Abu Bakr II

Abubakari II (actually: Abū Bakr ) is the name of a source moderately intangible Mansa ( king ) of the Mali empire in West Africa. He is ruled around 1310 and then have abdicated to lead an expedition across the Atlantic. His brother or son to have been well-known in African history Mansa Musa, who was famous for his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324. The sheer existence Abubakaris II shall be contributed by the leading historians who specialize in Africa. However, he has become for U.S. " Afrocentrists " the focal point of a new conception of history. In their view, it has reached almost 200 years before Columbus America, where African culture - or for alternative reading - spread Islam among the natives.

• 4.1 Critique of al - Umarīs report
• 4.2 The report in al - Umarī - a parable?
• 4.3 The Afro -centric interpretation of Abubakari II
• 4.4 The Islamic version of the myth Abubakari

The Arabic sources to Abubakari II

Al - Umarī

The most cited source on the alleged Mansa Abubakari is found in the chronicles of übergesiedelten to Egypt Syrian Shihab al - Din al - Umarī ( 1300/01-1349 ). He could question visit people who had spoken to the ruler of Mali about 25 years after Mansa Musa. The governor of Cairo, Ibn Amīr hajib had, Mansa Musa asked how he had become the king of Mali. Then told the ruler:

We come from a family in which the sovereign dignity is hereditary. Now my predecessor thought in the rule, it is not impossible to convince himself of the existence of an ocean shore at the al - Muhit (Atlantic Ocean). Obsessed with this idea and besellt by the desire to prove its correctness, he had to equip several hundred vehicles, they manned, and gave them as many others, which were equipped with gold, mouth and water resources in such abundance that they a perennial need the team were able to meet. At the exit he addressed to the commanders of the following speech: "Come back no more, before you have not reached the extreme limit of the ocean or before your food and your water supplies are exhausted.

They drove off and were long gone; he passed away a long time without anyone returned. At last, a single vehicle was on again. We interviewed the leader of this vehicle, what had happened. He replied: "Lord, we are long gone up to a moment when we open sea a violent flow, like a river encountered. I drove behind the other fleet. All vehicles in front of me continued their ride, but as soon as one of them came to this place, they disappeared without that we could learn what became of him. I myself did not want to plunge into the adventure of this vortex and therefore turned back. "

The Sultan did not believe the report and disapproved behavior. He left it in 2000 ships ( ... equip, half of which was intended for him and the men in his ... ) monitoring, the other was intended for the transport of supplies and drinking water. He trusted me to the government and drove off to the sea al - Muhit with his companions. We have him and the last time you saw the others on this occasion. I stayed unlimited ruler of the empire.

It is striking that these traditional second- or third-hand anecdote does not mention any names, not even declared to have in which kinship of these rulers stood to Mansa Musa. Nor do we learn details of the harbor or the region from which stung the fleets at sea. On the other hand, the figures in respect of ships seem very unlikely unless they are more likely to be understood metaphorically in the sense of "very, very many." It remains that not a single word to search for a distant world on the other side of the ocean is the talk and all the details that are called by American and African historians and writers, not to be derived from this brief presentation.

Ibn Khaldūn

In his history of the world, the very verbose about the Muslim peoples of North and West Africa, writes the Tunisian historian and philosopher Ibn Khaldūn (1332-1406) via the predecessor of Mansa Musa in the late 13th century: "The ruler after this Sakura what Qū, grandson of the sultan Mari Jata ( di Sundjata ), then after him his son Muhammad b. Qū. After him Their kingship passed from the line of Mari Jata did to his brother of Abu Bakr in the person of Mansa Musa b. Abu Bakr. "From the passage, it is clear that Abu Bakr has not been himself ruler of Mali. Rather, the crown of Sundjatas grandson went on to a relative who indeed came from the royal clan of Keita, but the empire builders was not one of his direct ancestors, but his brother Abu Bakr. This was mistakenly identified as Mansa and the immediate predecessor of Mansa Musa, because this is said to have stated that the rule of going from father to son in Mali.

