Ahmad ibn Majid
Name : Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Majid al-Najdi.
Title : Ibn Majid, Lion of the Seas, Lion of the Cape of Good Hope, ocean navigator, cartographer, the first Arab seaman.
Birth : 1432 in Julphar in Oman (now known as Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates).
Death : 1500.
Ethnicity : Arab.
Region : Hijaz.
Main interests : Astronomy, navigation, oceanography, cartography, poetry
Notable ideas : Helping Vasco da Gama found his way from Africa to India; making navigation drawings based on his experiences and his father’s which were useful for generations of Indian Ocean sailors to sail from East Africa to Indonesia.
Works : Kitab al-Fawa’id fi Usul ‘Ilm al-Bahr wa ’l-Qawa’id (Book of Useful Information on the Principles and Rules of Navigation), a navigation encyclopedia written in 1490. —
Wikipedia, http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com; http://ambassadors.net
Islamia/The Brunei Times
Friday, 18 June 2010
Islam In Indonesia 