Gabon. La campagne pour la présidentielle est ouverte    L'industrie égyptienne du carrelage affectée par la dernière crise commerciale avec le Maroc    Vers la création de la Banque africaine de l'énergie    Namibie. Modeste reprise de la croissance économique    Le miroir de l'Histoire-Donald Trump sur les traces de James Buchanan et Herbert Hoover : le déni de Dwight Eisenhower et Ronald Reagan    L'Alliance des Etats du Sahel établit un droit de douane commun    Somalie. Les Etats-Unis ont le contrôle exclusif des bases aériennes et des ports.    Pardon et réconciliation au Niger, libération d'anciens hauts responsables politiques et militaires    Soulaiman Raissouni, de l'hostilité envers la patrie à l'antisémitisme    Un Festival pour promouvoir la cuisine ivoirienne    Un PL sur l'enseignement scolaire au menu du Conseil de gouvernement    Tamwilcom : Plus de 47,5 MMDH de financements en 2024    Echanges extérieurs à la loupe: Entre importations croissantes et exportations en retraite    Trump menace Harvard de priver l'université de 9 milliards de dollars de subventions fédérales    Royaume-Uni : Le roi Charles reprend ses fonctions publiques après un traitement contre le cancer    Birmanie : le bilan du séisme dépasse les 2 700 morts    LdC de la CAF: Les Pyramids égyptiens battent les FAR (4-1)    Union Saint-Gilloise : Sofiane Boufal absent pendant plusieurs semaines    Le Maroc revient à GMT+1 dès ce dimanche 6 avril    Près de 44.000 réclamations contre les administrations publiques reçues en 2025    Le Festival "On Marche" revient pour une 18è édition    A Rome, l'artisanat marocain marque de son estampille la plus grande mosquée d'Europe    Accidents de la circulation : 19 morts et 3.002 blessés en périmètre urbain durant la semaine dernière    Droits de douane: que signifie la réciprocité voulue par Donald Trump?    Les Forces Armées Royales... Un œil vigilant pour protéger les frontières du Maroc    Equipe nationale : Regragui, out? Simple fake news!    Ligue 1 : Hakimi et Ben Seghir en lice pour le prix Marc-Vivien Foé    1⁄2 Finale. Coupa del Rey / Ce mardi, Real Madrid-Real Sociedad: Horaire? Chaînes?    6e Conférence Franco-Marocaine des Notaires : investir au Maroc en toute sécurité    Comment soumettre l'ennemi algérien sans combattre    Aïd al-Fitr : Attention aux excès alimentaires après le jeûne !    Ligue 1: Hakimi y Ben Seghir en carrera por el premio Marc-Vivien Foé    Francia: François Bayrou da marcha atrás sobre la prohibición del velo en el deporte    Khénifra: El cuerpo de un niño hallado 13 días después de su ahogamiento en el Oum Er-Rbia    Education/Droits humains : Bourqia, Bouayach et Belkouch pour incarner la vision Royale    L'Algérie revendique l'abattage d'un drone malien Akinci    Tebboune revient sur ses pas face à la France malgré la reconnaissance de la marocanité du Sahara    Une chanson qui relie le passé au présent... Quand la voix de Hassan II rencontre les rythmes d'aujourd'hui    Lancement de "Visions Théâtres", nouvelle revue scientifique spécialisée dans la pratique théâtrale    Zineb Hattab : première cheffe végane étoilée en Suisse, une révolution gastronomique    Muay Thai : deux combattants marocains en lice lors du ONE Fight Night 30 à Bangkok    Le «Kruzenshtern» russe en escale à Agadir du 2 au 4 avril    L'or délaissé par les ménages marocains, victime de sa récente envolée fulgurante    Maroc : nouvelles exigences d'homologation et d'étiquetage pour les équipements télécoms bientôt en vigueur    Accords migratoires UE-Maroc : Bruxelles examine le 7 avril sa coopération avec Rabat sur les retours et la gestion des flux    Des vestiges vieux de 3 000 ans, découvert à Kach Kouch au Maroc, réécrivent l'histoire du Maghreb    CAN U17 : L'Afrique du Sud renverse l'Egypte au bout d'un match à 7 buts !    Maroc – Algérie : Après la bataille Wikipédia, l'affrontement numérique via Grok sur X    







Merci d'avoir signalé!
Cette image sera automatiquement bloquée après qu'elle soit signalée par plusieurs personnes.