Mande traditions

Already Charles Monteil (1871-1949) in 1929 pointed out that Abubakari II - unlike Abubakari I. ( Mande Name: Bata Mande Bory ) - no oral tradition is mentioned. The evaluation of the traditional songs and epics of the Mande has yielded no significantly different results to this day. Originally from Guinea historian Djibril Tamsir Niane thinks he can read out evidence of a ruler from the epics of the " traditionalists" of his home, which he accepts, he could perhaps be identified with Abubakari II. The American historian Ivan Van Sertima, the main proponent of the theory of the pre-Columbian discovery of America by the black Africans claimed in 1976 to have used local traditions for his reconstruction of the journey Abubakiris, there is - as in another context - no concrete resources. Most recently, the Malian writer and playwright Gaoussou Diawara has dealt with Abubakari first and a play (1992) and written a biography of the monarch in 1999. He points to the fact that the Malian griots have the ruler completely ignored because it was in their view a blot on the history of their people. The epic songs, stands in the center of which Abubakari, are more recent and primarily inspired by the biography written by Diawara, although it formally to the classical models of " griot " to keep tradition.

Maurice Delafosse

The assumption that Mali was ruled shortly after 1300 by a king named Abubakari, goes back to the French orientalist and West Africa expert Maurice Delafosse ( 1870-1926 ). In his appeared in 1912, three volumes skin - Sénégal - Niger, he first attempted, due to the existing (mostly written ) sources to create a complete list of the Mali kings. He also used traditional epics, but which he did not keep in view of the partially 600 to 700 years earlier events to be reliable. In determining the chronology Delafosse was partly arbitrary ago to leave his system appear consistent as possible, and put the regency times firmly, without explaining in any case, as he had come to the data. In his reconstruction of history, however, he largely ignored the indigenous oral traditions of the Mande and relied heavily on the Arabic sources, especially Ibn Khaldun and al - Umarī. The latter chronicler reported that Mansa Musa took over the rule of an unnamed Mansa. It closed Delafosse that there must be this act to the said Mansa Musa as Father in Scripture of Ibn Khaldun Abu Bakr, although it is referred to with a single word as a ruler. On the other hand, the mentioned Abu Bakr ( in the oral traditions as " Bogari " - not as " Abubakari " - referred to ) a brother of the kingdom 's founder Sundjata have been, but reigned in the early 13th century, and thus separates Abu Bakr as the father of between approximately 1312 and 1337 Mansa Musa from the ruling. A fortiori, he can not, as claimed by various American authors have been the brother of Mansa Musa.

Although the French colonial historian Charles Monteil took over the established by Delafosse ruler list and did not deny in principle the existence of a Abubakari II. However, he underlined that the name is nowhere mentioned in the oral traditions of the Mandinka, evaluated the Monteil was the first European historian extensively for his research. The report on the Atlantic expedition he considered "pure invention ".

The Israeli Orientalist historians Nehemiah Levtzion and Africa (1935-2003) noted in a review of the original texts that the Mansa Abubakari II owed ​​its existence to a translation error. He had never ruled over Mali, which also at least the identification of the anonymous ruler at al - Umarī as Abu Bakr, brother and father Sundjatas ( rather: Grandfather ) Mansa Musa, had been superseded. The interpretation Levtzions closes despite some objections to even the Guinean historian Madina Ly -Tall. The question of whether the Atlantic expedition of an anonymous Mande ruler has actually taken place, so that is not answered, however.

The alleged discovery Abubakaris

Critique of al - Umarīs report

During one of the leading expert on the medieval history of Senegambia, Raymond Mauny, denies that the West Africans had possessed at the beginning of the 14th century on the technical and logistical requirements to drive the Atlantic, Jean Devisse and Sa'ad Labib do not exclude that at least the attempt has been made. However, they are skeptical about the success. If it should be the Malian ships actually succeeded to use a marine currents flowing towards the Caribbean, they would possibly release to the Americas, but the return trip would have been denied them. The coast of Brazil, such as Gaoussou Diawara claimed to have but can not reach, and the entrance to the Amazon would have been impossible for them because of the flow towards the sea facing. It should also be noted that the surviving captain should have explicitly reported that other vessels had been swallowed by a vortex. This suggests less on an outgoing westward ocean current, but more reminiscent of the medieval myth of the ships devouring Abyss.

