Bidspirit auction | IBN MĀJID AL-NAJDĪ (Ahmad b.),

IBN MĀJID AL-NAJDĪ (Ahmad b.), TIBBETTS (G. R.), trad. ARAB Navigation in the Indian Ocean Before the Coming of the Portuguese. London. 1981. - IBN MĀJID AL-NAJDĪ (Ahmad b.), TIBBETTS (G. R.), trad. ARAB Navigation in the Indian Ocean Before the Coming of the Portuguese . Being a translation of Kitab al-Fawa'id fi usul al-bahr wa'l-qawa'id of Ahmad b. Majid al-Najdi, together with an introduction on the history of Arab navigation, notes on the navigational techniques and on the topography of the Indian Ocean, and a glossary of navigational terms. London: The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1981. xxvi, 614 pp., 7 mapas desdobráveis: il.; 215 mm. (Oriental Translation Fund, New Series, 42) Complete English translation of Kitab al-Fawa'id fi usul al-bahr wa'l-qawa'id (”The Book of Benefits in the Fundamentals and Rules of Navigation”), the most important nautical treatise by the Arab navigator and pilot Ahmad ibn Majid al-Najdi (act. c. 1462-1498), a native of Julfar, on the present-day coast of the United Arab Emirates. Ibn Majid, referred to in medieval sources as the ”Lion of the Sea” and for centuries identified by tradition, now contested, as the pilot who guided Vasco da Gama from Malindi to Calicut in 1498, is the most notable representative of medieval Arab nautical science. Kitab al-Fawa'id is a maritime encyclopedia that expounds the principles of astronomical navigation in the Indian Ocean: measurement of latitudes, coastal and high seas routes from East Africa to the Malay Archipelago, and topography of the coasts and ports of the ocean. Gerald Randall Tibbetts' translation, the only one available in English, is accompanied by an extensive introduction on the history of Arab navigation, technical and topographical notes, a glossary of nautical terms, and maps and charts reconstructing the itineraries of the text. It is an indispensable reference work for the history of navigation in the Indian Ocean and for the study of Portuguese-Arab contacts in the context of the Discoveries. ⚑ Auto-translated via Google Translate