Little Syria, the forgotten Arab heritage of Manhattan

Many cultures have reinvented parts of their homeland in the new lands they now call home. People from the Middle East had Little Syria, a once thriving neighbourhood that has left its legacy in New York

News Briefs

A forgotten but a culturally diverse and vibrant neighbourhood played an important role in the development of  New York City borough of Manhattan from the late 1880s until the 1940s.

Little Syria was an area made up of ethnically diverse Arab-Americans who had arrived from arriving from the Ottoman territory known as Greater Syria, the approximate area of which included in present-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Palestine, during the Great Migration from 1880 to 1924.

Also called the Syrian Quarter, it encompassed Washington Street from Battery Park to above Rector Street, which is in in present-day Tribeca.

For decades, starting in the 1880s, the enclave flourished, home to noted Arab writers Khalil Gibrani and Ameen Rihani. It was also home to the first Arabic language newspapers with the the Linotype typesetting machine adapted for Arabic print by the brothers Naoum and Salloum Mokarzel for their Al-Hoda newspaper (The Guidance), enabling significant growth of the Arabic media and journalism in the Middle East as well as in New York.

But by the early 1940s the neighborhood had mostly disappeared — much of the community was displaced by the construction of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.

The vibrant neighborhood once lined with shops selling Arabic foods, and merchants on the street peddling wares like handmade rugs and brass lamps, is now barely marked in Lower Manhattan, says Todd Fine, president of the Washington Street Historical Society, an organization dedicated to preserving Little Syria's history and also a doctoral candidate in history at the City University of New York.

The neighborhood was a main center of New York’s first community of Middle Eastern immigrants with a mixture of  Lebanese, Syrians, Palestinians, Greeks, Turks, Armenians as well as Slovaks, Poles, Hungarians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Czechs, and Irish. 

The Call of Allah in Little Syria

Today, evidence is coming to light that Muslims not only lived in Little Syria but worshiped there, too, in a mosque — or masjid — on Rector Street, between Greenwich and Washington Streets (just around the corner from St. George’s).

“Muslims are not a recent, foreign intrusion that should generate fear, but are an ever-present feature of the American — and specifically New York — fabric,” said Fine.

“Most Americans identify with iconic stories of ethnic immigration,” Mr. Fine said. “The Rector Street mosque in Little Syria offers an elegant way to show that Muslims also belong.”

A tantalizing description is found in the files of The New York Sun newspaper.

“While the voice of the muezzin, calling the faithful to prayer, is never heard in New York, nevertheless the Mohammedan form of worship is carried on here,” The Sun told its readers on Feb. 25, 1912.

The newspaper’s office was 16 blocks from a six-story building, the Oriental, at 17 Rector Street. “There is nothing about the building to indicate that here is a temple where gather those who believe in Allah and Mohammed,” The Sun said.

“In the Rector Street mesjed, the same ceremonies are prescribed for entrance as rule at mosques,” the newspaper said. “You have to remove your shoes and wash your arms, face and feet.” It was for men only. Extra services were held on Sundays for those whose work kept them from the Friday congregational prayer.

“The chapel consists of two rooms, soberly furnished,” The Sun said. “One of the rooms is the sanctuary and the other is the audience room. As the worshipers say their prayers standing, it often holds as many as from 75 to 100.”

However, on the feasts of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, which the newspaper called by their Turkish names, the crowd spilled into the imam’s private rooms.

She said the most convincing aspect of the 1912 article was a mention of Turkish students at Columbia being among the imam’s charges, implying that the masjid “really was a place of worship attracting people from other parts of the city.”

Given the imam’s affiliation with the Ottoman government, it is difficult to say where politics left off and worship began at 17 Rector Street — if such a distinction can even be made. It is also potentially misleading to assume that the “Turks” or “Syrians” described by writers 100 years ago, when the Ottoman Empire existed, correspond exactly to those nationalities today.

What happened to the masjid is unclear, though the building lasted until the mid-1950s, when it was torn down to expand a skyscraper at Rector and Greenwich Streets that is now the Greenwich Club Residences. Its site is marked by a Dunkin’ Donuts shop and the storefront law office of Jeffrey E. Levine. 

Muslims and Christians living side by side

One former Syrian church, called St. George Chapel, a landmarked building now home to a restaurant, along with an old tenement building at 109 Washington St. and its neighboring Downtown Community House are the last remnants of the spaces once occupied by the large community, says Fine.

Fine and his group have recently had plaques placed in nearby Elizabeth Berger park to commemorate the lost neighborhood, and are hoping to do more to preserve the legacy of Little Syria.

"There's a lot of misunderstanding about the history of Arabs in America, and this neighborhood shows us a robust immigrant community, just like so many other immigrants who came to New York," Fine said. "But that early story of Arab immigration is really missing, its a history that's been lost in the collective memory." 

"I think there's a sense that anything Arab is dangerous," said Todd Fine, co-founder of Save Washington Street. "It's important for children of Arab Americans who are facing discrimination to know that this location is the start of their heritage.

Take a tour of the photos that show Little Syria here.

Source: New York Times/Dnainfo/Arab American Museum/Save Washington Street

Commemorating the Kafr Qasim Massacre

The story begins with the quiet life in the village before the massacre and ends with the Israeli government’s attempt to cover up the crime.

The 29th of October 1956 started as a quiet day in the village of Kafr Qasim, then under military rule since it was transferred to Israeli occupation by the Jordanian king in 1949. The villagers, hard-working peasants and workers, went out early to work in the fields and in near-by stone quarries. In the afternoon a unit of the Israeli army came in and informed the village head that they are coming to impose a curfew. They told him to warn the villagers not to get out of their homes. “But what about the people that will come from work, I can’t warn them of the curfew?” he asked. “Don’t worry, I will let them in” answered the soldiers.