The narrated from al - Umarī story is confirmed by any other source, even in the otherwise very detailed chronicles of Timbuktu ( Tarikh al - Tarikh al - Sudan and Fettash ). A company as large as the equipment of 2,000 ships in the whole Islamic world would have to be known, especially in Egypt, which already existed prior to the reign of Mansa Musa good relations with Mali. Even the always well-informed Ibn Khaldūn know nothing to report on this expedition. However, in the 13th century were apparently already similar stories of rulers, the imaginary tempting fate in different parts of the Orient in circulation, so that we can also assume that al- Umarī used elements of this wandering legend, to reveal his report credible.

The report in al - Umarī - a parable?

It is conceivable that the anecdote in the first place had a didactic character, for the works of Arab historians also served as a guide for rulers. Al- Umarī possibly presented in the style of a medieval prince mirror the negative image of a ruler, he and his successor, Mansa Musa ie contrasted. The anonymous Mansa represented, so one can assume a faithless king, who did not care about his government. Instead, he sought answers to questions that the man was not allowed to ask, because by impugned Allah and the authority of the Koran, who knew no country across the ocean. The rulers do not even responded to the sharp hand of God, who almost destroyed the whole fleet and return home only a few survivors left, so they brought the warning about the haughty Mansa. However this was blind in his pride and challenged God by he went on the expedition, thousands of subjects brought in mortal danger, while the resources of his kingdom detracted to equip the fleet for the crazy business.

Mansa Musa, however, submitted himself humbly to the instructions of the Koran scholars of Cairo and behaved from now on according to their rules. He went on a pilgrimage in contrast to his predecessor to Mecca and took pious men in his kingdom, there to build faith. He built mosques in Timbuktu and Gao, she generously endowed with sacred books and thus became the model ruler. It is quite conceivable that al - Umarī still awake remembrance of the pilgrims from Mali used to make his didactically designed parable as possible credible.

The Afro -centric interpretation of Abubakari II

Despite the fact that the existence of a ruler Abubakari II is contested by the established specialized science, explain the leading representatives of the known as " Afrocentrism " Historical Research ( Molefi Kente Asante, John G. Jackson, Ivan Van Sertima ) that the king a historically was detectable person and America had reached almost 200 years before Columbus. Explain the Afrocentrists that a denial of the existence Abubakaris and its discoverer performance of a denial of the size of African history and 'll be right - at least subliminally - satisfies the conditions laid "white racialism ". Critics accuse the Afrocentrists turn manipulative treatment of sources, facts and data, and the use of partly dubious literature and dogmatism and the creation of a non-historical myth before, which do not serve the research of historical truth, but the care of African- American self-confidence.

For the first time the thesis, an African or Muslim rulers had achieved in the early 14th century America, was built by the Egyptian historian Ahmed Zeki Pasha, the first modern editor of the journals al - Umarīs, erected in 1920, with the author the importance of Arab nautical at this company stressed. The German historian overseas Egmont Zechlin did not rule out the possibility that an Arab- Malian fleet America could have achieved. His specialist on medieval voyages of discovery colleague Richard Hennig underwent the report of al - Umarī further investigation and came to the conclusion that the expedition of the ruler of Mali, unless they have actually taken place, was doomed to failure. Recently the Turkish science historian Fuat Sezgin has dealt with the issue and believes in light of the " cartographic work " and the astonishingly high " to be able to say that" ( n ) Development of nautical in the Arab- Islamic culture Muslim sailors " " around since the beginning of the 9./15. Century, the great oceanic mainland not only reached, but have even begun to map it. "Even in his view, it was Arab, not black African explorers.

Apparently, without regard to the report in al - Umarī presented Leo Wiener (1862-1939) 1920-1923 in an extensive and well-documented work on the thesis that America was colonized in pre-Columbian times by the West African Mande from. Vienna was based primarily on actual or apparent similarities between Indian and African languages, but also for the presence of plants that were to be found on both sides of the Atlantic and had been introduced by Wiener's view from Africa to the Caribbean. Among other things, he tried to prove that tobacco smoking has its origins in Africa have what was rejected by the majority of ethnologists to be incorrect.

