![]() The first, and less controversial, is that 16th-century Christians saw everything, including the Americas, through the lens of their struggle against Islam. ![]() In “God’s Shadow,” Alan Mikhail, a leading historian of Ottoman Turkey, makes two claims. Hernan Cortés claimed to have seen over 400 mosques while making war on the Aztecs. Was it really so silly to suspect that Islam had crossed the Pacific too? Today we know that the only Muslims in the Americas were the West African slaves Spain had been importing since 1501, but the conquistadors were never quite sure. When Spaniards sailed the 13,000 miles from Cadiz to Java, they found Muslims all along the way. What sounds foolish today - Turks invading Mexico - did not seem so in 1573. Sent to investigate, Spain’s Crown Agent concluded that “Turks or Moors” were indeed plotting with Native Americans to overthrow Christian rule. ![]() But just weeks later, a report came of “seven vassals of the Great Turk, all men of the sea, the spies of the princes,” walking as bold as brass around the plaza of the town of Purificación. GOD’S SHADOW Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World By Alan MikhailĬoming down to Mexico’s Pacific shore one summer day in 1573, a merchant named Pero Ximénez saw something remarkable - “ships,” he told Spanish colonial officials, “of Turks or Moors.” Surely there was some mistake.
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