Kamal (star altitude board)
Kamal (tablilla de altura de estrellas)
- Date
- c. 1000 (uso posterior atestiguado) · confidence low
- Place
- Siraf, Bushehr, Iran
- Credited to
- Arab and Persian navigators of the Indian Ocean
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A rectangular card threaded with a knotted string that is held in the teeth to measure the height of the Pole Star above the horizon and so give latitude. It was the basic tool of Indian Ocean pilots until the arrival of the sextant.
The surviving descriptions date from the 15th-16th centuries (Ibn Majid, Sulayman al-Mahri); use from the 9th-11th centuries is plausible but not documented.
What it led to
- latitude sailing on Indian Ocean routes to China and Africa
- the Arab pilots who guided the Portuguese
- sailing directions such as those of Ibn Majid