Erdogan: Muslims discovered America in 1178

[politicus]

Will we see more "Europeans didn't actually do this" revisionist history? I have seen quite a few attempts to say European technological inventions were copying Asian inventions. Is it a trend?

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/11/erdogan-says-muslims-discovered-americas-20141115181222841516.html

[dead0man]

Erdo is a moron (and an asshole), this isn't new info.  Even if there was a Mosque in Cuba (and there is 0 evidence there was), the Muslims were beat by both Vikings and the Natives.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

That is so untrue.

Everybody knows Poles discovered America.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Vikings beat them.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Muslim Polish Vikings anyone?

[kcguy]

It's generally accepted that the Vikings visited America.  If they were able to cross the Atlantic, it seems reasonable to assume others were able to, as well.  I haven't heard any arguments why the Vikings would have been unique.

Is it possible Muslims visited America in 1178?  Yeah, why not.

Is it possible that Muslims were able to maintain an influence in the Americas for three centuries, without contemporary Europe being aware of America even existing?  Is it possible that the caliphates were able to devote the necessary expenditures for three centuries, without records of this being found in any archives in the centuries since?  That sounds more like a pile of cow manure, to put it politely.

Does it actually matter?  Not in the least.  I'm sitting here in Kansas because of a series of events that dated back to Columbus's visits to the Caribbean.  Any previous trans-Atlantic trips are historical dead ends.  (It's like finding proof that the ancient Egyptians invented television receivers, but abandoned them because Howdy Doody episodes hadn't begun airing yet.  Interesting, but irrelevant to what came later.)

[politicus]

It's generally accepted that the Vikings visited America.  If they were able to cross the Atlantic, it seems reasonable to assume others were able to, as well.  I haven't heard any arguments why the Vikings would have been unique.

Superb ship building technique.

[Frodo]

The early Polynesian seafarers are also said to have first discovered America:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuJk_a4iWj0

And the Chinese in 1421:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yK-9hxk5HY

And let's not forget the Solutreans:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNTXCMYjwEk
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Are there any other pseudo-histories regarding the discovery of America I should be aware of?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

It's generally accepted that the Vikings visited America.  If they were able to cross the Atlantic, it seems reasonable to assume others were able to, as well.  I haven't heard any arguments why the Vikings would have been unique.

Largely it's that they are in the right place for the technology of the time.  Voyages then could not particularly long.  A non-stop trans-Atlantic voyage wasn't really possible just then.  Maybe if the Muslims had colonized the Azores they could have made it.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Will we see more "Europeans didn't actually do this" revisionist history? I have seen quite a few attempts to say European technological inventions were copying Asian inventions. Is it a trend?

What differs the two claims is that the bolded claim is often true, as opposed to Erdogan's. Strange analogy.

[Deus Naturae]

The early Polynesian seafarers are also said to have first discovered America:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuJk_a4iWj0

And the Chinese in 1421:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yK-9hxk5HY

And let's not forget the Solutreans:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNTXCMYjwEk
---------------------

Are there any other pseudo-histories regarding the discovery of America I should be aware of?

http://www.history.com/news/did-an-irish-monk-discover-america

[Sol]

Early Polynesian visits to South America are indisputable fact. Anyone who claims otherwise might as well join the flat earth society.