His first was an encyclopedia, ‘Kitab al Fawa’id,’ or ‘Book of Lessons on the Sea and Navigation.’ In it, he described the history of navigation, and the basic elements of the Arab trading empire, such as ports locations from East Africa to South East Asia, and the essential differences between sailing the high seas and coastal sailing. His interests in astronomy, mathematics and geography, instilled with such foresight by his father, over the years led Ibn Majid to an amazing legacy of seagoing literature. This navigational practice became known in European navigation as, “raising the Pole Star.” His other key implementations were of a ‘wind-rose,’ which measured not only the direction of the wind, but its prevalence, and a flag communication system between boats.īin Majid wrote several books on marine science and the movements of ships, which helped people of the Persian Gulf to reach the coasts of India, East Africa and other destinations. The specifically placed knots would allow the sailor’s latitude to be measured in relation to the North Star (sometimes called the Pole Star), and therefore their relationship to their trading ports.
It was a simple contraption, made of a knotted string and a rectangular wooden tablet.
What Ibn Majid did do however, was to pull all of the component parts together, and place them in an oscillating box, which allowed the compass itself, much greater stability.Īt the same time, he was to invent the Kamal, a forerunner to the sextant, which is still used by some sailors today. Then in the 13th century, the original compass, which simply consisted of a magnetised iron ‘fish’ floating in a bowl of water, was transformed by an Italian trader, who fixed a slimmer magnetised ‘needle’ to an axis. Tradition within the Middle East ascribes Ibn Majid with the invention of the navigator’s compass, however Chinese sailors had been using a form of the device since 500 years earlier. (age 79) Ras Al-Khaimah, United Arab EmiratesĪt the age of 17 he was able to navigate ships, having memorised and gained an understanding of the path initiated by the Holy Quran, and having digested the navigational learnings of his father, Ibn Majid went to sea as a competent helmsman, using a rudder oar, and navigator, and from those humble beginnings, progressed quickly to the rank of ‘Master Mariner,’ or in Arabic ‘mu’allim.’ He spent most of his life in Muscat, which he described as the most well known port in the world of his era.
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