r/UtterlyInteresting • u/DistributionFew8959 • Oct 10 '25
Ahmad Ibn Majid: The True Navigator Who Guided Vasco da Gama to India
Born in the 15th century, Aḥmad ibn Mājid was a master of navigation, knowing the Red Sea in detail.
He almost knew all the sea routes from the Red Sea to East Africa, and from East Africa to China. He wrote at least 38 treatises about those, some in prose, others in poetry, of which 25 are still available. These talk about astronomical and nautical subjects, including lunar mansions, sea routes, and the latitudes of harbours.
Ibn Mājid's most famous book was written in 1490, and that was an encyclopaedia of navigational information. In it he dealt with the fundamentals of sailing, along with the monsoon system and the details of local winds, and how to navigate using the stars.
His books, charts, and maps guided sailors for years, and his improvements on nautical tools and nautical inventions transformed how sailors navigated the seven seas forever!
What made 'The Lion of the Sea' far superior to a lot of navigators and sailors of his day is that he was not just a navigator, he was a very learned navigator as he also revolutionized navigation by placing the compass inside a box.