Eventually, as farmers came back from their fields and workers from the workshops, the soldiers gathered them in small groups on the entrance to the village. Then the officer ordered to “mow them down” and they were shot dead, their bodies piled in heaps at the side of the road. Fourty-nine people were killed in cold blood without any provocation, for violating a curfew order that they was not aware of. Twelve of the martyrs were women and girls, 17 children, the youngest of them only 7 years old.

The massacre of Kafr Qasim was not an isolated incident. It was intentionally planned by elements in the Israeli army command as part of a much bigger plan to complete the ethnic cleansing of 1948. The massacre was carried in the first day of October 1956 Tripartite Aggression of Britain, France and Israel against Egypt. Israel hoped that, under the cover of the fog of war, new massacres would cause the Arab Palestinian population to seek refuge and safety beyond the Jordanian border.

Commemorating the massacre

The people of Kafr Qasim were not even allowed to bury their dead. The army kidnapped at gun-point some men from the nearby village of Jaljulia and forced them to bury the massacre’s victims in Kafr Qasim’s cemetery, while the curfew over the village was extended to three whole days. Israeli military censorship prevented any mention of the crime in the press. It required a prolonged struggle, mostly led by the Communist Party, just to publish the shocking facts about what the army did.

In the coming years the military government continued to terrorize the population and prevent the commemoration of the massacre. As we visited Kafr Qasim today, our hosts told us how the army used to force a siege of the village on the anniversary of the massacre. The army was even searching homes and confiscating any piece of black cloth in order to prevent any sign of mourning.

Only in 1966, at the 10th anniversary, as the military rule in the 1948 and 49 occupied territories was abolished, could the people of Kafr Qasim for the first time openly and more or less freely commemorate their martyrs, with solidarity delegations coming from all over the country.

60 years on

People gather at the location of the massacre. Photo by Yoav Haifawi.

I must confess that this year was the first time that I attended the Kafr Qasim massacre commemoration. The local tradition is to start the commemoration march at 8:30 in the morning, an unconventional timing for a public event and a real challenge if you come from far away. As we entered Kafr Qasim this morning it was suspiciously quiet and we almost thought that the event would not really start so early. But when we approached the designated gathering place at 8:40, thousands of people were already marching and we quickly joined them.

We marched to the location of the massacre, at what was once the western entrance of the village but is now at the center of what has become a poverty stricken town. There, near the massacre memorial, a mass meeting was held. I was mostly impressed at the way that the whole population is now involved with the commemoration. Men and women of all ages attended, most of them wearing special black T-shirts with the symbol of the 60th anniversary.

Another extraordinary feature of the date was the simultaneous translation of the whole event to sign language for the deaf. Soon we also understood why the march started so early, as the sun climbed up the sky and the heat became hard to bear.

We heard Kafr Qasim’s Mayor Adel Bdeir, the representative of the grandchildren of the victims, an Islamic Sheikh and Muhammad Barake, the head of the “follow up committee” that represents the whole Palestinian Arab population in the 48 territories. At the end a group of children released 49 green and black helium balloons into the air.

The museum in Kafr Qasim. Photo by Yoav Haifawi.

Then there was another march, following the last journey of the martyrs, from the location of the massacre to the cemetery in the East of the village, just near where the Jordanian border used to be. When we went back many people were still coming in all along the main street of the town.

The morning events were just one part of the wider 60th anniversary commemoration. Over the last month there were educational programs about the massacre that involved every pupil in Kafr Qasim’s schools. There were more marches before today and another central mass meeting was set for tonight, with more speakers from out of the town. It was said that in the next anniversaries the commemoration should not be restricted to Kafr Qasim itself.

Open wounds

We met sisters Rim and Roz Amer, friends from the old days in the Ta’ayush movement and activists in the Kafr Qasim commemoration popular committee. They were collecting evidence from some of the old people that survived the massacre…

They told us about their grandmother, Khamisa Amer, who was with a group of women that went out to pick olives in that fatal day. As they came back in the pickup car, the army stopped them. First they took out the three men that were in the car and shot them. Then they shot at the group of women inside the car.

When we met Roz and Rim they were interviewing Hana’a Amer, who was 14 years old at the time of the massacre and came to help with the olive harvest under the supervision of their grandmother. Hana’a was shot and wounded in her leg and head, her skull was broken, but she stayed alive lying in the pile of corpses. She didn’t understand what was going on, not grasping that all the other women around her were dead. It was her rare luck that the soldiers didn’t notice that she was not dead like the others.

Much later, when the murderers went and other soldiers came to carry the dead, one soldier tried to carry what he thought was Hana’a’s dead body by dragging her from her hand. She cried with pain and eventually was taken to the hospital. I think it was the first time, only after 60 years, that Rim and Roz heard a first-hand report about the conditions in which their grandmother was martyred.

They told us about another interview with a man that was likewise wounded but survived after staying the night under a pile of corpses. He told of his pain as he heard his neighbors approaching one after the other the army checkpoint and being shot dead, and his great agony at not being able to warn them. He spoke about how the soldiers would shoot at any victim that was still not dead. The officer told them to shoot one bullet at each head, so as not to waste precious ammunition.

The massacre is not over

Shadmi’s one cent. Photo by Yoav Haifawi.

We visited the museum for the commemoration of the massacre. For the 60th anniversary, the people of Kafr Qasim opened a stunning new section of the museum called “panorama,” where you go through a dark cave and pass by several scenes that represents the stages of the massacre. You can hear the full story there in Arabic, Hebrew or English. It starts with the quiet village life before the massacre and ends with the government’s attempts to cover for the crime.

The people of Kafr Qasim see a special insult in the supposedly “traditional reconciliation treaty” (Sulha in Arabic) that was organized after the massacre. They say it was designed to wash the hands of those responsible to the massacre and was forced on the villagers by the coercion of the military government.

