History of the Islamic Naval Corporation Constantinople was besieged 29 times

History of the Islamic Naval Corporation Constantinople was besieged 29 times, its Egyptian fleet included 36,000 ships, and it developed the most accurate maps of America

The American historian Will Durant (d. 1402 AH / 1981 AD) says - in 'The Story of Civilization' - that the Muslims in Andalusia had "a merchant fleet of more than a thousand ships carrying the crops of Andalusia and its products to Africa and Asia, and the ships coming from a hundred holes were crowded with them"!! Our ancient historians report that there were 36,000 boats transporting people and goods above the Nile River in Egypt, and there were 30,000 ships in Iraq on the Tigris River alone!!

What happened to the Muslims who used to board desert ships - camels and others - in order to accompany the most important captains and seafarers in history?! The answer is not far from the great civilizational rush of Muslims towards the world for the sake of da’wah and trade, and the challenge of major empires in order to attain global sovereignty for many centuries.

It is this civilizational impulse that made the ships of the Arabian Peninsula dock on seas and even global oceans that became Arab with political influence, scientific influence and economic prosperity, and crowned its glory with the conquest of Constantinople after 29 attempts that broke the resolve of its perpetrators with the waves of the harbors of this city whose fall was dated to a new world order!

This topic that you are reading is part of the series of the history of the institutions of Islamic civilization, the chapters of which are periodically published on the “Heritage” page, where we will look with you on the most luxurious in scope and greatest in impact, which is the Islamic Naval Foundation, which reached its peak in the manufacture of major naval fleets in military marine sciences, so Muslim sailors were Deep knowledge of types of military ships, war games tactics, special forces operations in rescue and sea landing.

This institution also reached its peak in the arts of navigation when one of its most brilliant captains was able to draw very accurate and dazzling maps of the new world continents (North and South Americas), and the ingenuity of its Turkish-Muslim painter continues to astonish the experts of geographical maps in the most prominent universities in the world in America and Europe!

A major shift

The Arabs have known since ancient times the seas due to the nature of the Arabian Peninsula, which overlooks from its three sides the Mediterranean Sea in the north, the Red Sea in the west, the Indian Sea (Arabian Sea) in the south, and the Arabian Gulf in the east.

Despite this, most Arabs were afraid of the seas before and after Islam, so that the Caliph Omar Ibn Al-Khattab (d. 23 AH / 655 AD) “when he wrote to [Governor of Egypt] Amr ibn al-Aas (d. 43 AH / 664 AD) asking him about the sea, and he said: A great character that is mounted by a weak character. , worms on a stick, so Omar wrote to him that no one would ride it for the rest of his life, so when he was after Omar, he still rode until he was Omar bin Abdul Aziz (d. 101 AH / 720 AD), so he followed Omar’s opinion in it and Omar was prevented because of his pity for Muslims”; As al-Qastalani (d. 923 AH / 1517 AD) mentions in 'Irshad al-Sari'.

However, the Caliph Othman bin Affan (d. 35 AH / 656 AD) was no less cautious than Umar in riding the sea; When his governor on the Levant, Muawiyah bin Abi Sufyan (d. 60 AH / 681 AD) sent him to ask him for permission to invade Cyprus in the year 27 AH / 649 AD and make it easy for him - as he did with the Caliph Omar, who refused his request - Othman answered him with conditions, saying: “If you board the sea with your wife, then board it with permission.” Yours, or else not.; the best of them ( his soldiers), so whoever chose to invade obediently, carry it and help him"; As al-Baladhari (d. 279 AH/892 AD) narrates in 'Futuh al-Buldan'.

Since the conquest of Cyprus 27 AH / 649 AD and the events that followed that encouraged Muslims to ride the sea and needed to establish fleets, Ibn Khaldun (d. 808 AH / 1406 AD) explains this matter - in the 'Introduction' - by saying: "The reason for this is that the Arabs, for their beginnings, were not skilled in his culture And he rode it, and the Romans and Franks to practice his conditions. They flexed with him and ruled the home with his culture. When the king settled for the Arabs, their power was elevated, and the nations of the Persians became. under their hands, and every craftsman approached them with the amount of his industry, and they used the mariners ( navigators) in their seafaring crafts, and their maritime needs. of the sea and its culture; they created a vision with it and pointed out the jihad in it, and built ships in it. and shipped the fleets with men and weapons.”

The Islamic control of Cyprus and their emerging dominance in the Mediterranean - along the northern coast of Africa - made the Byzantines decide to enter a decisive naval battle to destroy the Islamic fleet; The battle of “Dhat al-Sawari” was 34 AH / 656 AD in which the Muslims were victorious, although the Byzantines prepared for it “in a gathering that the Romans have never gathered since Islam was, so they went out in five hundred boats”; According to al-Tabari (d. 310 AH / 922 AD) in his history.

