Ahmad ibn Majid al-Najdi

Ahmad ibn Majid ibn Muhammad ibn Amr ibn Fadl ibn Duwayk ibn Yusuf al-Sa'di al-Najdi, universally known as Ibn Majid, was born around 1421 CE in Julfar, a prosperous port city on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in what is now the Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates. He came from a family of navigators; his father and grandfather were both celebrated sea-captains, and he inherited their maritime knowledge before vastly extending it.

Ibn Majid spent his life mastering the Indian Ocean trade routes that connected Arabia, East Africa, India, and Southeast Asia — routes that had been sailed by Arab and Indian mariners for centuries but had never been so systematically described. He developed and codified the use of the magnetic compass, the kamal (a navigational device for measuring stellar altitude), and detailed star charts for Indian Ocean navigation. His knowledge of the monsoon winds, ocean currents, shoals, and harbor approaches along thousands of miles of coastline was encyclopedic.

He produced over forty navigational treatises in both prose and verse — poetry being favored because it was easier for sailors to memorize. His masterwork, Kitab al-Fawa'id fi Usul Ilm al-Bahr wa al-Qawa'id (Book of Useful Information on the Principles and Rules of Navigation), synthesized centuries of Indian Ocean navigational knowledge into a comprehensive manual.

Ibn Majid is known in historical tradition as the navigator who guided Vasco da Gama from Malindi in East Africa to Calicut in India in 1498 CE, opening the sea route from Europe to India. The accuracy of this tradition remains debated by scholars. He died around 1500 CE, his exact place of death unrecorded, leaving behind the most complete body of navigational literature produced in the medieval Islamic world.