a memorandum for historians on the innocence of ibn maj

نبذة عن كتاب a memorandum for historians on the innocence of ibn maj

Ahmed Ibn Majid might be one of the most detested names in India. In the classic, first hand historical sources, especially classical history texts on Mappila history, which is one of our focal areas as publisher, Ibn Majid is the man who guided Vasco da Gama from Africa to India. The name is resonating with colonialism and invasion, from whose legacy and memory post-colonial India at least pretends to free itself.
Sultan bin Muhammad al Qasimi, the eminent ruler of Sharjah, proves with sufficient evidence that the guide of- Vasco, da Gama was not Ahmed Ibn Majid, but a Qujarati who believed in a form of Christianity. The belief and geography of the person who was complicit in colonialism might not be relevant, though the innocence of Ahmed Ibn Majid in this context would deconstruct the argument for a Muslim connivance in the colonial project. But the vilification of Ahmed Ibn Majid has helped brush off the intellectual legacy of a man who has contributed to oceanic studies. This book will inform you that he wrote Kitab al Muheet (Book of Oceans) and Sufaliah (a Rhapsody sub-headed ‘blossoming of the oceanic wisdom’). That the vilification was started not by the classical Portuguese historians but by later historians will force us to read this book in the context of orientalism.
Sultan bin Muhammad al Qasimi has written other notable works in this ilk. His Myth of Arab Piracy in the Gulf deconstructs the historical lie that almost all pirates were Arabs. We believe that a true, revolutionary historiography of today involves de- mythification of all constructs and cherished notions. When Sultan’s analysis dealt with a name which is of importance to Mappila history, we undertook the task of publishing it. Sultan also brings into analysis Tuhfat al Mujahiddin, from whose publication Other Books started to move. Sultan says how the name of Ibn Majid got interpolated in Tuhfa in its later edition.
The book has four parts: A treatise of Sultan in which he refutes the allegation of Arab historians against Ibn Majid and Vasco da Gama’s diary (in Arabic, English, Portuguese languages as appendices), the latter of which is the principle proof.