Vasco da Gama's name has figured in all history books, whether they relate to World, European,1 Asian or Indian history,2 as a great sailor and adventurer. He has been solely credited with the honour of having discovered the sea-route from Europe to India via the Cape of Good Hope. At the same time, the name of another great sailor—Ibn Majid—who actually piloted Vasco da Gama's ship from Malindi on the east coast of Africa to Calicut in India, has been ignored. His name has gone unnoticed due to several reasons. In the first place there is a general lack of information about his career and achievements. Secondly, the euro-centric approach sees all progress in history, science and art from the high pedestal built by the European scholars for Western civilization.3 And lastly, the Arab historians held back the true facts about Ibn Majid being the pilot of Vasco da Gama's ship. This article attempts to piece together the evidence collected from various sources in Europe, Africa and India.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
There is only one indirect reference in the New Cambridge Modern History, Vol. I (Cambridge, 1965), p. 425, which while praising the achievements of Vasco da Gama says that early in 1498, after reaching the coast of Fast Africa a pilot was obtained. However, no mention is made of the pilot or his nationality. See also DodwellH. H. (Ed.), Cambridge History of India, Vol. V (Cambridge, 1929), p. 1, where Vasco da Gama is credited with “the discovery of the new route to an old-world.”
2.
Historical writings by Indian historians have without exception repeated the same view. They all credit Vasco da Gama for discovering the sea-route to India
3.
Western historiography has been euro-centric; events have been viewed from Western Europe as the centre of the world and also as determining the course of its history. For instance, monsoon shipping was known to the Indians long before the “discovery” by Hippalus, in the first century AD, of the sea-route from Aden to the Malabar Coast of India. This route to India was held to be a dicovery of such importance that the name of “Hippalus” was given to the wind which enabled him to perform the voyage
4.
There are Hebrew names for Indian articles of export to the Roman world which included pepper, cinnamon, rice, coral, tortoise and ivory
5.
A young Venetian,
ContiNirolo, who came to Calicut in the early part of the 15th century, described it as “a noble emporium for all India, abounding in pepper, lac, ginger, a large kind of cinnamon, myrobalans and zedravy.” “Travels of Conti” in MajorR. H. (Ed.), India in the Fifteenth Century (London, 1857), p. 20. Likewise, the testimony of a 15th century, Russian traveller, Athanasius Niktin, who also visited Calicut, is that “it produced pepper, ginger, colour plants, cloves, cinnamon, aromatic roots, adrach and every description of spices, in R. H. Major, Ibid., p. 20
6.
HeerenA. H.L., Historical Researches: Africa, Vol. II (translated from German), (London, 1838), p. 438
7.
LoganWilliam, Malabar, Vol. I (Madras, 1887), pp. 193–194
8.
GibbsH. A.R., Travels of Ibn Batuta (London, 1929), p. 169
9.
VerthemaTravelsI (1928), p. 151
10.
“Travels of Nicolo Conti” in
MajorR.H., India in the 15th Century, n. 5, p. 21
11.
HeerenA. H.L.. Historical Researches: Africa, Vol. I (translated from German), (London, 1838), p. 230
12.
The Arabs were authors of several treatises on the science of navigation and oceanography. From Masudi's account we learn that each sea had its expert sailors. The Arabs made several improvements in the compass, an instrument to indicate direction which was first invented by the Chinese. It is certain that Ibn Majid had a better astralab than the Portuguese
13.
Letter No. LXX, 25 October 1514, Portuguese MSS, Vol. III, India Office Library, London. See also “The Narrative of Abder-Razzak,” pp. 13–14 (tr. into English by R. H. Major, in R. H. Major, n. 5. Abder-Razzak had visited Calicut in 1442 A. D. See also, G. Sernigi, First Letter to a Gentleman of Florence (London 1910), p. 127. He says that during the three-month Portuguese stay from 21 May to 25 August in Calicut, 1500 morish vessels in search of spices arrived.
14.
As far as ownership of big ships was concerned, the Arabs may be ranked as the most important owners, with the Gujarati Banias next, the Malabari third and the Konkanis last.MorelandW.H., “The Ships of the Arabian Sea About 1500 A. D.,” in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1939 (London) pp. 173–192
15.
Ibid., p. 74. As against this view, C. N. Parkinson, Trade in the Eastern Seas (Cambridge, 1937), p. 6, attributes their failure to their want of courage
16.
Castanheda'sF. L.Chronicle 1 in
ThealG. M., Records of South-Eastern Africa, Vol. V (Cape Town, 1908) p. 100. Duarte Barbosa's account in The Book of Duarte Barbosa—1500–1516 (London, 1918), p. 437
17.
