Page 26 - Arab Navigation in the Indian Ocean (before portuguese)_Neat

m
40 ARAB NAVIGATION
2. Kitdb al-mubadi wa'l-ghaydt quoted frequently by name in the
text is most probably the Jami1 al-mabddV wa'l-ghaydt fi 'ibn
al-miqat of Abu 'All IJasan al-Marrakushi, d. a.h. 660 (a.d. 1262).
3. The Kitdb al-Ta$amr (Book of the Constellations) of Abu)l-
Hasan al-§ufi. A work of this name is mentioned in the fifth fa'ida
i with no author and al-§ufl is given elsewhere as the author. It is
possible that there were several works with this title and that of
al-$ufi was only one of them. al-$ufl is a well-known classical
astronomer (a.h. 291-376; a.d. 903-986). His most important work
1 is called Kitdb al-kawakib al-thabita but was also known under
several other titles, e.g. $uwar al-nujum and it is most probable that
li this is the work known to Ibn Majid.
4. The books of tables (Ziy-/ Ilkhani) of Na§ir al-DIn al-Tusi
in.
i (a.d. 1201-74) the famous astronomer of Hulagu Khan is mentioned
also in the fifth fd'ida and al-Jusi is quoted twice elsewhere, once on
an astronomical matter.
! of Hulagu Khan.
In addition to these four, Mas'udi and Ibn Hauqal are mentioned
in the text and Ibn al-Wardi for his errors. The fifth fd'ida also
seems to rank the next two, works among the important ones.
5. Ikhtisar al-shihbatiya. This cannot be identified unless it is a
condensation (ikhtifdr) on the Shihabiya a mathematical treatise by
;
Sibt al-Maridini (d. c. a.d. 1490)'and therefore a contemporary of
fi Ibn Majid. This identification is not every likely.
\ .6. Zij of Ulugh Beg although'it seems mainly out of sympathy for
the assassinated author that this work is mentioned. This book,
usually known as the Zij-i Jadid, was the work of the famous Central
Asian prince and astronomer Ulugh Beg who was murdered in
a.d. 1449. . " • u
The other works mentioned in the fifth fd'ida are mentioned for
further reference, andTlbn^Majid may or may not have used them
himself when compiling this work. They are:
7. The al-Majisfi of Butllmus; that is the Mathematika syntaxis
of Claudius Ptolemy,-which was one of the works translated under
,j the patronage of the Caliph Martin (a.d. 813-33) and not trans­
lated personally by him as Ibn Majid says.
•• '8. The book of .al-Battani; This is probably the Zij of Abu
'Abdullah .Muhammad .al-Battani (d. a.d. 929) the astronomer
known in the west as Albategnius.
9. The tables (Zij) of,Ibn. Shatir al-Mi$ri who was an Egyptian
;
' astronomer and died A.D. 1375. .'.r . ;.
'
10. The book of Abu Hanifa al-Dlnawari (d. a.d. 895). Abu
Hanifa was primarily a philologist, but he was interested in astron­
omy and several of his works have an astronomical leaning so it is
■
:
:• •
fj
2 :X
THE NAVIGATORS AND THEIR WORKS 41
impossible to know which of them is meant here. Perhaps Ibn
Majid is referring to the Kitdb al-anwdy or the Zij of Abu Hanifa.
mentioned by Hajji Khalifa.48
11. The Muzil al-athbdt ‘an mashtabih al-intisab of Ismail al-
Mau$ili. The nearest title I can find for this seems to be the Muzil
al-shuhabat fi Athbat al-karamat of Ibn Batish, Tmad al-DIn Ismail
b. Hibatallah al-Mau§ili (d. a.d. 1257) but there is no connexion
with astronomy. Maqbul Ahmad, however (under Ibn Madjid;
E. I. new ed.) says that a work of this title was written by 'Abd
al-Majd Isma’il b. Ibrahim al-Mau$ili, who died a.h. 344/a.d. 955.
12. The Mushtarik of Yaqut. Yaqut al-HamawI was a well-known
geographical writer (a.d. 1179-1229). The Mushtarik was a geo­
graphical gazetteer.
13. The book of Ibn Sa'Id. Ibn Sa‘id was a Maghribi historian
and geographer living from about a.d. 1214-74. His geographical
book was called the Bas( al-Ard. Ibn Sa'id also worked at the court
14. The Mustawfi al-ard of Ibn Hauqal, the famous geographer
(fl. a.d. 950).
Finally on the subject of the planets Ibn Majid twice mentioned
the commentary of al-Daihal (Sharh al-Daihal) a work of non-
Arabic origin which Tam unable to trace.
All the other works quoted in the Fawa'id either by name or
anonymously are really used for literary embellishment, for their
poetry or for a story only remotely connected with the text and not
for navigational purposes. Although they could be studied from the
point of view of the literary culture of a South Arabian seaman, they
are of no particular importance here, and I have included them
earlier when dealing with Ibn Majid’s literary repertoire.
3. Indian Ocean navigation after Ibn Majid
(a) Sulaiman al-Mahri
Ibn Majid wrote his last poem soon after 1500 and must have
died a little later. However in 1511 another navigational work
appeared, written by another mu'allim by the name of Sulaiman b.
Ahmad b. Sulaiman al-Mahri. In this work he quotes Ibn Majid’s
earliest work, the Hdmya but does not say whether he knew him or
whether he was dead by that date. All we know of Sulaiman is that
he was of Mahri origin and according to Sidi Qelebi he was a native
of. Shihr—without doubt a navigator born and bred on the south
48 Ed. Fliigel in 558, n. 6936v. Kratchkovsky in Abu Uanifa’s Kitdb al-Ahbdr
af-fiwal, Leiden, 1912, p. 40 ff.
i
i