The first Easterner‘s journey to America

The American continent witnessed a gold and silver rush in the seventeenth century, and a great desire to explore those virgin lands swept through people‘s souls. Travelers flocked from every direction, trying to reach them and record their valuable observations. Among them was Elias Hanna al-Mawsili, who achieved the first Arab pioneer in this endeavor. In a journey that lasted ten years, he recorded the oldest Arabic text about Central and South America, considered a unique document of its kind about the civilizations of the Maya, the Inca, and other races that inhabited the continent during that era. It recounts the tragic fates inflicted upon them by colonial plunder, and the fear this instilled in those who survived, elaborating on the details of their lives and environment so vividly that you can almost see them. Seeing the eye, all of that is in an interesting literary text, which is not devoid of enjoyment and benefit.