Another insult is the trial of the officers and soldiers that initiated and perpetrated the massacre. The highest officer that was sentenced, Colonel Shadmi, was fined a symbolic one cent! Eight lower ranking officers and soldiers were sentenced to prison terms but pardoned after a short period. The responsible officers were all promoted to more important jobs.

Panorama: The Trial. Photo by Yoav Haifawi.

In today’s commemoration all speakers drew a straight line from the refusal of the Israeli government to take responsibility for the crime to the continued policy of discrimination against the Arab population today, including the continuing confiscation of Kafr Qasim’s land, the inability to get building licenses and the systematic house demolition.

But not only is discrimination continuing. The massacre itself continues with the intentional killing of Arab citizens of Israel participating in protest actions on Land Day (1976) and October 2000, as well as the killing of dozens of others over the years for all or no reason with impunity. And, of course, Israel’s continuing massacre of Arab Palestinians continues on a much wider scale in the occupied West Bank and in Gaza under the deadly siege. It is all part of the same struggle for liberty from the same murderous racist regime.

The Forgotten Story of Alphabets

Alphabets, which are symbols used to systematically convert language to writing, show differences according to the languages. The Latin alphabet used today, has its roots from 3 thousand years ago, to the times of the Phoenician civilization in Lebanon

News Desk

Alphabet is a word stemming from the Greek language, a combination of the terms  'alpha' and 'beta', which defines a system of symbols that are used to convert language to writing. İn many languages the written systems are expressed with the first two alphabets, according to the ranking of the alphabets which describe sounds.

The Middle Eastern languages express their alphabets with the terminology 'ebced' .  The reason is because 'elif', 'be', 'te' and 'cim' are letters which are ranked in the beginning as the first letters in the alphabet.  Alphabets are devided into two categories, based on the method of expressing the sounds. The first are languages which use pictures. An example of the geography of theese langıages is the far east.  Theese languages generally use figures that resemble pictures.

The other alphabet category which is used to express sounds, uses symbolic characters.

Phoenician Alphabet : source of modern alphabets

The alphabet we use today was invented 3000 years ago in the ancient city of Biblos. The alphabet which spread to the rest of the world, from Biblos which is a city in the borders of modern day Lebanon, also changed human history.  Before the Phoenician alphabet, writing was composed of many little pictures that were stringed along together.  For example, to say bird, a picture of a bird was drawn.

However, the Phoenicians did something extraordinary.  They used sounds for writing instead of pictures.  They stringed along side by side theese sounds in order to make words.  The alphabet which started with the letters 'Alef', 'bet', gimel' and 'dalet' is comprised of 22 consonants.  The system they invented in order to record their calculations for trade, actually changed human history. 

The alphabet spread in a short timespan, where their trading partners the Greeks added the vovels, and the Romans changed their shape to transform the alphabet to the for we use today as the Latin alphabet.  When the Torah was written, almaost the same alphabet was used.  Modern day hebrew still starts with 'alef', 'bet','gimel' and 'dalet'.  Even though the letters have been changed in format, the 'Phoenician Alphabet' also affected arabic, which is inthe same category of languages. A clear example is it starts with 'alif', 'be' and includes and includes letters  like 'vav', 'ayin' and 'sin'.

Today, when we write and read in all languages, we stilll use the system from 1000 BC and with that system keep the world in order. Even when we say alphabet today, in reality we are reading the first two letters of the extraordinary invention of the Phoenicians : Alef, bet ...

Latin alphabet : the most common alphabet

Today it is placed importance on the meaning of the alphabets rather than their technical categorisation.  Any alphabet which is unable to represent all the sounds of a language is deemed inadequate, and languages which can use letters to express all sounds is considerd as a real alphabet.

According to written records, there have been 29 alphabets used in history to date.  The most widespread used alphabet in the world is the 'Latin alphabet'.

As technology advanced, devices such as the printing press, the typewriter and the computer were designed to use the latin alphabet, and consquently, many countries had to make changes in their existing alphabet in order to comply.

The Greek alphabet has 24 letters

The Greek alphabet which has survived from the ancient Greek times till today, has accompanied may unforgettable works from philosophers, writers and poets like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Cavafy. This  rooted alphabet consists of 24 letters, which is comprised of 7 vovels and 15 consonants. However, three of the vovels are used for the 'i' sound and two are used for the 'o' sound.  The alphabet which doesnt comprise of the 'ü', 'ö', 'ı' sounds, uses two leters side by side for 'u'.  To express the 'İ' sound it uses 6 letters and letter combinations.

This makes reading and writing in Greek very difficult, as the reading changes depending on how the vowels come side by side and positioned in the words.  As every letter expresses a different sound depending on where its used, and every sound can be comprised of different leters and combinations thereoff, whithout any rules and regulations, makes frequent spelling mistakes inevitable.  Even those who have Greek as their mother toungue, can use the wrong letters and make spelling mistakes.

Russian use of the Cyrillic alphabet

The 'cyrillic alphabet' used all over the Russian geography is a writing system dating back hundreds of years.  The alphabet which was named after Orthodox priests Kiril and Metodius, was bor in the year 900 in the Byzantine.

The alphabet which was adapted by the Slavic world over a period of time, also incorporated some slavic sounds which do not exist in Greek.

İn Russia this alphabet was used as capital letters in the early stages of the medieval period. İtalics which were preferred as hand writing were later included.  İn the beginning of the 18th century Petro the great took out the Greek letters from the writing system, to make the alphabet much simpler. During the Soviet Revolution, some letters deemed useless were removed from the alphabet.

Kirghiz first alphabet 2500 years old

The first alphabet used by the Kirghiz, is known to be the 'Göktürk alphabet', dating back 2500 years. Gokturk alphabet, which is known as runic writing in the western world, can also be come accross in Gokturk inscriptions.

