Artikel Terbaru Lainnya :
PERNAH menonton film Pirates of the Caribbean, dengan Jack Sparrow sebagai tokoh sentral. Tingkahnya lucu, aneh dan tak bisa ditebak, membuat kita penasaran dengan aksi-aksi yang akan dia lakukan. Tahukah Anda jika Jack Sparrow itu seorang muslim?
Jack Sparrow, kisah karakter paling sukses dari film Hollywood itu, ternyata didasarkan pada kehidupan nyata bajak laut Muslim dari abad ke-17 Masehi.
Seperti diulas oleh Creative Ummah, the real Jack Sparrow sebenarnya bernama John Ward, dia berlayar di bawah bendera olde salty sea dog kepunyaan Jack Ward, dikenal dengan Birdy. Dia awalnya adalah seorang nelayan dari Inggris Tenggara, tetapi menjadi privateer pada tahun 1588 setelah Armada Spanyol menggagalkan invasi Inggris. Apa sih privateer itu?
Sebagai privateer muda Jack secara legal diizinkan untuk menjarah kapal-kapal Spanyol, dan mengambil apa pun yang ia inginkan dari mereka, kapanpun dia menginginkannya. Dia adalah seorang bajak laut resmi negara, ia bahkan memiliki lisensi perampok resmi dari Ratu Elizabeth pertama. Itu yang disebut dengan pembajak mewah.
Setelah perang berakhir dan Inggris memiliki raja baru (James pertama) yang naik takhta, John undur diri dari bisnis bajak-membajak. Ia juga menyerahkan lisensi perompak yang selama ini digunakan untuk menjarah.
Ketika ia fokus mengurus bisnisnya sendiri—menangkap satu atau dua ikan—Jack kemudian dipaksa bergabung dengan Royal Navy. Sesuatu hal yang tidak ada dalam pikiran Jack dalam soal karir, hingga ia dan sekelompok kecil rekan-rekannya mengambil keputusan sendiri. Jack kemudian mencuri sebuah kapal kecil dan berlayar ke laut lepas, menjalani kehidupan kembali dengan menjadi bajak laut. Kru baru Jack mengomentari bahwa sebagai kapten, ia dikenal tak memiliki rasa takut.
Mereka segera mengganti kapal kecil mereka yang sederhana, dengan menjarah dan mengambil alih kapal lain yang lebih baik. Yang kemudian mereka gunakan untuk menggulingkan sebuah kapal Prancis yang lebih besar.
Setelah mengganti kapal serta beberapa kru kapal dengan personil yang berperilaku lebih keji, Jack kemudian mempersenjatai kapalnya dengan 32 senjata besar—yang disebut sebagai The Gift (Hadiah). Mereka berlayar ke Tunisia untuk bergabung dengan sebuah kelompok yang melawan invasi Spanyol.
Begitu mereka tiba di Tunisia, selera minum rum Jack berganti dengan air putih. Itu terjadi ketika ia dan seluruh krunya memeluk Islam dan menjadi Muslim.
Kehebatannya sebagai pelaut yang mengagumkan, membuat Jack menjadi komandan bagi lebih dari lima ratus relawan Muslim dan Kristen selama perang menghadapi Spanyol. Dengan cepat dia menjadi dikenal sebagai Master of Mediterania, dan ribuan balada kemudian ditulis tentang kehidupannya. Beberapa tulisan bahkan mengejek Raja Inggris.
“Pergi beritahu Raja Inggris, pergi katakan padanya ini dari saya, Jika ia memerintah semua raja didaratan, maka saya akan memerintah di laut,” demikian dalam salah satu balada Jack.
Selama ia menjadi Master of Mediterania, Jack memainkan peran penting dalam menyelamatkan ribuan Yahudi Spanyol dan Muslim, yang meninggalkan rumah mereka setelah diusir oleh orang-orang Spanyol.
Selepas menjadi Muslim, Jack mengubah namanya menjadi Yusuf Reis. Jack benar-benar terobsesi dengan burung kecil, ia memiliki begitu banyak burung sehingga penduduk setempat di Tunisia menjulukinya Jack Asfour, yang berarti burung dalam bahasa Arab. Jack Birdy, hari ini kita kenal sebagai, Kapten Jack Sparrow. []
Seperti dilansir dari Wikipedia ::
Nama aslinya adalah Jack Ward dan ia juga dikenal sebagai Jack Birdy. Ia lahir di Inggris. Ia tengah menjalani pelariannya setelah ia dan krunya memeluk Islam pada akhir abad ke-16. Ia melarikan diri ke Tunisia di mana ia begitu terobsesi dengan burung-burung kecil selama di sana. Penduduk setempat pun memanggilnya Jack Asfour, Asfour adalah seperti Sparrow (burung gereja) dalam bahasa Arab, dan itulah alasan mengapa ia dijuluki Jack Sparrow.
Setelah ia mememeluk Islam, namanya menjadi Yusuf Reis. Ia menikah dengan wanita yang juga merupakan seorang “pemberontak” yang meninggalkan Kristen dan kemudian memeluk Islam. Ia dikenal dengan julukan Jessimina the Sicilian.