After the defeat of the Byzantines in "Dhat al-Sawari", the door was opened for Muslims to reach naval dominance in the Mediterranean; So they began their attempts to conquer Andalusia by controlling the four Balearic Islands located off its eastern coast, as Khalifa bin Khayat al-Usfari (d. 240 AH / 854 AD) tells us - in his history - that in 89 AH / 709 AD, the Umayyad governor of Morocco Musa bin Nusair (d. 97 AH / 716 AD) sent an army. So he came to Mallorca and Menorca, two islands between Sicily and Andalusia, and conquered them.

A new phase

and with the Aghlabid family (184-296 AH/800-909AD) taking over the rule of Ifriqiya/Tunisia - on the authority of the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid (d. 193 AH/809AD) - they were keen to strengthen their military fleet, so they increased the establishment of warships to conquer the Byzantine islands, especially since the mandate of the Byzantine Islands. Their Emir Ziada Allah Ibn al-Aghlab (d. 226 AH / 841 AD), who Ibn al-Atheer (d. 630 AH / 1233 AD) says - in 'Al-Kamil' - that he "equipped an army in the sea fleet and had many boats."

The conquest of the island of Sicily in 212 AH / 827 AD represented the height of the power of the Islamic navy in the southern Mediterranean, and it was the conquest that was led militarily by the Maliki judge Asad bin Al-Furat (Persian d. 213 AH / 828 AD) when Prince Ziyadah Allah chose him, "He appointed him over the army and approved it to the judiciary with the leadership"; According to Ibn Adhari al-Marrakchi (died after 712 AH / 1312 AD) in 'Al Bayan Al-Maghrib'.

When the Fatimids overthrew the rule of the Aghlabids at the end of the third / ninth century AD; They seized their maritime inheritance and built the "house of industry. that accommodates more than two hundred boats, and in it are two large and long vaults for boats' machinery and their tools so that neither sun nor rain can reach it!" According to the narration of the Andalusian geographer Abi Obaid al-Bakri (d. 487 AH/1094 AD) in 'The Paths and Kingdoms'.

Then al-Bakri mentioned the expansion and fortification of the wonderful port of Mahdia; He said, "Its anchor is pierced in a solid stone that can accommodate thirty boats, on both ends of the dock are two towers between which there is a chain of iron, so if a ship is to be entered into it, the guards of the two towers send one end of the chain until the ship enters and then extend it as it was after that; fortification so that the Roman ships do not touch it!!"

Therefore, the powerful fleets of the Fatimids caused dismay on their European counterparts; Al-Dhahabi (d. 748 AH / 1348 AD) says - in 'History of Islam' - that in 323 AH / 935 AD, the Caliph of the Fatimids al-Mansur (d. 341 AH / 953 AD) ordered his military commander Ya'qub bin Ishaq (d. after 323 AH / 935 AD) to leave "in a fleet of Mahdia ( The city of Tunis) I counted thirty warships to the region of Ifranja ( Italy), so he conquered the city of Genoa.”

By the fourth century AH / tenth century AD; The Muslims had controlled the major islands of the Mediterranean and important places on the mainland in southern Italy, and became close to Rome itself. In describing the extent of this Islamic naval hegemony; Ibn Khaldun says that the Muslims "conquered much of the depth of this sea., and the Islamic soldiers allow ( cut off) the sea in the fleets from Sicily to the great land opposite it from the northern enemy ( bank), so they fall on the Franks kings and thicken their kingdoms. And the Muslim fleets have. filled the most simple of this sea with numbers and numbers, and differed in its paths, peace and war, so that no tablets appeared to Christianity in it!!

By the beginning of the 5th/10th century AD; The main seas in the ancient world were subject to Islamic hegemony, but this control began to loosen - especially in the Mediterranean - when the Christians regained large parts of the island of Sicily in the middle of this century, and then the spark of the Crusades erupted at the end of this century. But what is remarkable is that the naval defense efforts of the Islamic fleets were not inferior - most of the time - to the eras of attack and conquest, but they sometimes exceeded them in planning prowess, maneuvering skills, and steadfastness.

Special Operations

Here, Ibn al-Qalansi tells us about the details of one of the naval operations supervised by the commander of the Egyptian Fatimid fleet - the middle of the sixth / 12th century AD - after it was preceded by complex naval intelligence and reconnaissance operations; He says: "So he [the commander of the fleet] chose a group of seamen speaking in the language of the Franks, and dressed them in the clothes of the Franks, and set them up on several of the fleet's boats, and set off at sea to discover the places, reservoirs and paths known as the Roman boats., and returned back to Egypt with spoils and captives."

