United Arab Emirates / All works
Essay
Arab Navigation in the Indian Ocean before the Coming of the Portuguese
كتاب الفوائد في أصول علم البحر والقواعد
Ahmad ibn Majid · 1490
Synopsis
In twelve “fawa'id”, or useful lessons, the pilot sets out the principles and rules of navigation in the Indian Ocean: the observation of the stars and the measurement of their altitude, the winds, the tides and the seasons, the sea routes, the coasts and the islands, and the duties of the captain, who must be pious, just and obedient to God.
Context
Written around 1490, it is Ibn Majid's main work in prose, and sailors held it to be especially precious. Gerald Randall Tibbetts translated it into English in 1971 for the Royal Asiatic Society, with an introduction on the history of Arab navigation and a glossary of nautical terms. The tradition reported by the historian al-Nahrawali, according to which Ibn Majid guided Vasco da Gama to India, remains an accusation, not an established fact.
Who it is for
For discovering the seafaring art of the Arab sailors of the late Middle Ages, through the master pilot of Julfar.
Prizes and reception
He was nicknamed the lion of the sea, and a Turkish prince is said to have called him the master of this ocean.
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