Theodor A. Shumovskiy, Arabs and the sea: after old manuscripts and books. Moscow: the Mardjani Publishing House, 2010

A vivid and absorbing essay focuses on the importance of navigation in the Arabic East from the ancient times to the very beginning of Early Modern Era. To a large extend the Age of Discovery was based on achievements of the Medieval Arabic geographers and seafarers.  The Colonial Epoch image of Arabs as "wild children of the Desert" should be revised.

The book relies on the author's studies on  Arabic manuscripts of the 15^th and 16^th century, including a Book of Useful Information on the Principles and Rules of Navigation by Ahmad ibn Majid, a famous Arab navigator and cartoghrafer, and his student Sulaiman al-Mahri.

Theodor A. Shumovski (1913 - )  is a Professor of the Arab history, an author of several philological and source studies on the history of the medieval Arab navigation, including the PhD. dissertation "Three unknown sailing directions by Ahmad b. Majid” (1948) and the DPhil dissertation “the Arabic Marine Encyclopedia” (1965), introducing the most important Arabic sources of the 15^th and 16^th centuries.  The two-volume critical edition of the Ahmad b. Majid’s Book of Useful Information on the Principles and Rules of Navigation, translated and commented by Prof. Shumovski was published in 1984 and 1985.

Theodor A. Shumovskiy, Arabs and the sea: after old manuscripts and books. 2nd edition. Moscow: the Mardjani Publishing House, 2010 ISBN 978-5-903715-25-1