Among the highly complex naval ambulance operations to break the Crusader siege on Muslim cities; What Ibn Shaddad al-Mawsili (d. 632 AH / 1234 AD) mentions - in the 'Sultan Anecdotes' - in the events of 585 AH / 1189 AD, that "the Franks. turned their boats around Acre, guarding it from the Muslim boats entering it, and those in it were in dire need of food. And al-Mira, a group of Muslims rode in the Bassa ( a warship with decks) in Beirut, and dressed in the garb of the Franks until [they] shaved their beards, and put pigs on the surface of the bowl so that they could be seen from a distance, and they hung crosses, and they came to the country.until I entered the port of the country., It was a great joy, because the need had been taken from the people of the country!

After the fall of the Fatimids, the advent of the Ayyubids, and the renewed interest of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi (d. 589 AH / 1193 AD) with the fleets of Egypt and the Levant; These fleets played important roles in confronting the Crusaders’ naval attacks, despite the general weakness described by Ibn Khaldun when he spoke about “the weakness of the fleets in the state of Egypt and the Levant until it was cut off, and they did not take care ( the Ayyubids) of anything of his ( the fleet) for this covenant after That they had in the Ubaid state ( Fatimid) care that exceeded the limit, as is known in their news.

Al-Imad Al-Isfahani (d. 597 AH/1200 AD) - in “Al-Burq Al-Shami” provides us with important details about the victories of the Ayyubid fleets over the Crusaders; In the incidents of 573 AH / 1177 AD, he says: “The Egyptian Mansour fleet invaded. and penetrated into Algeria., and gained a large conquest, so he threw it with a great fistula, and seized it and another.” Al-Isfahani estimated the number of Crusaders captives in the incident at a thousand.

And when al-Zahir Baybars al-Bandaqari (d. 676 AH / 1277 AD) took the throne of the Mamluk state 659 AH / 1261 AD; Develop a plan to reorganize all its sectors, including the naval fleet industry. Al-Maqrizi (d. 845 AH / 1441 AD) tells us - in 'The Behavior to Know the Countries of the Kings' - he says: "[Baybars] looked at the matter of al-Shawani ( the plural of 'Shuna/Shini': a combat ship) of the war, and he had neglected the matter of the fleet in Egypt. And he established several shwani in Damietta and Alexandria, and went down by himself to the “house of industry” and arranged what should be arranged, and he integrated with him the land of Egypt more than forty pieces, and a large number of fires ( harraqa collection: a fire-throwing ship) and game ( collection of game: a ship offensive warfare).

It seems that Baibars' efforts paid off by restoring the Mamluk fleet to the military initiative; In the era of Sultan Al-Nasir Qalawun (d. 741 AH / 1341 AD), the island of Arwad - which is located today within Syria - “gathered in it ( the year 702 AH / 1302 AD) a large crowd of Franks., and they were going out of it and blocking the way for the Muslims. So Al-Shawani was built. It traveled to it from the Egyptian lands in the Sea of ​​Rome ( the Mediterranean Sea). and fierce fighting took place between them and God helped the Muslims and they owned the mentioned island. According to Abu al-Fida al-Ayyubi (d. 732 AH / 1332 AD) in 'Al-Mukhtasar fi Akhbar al-Bishr'.

Historic expansion

and due to the Cypriot naval attacks on the coasts of Egypt and the Levant; The Mamluks increased their interest in the manufacture of their fleets until they reached the peak of their power by controlling Cyprus, which was at that time the last Crusader stronghold in the eastern Mediterranean. At the end of 829 AH / 1426 AD, the Mamluk Sultan Barsbay (d. 841 AH / 1438 AD) ordered the “Aghribah Building ( the collection of crows: the large warship) and porters ( warships intended to carry equipment and horses), and he found that and spent money., and it is said that it reached several buildings. ( fleet) - strangers, porters, boats - two hundred pieces and extra"; According to Imam Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852 AH / 1448 AD) in 'Anbaa al-Ghamr'.

In conjunction with those Mamluk naval victories, the Ottoman Empire was slowly expanding in Anatolia and the Balkans, and its sultans gave their attention to the naval fleets, especially after the conquest of the city of Bursa / Brusa and its adoption as their capital in 717 AH / 1317 AD; Their naval power renewed the covenants of the conquests of Islam in the beginning of their sprawling state, and the efforts to defend the coasts of Muslims at the end of it.