The reviews of the predominantly white scientists were mostly negative, while an African-American reviewer described the results as extremely important for the reinterpretation of history and derived from Wiener's book, that the Mandingo the pre-Columbian cultures at least radically transformed, if not in the first place created would.

The Malian playwright Diawara believes that Abubakaris fleet from Gambia crossed from the Atlantic Ocean and reached the Brazilian coast in Recife and Pernambuco called it, in remembrance of the two gold- rich areas in the Mali Empire - Buré and Bambouk.

The Guinean historian Madina Ly -Tall admits that may have been made ​​under the predecessor of Mansa Musa, a " fruitless attempt to sail the Atlantic ", but he stressed that the Senegambian provinces of the Mali Empire and the ocean, including the estuaries as communication paths played no role. Only with the arrival of the Portuguese this had changed.

Afro Centrist authors such as Ivan Van Sertima and Mark Hyman often point out that even Columbus had reported him had been repeatedly taken place reports of blacks in the Caribbean, bearing in mind that Columbus and his contemporaries, the skin color of Native Americans mostly with that of the " moros " compared. This, however, the inhabitants of North Africa were meant. Overlooked is also that Columbus unequivocally stated that he had no " Negro as in Guinea " found in the "discovered" by him countries. The Spanish chroniclers Francisco López de Gómara and Pedro Martir d' Anghiera that never were in America itself, noted in her work on the exploration and conquest of the New World that conquistadors like Vasco Nunez de Balboa have seen in today's Panama not only isolated black. They wrote of whole settlements where supposedly only " negros " lived. However, it is second-hand accounts, even if they are treated by Van Sertima and other such reliable eyewitness accounts.

Since the 1950s, the archaeologist Mervyn DW Jeffreys defends the thesis that the Mandingo sailors had brought in the early 14th century the corn from America to West Africa. As proof, he refers here to African myths and illustrations on ceramics, which he classified as medieval, and claims that are not so quickly the corn could have spread as a staple food in the early modern period, when he first introduced by Europeans after 1500 in West Africa would have been. His critics explain that the linguistic evidence, which he performers, is unfounded and that he could not prove whether in the individual case of maize or sorghum (also called " Moors " - or "the Negro millet " ) is meant ..

The Islamic version of the myth Abubakari

Since the mid- 1990s, a shift of emphasis in the assessment of explorers Abubakaris performance is observed. Afrocentrists had previously emphasized the influence of the indigenous cultures of ancient America of the Black African sailors, as Americans now emphasize Muslim background the primary Islamic character of discovery. Whilst it is accepted that the continent had been discovered and civilized of the Mande, but the emphasis is placed on the theory that the Indians had been converted to Islam in the first place. Author seems to be a native of Lebanon and working in Canada physicist and Muslim functionary Dr. Youssef Mroueh. As evidence for his claim, he explains otherwise never finished, Columbus did in 1492 in Cuba even spotted a mosque. Mrouehs allegation is totally baseless.

The thesis that America was already largely Muslim before arrival of the Spaniards is supported by authors such as Mroueh with the assertion that, all the Indian tribes ( Cherokee, Blackfoot ) had worn Moorish costume, given to Arabic names and founded places with unique Islamic names ( z. B. Tallahassee = "God will redeem you in the future" ), left numerous Kufic inscriptions and even a network of madrasas and Islamic universities ( for example, operate in Arizona and New Mexico), but which later - probably by the European conquerors - had been destroyed. In particular, the Cherokee were allegedly Muslims until the 19th century, had their own imams and have performed regular pilgrimages in the style of the Hajj. In part, of an " Islamic Heritage" ( Muslim legacy) America 's speech, without clear is that, what is the purpose of this formulation.

While the thesis of the pre-Columbian Islamization of Native Americans in the organizations of the " Native Americans " ( Indians) meets with increasing resistance, it is approvingly accepted in Muslim circles and discussed and approved at appropriate Forums. Here are the relevant texts, such as from Mroueh and Pimienta -Bey, introduced, recommended and / or linked. The " World Federation of Muslim Mission (The Minaret ) " takes up the claims Mrouehs on critical and derives from the alleged research results that the American continent was originally Islamized and every Muslim, therefore, have the obligation, through his involvement in the work of conversion ( dawah ) this condition to be restored.