Ahmad ibn Majid's Kitab al-Fawa'id
Kitab al-Fawa'id de Ahmad ibn Majid
- Date
- 1490 · confidence medium
- Place
- Julfar (Ras al-Khaimah), United Arab Emirates
- Credited to
- Ahmad ibn Majid
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A navigation manual gathering courses, stars, monsoons, distances and ports of the Indian Ocean and Red Sea, setting out Arabic nautical theory in prose and verse. It is the masterpiece of the Arab pilot tradition.
His birthplace (Julfar, in the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, according to tradition) and the date of the work are debated; the legend that he guided Vasco da Gama has no documentary support. Coordinates are approximate.
What it led to
- Arab and Indian Ocean pilot guides of the era of the Portuguese arrival
- use of the kamal and star altitudes for latitude
- a source for maritime routes between Arabia, India and East Africa