Kapten Jack Birdy sebelumnya juga dikenal sebagai seorang pemabuk berat, tapi ia berhenti minum alkohol ketika ia masuk Islam. Ia memainkan peran penting dalam menyelamatkan ribuan orang Muslim dan Yahudi Spanyol yang berusaha menyelamatkan diri setelah mengalami pengusiran dari tanah mereka pada abad ke-16 dan ke-17.
Seperti dilansir dari The Book Of Sign menerangkan bahwa ::
http://www.bookofsigns.org/2011/07/captain-jack-sparrow-was-an-englishmen-who-embraced-islam/
John Ward or Birdy (c. 1553 – 1622), also known as Jack Ward and under his Muslim name Yusuf Reis, was a notorious English pirate around the turn of the 17th century who later became a Muslim operating out of Tunis during the early 17th century. His real name was Captain Jack Ward and he was also known as Jack Birdy. He was on the run from the church when he converted to Islam in the late 16th Century. His entire crew also converted to Islam with him. Captain Jack Birdy was obsessed with little birds during his time in Tunisia (where he fled).
So much that the locals would call him Jack Asfur, asfur being Arabic for sparrow.
This is where the name Captain Jack Sparrow comes from. His Muslim name was Yusuf Reis, he was married to another renegade from Christendom who also converted to Islam, Jessimina the Sicilian.Whilst Captain Jack Birdy was known as a great drunkard, he stopped drinking alcohol when he converted to Islam. He was instrumental in rescuing thousands of Spanish Jews and Muslims fleeing their expulsion from their lands in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Early life
Little is known about Ward’s early life. What little is known comes from a pamphlet purportedly written by someone who sailed with him during his pirate days. That said, Ward seems to have been born about 1553 probably in Faversham, Kent, in southeast England.[1]Like many born in coastal areas, he spent his youth and early adult years working in the fisheries. Then, after the failed invasion of England by theSpanish Armada in 1588, he found work as a privateer, plundering Spanish ships with a license from Queen Elizabeth I of England. WhenJames I of England assumed the throne in 1603, he ended the war with Spain and in effect put the privateers out of business. However, many of them refused to give up their livelihood and simply continued to plunder. Those who did were considered pirates because they no longer had valid licenses – called letters of marque – issued by the state. Ward appears not to have turned immediately to piracy but instead once again become a fisherman, working out of Plymouth.
Piracy
Around 1603, Ward was pressed in to the Royal Navy in where he was placed into the Channel Fleet and served aboard a ship named theLyon’s Whelp. After two weeks he and a group of about 30 of his colleagues deserted and stole a small 25-ton barque, from PortsmouthHarbour. Ward’s comrades elected him captain, one of the earliest precedents for pirates choosing their own leader.[2] They sailed to the Isle of Wight and captured another ship, the Violet, a ship rumoured to be carrying the treasure of Roman Catholic refugees. However, the ship turned out to be empty of treasure, but the enterprising Ward used her to cunningly capture a much larger French ship.
Ward and his men sailed to the Mediterranean where he was able to acquire a warship of thirty-two guns which was renamed The Gift and began attacking merchantmen for the next two years. While at Salé, Morocco in 1605 several English and Dutch sailors, including Richard Bishop and Anthony Johnson, joined Ward’s crew and the following year (August, 1606) Ward arranged with Tunisian ruler Uthman Dey to use Tunis as a base of operations in exchange for one fifth of Ward’s loot. From this base, Jack Ward was easily able to capture several valuable merchant ships, including the 60 ton Reniera e Soderina.
Following his return to Tunis in June of 1607, Ward was informed during the winter that the now rotted Reniera e Soderina had begun to sink. With several of his officers, Ward deserted the ship to one of the French prizes he had captured. The Reniera e Soderina later sank offGreece as 400 crew members, of which 250 were Muslim and 150 were English, were lost. Ironically, Ward lost his own ship, as well as two others captured by Venice, several weeks later.
While many in Tunisia were angered by Ward’s desertion of the Muslim sailors aboard the Reniera e Soderina, Uthman Dey offered Ward a safe haven. Ward however offered James I of England for a royal pardon which was refused and he reluctantly returned to Tunis. Uthman Dey kept his word and Ward was granted protection by Tunis.
During the next year ballads and pamphleteers condemned John Ward for turning corsair. He changed his name to Yusuf Reis and married an Italian woman while he continued to send money to his English wife. In 1612 a play called A Christian Turn’d Turk was written about his conversion by the English dramatist Robert Daborne.
Legacy
To his contemporaries Ward was an enigmatic figure, in some ways like a Robin Hood (Who also was Muslim, in historical background), but in the 16th and 17th centuries many English pirates operated out of the mouth of the Sebo River and preyed on Mediterranean shipping. Ward was supposed to have spared English ships while attacking “papist” vessels. John Ward and Simon Danseker are credited with introducing Barbary corsairs to the use of square-rigged ships of northern Europe.
Before dying of the plague in 1622, Jack Ward (like many other Christians who sailed North Africa[citation needed]) abandoned his religion and adopted the Muslim religion Islam.
Kehidupan nyata Kapten Birdy atau Yusuf Reis memiliki nilai petualangan yang begitu kaya dalam film Hollywood. Namun terkadang, ada sejarah yang disembunyikan dengan begitu sempurna ketika fakta dalam sejarah itu menyebutkan tentang Muslim dan Islam.
Wallahu’alam.
