Please check Sanjay Subrahmanyam about the perpetuation of the cock-and-bull story of Ibn Majid in his book *The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama*. http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?203436 ----------- On 10 May 2011 03:31, Goanet Reader <[email protected]> wrote: > > GERMAN COFFERS, MERCHANT BANKERS OF ANTWERP AND GENOA... AND GOA > > The European Influence in Goa > and the German Contribution to > the Portuguese Trade and > Commerce in the Sixteenth and > Seventeenth and early > Eighteenth Centuries. > > Luis de Assis Correia > [email protected] > > By one of the greatest ironies of history, the Sultan of > Malindi sent an Omani plot, Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Majid > al-Najdi, the most celebrated Arab navigator and theorist of > navigation of the fifteenth century, popularly known as Ahmad > ibn Majid, to Vasco da Gama, and piloted by Ahmad ibn Majid, > the Portuguese caravels set sail from Malindi in late April. > > They traversed the Indian Ocean and made land fall at Calicut > on May 20, 1498. Â Unwittingly, ibn Majid al-Najdi, not only > helped the Portuguese in their discovery of the maritime > route to India, but also was directly responsible for the > destruction of Arab primacy in the seas and the extinction of > Arab monopoly of trade in Oriental spices.
-- http://bit.ly/aBMS9z / Â http://bit.ly/hiBEwp
