Page 23 - Arab Navigation in the Indian Ocean (before portuguese)_Neat

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36 ARAB NAVIGATION THE NAVIGATORS AND THEIR WORKS 37

logical but that of the Hawiya would seem to be more logical for mentions the ten sections, besides the one being written, which
each section is either about the basic measurements of navigation make up the book. Was he himself not sure how many of these
or about the results of such measurement. The order would have essays to include? A more detailed study of the text reveals that the :
been better if all the measurements were described together, that is compilation from disconnected pieces is even more intricate\fd'ida
if sections 8 and 9 and possibly also 10 and 11 had been placed 8 comes to an abrupt stop in the middle of a sentence on the typhoon
before the sections on routes (5-7) which are the final product of and continues on another subject; fd'ida 7 has no order but con­
navigational science. The order of the Fawa'id is much less organised, tinually reverts back to a part of the coast dealt with earlier. Fa'ida 12
although it is obvious that a fixed plan was devised before the work also may be composite—a table of takkiya positions is inserted into
was written. Why this plan differed from that of the Hawiya is not it in broken segments. In fact if not a compilation of extracts from
clear. The main difference is that the sections on routes are missing previously written prose works, the Fawa'id must be a collection of
altogether, thus the only information we have on routes in the jottings, put down at random and stuck together into a previously
Fawd'id is inserted accidentally as part of the padding in other conceived plan or into several previously conceived plans which
sections (Fa: 7 and 8) or in the case of the Red Sea routes as a sort were then amalgamated into one work without any great thought.
of appendix at the end. These sections may have been omitted This fragmentation is a feature not found in the Hawiya which on
because the information in the Hawiya was still accurate and I bn ! the whole presents a much more uniform composition. F
Majid did not want to repeat himself or because he .wished to limit ; An alternative theory with regard to the work’s composition may i
the basic plan of the Fawa’id to-theory rather than the practical be to follow Ibn Majid literally. He says at numerous places in the
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results obtained from it. The omission of the section on masdfat or ■ Fawa'id that he is summarising or leaving things out for concise­
longitudinal distances across the Ocean is more difficult to explain ness. Thus it may be that he had written an even longer and more V
for this is definitely as much a part of the theory as the qiyas verbose work and shortened it considerably for publication or that
measurements of the seventh fa'ida. The only theoretical section ! he had in his possession a v^st amount of material in the form of :
omitted from the Hawiya and included in the Fawa'id is that on notes and that he compiled the Fawd'id from these by selecting—
monsoons—-this is the one serious omission in the text of the often somewhat haphazardly—those notes which he thought worthy
Hawiya. . ■ J : of retention. This haphazard selection would probably account for
Looking at the plan of the Fawd'id it seems to fall into two com­ extreme shortening on some subjects even to the omission of im­
plete sections. Fawd'id 1-5 develop the concept of star lore necessary portant definitions of terms like bdshi and nairtiz which he explains
for navigation and this section ends with a lot of miscellaneous in the Hawiya where he has two sections (2 and 3) on basic terms,
matter in fd'ida 5. This half of the work could almost be regarded and only ineffectual shortening in some sections (e.g.fd’ida 3) and
as a separate work—perhaps^ written earlier—on the navigational sometimes complete amputation as in the section on typhoons in
use of the stars. Faw o'id 6-8 then begin again with serious theory fd'ida 8.
after the drop in potential found in fa'ida 5, beginning with a general
description of routes and the techniques needed to make them. The 4. Sources of the Fawa'id. When introducing the edition or trans­
techniques are then given in fd'ida 7 {qiyas measurement) and 8 lation of a text it is usual to mention the sources on which the author
(iIsharat) together with the monsoons in fa'ida 11. Faw a'id 9-10 on based his text. However, in the case of a specialist work on a practical
the coasts of the . world and descriptions of islands are purely science like navigation written by a man who actually practises the
appendices not part of the same stream of thought at all. Nor is science, there can be little more to the list of sources than the author’s
fa'ida 12 which is a detailed description of the Red Sea with routes L. practical experience. This, together with the practical experience of
—a subject which as we see takes up a large, part of the Hawiya, but r other men like himself with whom he has come into contact, that •
which Ibn Majid had kept out of the Fawa'id as much as he was able. is the sum total of experience of the navigational tradition of the
This description of the plan of the Fawa’id shows that it may be a Indian Ocean, might be expected to form the one and only source
composite text compiled from two or more long prose works to­ for such a work. In actual fact most of the Fawd'id is based on this
gether with a few prose essays (fawaUd 9, 10, 12), an opinion sup­ practical experience and Ibn. Majid is continually mentioning names
ported by the fact that Ibn Majid- at the end of the twelfth fa'ida of contemporaries and men like his father and grandfather from
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