Your search
Results 5 resources
-
Starting from a consideration of Tomé Pires’ 1515 Suma Oriental, this article considers the feasibility, nature, and relevance of a summa orientalis in the form of a Portuguese Early Maritime Corpus. When this corpus is compared with Arabic nautical literature, primarily Ibn Mājid and Sulaymān al-Mahrī, and especially with attention to the technical aspects of their writings, then the desirability of an Indian Ocean Maritime Corpus is envisaged. The centrality and the mediating role of Arab pilots and Arabic nautical literature indicate that the first step is the delimitation of an Arabic Early Maritime Corpus.
-
Aḥmad b. Mājid is the most renowned author of Arabic navigational literature. Although he is reported to have come from the southern Gulf port of Julfar, the vast majority of his work focuses on navigating the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, and his compositions contain few details relating to Gulf navigation. The one exception is a short, undated poem describing sailing routes in the Gulf. This paper analyses this unique poem and compares the navigational practices it describes with those in his other navigational works in order better to understand the specific characteristics of Gulf and Indian Ocean navigation in the fifteenth century.
-
The importance of the medieval city of al-Balīd and its harbour was mentioned in many different sources, and mirrored by a large number of finds and pottery that confirm a primary role of the port as a pivotal hub in Indian Ocean trade during the pre-modern Islamic period (tenth–fifteenth century AD). This paper will examine maritime activities at al-Balīd from a different perspective, combining recent data from the study of ship timbers discovered at the site with the archaeological record, along with evidence of possible harbour facilities. The study of the ship timbers has provided invaluable information about the technology, size, material, type, and function of the watercraft involved in the trade at al-Balīd. The reuse of these timbers in a terrestrial context also alludes to a variety of activities carried out at the site, such as boatbuilding, maintenance, repair, and salvaging. Collectively, this data yields useful insights into the relationship between the different vessels operating at al-Balīd and the structure of the site itself, mainly in connection with one of the most lucrative commercial activities at the port city — the trade of Arabian horses.
-
This article looks at a specific southern Arabian sailing vessel named the Wolf (al-Dhi’b), in order to better understand the life of a coastal trader on the southern Arabian coast that lived in the last days of commercial sail. Vessels such as the Wolf carried local products such as sardines, abalone and frankincense to northern Oman and Yemen, returning with dates and necessary foodstuffs shipped to Aden from India and East Africa. The article examines the remains of the Wolf, based on data from multiple documentation surveys, in conjunction with information gained from oral history interviews in order to highlight the central role that vessels such as the Wolf played in the maritime economic and social networks of the region.