O descobrimento da América na historiografia árabe medieval: a polêmica sobre o possível pioneirismo muçulmano
The Discovery of the American Continent in the Medieval Arab Historiography: a Controversy over Possible Muslim Pioneering

Summary/Abstract: The present article is an introduction to the controversy surrounding the possibility of the arrival of Muslim expeditionaries to America prior to that of Christopher Columbus in 1492. This controversy gained momentum in the 1990s, when the 5th centenary of Colombian expedition was celebrated, and was it has been reinforced since November 2014, after statements about Islamic pioneering in the discoveries to the world press made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, during a summit of Muslim leaders in America, held in that country. Beyond political, religious or cultural interests, such statements bring lights on studies and documents unknown on the subject in the Western academic world, notably some Arabic-Islamic documentary sources fromthe 10th to 14th centuries which – according to experts from this culture – would testify to the Arab-Islamic pioneering in the arrival in America, and the thriving development of Muslim mathematics, geography and cartography of the period, topics to which an introductory approach will be devoted in this article.

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