Geography of Claudius Ptolemy VII (trs. by E. L. Stevenson, 1932), pp. 159–160. See also S. Maqbul Ahmad, “Travels of Abu'I-Hassan Ali b. al-Hasayn al-Masudi,” Islamic Culture (Hyderabad), Vol. XXVIII, no. 4, October 1954, p. 524. According to Ptolemy, the Indian Ocean was like a gulf bounded on all sides by land except the opening towards the east which connected the ocean with the Pacific. He held that there was terra incognito in the southern hemisphere which formed an extension of the East African Coast. Thus the Arabs could not visualize a connection between the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic towards the west. They thought of encircling the ocean in the east which connected with the North Sea only and finally with the Atlantic. The presence in the 10th century of some planks of boats belonging to the Indian Ocean, near the Island of Crete in the Mediterranean, when there was no direct connection of waters of the two seas, caused a stir in the Arabic scholars of the period. It was thought that they floated into the Mediterranean through the Sea of China and the North Sea. Because of defective geographical ideas based on Ptolemy's Geography, they did not realize that the planks were floating into the Atlantic via South Africa. The Arabs also held that all the seas were one great community of waters. S. Nadvi, “Arab Navigation,” Islamic Culture, Vol. 15, 1941, p. 181
18.
Pope'sEthel M.India in Portuguese Literature (Lisbon, 1937), p. 16; The New Cambridge Modern History, n. 1, p. 424 and R. P. Rao's Poituguese Rule in India, p. 23 have expressed the opinion that the information did probably reach King John II
19.
The three ships were “S. Gabriel”—120 tons, commanded by Vasco da Gama; the “S. Raphael”—100 tons, commanded by Paulo da Gama (brother of Vasco da Gama); and the “Berrio”—60 tons, captained by Nicolau Coclho
20.
See Note on Sources-Appendix I. Also note that on 22 January 1498 his ships arrived on the African coast according to the Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama 1497–1499, E. G. Ravenstein (London, 1898). After two months, the ships arrived in Mozambique on 21 March 1498.
21.
MajidIbn mentions ship wreeks of Portuguese ships off Sofala before the entry of Vasco da Gama. Possibly, therefore, the Portuguese may have made some serious attempts before Vasco da Gama crossed the Channel. T. A. Shumovsky “The Rutter of Sofala,” in Three Unknown Rutters of Ahmad bin Majid, the Arab Pilot of Vasco da Gama (Moscow, 1957)
22.
This is based on a local Arab tradition on the coast of Africa.AndersonAdam, Historical and Chronological Deductions of the Origins of Commerce, Vol. I. p. 550. There is also an indirect reference to the help taken of the Arab pilots from Mozambique in Duarte Barbosa's The Castanheda Chronicle III, p. 23. He writes that during Vasco da Gama's first trip, he was tricked by his Mozambique pilot, who was an Arab, into believing that there was a Christian population at Kilwa. These so-called “Christians” were actually Hindus
23.
The Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama, 1497–1499, n. 20, p. 40
24.
Ibid., p. 45
25.
de BarrosJoa, Appendix I in G. M. Theal, Records of the South-Easterit Africa, n. 16, pp. 185–186
26.
ShumovskyT.A., n. 21
27.
See Appendix I.
28.
FerrandGabrielMajid”“Shihab Al-Din-Ahmad B., Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. IV, (London, 1934), pp. 362–363
29.
30.
See Appendix I.
31.
VilliersAllan, Sons of Sindbad (London, 1940), pp. 158–159
32.
See Appendix I.
33.
BoxerC.R., The Portuguese in Mombassa, 1593–1729 (London, 1960), p. 18
34.
FerrandGabrielMajid”“Shihab Al-Din-Ahmad B., n. 28, p. 365
35.
NadviS. Sulaiman, Arbon Ki Jahazrani (in Urdu) his writings in Islamic Culture, Vol. 15, 1941, and Vol. 16, 1942. S. Maqbul Ahmad, “Ibn Majid” Encyclopaedia of Islam (new edition), Vol. III, Pt. 2 (London, 1968–71), pp. 856–859
36.
ShumovskyT.A., n. 21. Also see, Gervase Mathew, “The Culture of the East African Coast in the 17th and 18th Centuries in the light of Recent Archaeological Discoveries,” Man (London), Vol. LVI, May 1956, pp. 66–67
37.
FerrandGabriel, n. 28, pp. 364–65
38.
GrenvilleG. S. P. Freeman, who has done much research on East Africa and the Arab world and stayed for long in those areas, holds the view that Majid was an Indian Muslim. Tanganyika Notes and Records (Dar-es-Salaam), September 1960, no. 55, p. 305
39.
The broad time-table of dates is indicated here. They left Lisbon on 8 July 1497, arrived on the African coast on 22 January 1498; from there they reached Mozambique on 21 March 1498, Mormbassa on 22 or 26 April and arrived in Calicut on 17 or 20 May 1498.
40.
CantoesL.LusiadasO.S., quoted in Shumovsky, n. 21
41.
PanikkarK.M., “Malabar and the Portuguese” in Ethel M. Pope, n. 18, pp. 23–33
42.
The letter is quoted in Ethel
PopeM., n. 18, pp. 23–26
43.
Sernigi'sG.Second Letter to a Gentleman of Florence (London, 1910)
44.
He captured 800 innocent fishermen in Calicut in 1502 and chopped off their hands, legs and heads,
RaoR.P., Portuguese Rule in Gju. 1510–1961 (Bombay, 1963), p. 26
