What Was Nomical in the Astro Navigation of Early Modern Arab Pilots?

Contribution List

1. What Was Nomical in the Astro Navigation of Early Modern Arab Pilots?

Juan Acevedo (CIUHCT, Faculty of Science ERC Project RUTTER University of Lisbon)

The celestial navigation skills of early modern Arab pilots in the Indian Ocean are as legendary as vaguely and partially known. In this talk I will draw directly from the two known late medieval sources, Ahmad ibn Mājid and particularly Sulaymān al-Mahrī —who remains mostly untranslated— to paint a fuller picture, including their astronomical framework, the techniques they used and their...