[ WP ] Rome was not founded on the Tiber , but on the Mississippi .

Abdullah ibn Al-Merka could smell the land. His crew was obviously excited, they could smell it too. Al-Merka ’ s first officer, a loyal and fastidious man, warned the crew of the nearing *Salat*. The crew scrambled below decks and brought up their prayer rugs quickly before suppliantly bowing towards the stern of the ship, the general direction of Mecca. The ship was sailing east in search of the fabled Eastlands in a journey financed by the wealthy caliph of Gaul. 
 
 Al-Merka ’ s task was to find this land, assess its use, and return with the information to trigger a new journey, much like the *jihad* that had overtaken Lesser Arabia, formerly known as Europa. The Africans of Mali and the recently-conquered Norsemen of the cold countries both claimed to have found a new land across the vast eastern sea. Al-Merka cold only pray to Allah that land would be found and he would live to return home to his son. 
 
 With the smell of land, Al-Merka knew his prayers had been answered. After the crew ’ s prayers were finished, the lookout excitedly scurried up the mainmast and into his perch. The sun had barely moved in the sky, before the hawk-eyed man yelled a cry of discovery. 
 
 It took several hours until details of the new lands could be discerned. Smoke gradually became visible, and eventually the masts of ships began to poke above the horizon like grass stalks. 
 
 Al-Merka was confused at the sight of ships. But he was a cautious man who met confusion with wariness. He ordered the ship made battle-ready. Men furled the sails to protect the valuable cloth and the officers unlocked the weapon cabinets and distributed arms. The two cannon on board were prepared for battle and powder was brought up from below. 
 
 The men were tense and quiet as the ship drew near the source of the smoke and masts. It was a port consisting of small, thin boats lashed together with planks strapped across the surface to walk upon. These boats ran from the beach and were tied side-by-side in such a manner to make piers for the masted ships to dock upon. There lay docked on these piers ships that resembled the small thin boats, but much wider and larger with a single stout mast rising from them. 
 
 The vessels were unfamiliar to Al-Merka in appearance and construction. As they neared closer, Al-Merka saw that everything was unfamiliar and strange. 
 
 There was a commotion aboard shore as several of the inhabitants noticed Al-Merka ’ s strange ship. Men began assembling on shore in a line. They produced shields and weapons tipped with iron or steel, Al-Merka could not tell. Little did he know, the next three years would find him traveling a vast empire established by the natives of this land, stretching from the swampy southern lands to frigid north and from the peninsula in the southeast he had landed on to the great mountains across the western plains. These people were not quite as advanced as the Muslim civilization, but they were catching up quickly. 
 
 In a scientific endeavor commissioned by their leader, Taheyomingo, they had recently begun producing steel made from the iron mined in the extreme northeast corner of their empire. 
 
 As Al-Merka walked the streets of the great capital, Mississippi, where the leader had his palace and the Tribal Senate ruled on questions of state, he thought of what he would call this new land. What would he tell the caliph back home? Perhaps the caliph would name his land after its discoverer. 
 
 Merka would be a great name for this place he thought, smiling. 
 

