Could Al-Andalus Have found The New World?

I have to admit I only belatedly took the advice I sometimes give others rather high-handedly and got around to consulting a globe on the subject of the direct route to Mecca from Iberia.

Not so surprisingly in hindsight, it is pretty much the same route you might find on a flat map, right along the Med coast to the Nile and then down the Red Sea of course.

Any other route is more or less out of the way; trying to cross the Ocean Sea to get there is about as indirect a route as is possible on Earth. Clearly trying to sail around Africa, as outrageously roundabout as that is, is still a better choice just by distance alone, even before considering the unwisdom of venturing out into the uncharted Ocean.

In my defense I didn't actually have a globe (haven't for nearly 3 years) but I did have G.Projector software. I did get a physical globe for Christmas but it turns out to be a little tricky to plot Great Circle routes on an actual globe. Using G.Projector is not ideal either unless I want to put a ruler on my laptop's screen!

But it seems that the anti-Qibla directly away from say Seville or Granada and away from Mecca takes one, by "straight" air miles, over the Southeast USA (OTL) across Mexico to some point south of the tip of Baja California, and thence over the Pacific to northern Australia and then swings just south of Sumatra to eventually approach Mecca that way.

It is only about 45 degrees to Mecca from southern Iberia as the bird flies. Allowing for realistic detours and using two ships, one to go to the narrowest isthmus in Mexico and the other from there to south Australia (detour changes the route somewhat) and then hook up to the Red Sea is clearly well over 360 degrees altogether, or eight times the distance, plus of course delaying to build ships on the Pacific coast!

Going around Africa takes up around 180 degrees total distance. Still a big hassle compared to the direct route, but you get to monopolize the African coast along the way. Gain enough African allies/partners and you can come at Mecca overland across the south of the Sahara.

So yeah, if the Andalusians ever do sail west it will be either sheer accident or a pretty luxurious and foolhardy adventure for the sheer glory of it.

I like to imagine they can be rich, powerful, and secure enough to have people that foolish with wealth to risk. But if they are quarreling with their co-religionists and the traditional target of Crusades by their nearer neighbors I guess that is not very much hope.

Brazil surely would be their first landfall, if they are lucky enough to survive that far.
 
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