Ahmad Ibn Mājid
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Aḥmad ibn Mājid (), also known as the "Arab Admiral" (, ) and the "Lion of the Sea", was an
Arab Arabs (,  , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's prim ...
and
cartographer Cartography (; from , 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and , 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can ...
born in Julfar, the present-day
Ras Al Khaimah Ras Al Khaimah (; ), often referred to its initials RAK, is the largest city and capital of the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah in the U.A.E. The city had a population of 191,753 in 2025, and is the sixth-most populous city in UAE after Dubai, Abu ...
in the
United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...
. He was raised in a family famous for seafaring; at the age of seventeen he was able to navigate ships. The exact date is not known, but Ibn Mājid probably died around 1500. Although long identified in the West as the navigator who helped
Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama ( , ; – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and nobleman who was the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India, first European to reach India by sea. Da Gama's first voyage (1497–1499) was the first to link ...
find his way from Africa to India, contemporary research has shown Ibn Mājid is unlikely even to have met Da Gama. Ibn Mājid was the author of nearly forty works of poetry and prose.


Name

At the beginning of his ''magnum opus'', the ''Fawāʾid'' (see below), Ibn Mājid gives his name in full as Ḥājj al-Ḥaramayn al-Sharīfayn Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Mājid ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn Faḍl ibn Duwayk ibn Yūsuf ibn Ḥasan ibn Ḥusayn ibn Abī Muʿallaq al-Saʿdī ibn Abī Rakāʾib al-Najdī (). The Najdī and Saʿdī titles relate his lineage to the central Arabian Peninsula and to the Yemeni
Tihamah Tihamah or Tihama ( ') is the Red Sea coastal plain of the Arabian Peninsula from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Bab el Mandeb. Etymology Tihāmat is the Proto-Semitic language's term for 'sea'. Tiamat (or Tehom, in masculine form) was the ancient M ...
respectively.


Works

Ibn Mājid wrote several books on marine science and the movements of ships, which helped people of the
Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...
to reach the coasts of
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
,
East Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...
and other destinations. Among his many books on
navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the motion, movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navig ...
, ''Kitāb al-Fawā’id fī Uṣūl ʿIlm al-Baḥr wa’l-Qawāʿid'' (''The Book of the Benefits of the Principles and Foundations of Seamanship'') is considered one of his best. It is an encyclopedia, describing the history and basic principles of navigation,
latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at t ...
and
longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lett ...
by way of
celestial navigation Celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation, is the practice of position fixing using stars and other celestial bodies that enables a navigator to accurately determine their actual current physical position in space or on the surface ...
,
lunar mansion Often called lunar mansion, a lunar station or lunar house is a segment of the ecliptic through which the Moon passes in orbit of the Moon, its orbit around the Earth. The concept was used by several ancient cultures as part of their calendrical ...
s, loxodromes, the difference between coastal and open-sea sailing, the locations of ports from East Africa to Indonesia, accounts of the
monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...
and other seasonal winds,
typhoon A typhoon is a tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere and which produces sustained hurricane-force winds of at least . This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, accounting for a ...
s and other topics for professional navigators. He drew from his own experience and that of his father, also a famous navigator, and the lore of generations of Indian Ocean sailors. The book encompassed the entire science of navigation in the Indian Ocean at the time. Ibn Mājid was known as a ''muʿallim'' (“teacher”, the title for pilots), i.e. teacher of navigation. Most of his navigational calculations depended on sophisticated astronomical observations, especially using the lunar mansions (''manāzil al-qamar'') and the thirty-two stellar rhumbs (''akhnān'').