Another alphabet used by the Kirghiz , came together with the acceptance of 'Islam' is the 'Arabic alphabet', which was developed in the Karahans period.  İn 1928, the 'arab alphabet' was abolished and replaced with the 'Latin alphabet', with the accompanied reason that it was more suitable for the sounds of the Kirghiz language.  However in 1941, all countries in the soviet union started using the 'cyrill alphabet', one after the other.

Even though it has been said that the main reason for this was to encourage communication amongst the people living in the soviet union, it is thought that the actual reason was to cut mutual ties of the central asian countries and Turkey.

Kazakh use of Arabic alphabet until 1929

The 'Arab alphabet' which was commonly used in Kazakhistan untill 1929, began using the 'Cyrill alphabet' from 1940 onwards.  Today, Khazakhistan is preparing to convert to 'Latin alphabet'.  The changes  which are to be completed by 2025, under the orders from the president Nursultan Nazarbayev, have the purpose of bringing Khazakhistan closer to neighbouring Turkic republics.

The alphabet of the Quran

Arabic which is the writing language of the Quran, the holy book of Islam, is also the official language of 22 Arabic nations.  Arabic consists of 28 letters. As there are only 3 vowels in the 'Arabic alphabet' , to make it easy to read the other sounds for people not familar to the Arabic language, it uses symbols that are named 'hareke'.

İn order to write Arabic, you need to know how each of the letters are written, in the beginning, the middle and the end of a word.  One of the most important features of the arabic alphabet is the uniqueness of also including the letter which makes the 'dad' sound. For this reason the arabic language is also known as the 'dad' language.  The Arabic alphabet which consists of letters written from right to left also shows uniquness in the use of punctuation.

First Turkish alphabet was 38 letters

The first alphabet of the Turkish language, is the 'Orhun alphabet' which was seen on the 'Orhun inscriptions' , which belonged to the Gokturks , and used from 150 BC to 10 AD.  The 'Orhun alphabet' which is comprised of 38 letters which was used to write 'Orhun monuments', preserves its place in history as the first written forms of the Turkish language.

Even though in history Turks have used diffrent alphabets, with the coming of İslam, since the 10th century, the Arabic alphabet was used by Turkic-Islam nations. Even though the Arabic alphabet consisted of 28 letters, the alphabet used by the Turks consisted of letters ranging from 31 to 36 .

The alphabet which was written from right to left, was also used in different Turkish dialects.

Along with the Turkish Republic which was established in 1923, there was also a letter revolution, and in 1928 there was a transformation to the 'Latin alphabet'.  İn addition to the 'latin alphabet' which consists of 23 letters, there were letters included that were the correspondence of Turkish sounds which were not existent in western languages, being the letters 'ç', 'ğ', 'little ı', 'bigİ', 'ö', 'ş' and 'ü'.

Kosovo's adventure with secularism

Due to the location of the Balkans, the region has always been torn between the East and the West, not just geographically, but also ideologically.

Kosovo, which was once a province in the Ottoman Empire, was prevented from becoming an independent state after the empire's collapse as it was swallowed whole by the European-Slav alliance. This state, which is primarily comprised fo Muslim Albanians, was largely neglected during the Balkan wars and by policy makers after the war.

Kosovo was later incorporated into the state of Yugoslavia as an autonomous province, where it remained until it gained its independence. However, during this time, Kosovo gave rise to a highly influential sense of nationalism against Serb expansion.

Yugoslavian communists, who were seeking to prevent Kosovo from becoming a hub for Albania, sought to raise communist Albanians from Kosovo and thus turned it into a center for communist education. They established the first university in Pristine in 1960 for this purpose. Like this, they managed to curb Kosovo's nationalist tendencies and turn it into a center for raising communists for all Albanians.

After putting in such efforts, the region's Muslims were brought under their control. At the turn of the 1990s, however, when Yugoslavia was on the verge of breaking up, Kosovans who faced violence at the hands of the Serbs were left with no choice but to turn to the West for help. In doing so, Kosovo engaged in a silent yet swift transition process from a nationalist-communist state to a nationalist-democrat state aligned with the US.

With its independence guaranteed by the US, Kosovo began to make another transition away fron nationalism, changing their national symbols and anthems to match the new concept of a new state. This new concept is the foreign concept of secularism.

Regardless of the opinion of the general public, in a country where those in the elite are all vying to catch the attention of their American supervisors, they are constantly pressing the people to distance themselves from religious values by holding on tight to secularism.

Although this may sound very pessimistic, I am certain that this insistence on secularism will in the long-term disturb Kosovo's chemistry. The latest development in which the Kosovan parliament approved the silencing of the call to prayer from mosques in the capital Pristine is proof of this. This is the introduction of a new concept of secularism.

I say it is an introduction because after this I can only see things getting worse. The strange thing is, this type of secularism only applies for the Muslims of Kosovo. It is a secularism cooked up in the European kitchens. It is a secularism that many Europeans themselves can't even dream of, being dished out in front of the Muslims.

Could this possibly lead to the closing of madrasas, restrictions on the hajj pilgrimage and the banning of the headscarf?

The effects of this new Kosovan secularism can only be seen over time. I'm not saying that this will lead to catastrophe, but I am simply reflecting on the possible outcomes based on my experience with other countries that have tried and tested this type of secularism before.

Oldest Qur'an Found in Birmingham

Fragments of what is believed to be the world's oldest Qur'an have been found in the University of Birmingham with experts saying the manuscripts date back to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) era some 1370 years ago..

"The radiocarbon dating has delivered an exciting result, which contributes significantly to our understanding of the earliest written copies of the Qur`an," Susan Worrall, Director of Special Collections (Cadbury Research Library), at the University of Birmingham, was quoted by International Business Times on Wednesday, July 22.

