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8 ARAB NAVIGATION THE NAVIGATORS AND THEIR WORKS 9
experience. His father certainly composed navigational poems any of his works, in the Mukhammasa and in the Leningrad poem
similar to those of the son, and some of them are mentioned by al-Sofaliya, is a.d. 1500 (a.h. 906). The Leningrad manuscript of
name in the texts. Both the grandfather Muhammad b. ‘Umar al- this poem was written in 1535 and by this time he was dead. Cer
Sa'di and the father Majid b. Muhammad seem to have been pri tainly if he was born as early as 1432 it is most likely that he died
marily Red Sea pilots for it is when dealing with this sea that Ibn soon after that last poem was written.
Majid mentions their experience. They must also have sailed around Ibn Majid’s fame among European scholars rests entirely on the
the coasts of the Arabian peninsula and they may have gone further appearance of his name in an Arabic text as the navigator who
east but we have nothing to prove this: the father appears off pointed the way to Vasco da Gama from Africa to India. This work
Soqotra in one instance. The best section dealing with them occurs is the al-Barq al-yamani fi'l-fath al-'Uthmdni on the Ottoman con :
in the beginning of the twelfth fa'ida of the Fawa'id (q.v.) where quest of the Yemen written by Qufb al-Din al-Nahrawali (1511-82).
Ibn Majid states that his father’s nickname was Mu'allim al-Barrain A manuscript of this work was described by De Sacy in 1794 and
i.e. the pilot of the two coasts, the Arabian and Sudanese sides of another ms. found in Portugal was published in 1892. This work ■
the Red Sea. In the same passage a poem known as al-Hijdziya of records that after several unsuccessful attempts the Portuguese
a thousand verses long (aljiya) is attributed to him, presumably on finally reached the East coast of Africa where they “continually V
the navigation of the Red Sea. Also an island in the Red Sea was sought information regarding [the crossing of] this sea [Arabian Sea]
named after him. until a skilful sailor (shakhs mdhir min ahl al-bahr) named Ahmad .
The date of Ibn Majid’s birth can be calculated roughly from the ibn Majid put himself at their disposal; the leader of the Franks
information given in his books. In the Fawa'id which he wrote about called Almilandi (i.e. Almirante) had become friendly with him and
1489-90 he states that he only set about that work after fifty years he used to become intoxicated with the Portuguese admiral. This
experience as a navigator, although this means little. His first sailor being intoxicated showed the route to the admiral, saying to
dated work, the Hawiya appeared in 1462. Ferrand places his birth the Portuguese: ‘Do not approach the coast on this part [of the
twenty-five to thirty years before the composition of the Hawiya, east coast of Africa, north of Malindi] steer straight for the open
i.e. 1432-7, and this is the nearest we can get to solving the problem. sea; you will then reach the coast [of India] and be sheltered from the
Ibn Majid writes as if the days of Barakat b. Hasan (1426-55) were waves.’ When they followed these directions, va large number of
before his own time, but the Hawiya is a long poem dealing with the Portuguese ships avoided shipwreck and many ships reached the sea
whole of the Indian Ocean and only a man of experience could have of Western India”.
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thought it worth while to have produced such a work. This age The passage was noted by Ferrand in his Instructions nautiques if
would have placed Ibn Majid in his middkTfifties when his magnum £ not before. He immediately saw that the Ahmad ibn Majid who is
opus was written and approaching 70 when he composed the mentioned here was the same person who wrote the treatises on
Sofdliya from the Leningrad manuscript. This all fits in with what navigation preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale and which were
one would expect. His place of birth was probably. Julfar for he sources of Sidi (^elebi’s Muhit. His account is again given in the
came from this place according to Sidi £elebi although he himself Encyclopaedia of Islam. He shows in a detailed essay that the various
mentions no town as his home or base. As his father was a navigator, names given by the Portuguese writers to the pilot who guided them
his family presumably lived in some port. Most of his navigation is across the Indian Ocean—Malemo Cana, Malemo Canaqua etc.—
centred on RaJs al-Hadd, so one might presume that his usual base can be explained as titles or nicknames; the actual name of the pilot
was Oman. However Shihr received a lot of prominence in his work is not given. Malemo is the Arabic mu'allim found so often in the
and he may have based himself in that area. Whether he had a texts and Canaqua is the Indian kanaka or “astrologer”. Therefore
family or descendants we do not know.. He mentions several times there is no reason why his personal name should not have been
the mu'allim's pain at parting from his family and possessions so Ahmad ibn Majid. Ferrand however is puzzled by the fact that the
one might presume that he had such to leave behind but there is no Portuguese always refer to their guide as the Moor of Gujerat which
direct evidence. Neither is there direct evidence for anything in his would imply a Muslim Gujerati whereas Ahmad ibn Majid accor
life except certain exploits on the high seas, which he narrates with ding to his own account was an Arab descending from Arab Bedouin
great pride. Nor do we know when he died: the last date given in blood of the Najdi highlands. Ferrand was not able to explain this
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