Oh, God, I thought it is OK to divide the essay into 2 parts, who knows it will be very long if adding its whole Chinese translation in the last blog? So here is Part 3(the end) in the new blog!
History: How African Muslims "Civilized Spain" (part 3).
历史:非洲穆斯林如何教化西班牙(3)
(source)
An overwhelming body of new evidence is emerging which proves that Africans had frequently sailed across the Atlantic to the Americas, many years before Columbus and indeed before Christ. Dr. Barry Fell of Harvard University highlights an array of evidence of Muslims in America before Columbus from sculptures, oral traditions, coins, eye-witness reports, ancient
artifacts, Arabic documents and inscriptions.
一项新的权威证据显现,非洲人在哥伦布之前许多年,事实上早于耶稣之前就已越过大西洋航海到过美洲。哈佛大学的Barry博士标示出一系列穆斯林早于哥伦布到达美洲的证据,表现在雕像、口头传说、货币、目击报告、古代手工艺品和阿拉伯文献刻印。
The strongest evidence of African presence in America before Columbus comes from the pen of Columbus himself. In 1920, a renowned American historian and linguist, Leo Weiner of Harvard University, in his book, Africa and
the Discovery of America, explained how Columbus noted in his journal that Native Americans had confirmed that,
非洲人早于哥伦布来到美洲最强有力的证据还应出自哥伦布亲手之笔。1920年,哈佛大学一位知名的历史学家兼语言学家Leo Weiner在他的《非洲和美洲地理大发现》一书中,解释了哥伦布如何在他的日志中提到美洲土著证实了这点:
“black skinned people had come from the south-east in boats, trading in gold-tipped spears.”
“黑皮肤的人已从东南方乘船来做带金头的矛的贸易。”
Muslim Spain not only collected and perpetuated the intellectual advances of Ancient Egypt, Greece and Roman civilisation, it also expanded on that civilisation and made its own vital contributions in fields ranging from astronomy, pharmacology, maritime navigation, architecture and law.
西班牙穆斯林不仅收集保存了古埃及人和希腊罗马文明的先进智慧(成果),也拓展了那些文明,其在航天、药理学、远洋航行和建筑法律诸多领域都做出了重要贡献。
The centuries old impression given by some Western scholars that the African continent made little or no contributions to civilization, and that its people are naturally primitive has, unfortunately, became the basis of racial prejudice, slavery, colonialism and the ongoing economic oppression of Africa. If Africans re-write their true history, they will reveal a glory that they will inevitably seek to recapture. After all, the greatest threat towards Africa having a glorious future is her people’s ignorance of Africa’s glorious past.
一些西方学者给出的数百年来的印象是,非洲大陆对人类文明的贡献微乎其微。其人民处于自然原始状态,不幸的是,这已成为种族偏见、奴役殖民和非洲经济不断衰退的基础原因所在。如果非洲人重写他们的真正历史,他们将不可避免地想要夺回他们曾经展现的光荣。毕竟,对非洲而言,拥有一个光明未来的最大威胁是它的人民对辉煌过往的无知。