Mick Hartley

Here's Palestinian cleric Abu Taqi Al-Din Al-Safafi, in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, expounding on the glorious history of Islamic science and exploration – and in particular how Ottoman admiral Piri Reis was the first to discover America. Columbus, we learn, stole the manuscripts of Muslim scholars, and then claimed the glory:

"What is the knowledge on which the West prides itself? They are nothing but so-called thieves."

I wonder which Muslim scientist was the first to develop that microphone he's using? Or the camera that's filming him?

More on the Piri Reis map here:

The Piri Reis map is a world map compiled in 1513 from military intelligence by the Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis. Approximately one third of the map survives; it shows the western coasts of Europe and North Africa and the coast of Brazil with reasonable accuracy. Various Atlantic islands, including the Azores and Canary Islands, are depicted, as is the mythical island of Antillia and possibly Japan.

The historical importance of the map lies in its demonstration of the extent of European exploration of the New World by approximately 1510, and in its claim to have used Columbus's maps, otherwise lost, as a source. It used ten Arab sources, four Indian maps sourced from the Portuguese, and one map of Columbus. More recently, it has been the focus of pseudohistoric claims for the pre-modern exploration of the Antarctic coast.