Dr Hakim Quick – Muslim Spain’s Legacy

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, Most Merciful. I begin with the greeting words of paradise. salaam 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 will 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 are 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 in America, the bad guys usually on television, in the movies with generally Germans, Japanese Russians, and of course the native people. This was 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 Segal, 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 out planning to destroy the world or conspiring to do something. But actually, right now, in a recent census poll that was taken in

Egypt, in a special world Institute, which connected with us high 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 with a 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 very

In the Quran itself, that actually tells us and in Arabic goes like this well up at bath nuff equally oma Rasulullah Ananda de la ha, which tiny bit 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. prophets came to China, to Europe, to India, to Africa, here in the Americas, every nation while aka bas, Na, fi Cali 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 Papyrus, 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 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 if not and himself had to do battle with the other people

who believed in a many different gods in ancient Egypt, and so the Psalms of acknowledgement 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 have nots, and it 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 en tu 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 them is just similar to that they had one universal God and they had Latin and so on, and he had many different other gods that they will also relating to

the Cherokee Nation. Recently, I've 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 in 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, when Monday comes, you go back to work as an American, but when we say in Arabic, in Edina and de la Hill Islam, that 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 Dean is a way of life. So in other words, in a dean, it's not just your 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 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 messages. And he said that the prophets and messengers who included according to our belief, Abraham and Moses and Jesus and Jesus

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 this 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 usury. That's a serious statement. Because if the

oil checks throughout 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. It's 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 interests 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 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 them Joseph.

Joseph commerce now Comoros islands, they went into the Indian Ocean into the South China Sea and Harvard University team led by a man named Barry Feld, 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, he was showing North America. And it also had islands and some cool thick writing. And then two other pages of this writing. They found they were describing these islands in the Pacific. And they said, el Hawa, choose Aloha, there's a lot of wind around these islands. And this jersey 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 is a key point in the 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 Hola, Lulu. Jose, say Honolulu becomes Honolulu. And so you have so many names and 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

In 711, Tarik Eben Ziad Rahim Allah, 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 straits, which is now known as Gibraltar. He had stopped at a mountain so they call the mountain Jebel tonic. 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 a new set. And there is a report even of a ruler rodricks ruler, his name is Julian, and he was controlling suta and tengiz tunja. He was controlling this coastal pots of Morocco, for the king of the Iberian Peninsula. And you know, he was oppressed by the king is a long story about Julian, but Julian went to Musab in New Zealand, 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 to tonic and joined 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 abdulazeez it'd been Moosa ibnu said, it 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 does, when it discusses this treaty between Abdulaziz 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 them with their synagogues and churches, that they would be allowed to have autonomy in the city, that the princes and the rule is in Mercia, 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 joyous, 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 Tata 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 were also allowed 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 a 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 moon, 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 have tons of Toledo and Seville and Granada, 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 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 it's 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 and petawatt is Morocco and all over the Muslim world in mathematics, of how it 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 founded general the general formula for solving third degree equations. They found it 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, had been an Haytham halaby, Rooney had been Yunus. There's a number of names they established the science of power or mechanics, they describe the center of gravity, they

describe gravity. So when the apple hit Newton in his head, 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, Muslims had 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 or 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 establish 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. And you can go on, they develop Astro labs and Sexton's 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, determined 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 prepare 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 eyes, his 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 hayyan. if they'll be taught tabooed unhappy Tapi

Ali and Isa. They prepared alcohol acids nitrates carbonates, they introduce the use of

picrotoxin they prepared chemical medicaments in pills and solutions. They establish chemists shops for dispensing prescriptions. They introduced to Europe quite a number of medicines and herbs, which betray the Arabic name Allah cannot. Alcohol alcohol, alcohol is Arabic word. Allah Cali alfalfa, camphor cotton Hakeem, Jasmine saffron, etc. and geography is Sharm el kalbi and Jacobi had been jubair, al idrisi, Alma, 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 into astronomy, history, a number of subjects, how would they be so good in the subject, 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 in to 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 ro international roadmaps were developed, especially for Muslims to be able to travel from, say, China or India or West Africa, or Northern Europe, and traveled 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 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 the side. There are hostile people over here. There's poisoned 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 amount of sucker, man, the Falcon, who came from Damascus, he was part of the Umayyad 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 are living there. And he was able to immediately establish his capital, he took Cordoba, we would say, cortada, he took it as his capital. And he ruled from 756 to 788. From 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 quarterback, 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 is no other major city functioning in Western Europe. 200,000 houses 600 mosques, 900 public baths, 50 hospitals. You could go in