Did a Salé pirate's son become New York's first Muslim settler ?
Publié dans Yabiladi le 12 - 09 - 2024

Anthony Janszoon van Salee, a 17th-century settler of Moroccan and Muslim descent, was one of the first North Africans to establish roots in New Amsterdam (now New York). His father was a pirate and one of the founders of the Salé Republic.
Did you know that the first Muslim settler in New Amsterdam, now known as the Big Apple, New York, was the son of a Salé pirate with a curious connection to Morocco? His name says it all: Anthony Janszoon van Salee, which translates from Dutch as «Anthony from Sale», a city in northwestern Morocco on the right bank of the Bou Regreg river, known for its long heritage of corsairs.
Van Salee was the son of none other than the Dutch renegade Jan Janszoon, known among Salé corsairs by his Muslim name, Reis Mourad. Originally from Haarlem, northwest Netherlands, Reis Mourad was a 17th-century pirate, captured near Lanzarote by Barbary corsairs.
Later, Reis Mourad became one of the founders of the Republic of Salé, a city-state that thrived off piracy in the Atlantic, eventually becoming its first President and commander. At one point, he was even the Governor of Oualidia, another coastal Moroccan city.
With a thriving business in Salé due to piracy, Reis Mourad, married to a Spanish woman from Cartagena believed to have Muslim ancestry, settled in Morocco. He had four children, the third of whom was Anthony van Salee, who took his name from his father's connection to the Moroccan city.
Son of a pirate, raised in Morocco
Reis Mourad's son would later become a prominent figure among the very first North African and Muslim-descendant communities settled in North America. Born sometime between 1607 and 1608, Anthony, who lived in Sale, Marrakech, and Fez, decided to leave Morocco for Amsterdam in 1625.
Four years later, he set off for the New World as a settler for the Dutch West India Company. On his way to New Amsterdam—the name for what is now New York City when it was the Dutch capital of New Netherland in the 17th century—he married Grietje Reyniers, a Dutch Christian.
Born to a Muslim renegade father and raised in Morocco, likely in a Muslim upbringing, colonial records «do not specify van Salee's religion», according to the American bi-monthly magazine Aramco World. However, land deeds and court records refer to Anthony as the «Turk», a term Europeans often used to describe people of the Muslim faith.
«'Turk' was the contemporary and derogatory term for Muslim (regardless of ethnicity) and 'van Salee' and 'van Vaes' signified that Anthony was 'from Sale' or 'from Fez,' Morocco», wrote Kambiz GhaneaBassiri, Professor of Religion at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, in his book «A History of Islam in America: From the New World to the New World Order».
Van Salee settled with his wife in New Amsterdam in 1630 and worked «as a farmer and at times dealt in real estate», Bassiri wrote. Indeed, van Salee acquired land and became one of the founders of several neighborhoods in what later became New York. However, he was not well-liked by other settlers—some suggest it was due to his North African origins and Muslim faith.
A troublesome life
Anthony's name was dragged into dozens of court complaints and disputes, including with the church, which he neither attended nor donated to—possibly due to his faith. Van Salee and his wife were accused of various offenses, such as «stealing firewood, paying owed wages with a goat that died, fatally siccing a dog on the livestock of a neighbor, and brandishing a pistol at a government official», Aramco World reported.
One of the many lawsuits against van Salee was filed by Rev. Everardus Bogardus, the domine (pastor) of the Dutch Reformed Church. The confrontations with the pastor led the court to prevent van Salee from «carrying any arms on this side of the Fresh Water [about where Canal Street is now], with the exception of a knife and an axe».
The numerous lawsuits eventually led the court to order van Salee to leave New Amsterdam. However, the city leaders didn't want to rid themselves of him entirely. Instead, they sent him away but gave him land, charging him money for it. This arrangement worked well for both parties—van Salee could still profit from the land, even though he couldn't live in the city, while the government gained more territory for the colony.
Historians believe van Salee's legal troubles were largely due to his Muslim background. While some attributed it to «personality or to economic rivalries and jealousies … his Muslim, North African background cannot be discounted as a factor in either his defiant attitude toward authority, particularly the church, or the treatment he received from other settlers», wrote Michael A. Gomez in «Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas».
«The fact that 'neither he nor his wife were zealous churchgoing inhabitants' is indirect evidence of Islamic sensibilities, although there is no evidence that he actually practiced Islam in the West», Gomez explained.
Even after being banned from New Amsterdam, Anthony returned years later, buying land and even lending money to others. He became one of the leading businessmen and landowners in the colony.
Before his death, van Salee was considered one of the wealthiest individuals in New York. His daughters married into important families, and his descendants include many famous figures, such as the Roosevelt presidents, actor Humphrey Bogart, former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and news anchor Anderson Cooper.
Some historians even regard him as possibly the first settler of Muslim background in the territories that would eventually form the United States.


Cliquez ici pour lire l'article depuis sa source.