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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.