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 were in darkness. And many cases you have to go to mud, if it rains out this deep paved streets were 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 and other 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 in 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 al idrisi. They described America they described America and must Udi in his book Mooji the hub in 1956. 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 his 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, every country that he reached when it 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 Dinka 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 don't 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 are what we call Modus Coase. 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 Aragon 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 salvation 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 there looking at you, and they've been there for 10,000 years? They have great civilizations. The Aztecs, the Incas, the olmec people,

the Mayan people, they had pyramids, these pyramids in Mexico, go to Belize, go to Mexico, you see pyramids, in battle, there's pyramids. Mexico City was larger than any city in Western Europe. The Aztecs had a complicated

society. constitutions governments 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 story apartments, but you don't hear that 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 we're tracing the names, and you will find on the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. You will 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 Dylan. This is a moresco name, Abu Abdullah. Okay, and you find Rodrigo de Triana, you find this much as a person who cited land first, he was a mescal, 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 wall 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 want 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 who's 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, are you white American, or there's another one called geechie? Did not natives and they're not Afro Americans. We call them geechie like Portuguese, okay? Now, this man of the Geechee people, you know, 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 Elena 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 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 call 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 caring for that part, you probably would be one of these Malaysian people. And so they made 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 as the 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 we're using LKL de system of law, it is from the Arabic elkaar D, which means the judge Amir, like the Amir is the that means the ruler or the leader, is the mayor. Right? A mirror the raha 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 which is done by a brother named use of Motorola, they did a 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 from 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, is the Mecca and 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 and 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, for 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 the 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, our 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, man. 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 cooled down man drink some water.

probably try to calm them down. Okay, you have to tell a story from two sides, right? 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 or if people are on the Pacific, for so long, another one discovers the source of the Nile and they know 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 that this can be the beginning of a period of understanding and that the rest of our lectures this week would give more awareness as 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, and so I leave you in peace or Solomonic.

Now we

I want to open up the floor for a couple minutes for any questions that anybody may have or any any feedback that you have. Because for some, this may be kind of different in terms of Bessie, 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, but I want to 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 by 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 their 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 do 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 done? Right. Right. So so he I saw some of the work that he did, and it's a very interaction they have Arabic documents to 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 it, 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 SOT Lovato is one of his generals was called Mandela. 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 and the man he he wrote, you're like, Soros is chapters of the Quran that we're familiar with. When you're seeking refuge and God from evil. He wrote NASS Falak Kula had ayah. To courtesy, you know, it's the administrate on, that's what he was trying to do. And they said, it's Amharic, 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 was threw people off for a long time, because you didn't see any but now we'll reinvestigating the names and you find names like

Boubacar, or Booker, which actually is abubaker. 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 would take and this is how the percentages are now being reanalyzed. 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 a 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 then 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 Curtin called Africa remembered. And these books trace Muslim slaves in the United States. Actually, just recently this there was one slave, his name is Omar bin Saeed, 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, do you have that?

Okay, if so, if somebody wants to write a question on a piece of paper, we have a brother that's going to collect, you know, some of the brothers and sisters sort of like them. Okay, go ahead.

I've heard some things about the colonies in the Latin America, Dominican Republic, sooner somehow was transferred in Spain failed, a lot of the Muslims were expelled.

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 and 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. And when when Ferdinand 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 to 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 Imam. That's our West African way of saying the name of the 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 wear. So let me 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 that 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's, you know, you know, some of this history is like a No, no, in certain circles, but but what 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, such

Scientists took a number of journeys he went, he used papayas materials. And he went from Morocco. And he went across using the currents. And he went right into Brazil in the Caribbean. So they admitted as possible what they were arguing, they said how they get back. And they would they wanted me to prove like, you know, geographically, I'm not a geographer, man. He was 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 the Celtics, like Viking people from the north. The Phoenicians, many people cross the Atlantic man, they got stuck on

this Columbus syndrome. But many Kris 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 that people you'll 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 you. And 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 it just

for a long time. It has not been resourced. It has 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, you know, 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, if you know, Jamaica itself is in Spanish town. And there is in Black River and in Clarendon and Kingston in Kingston is there's a big mosque in Kingston, and now Montego Bay, they

have land their input Maria area on the north coast, the 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, there's a, there's a, there's 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 change their 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 East and culture that people are open minded, like, there are some people they're not 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 his name, 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 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 in India and in China, they needed to open up the trade routes to go through the video to the Middle East is that central zone, so they wanted 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 worshiper, you know, and they say Saracens, Mashallah Yun Eastern people, Turks.

and whatnot and they just start to describe Muslims with this curved sword except the 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 Prophet morpc poem 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 in 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 it's mainly 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 Ola scholars went 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. And I think this is what makes some people paranoid. 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 navigator 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 the 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 out which are regular Spanish words, not so many Arabic words. So 700 years, and especially a navigation that the Portuguese is well known. They went down to Cape Verde Islands, they went to West Africa, Vasco de Gama, you know, was actually 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

add 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 add the map for the king of Cecilia 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 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, 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 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 is belongs to a lot anyway. Right? Like people have been, you know, cultures have been interchanging. Right. 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 have 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 aleikum wa.

inshallah, Salaam Alaikum