Years before Columbus set off for the Americas, according to the researcher’s findings, al-Biruni in 973,in what is now present day Uzbekistan, was the first person to officially propose that an unfound piece of land existed between Europe and Asia. The Muslim intellect who made the claim in the 11th century never physically laid eyes on the Americas. However, he had insight knowledge on geography and mapping skills that led him to believe that the conquered world, Europe, Africa, and Asia only made up for two-fifths of the entire world.
Al-Biruni spoke Persian, Arabic and Khwarazmian— the language of the Sunni dynasty that was in control of Greater Iran during the 12th and 13th centuries. He had also been well trained in mathematics, astronomy, mineralogy, geography, cartography, geometry and trigonometry studying under the supervision of grand scholars such as Ahmad al-Farghani. From his studies, he was able to understand science and civilizations. Longitude and latitude coordinates of different cities in central Asia, India, the Middle East, as well as the Mediterranean were worked out by al-Biruni.
The Muslim man was one of the few at the time to correctly estimate that the earth was not flat but round. His professor al-Farghani had also pointed out that the earth was round and gave a nearly accurate reading of the world’s circumference, which Columbus actually used as a base for his own expeditions.
Though, Columbus did not take into account that al-Farghani had noted the measurement in Arab miles instead of Roman miles, leading to the underestimation of distance for his entire journey. In addition, Columbus had no plan on discovering the Americas when he set off as he thought he would end up in Europe or Asia.
Just like his teacher, al-Biruni gave an estimate of the world’s circumference but his figure were a lot more precise. He also proposed that the earth orbited the sun instead of accepting the more common notion of the time, which was vice versa. This was noted in his book named Codex Masudicus where he also suggested that the Americas existed.
Around the time of 1037, the theory was set in motion –at that time al-Biruni would have been at the age of 70. Due to the lack of energy, old age, and not having a way to prove his theory true, it remained merely that. However, it is not to say that the Americas had not already been found. Records have been discovered noting that Norsemen from Scandinavia traveling across Greenland and Iceland accidently ended up in Canada, but were run after by natives who were living there since the late 10th century. Starr the researcher though seems sure that Al-Biruni was the very first person from the known about part of the world to formally make the claim that this new world existed.
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_01_14/Muslim-man-came-across-America-500-years-before-Columbus-6131/