"We are thrilled that such an important historical document is here in Birmingham, the most culturally diverse city in the UK."

The manuscripts of the Muslim holy text were found in the university's library and are believed to date as far back as 1,370 years.

The announcement followed radiocarbon analysis which proved that they was written in the period between 568CE and 645CE, with 95.4% accuracy.

The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is beleived to have lived between 570CE and 632CE, meaning the text found at the university was written during the Prophet's life.

The manuscripts consist of parts of Suras [chapters] 18 to 20 of the holy book, written in an early form of Arabic script known as Hijaz.

The pages were mistakenly kept with the leaves of a similar Qur'an, which only dates back as far as the seventh century.

"The radiocarbon dating of the Birmingham Quran folios has yielded a startling result and reveals one of the most surprising secrets of the University's collections. They could well take us back to within a few years of the actual founding of Islam," Professor David Thomas, Professor of Christianity and Islam, and Nadir Dinshaw, Professor of Interreligious Relations at the University of Birmingham, said.

"The tests carried out on the parchment of the Birmingham folios yield the strong probability that the animal from which it was taken was alive during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad or shortly afterwards. This means that the parts of the Quran that are written on this parchment can, with a degree of confidence, be dated to less than two decades after Mohammad's death.

"These portions must have been in a form that is very close to the form of the Quran read today, supporting the view that the text has undergone little or no alteration and that it can be dated to a point very close to the time it was believed to be revealed."

Rejoice

Dr Muhammad Isa Waley, Lead Curator for Persian and Turkish Manuscripts at the British Library, described the discovery of the Quran fragments as "news to rejoice Muslim hearts".

"The Muslim community was not wealthy enough to stockpile animal skins for decades, and to produce a complete Mushaf, or copy, of the Holy Qur'an required a great many of them," Waley added.

"The carbon dating evidence, then, indicates that Birmingham's Cadbury Research Library is home to some precious survivors that – in view of the Suras included – would once have been at the centre of a Mushaf from that period. And it seems to leave open the possibility that the Uthmanic redaction took place earlier than had been thought – or even, conceivably, that these folios predate that process. In any case, this – along with the sheer beauty of the content and the surprisingly clear Hijazi script – is news to rejoice Muslim hearts."

The manuscript will be on public display at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, from 2 October until 25 October.

The Qur’an is a revelation from God, the creator of the worlds, so He is the original author.

There is only one Qur’an which is in Arabic, with many of its translations in several languages.

There could be multiple translations by different authors in the same language such as English.

The Qur’an was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) through the archangel Gabriel who helped the Prophet memorize the Qur’an, as reported in several authentic Hadith narrations.

The Great Explorers of Islam

The golden period of Muslim geography, travels and explorations involved a vast amount of travel with geographical literature being produced in the world of Islam paving the way for later explorations and discoveries by the Christian West

Arabia being a barren peninsula, its inhabitants had always to depend on foreign supplies for the necessities of life, hence they had to undertake trips to distant countries like Egypt, Abbysinia, Syria, Persia and Iraq.

It was an Arab caravan which brought Hazrat Yusuf (Prophet Joseph) to Egypt. Moreover, the fertile areas in Arabia including Yemen, Yamama, Oman, Bahrein and Hadari-Maut were situated on the coast, and the Arabs being sea-faring people took sea routes in order to reach these places and fulfilling their commercial ventures.

The birth of Islam opened a new vista for their enterprises and the vast conquests of the Arabs during the early decade of Islamic history served as a fresh stimulus to their adventurous spirits. The stories of the famous Arabian Nights including the one about Sindbad the Sailor, give a glimpse of the adventures of those fearless Arabs. It provides a slightly coloured account of the great voyages undertaken by Arab mariners as early as the 1st century A.H., and who, undaunted by the perils enroute, roamed about in stormy seas reaching such distant lands as Ceylon, Zanzibar, Maldives, Malaya, Java and Sumatra.

The Haj or the holy pilgrimage to Mecca was another factor which added to their geographical and commercial knowledge by providing social contacts among the Muslims of various countries visiting Mecca every year. This pilgrimage provided not only the means for promoting religious unity but also contributed to strengthening the commercial ties among Muslim countries and led to the exchange of views and news among people of far-flung countries. In fact the Haj, which created an opportunity for a great international assembly each year, has paved the way for Muslim commercial and geographical enterprises.

The invention of mariner’s compass opened vast oceans for their enterprising voyages. Most European writers have credited the Chinese with inventing the mariner’s compass, but according to the famous Orientalist George Sarton, the Arabs were the first to make practical use of it, a fact which has been admitted by the Chinese themselves. Another celebrated Orientalist, Philip K. Hitti, has endorsed the view expressed by George Sarton. “According to a statement of Sir R. F. Burton, it even seems that Ibn Majid was venerated in the past century on the African coast as the inventor of the compass”. l Any way, the practical use of the compass has immensely contributed to the undertaking of distant voyages by Arab sailors, who had hitherto been confined to coastal trips. They now came out into the open ocean and roamed about in the Atlantic as well as in the Pacific, circled the African continent and touched even the shores of the New World. The frail boats were replaced by larger sailing ships and Arabs with the help of compass and other marine instruments braved the stormy seas.

The golden period of Muslim geography, travels and explorations runs from the 9th to the 14th century A.D., in which a vast amount of travel and geographical literature was produced in the world of Islam, which ultimately paved the way for later explorations and discoveries by the Christian West. Writing in the Legacy of Islam J. H. Kramers says, “Europe ought to look upon them (Muslims) as its cultural ancestors in the domain of geographical knowledge of discovery and of world trade. The influence which Islam has exercised on our modern civilization in the spheres of action can be seen in the many terms of Arabic origin which are to be found in the vocabulary of trade and navigation. The measure of influence can only be proved by studying the historical development of the domain over which our actual geographical knowledge extends”.’

