Page 7 - Arab Navigation in the Indian Ocean (before portuguese)_Neat

9
2 ARAB NAVIGATION
with the different prognostics, the permanent, the occasional and the
miraculous ones, he was skilled in the establishment of a given time
as proper or improper, by means of manifold marks, observing the
fishes, the colour of the water, the species of the ground, birds,
rocks etc. he knew how to ascertain rightly the parts of the sea,
further he was vigilant, not subject to drowsiness and sleep, capable
of enduring the fatigue of cold, heat, rain and the like, careful and
patient. So being skilled in the art of taking a ship out and bringing
her home, he exercised the profession of one who conducts the
merchants by sea to their destination.** Compare this passage with
the second chapter of the work of Ibn Majid translated in this book
and written over a thousand years later.
The coming of Islam and the conquests of the Arabs may have
i upset the course of trading and to some extent removed the causes
which encouraged Indian Ocean navigation. However by the time
of the establishment of the Abbasid Empire when the Arabs had
established a tradition of prose literature, it is obvious that trade
with the East was again in full swing. The earliest piece of Arab
descriptive geographical literature to survive, the Kitab al-Masalik
wa'l-mamdlik of Ibn Khurdadhbih shows a knowledge of the main
trade routes by sea to India and the Far East even as far as Korea.
A contemporary work the Akhbar al-$ln wa'l-Hind gives a similar
account of sea-trading and quotes a certain Sulaiman al-Tajir (the
Merchant), who may really have been an early navigator. Both of
these works (c. a.d. 850) give distances between ports, where to find
water, and similar snippets of information showing that the authors
of these works may have had navigational compilations in front of
them and used them as sources.2 Thus we may assume that the
tradition of navigational literature current in the Indian Ocean per­
haps since the time of the Periplus was by a.d. 850 available in Arabic
(or perhaps Persian) for Arabic speaking authors to peruse.
About the year a.d. 1000 the compilation of stories known as the
lAjayib al-Hind was written. This gives many tales of Arab voyages
in the Indian Ocean and drops a few hints about certain aspects of
navigation which might be taken to show that the Ibn Majid tra­
dition of navigation was already in existence. Various technical
terms are mentioned like nakhoda and parts of the ship like mast,
anchor and sails—although practically no smaller and more detailed
parts. The measurement of depth is mentioned and in one place !*
this is given in manns, usually a measurement of weight (Ibn Majid
measured in abwa*). The sailors of this date seem to measure depth
1 For these works see Bibliography p. xix.
THE NAVIGATORS AND THEIR WORKS 3
with their anchors and not with any special instrument. In one
story a ship sails towards Suhail (Canopus), perhaps an indication
that directional rhumbs had already received their names. Of course
the compass was not used although the text does once mention the
lodestone. A knowledge of monsoon winds is shown but only on
land, and the feast of Nairuz from which the navigators reckoned
their dates is mentioned although again not in a navigational sense.
Names of boats one would expect in such a text and references to
currents and winds off Sofala and the strong current in the Gulf of
Aden must also be regarded as general information rather than
specialised nautical information. Perhaps an important thing is that
the word zam, so common in the later texts as a measurement of
distance sailed, occurs here for the first time. Sailors also divide their
journeys into days and parasangs. The most definite addition to
our knowledge given by this text is in the field of what Ibn Majid
would call siyasat (nautical etiquette?). The code of conduct for
pilots is given—“We members of the fraternity of pilots are enslaved
by our duties being ordered never to leave our ships, even at the
very end. Thus we go aboard our ships and stay bound to them for
ever, as long as they remain safe, we are safe and if they perish we
die with them”.3 Detailed procedure during a storm is also given
from throwing overboard the cargo which is always the first thing
done, to abandoning ship. These details are never given by the
later texts—I suppose a good navigator would never regard them
as necessary.
One might expect that the travels of Ibn Battuta, made about 1350
and at a later date than Ibn Majid’s original three navigators,
would reveal some navigational detail. However Ibn Battuta is not
very observant of nautical affairs: he gives the technical names of
boats but little else, preferring to watch and observe the passengers
and cargo (especially if animal) rather than notice what the crew
were doing. He does note that the rubban of the Red Sea sails only
by day preferring to lay to at night, whereas the monsoon shipping
of the Indian Ocean sailed day and night. Here we can see part
of the reason why the mu'allim, pilot of the ocean-going ship,
showed disdain for the profession of rubban or Red Sea coastal
pilot—even so, Ibn Battuta’s rubban crossed the Red Sea and this
must have entailed some night sailing.4
However, the Europeans who travelled in these regions about the
time of Ibn Battuta, have a great admiration for Arab navigation
and mention it in their works. Nicolas di Conti gives an indication
8 Devic’s translation (1878), p. 19.
4 Hakluyt Society ed. (tr. Gibb), vol. 2, p. 364.