Who discovered America?

Several Islamic figures who lived long before Columbus have suggested that some Muslim sailors sailed across the Atlantic. 

According to a leading historian of Islamic science, Professor Fuat Sezgin, the map used by Christopher Columbus was “probably based on the Italian version of an original Arabic map.” Yes, Piri Reis drew the northern part of the Atlantic in his famous map based on the “Columbus map,” but while he was drawing the southern part, he based it on other Portuguese sources. The source of this knowledge, and especially the longitudinal measurements, was the Islamic world because, “in those times, the only region that was able to make longitudinal measurements very close to real ones was the Arab-Islamic world.” The Muslims must have traveled across the Atlantic in order to have obtained this knowledge, Sezgin says. 

In Fuat Sezgin’s book, there is no further data, unlike Columbus’ travels, such as the date, how many Muslims set sail, whether they set up Muslim colonies in America, when they returned, and what they wrote about their travels. “Unfortunately, the available sources do not permit the obtaining of any further results,” he writes.

It can be understood that before Columbus, some Muslim sailors sailed the Atlantic, reaching a few islands that were perhaps on the continent, but it is obvious that it was Columbus who conducted journeys that resulted in “exploring a continent.”

Subjects such as the exploration of America and whether Muslims reached there before Columbus are factual issues that can only be examined by historic methods. They have nothing to do with ideology or faith.

When viewed from the angle of today’s cultural issues, I do not consider it very meaningful...