ابن ماجد والبرتغال لعبد الهادي التازي

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10

ARAB NAVIGATION

inconsistency. Ferrand's article in the Encyclopaedia of Islam has resulted in Ibn Majid، the author of the navigational treatises، being accepted as the same as Vasco da Gama's pilot. Shumovsky، in editing the poems of Ibn Majid found in a manuscript in Leningrad، reiterates this statement stating confidently that Ibn Maj'd was the pilot and that the Leningrad poems show him lamenting his own stupidity for introducing the Portuguese into the Indian Ocean.

This theory needs a certain amount of revision. In the first place the Portuguese texts with the exception of Vasco da Gama himself who gives no nationality، all state that the pilot was a Gujerati Moor-and most of these texts were written some time after the event when the Portuguese might be expected to know the difference between a Gujerati Moor، a Malibari Moor or an Arab Moor from the south Arabian littoral. The fact that his name (or title) was partly Arabic makes no difference، for we see from Mahmud Shah's ship- ping code that the word mu'allim (as malim) is the usual word for pilot in Malay at this period so presumably it was used as such throughout the Indian Ocean. Admittedly Ibn Majid bewails the arrival of the Portuguese in his Leningrad poems، but in no case does he place the blame on himself; the arrival of the Portuguese was just part of God's will، an event to bewail، not an event to curse himself for as Shumovsky would have us believe. We are left with Qutb al-Din's mention of Ibn Majid by name، and the story of his drunken spree with the Portuguese Admiral. "The story of the intoxication"، says Ferrand، "seems to be a complete invention; it seems that it was a pious fiction intended to excuse an action which the Muslims of Mecca where Qutb al-Din-lived must have regarded as treachery". He thinks it more likely that Ibn Majid gave in- formation in return for money given by the Portuguese or the King of Malindi as the Portuguese accounts state. Intoxication to a Muslim can hardly excuse a treachery; it is more likely to be a further insult to the name of Ahmad ibn Majid. Qutb al-Din is only a generation or so away from Ibn Majid's time and one wonders if it is not some personal or family reason which makes him place Ibn Majid's name in this place of shame. Perhaps this is a deliberate piece of libel written out of spite. On the other hand Ibn Majid's fame as a navigator may have already caused his name to be used generally for the name of an unknown pilot much as Hippalus appears in Greek times or "John Hamilton" in the 19 th century. This latter fact I feel unlikely-Ibn Majid's fame was already great by this time (1550) among navigators، but it is doubtful whether it was cf. Ferrand: Instructions nautiques v. 3، pp. 178 - 80، and below p. 62. Endl. Islam، Shibab al-Din، v. 4، p. 362.

كتاب تيبيتس صورة لصفحة

من

ر. تيبيتس G . Tibbetts في كتابه صفحة من البحث القيم الذي حرره ج البحرية العربية في الأقيانوس الهندى قبل مجيئ البرتغال وقد طبع لثاني مرة في

لندن 1981