Page 24 - Arab Navigation in the Indian Ocean (before portuguese)_Neat

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34 ARAB NAVIGATION ! THE NAVIGATORS AND THEIR WORKS
so obvious in the seventh fa *ida. Ishdrat are usually signs seen at sea
such as birds, fish, weeds etc. and indications of land like shallows,
muddy water, land breezes etc. Ibn Majid deals first with the typhoon
—normally a sub-section of winds and after a few lines, the subject
is dropped almost in the middle of a sentence in favour of a descrip­
tion of seaweeds (hashish). Birds and fish then follow but soon the ! approaches to land and a section on the effects of approaching al-
text turns into a description of mountain landmarks. This then
leads Ibn Majid into a description of the west coast of India which
takes up the rest—almost half—of the chapter. This description of
the coast is another important part of the work for it is very detailed
giving an extremely clear account of the Indian Ocean coastline
from north to south (Dwarka—C. Comorin). This is a dirat al-mul,
i.e. a sailing direction for coastwise sailing—no bearings are given ? as such does not seem to fit in with the rest of the Fawa'id. It might
and latitude measurements appear only as an added check for the i seem to be an appendix or a separate work tagged on to the end of
pilot, they are not strictly necessary.
After these two important and detailed fa’idas, the ninth and the
M tenth are very slight. The ninth gives an account of the coasts of the
world sailing with the land on the starboard side until one returns
to the place where one began (Ras al-Hadd). The beginning and
end of this section are interesting for they deal with the Gulf of
Oman and the Berbera Gulf. However the description of the rest
of the world is interesting only as a curiosity—most of it being
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extracted from the “Great books”—although considerably ingenuity
is required to locate all Ibn Majid’s information in the works of the
classical geographers. Thefa'ida ends with a list of linear measure­
ments found in the geographical works. Apart from the end this
chapter is relatively free from interruptions. The tenth chapter is a
description of the important islands. It is'^purely. descriptive, i.e.
no navigational detail is given and is relatively free from superfluous
matter. Sumatra is confused with Ceylon, the classical Sirandib and
even with Ethiopia.-However, the sections on the Arab islands
Hormuz, Bahrain and Soqotra contain some interesting historical
references—especially that on Soqotra.
Ibn Majid returns to navigation in the eleventh fa'ida with a
most interesting list of seasons for sailing (monsoons). This chapter
like number seven may have originally been planned from a table,
in this case of sailing dates- The. original plan’is there but has been
considerably adapted as the work/of writing progressed. The plan
! seems to start with seasons for leaving the Arabian coast, first in
} the spring and then in the autumn, bound for India, giving difficulties
encountered especially at the ends of the season. Seasons for the
routes beyond India to the Far East are next mentioned. The return
season is then - given, interrupted by details of arriving at and
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departing from Soqotra. Seasons in the Bay of Bengal follow to­
gether with miscellaneous routes around India and the Far East.
The special position of the Maldives is then mentioned with miscel­
laneous African routes. This last section is considerably broken up
by a complete section giving seven examples of difficult seasonal
Hadd and Guardafui at different seasons. Finally it is noticed how
the seasons now differ slightly from what they were in former times.
The whole is concluded by a poem on the autumnal change of
i monsoon—perhaps a complete poem (no. 29 on p. 21) of an earlier
date inserted into this work.
The twelfth fd'ida is devoted to a description of the Red Sea and
the main work. This opinion is substantiated by the fact that the
fa'ida begins with a pious invocation although the colophon at the
I end is a colophon to the whole Fawa'id and not to this work on the
Red Sea. Also in the seventh fa'ida, Ibn Majid had said that he is
not going to deal with the Red Sea in this work and gives curious
reasons for not doing so. This twelfth fd'ida consists principally of
a description of the various reefs and islands found in the Red Sea
between the latitudes of Jidda and Bab al-Mandab together with a
few routes among them and a description of routes up the middle
of the sea. Included is also a list of takkiya (see p. 310) values similar
to those given by Sulaiman al-Mahri and the whole is mixed up
into one great hotchpotch of Red Sea navigational lore. Apart
from the description of the straits of Malacca in the seventh fa'ida,
this sort of text has no comparison in the Fawa'id or in any of Ibn
Majid’s prose works, although Sulaiman al-Mahri gives detailed
descriptions of routes in all parts of the Indian Ocean.
The fa’ida begins with a description of sailing from Jidda to the
Bab giving the usual routes down the middle of the sea. This is
followed by a haphazard list of dangers and shoals after which a
section comes showing the comparison of the two coasts of the sea.
This leads into a description of the coastal shelf on the Arab side
of the sea which together with the channels through this shelf takes
up a large section of the chapter. A short section on the African
coast brings the chapter and the whole work to a close.
3. The plan of the Fawa'id and comparison of it with that of the
Hawiyal One can see from what has been given of the plans of these
two works, that the division of subjects is basically the same but the
order in which they are placed is different. Neither order is exactly
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