Theorists

The works of Greek writers specially the Almagest, written by Ptolemy provided the starting ground for Arab geographers. Al-Khwarizmi, the eminent Arab scientist, who flourished during the reign of the celebrated Mamun-ar-Rashid incorporated some of the ideas of Almagest in his geographical treatise Kitab Surat aL-arz. The book which has been preserved in Strassburg was edited along with a Latin translation by Nallino.

The simple geographical descriptions of numerous countries including their physical features, climatic conditions and the life of the people formed the subject matter of treatises compiled by early Muslim geographers. Ibn Khurdabaih wrote Kitabal-Masaalikwal-Mamaalik; Al-Yaqubi compiled Kitab al-Buldan; Ibn al-Faqih also wrote Kitab al-Buldan and Ibn Rusta named his work Kitab al-A’laq al-Nafisa. These books contained simple facts about the countries in order to satisfy the practical necessities of travellers visiting such countries.

The foremost writer of such geographical treatises during this period was Abu Zaid Al-Balkhi who was an eminent scholar at the court of the ruler of Khorasan. He has the distinction of being the author of as many as 43 books including his Suwarul-Aqaalim a geographical work of considerable value which is not available at present. The book guided later writers on the subject.

Abu Yahya Zakariya Ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini (1203-83 A.D.) who wrote a book entitled Ajaib-ulMakhluqat wal-Gharaib-ul-Maujudat which is a very systematic cosmographical work, and which, according to M. Streck, ‘must be deemed as a work of fundamental importance and is quite the most valuable book that the Arab middle ages have given us in the field’. Al-Qazwini has dealt with the description of the earth together with its seven climatic regions in his other geographical treatise Athat al-bilad wa-akhbar al-‘ibad (Monument of Places and History of God’s Bondsmen). The book also contains the climatic regions, physical features, life and history of the people of the countries dealt with. The voluminous geographical work written by the Spanish author Al-Bakri (C. 1067), contained most elaborate information on ports and coasts. Another geographer of repute is Hamdullah Mastaufi, the author of Nuzhat-ul-Qulub which deals with natural history, anthropology and geography. It has helped Mr. G. L. Stange in writing his book entitled Lands of Eastern Caliphate.

Explorers, Travellers and Writers

Abul Qasim Ibn Hauqal is the first traveller worth mentioning who, starting from Baghdad in 943, A.D. made an extensive tour of the Islamic countries and on his return incorporated his experiences in his geographical treatise, Kitab al-Masaalik-wal Mamaa.

Another more famous traveller of the period is Shamsuddin Abu Abdullah al-Moqaddasi. ExceptingSpain and Sind, Moqaddasi too toured the length and breadth of the Islamic world. He has put down his travel experiences in his celebrated geographical work Ahsan-al-Taqasim fi Marifat al-Aqaeim a rare book of its type. A. Sprenger has acclaimed him as the greatest geographer of all ages. The Asiatic Society of Bengal published the English translation of his famous work in 4 volumes between 1897 and 1910 A.D. Abul Hasan Ali Ibn al-Husain al-Masudi is one of the great versatile figures of the Islamic world.

He is a well-known writer and explorer of the East. He was still quite young when he travelled through Persia and stayed in Istakhar for about a year in 915 A.D. Starting from Baghdad, he went to India, visiting Multan and Mansura, returned to Persia and after touring Kerman again went to India. Travelling through Cambay, Deccan and Ceylon he along with some merchants sailed to Indo-China and China. On his return trip he visited Madagascar, Zanzibar, Oman and he reached Basrah where he settled a fterwards and wrote his great work, Muruj-al-Dhahab (Golden meadows) in which he relates his rich experiences in a cheerful manner which amuses the reader. Masudi also visited the southern shore of the Caspian Sea and travelled through Central Asia and Turkistan. Retiring to Fustat (old Cairo) he wrote his voluminous work Mirat-uz-zaman (Mirror of the Times) comprising 30 volumes in which he elaborately described the geography, history and life of the people of the countries he had visited. He toured Gujrat in 303 A.H. According to him, Chemur, a port of Gujrat was inhabited by more than 10 thousand Arabs and their descendants.

Among the great mariners of the 10th and 11th centuries A.D., Sulaiman al-Mahiri and Shahabuddin Ibn Majid occupy outstanding positions. They not only roamed about in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans, but also toiled around the African continent and probably even touched the shores of the New World. Sulaiman reached as far as the Behring Strait and has penned his valuable experiences in a number of books, of which Al-Umdat ae-Mahriya Ji Zabt-ieUlum-il-Bahriya is well -known. The other mariner Ibn Majid was considered among the four sea lions of his time. Allama Syed Sulaiman Nadvi in his book entitled The Navigation of Arabs has enumerated fifteen books written by Ibn Majid on Navigation. According to a Western critic, Ibn Majid is one of the earliest writers of nautical guides and his elaborate geographical account of the Red Sea could not be surpassed even up to the present day.
 
Ibn Faldan was a traveller of the 10th century A.D., who led an embassy sent by the Abbasid Caliph Al-Muqtadir Billah in 921 A.D. to the Bulgarian Monarch, and incorporated his experiences in Risalah which is one of the earliest regional accounts about Russia. During the eleventh century A.D., Abu Rehan Beruni, the celebrated thinker of Islam visited India, stayed there for a number of years, learnt the Sanskrit language and described the geography and the life of India in his memorable work Kitab-al-Hiplel. Regional geographics were also written during this period. Famous among them were the description of the Arabian Peninsula by Al-Hamdani and of India by Al-Beruni. The works of travellers like Ibn Jubayr, Al-Mazini and Ibn Batuta are store-houses of geographical knowledge. Al-Mazini (1080–1170 A.D.) who visited Russia wrote Tuhfat-al-balad.
 
