Page "Luis de Torres" Paragraph 7

Without mentioning de Torres's Jewish origins, some Islamic websites have claimed the participation of " an Arabic-speaking Spaniard " in Columbus's Atlantic crossing as a proof for the antiquity of Arab American history.

The legendary San Salvador speech is said here to have taken place in Arabic.

These conjectures have been given credentials in an article by Phyllis McIntosh in the U. S. State Department's publication Washington File ( August 23, 2004 ): " It is likely that Christopher Columbus, who discovered America in 1492, charted his way across the Atlantic Ocean with the help of an Arab navigator.