For at least 2,000 years, Maldivian vessels have crossed the Indian Ocean, guided by generations of Dhivehi maalimeen – navigators. Yet remarkably little has been written about how Maldivian seamen actually sailed.
The surviving evidence is scattered: a 12th-century letter found in a Cairo synagogue, stories passed down through generations, royal records and the recollections of a scholar who went looking for the remnants of a lost navigation library.
Together, they reveal a sophisticated tradition of navigation based on stars, seasonal winds, ocean currents, compasses and instruments for measuring stellar altitude. Some of the techniques described in Maldivian folklore closely resemble those used by famous Arab navigators such as Ibn Majid and Sulayman al-Mahri.
The hardware changed over time. The knowledge did not begin with the arrival of Europeans.
Read the full piece: maldivesindependent.com/arts-and-culture/an-ocean-of-history-navigating-dhivehi-seamanship-5417