The most brilliant writer of the period is Al-Idrisi (2101–54 A.D.) who was employed at the court of the Christian king of Sicily. His book Nuzhat-ul-Mushtag contained 70 maps. In the second abridged edition of Idrisi’s book one comes across eight instead of seven climates which were to be found south of the equator. The world map drawn by Idrisi is of the traditional round type and the first translation of his book was published in Rome in 1619 A.D.
 
Yaqut-al-Hamavi (1179–1229A.D.) compiled a big geographical dictionary named Mujam-al-Buldan which contains all geographical names in alphabetical order. It was published in 6 volumes in Leipzig (Germany) between 1666–73 A. D. Writing in the ‘Introduction to the History of Science; George Sarton remarks, “The Mujam al Buldan is one of the most important works of Arabic literature. It is a store house of information not simply on geography, but also on history, ethnography and natural history. It is preceded by an introduction dealing with mathematical, physical and political geography, the size of the earth, seven climates, etc.”‘
 
The Spanish traveller, Ibn Jubayr visited Mecca and Iraq in 1192 A. D. He wrote his well-known book of Travels entitled Rihlat-ul-Kinani which is a unique book of its type in Arabic literature.
 
Abu Abdulla Muhammad (1304–78 A.D.), better known as Ibn Batuta was the greatest Muslim traveller. Born in Tangiers, he started his travels at the age of 20, and returned home at the age of 51. During these 31 years he covered about 75,000 miles which is equal to three trips round the globe. No explorer or traveller during mediaeval times had traversed so many miles during a lifetime. Starting from Tangiers he toured Egypt, Abbysinia, Northern and Eastern Africa including Mombassa. He crossed the great Sahara (Desert) and reached Timbuktu. He describes an oasis in the Sahara (Desert) where people constructed houses of rock-salt roofed with camel skins. In Europe he visited Spain, the Eastern Roman Empire and Southern Russia and sailed in the Mediterranean and the Black Seas. There hardly was a Muslim country in Asia, which Ibn Batuta had not seen. He made many tours of the Arab countries and performed Haj (Holy pilgrimage to Mecca) four times. In addition he travelled in Persia, Turkistan, Afghanistan, India, Maldives, Ceylon, East India, Indo-China and China. According to him Aden was a great commercial centre in those days and had a good system of water-supply. He travelled as far North as Bolghar (54 degrees N) in Siberia, in order to see the shortness of summer nights and desired to travel into the land of darkness (extreme North of Russia), but abandoned his visit due to certain reasons. He stayed for eight years in India, as the State Qazi of Muhammad Tughlaq in Delhi, but had to flee to Deccan in order to save himself from the indignation of the Emperor. He took part in the conquest of Goa and visited Mal dives where he was made Qazi and married four wives. He relates interesting stories about India. Hindus in those days drowned themselves in the sacred waters of the Ganges in order to gain Baikunth (Paradise). On his first sight of Sati he was so overwhelmed with emotion that he almost fell off his horse. He met a very old man in the Hindukush Mountains, who was said to be 358 years old and got a new set of teeth after every 180 years.
 
Explorations and Discoveries
 
Muslims may claim due share in the exploration of vast oceans and the discoveries of far off lands. But the difficulty is that the achievements of Muslims in this sphere of human activity are not generally known to the world. The largest collection of literary and artistic treasures accumulated during the five centuries of the Islamic rule, perished at the time of the fall of Baghdad. The invaluable manuscripts were consumed to ashes by Hulagu Khan and his Mongol hordes. The cream of Muslim civilization met a similar fate in Spain, at the hands of Christian conquerors. Modern research has now begun to lift the veil from the face of mediaeval ages and the achievements of the Muslims now are revealed in all their glory.
 
“At a time when Europe firmly believed in the flatness of the Earth,” says Ameer Ali, “and was ready to burn any foolhardy person who thought otherwise, the Arabs taught geography by globes”. Their progress in mathematical geography was no less remarkable. The works of Ibn Hauqal, Makrizi Istakhri, Masudi, Beruni, Idrisi, Qazwini, Wardi and Abul Fida contain store of geographical knowledge specially on this branch of science, called by them “Rasnul Ard”.
 
Rotation of the Earth
 
The rotation and sphericity of the earth were discussed and proved by the Muslim geographers of mediaeval times. The Kitab Kalimat-ul-Ain deals with the rotation of the earth which causes day and night. Muslim astronomers also proved that the earth is a sphere and has a shape like a peach. Globes were commonly used in Arabic schools of mediaeval times which testifies to the contention of the sphericity of earth advanced by Muslims. Geography of the world was also taught with the help of globes in Moorish Spain.
 
Knowledge of Seas
 
Arab Mariners and explorers had a very wide knowledge of seas and oceans. The greatest discovery of the Arabs was that the oceans are connected with one another and form a compact oceanic world. The first sea route described by Sulaiman al-h-Mahiri started from the Indian Ocean and passing through the Pacific Ocean, Behring Sea, Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Oceans entered the Mediterranean Sea through the Straits of Gibraltar. The other route was easier. Starting from the Indian Ocean and passing through the Abbysinian Sea, Mozambique channel and encircling the Cape of Good Hope it entered’ the Atlantic Ocean. Passing through the Straits of Gibraltar it entered the Mediterranean Sea. This was the route used by Vasco De Gama in 1498 A. D. This shows that the Arabs were the masters of the seas and possessed maps of seas and oceans which they freely used in their voyages.
 
Ibn Khaldun has stated the length of the Red Sea, to be 1,400 miles, while according to current maps it is given as, 1,310 miles. This shows that the speculations of Arab geographers came very close to modern research.
 
Behring Strait
 
The Behring Sea and Strait was known to the Arabs. The route described by Sulaiman al-Mahiri went from the Pacific Ocean to the Arctic Ocean passing through the Behring Strait. The celebrated explorer Al-Masudi has also mentioned the Behring Sea in his works. Among the Arabs it was known as ‘Warang’ sea.
 