Legacy

Although Ibn Mājid was long held to have helped the Portuguese navigator
Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama ( , ; – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and nobleman who was the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India, first European to reach India by sea. Da Gama's first voyage (1497–1499) was the first to link ...
cross from Africa to the Indian subcontinent, contemporary research has shown that he would have been in his seventies at the time of Da Gama’s trip. The actual pilot who sailed with Da Gama was a Gujarati and may have returned to Portugal with da Gama. The man was provided to Da Gama by the Ruler of Malindi and was assumed by Da Gama and his men to be a Christian. He guided Da Gama’s ships to Mount Eli on the Indian coast after a 23-day voyage. Researchers have also used the three rutters of Ibn Mājid, particularly the ‘Sofala Rutter’, to comprehensively debunk the entire story of Ibn Mājid and any association with Da Gama. The evidence in these, letters written by da Gama himself and Ibn Mājid’s age (he considered himself too old to navigate in 1498, when da Gama arrived in Malindi—Ibn Mājid would have been 77), all provide a strong refutation of the entire story and it is now accepted as highly unlikely that Ibn Mājid had ever even ''met'' Da Gama, let alone given him the route to India. However, his printed works are thought to have been a valuable source for the Portuguese when they arrived in the region. Remembered as “The Lion of the Sea”, Ibn Mājid's true legacy was the substantial body of literature on navigation that he left behind. Arab sailing was at a pinnacle during Ibn Mājid's lifetime, when both Europeans and Ottomans had only a limited understanding of geography in the Indian Ocean. His ''Kitāb al-Fawāʾid'' was widely utilized by Arab sailors, and comprised celestial navigation, weather patterns, and charts of dangerous areas in which to sail. This tome, in addition to his poetic works, were the true legacy of the sailor. Two of Ibn Mājid’s famous hand-written books are now prominent exhibits in the
Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...
.


In popular culture

In the television series '' Star Trek: Picard'', set in the future, the character Cristóbal "Chris" Ríos (portrayed by
Santiago Cabrera Santiago Cabrera (; born 5 May 1978) is a Chilean actor who has worked mainly in the UK and United States. Cabrera is best known for his roles as the character Isaac Mendez in the NBC Superhero fiction, superhero Drama (film and television), dra ...
) is a former Starfleet officer who once served on the Federation starship USS ''Ibn Majid'', NCC-75710, as revealed in the 2020 episode "Broken Pieces".


See also

*
Islamic scholars In Islam, the ''ulama'' ( ; also spelled ''ulema''; ; singular ; feminine singular , plural ) are scholars of Islamic doctrine and law. They are considered the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious knowledge in Islam. "Ulama ...
*
List of Arab scientists and scholars Arab scientists and scholars from the Muslim World, including Al-Andalus (Spain), who lived from antiquity up until the beginning of the modern age, include the following. The list consists primarily of scholars during the Middle Ages. Both th ...


References


General References

* Ahmad ibn Majid (15th Century CE – 9th Century AH): The lion of the Seas
http://www.alrahalah.com/
* * Al Salimi, Abdulrahman, and Eric Staples. 2019. ''A Maritime Lexicon: Arabic Nautical Terminology in the Indian Ocean''. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag. * Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, Helaine Selin, Springer Science & Business Media - 2013, p. 424, . * Khoury, Ibrahim. 2001. ''Aḥmad ibn Mājid, ḥayātuh, muʾalafātuh, istiḥāla liqāʾihi bi-Fāskū dī Ghāmā'' 'Aḥmad ibn Mājid, his Life, his Writings, and the Impossibility of His Meeting with Vasco da Gama'' Ras al-Khaima, Markaz al-dirāsa wa-al-wathāʾiq. * Malhão Pereira, José Manuel. 2004. ''As técnicas náuticas pregâmicas no Índico''. Lisbon: Academia de Marinha. * * Shihāb, Ḥasan Ṣāliḥ. 1982. ''Fann al-milāḥah ʿinda al-ʿarab'' (''The Art of Navigation Among the Arabs''). Beirut: Dār al-ʿAwdah. * Khal Torabully, “The Maritime Memory of the Arabs”, documentary film (52') showing Arab navigation in the Indian Ocean, with a special attention to Ahmad bin Majid, Chamarel Film/Productions La Lanterne, 2000.


External links

*
Technical note on Indian Ocean Arab Navigation Studies
by J. Acevedo and I. Bénard of th
RUTTER Project
listing all known manuscripts, editions and works of Ibn Mājid. {{DEFAULTSORT:Majid, Ahmad ibn Arab scholars 1430s births 1500s deaths Geographers of the medieval Islamic world Arab cartographers 15th-century explorers Maritime navigators People from the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah 15th-century geographers 15th-century Arab people