jesus. So they slam that many of the tribes of Israel migrated to North Africa. And so you will have an old tradition in the desert area and in Morocco, a very old tradition.
So the Star of David is one of their normal symbols, and you find it on the hats and a lot of the things but it does not have a political meaning at that point in time.
geometrical just geometric.
This is the same mosque join the place for ablution.
Again, when you see the roof, then you can see a lot of the roofs and the houses here in Miami and whatnot. The style of building the roof
and this is a person sorry the slide is backwards but this is
one of the people that Berbers off the desert that this is what the Morabito looked like, this is what that's what they look like. Tarik Gibbon Ziad and you know whatnot, and they cover their faces in the desert because you know, the sand and whatnot and
Oh boy, I gotta slide backwards. This is a slide of Mansa Musa.
Maybe I'll try to fix them.
Here it says the great African King Mansa Musa, King of medieval Mali, but also popularly known as King of the Maus this map is taken from a European galleys of the 1600s this African ruled in the 1300s the empire of Mali was larger than all of the states of Western Europe combined. It dwarfed the Holy Roman Empire
so this is a map that was made by the Europeans actually when they were
because gold was coming out of West Africa that's why they even called gold guineas were Guinea was originally being used. It's coming out of West Africa.
And this is the map I was talking about Barry felt sorry it's it's it's I got it backwards mats to change. But this is the map the old map that they found out. We showed you just turn it around your eyes but it shows Hudson Bay and Panama. It's an early map of America.
Okay.
Okay. Any questions that anybody has about anything?
Okay, so I want to thank you for your patience
and inshallah hope to see you again soon. And those of you who have come those non Muslims want to invite you to continue to come to the Islam Awareness Week. The some other very good speakers will be here your mom's Raja Hodge. And also what's the other brother's name? Rafael Rafael is a very interesting Spanish speaking person who is very, very, you know, spirited speaker. So if you can see him you really benefit from his approach. So polygala who would become deconditioned? When de la land istockphoto kona to blue lake Bismillah R Rahman Rahim Allah, Allah because Allah Dena amanu Amina solly had to also will have to also basalt was, was a lot of Allah say that Mohammed, where
Allah He was such a big man. Well, I could have done 100 layerable alameen wa salam aleikum wa rahmatullah Peace be upon you and have a safe journey home.