According to the Encyclopaedia of America the geography of equatorial Africa and the issuing place of the river Nile was known to the Arabs for a very long time.
 
Arab Pilot of Vasco De Gama
 
In 1498 A. D. Vasco De Gama discovered a new route to India by passing through the Cape of Good Hope. Prince Henry of Portugal had established his nautical academy at Cape St. Vicent under the guidance of Arab and Jewish teachers which prepared the ground for the explorations of Vasco De Gama. It is now a well-known fact that an Arab had piloted his ship to India. Writing in Legacy of Islam, J. H. Kramers says, “when Vasco De Gama, after his circum-navigation of Africa in 11198, had reached Malindi on the East Coast of Africa, it was an Arab pilot that showed him the way to India. According to Portuguese sources, this pilot was in possession of a very good sea-map and of other maritime instruments. Arabic sources of that time also knew the story; they state that the Pilot, whom they knew under the name of Ahmad Ibn Majid, could only be induced to show the way to the Portuguese after having been made drunk”. Reporting from Bares, a Portuguese who was a member of the party ofVasco De Gama, writes in the Encyclopaedia of Islam: “When Vasco De Gama reached Malindi a Moor (Arab Muslim) called on him. Being much pleased in our company and with the idea of winning the favour of the king of Malindi who was in search of a pilot for the Portuguese ship, he (Arab Muslim) agreed to pilot our ship to India“. According to the earned author of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, a local hand had piloted the ship of Vasco De Gama to India. He is either shy of associating the name of a Muslim with the much advertised exploration of Vasco De Gama or is ignorant of such a vital fact which may hardly be expected from an author who has undertaken such a gigantic work.
 
The discovery of-America
 
Modern research has proved beyond doubt that the Arabs discovered America. Muslim Geographers and astronomers believed in the sphericity of the earth. The trigonometrical tables of Khwarizmi were translated by Adelard of Bath, Gerard of Cremona and Roger Bacon. The famous book Image Mundi published in 1410 A. D. incorporated the Ain (or Arim) theory from the translations of Khwarizmi. It was from this book that Columbus learnt that the earth was pear shaped and that there must be some elevated part on the other side of the earth which he decided to discover. “Thus Islamic geographical theory”, observes J. H. Kramers, “may claim a share in the discovery of the new world”.
 
Modern research on the subject has gone a step further and has established that the Arabs discovered America five centuries before Columbus. The following important news was published in leading Indian newspapers including the Delhi Express, dated 11th August 1952.
 
“A leading South African anthropologist says the Arabs, not Christopher Columbus discovered America. The Arabs scored a beat of nearly 500 years on Columbus, according to Dr. Jeffreys, Senior lecturer of Social Anthropology at Witwatersand University. Dr. Jeffreys based his claim on a discovery 18 months ago of Negro Hamitic skulls in the Rio, Grande River.” The professor said, ‘Puzzling things previously inexplicable suddenly made sense and fitted a jigsaw puzzle’ .
“Dr. Jeffreys thinks that by 1000 A. D. Arabs already commanded the Mediterranean, were established on the West coast of Africa and had settled in America. Columbus, too, found small colonies of Negroes in the Darian Isthumus who, according to Dr. Jeffreys, were descendants of Arab slaves.” “He said the discovery of Hamitic skulls in caves in Bashama Islands and African root crops in theCaribbean lend credence to this theory.”
 
The celebrated anthropologist of South Africa, Prof M. D. W. Jeffreys’ article has been published in various journals of the world in which he has given weighty proofs that Arabs had discovered America and had settled in Caribbean islands long before the arrival of Columbus. He says, “There is an old Portuguese tradition that when the Portuguese were exploring the coasts of Guinea (West Africa) under King John II, who died in 1495, these explorers brought maize, an American plant from Guineato Portugal…. As maize must have reached Guinea from America to introduce it to Portugal before Columbus sailed from Spain, it is clear someone must have brought it from the Americas, and I claim it were the Arabs who did so”.
 
In the same way banana was carried by Arabs to Caribbean islands and American mainland. Peter Nartyr, a friend of Columbus, published his first Decade before 1504 A.D. In it he describes the banana as it appeared in the West Indies when the Spaniards arrived. He writes: “it (banana) was brought from a part of Ethiopia called Guinea, where it grows wild, as in its native country.” It was the Arabs who introduced the banana to Guinea (West Africa) and there from carried it to Caribbean islands and American mainland. Reynold writes: “The Arabs were instrumental in distributing the banana across equatorial Africa, so that it was well-established on the Guinea coast when the Portuguese first explored there in the years 1469-1474 A.D.”
 
Moreover the Atlantic islands were known long before the discovery of Columbus. The Arabic names of these islands in the geography published by a Franciscan Friar in 1350 A.D. prove that most of these were inhabited by Arabs and their descendents, e.g. Lost Islands were named Kalidat, Teneriffe was named Elburd. The word Brazil too has Arabic origin. Armando Cortesao, formerly counsellor for the History of Science at UNESCO has published a book called The Nautical Chart of 1424, in which he has named several islands which have Arabic origin e.g. Antilia, Saya and Ymana.
 
The celebrated Geographer Idrisi had published his well-known geography Nuzhat-al-Mushtaq about 1151 A.D. Idrisi in his geography gives a hint that the Arabs knew the Americas. The Western Orientalist Glas, writing in 1764 A.D. of Idrisi, whom he -calls the Nubian geographer admits: “Anyone who reads with attention the first part of the Nubian Geographer’s Third Climate will be strongly inclined to believe that the Arabs had even some knowledge of America or West India Islands .

source: http://www.aliomarermes.co.uk/2001/great-explorers-islam/