After their conquest of the city of Edirne in 762 AH / 1361 AD on the European side and taking it as the capital of the Ottoman Sultanate, "the naval fleet became necessary to connect the two parts of the Sultanate extending from Asia to Europe, where Bulgaria and Serbia were opened. The Ottoman fleet reached the Mediterranean Sea, and Sultan Murad II (d. 855 AH) seized / 1451 AD) on all the Roman castles and fortresses on the shores of the Black Sea and the coasts of Rumeli ( the Ottoman European region)”; According to Mahmoud Al-Daghim in 'Lights on the History of the Ottoman Islamic Navy'.

The conquest of Constantinople/Istanbul by the Ottomans is one of the military and naval miracles. This city was besieged 29 times since the era of the Umayyad dynasty until the middle of the ninth / 15th century AD, and it was able to withstand it all! Ismail Sarhank (d. 1343 AH / 1924 AD) - in 'News Facts about the Countries of the Seas' - summarizes for us the strangest events of the conquest of Istanbul on 21 Jumada al-Awwal 857 AH / May 29, 1453 AD, thanks to a genius military plan developed by Sultan Muhammad al-Fateh (d. 886 AH / 1481 AD) .

Sarhank mentions of these oddities: “The warships running on dry land a distance of a league ( approximately 5 km) by covering the land - on which the warships are to be drawn - with pine planks greased with grease until it became like slips, then they dragged them on it - and it consisted of eighty crows and seventy A light ship - by the strength of the hands and machinery used at that time, because he saw that the ships could not be entered into the city’s port because they were locked with the largest iron chains. So all these works were completed in one night, and in the morning the besieged [Byzantines] were completely amazed when they saw a fully equipped war fleet descended From the beach to their port" while heedless of them!!

And if the Ottoman Navy had played the most prominent role in the conquest of Constantinople; These fleets - as mentioned by Dia Pasha (d. 1296 AH / 1880 AD) in 'The History of Andalusia' - had a great role in defending and transporting the Muslims of Andalusia, and fighting the fleets of France and Spain in the Mediterranean. As for the greatest naval roles of the Ottomans - in the western Mediterranean - they were manifested in the rescue of the Andalusians, the defeat of the Spaniards and the liberation of many areas of the Islamic Maghreb at the hands of the Ottoman naval commander Khair al-Din Barbarossa (d. 953 AH / 1546 AD); Moulay Belhamisi (d. 1430 AH / 2009 AD) also mentions in 'Algeria and the Naval Invasion in the Sixteenth Century'.

Institutional setup

It did not come out of nowhere that the triumphant march - in most cases - of the Muslim fleets, which they achieved during the first centuries of their civilizational rush, and we alluded to some of them not exclusively; Rather, it was a product of the strategic mentality of the Muslims that prompted them to take great care of shipbuilding and the formation of fleets to conquer the Roman countries in the northern Mediterranean and Andalusia, and for the sustainable domination of the major world seas at the time, especially the Mediterranean, the Red and the Indian.

To achieve these grand goals; The Muslims worked to strengthen their war fleets, which called their shipyards - of all kinds - their own term, "Dar al-Sina'a" or "industry" for short. Its facilities spread in the most important cities of the Mediterranean coast, such as Acre and Tyre in the Levant, Alexandria and Rawda Island in Egypt, Tunisia and Bejaia Africa/Tunisia, Almeria and Algeciras in Andalusia.

Egypt was the headquarters of the Great House of Industry for the construction of warships at the beginning of the Umayyad Caliphate, but an event occurred in AH 49 / AD / 670 AD, which forced Caliph Muawiyah to establish new industrial houses on the Levantine coast, such as Acre. About this, Al-Baladhuri says: “When the year of forty-nine year came, the Romans went to [the invasion] of the coasts, and the [house] of industry was in Egypt only, so Muawiyah ordered. to collect craftsmen and carpenters, so they gathered and arranged them on the coasts, and the [house] of industry in Jordan was in Acre.”

This text informs us that the first “house of industry” established in Egypt existed before 49 AH / 670 AD, and perhaps it was it that was known as “the island industry” because it was located on the island of Rawda in the Nile River, and was mentioned by Ibn Abd al-Hakam (d. 257 AH / 871 AD) - in ‘Futuh Egypt And Morocco '- when he recounted an incident that occurred in the caliphate of Omar bin Abdul Aziz, "[in which] wood was needed for the 'industry of the island'".

With the expansion of the Islamic conquests in the Islamic West region; There has become an urgent need to establish industrial houses in these regions due to the large number of Byzantine and neighboring European fleets, which were constantly threatening the Muslims. That is why Ibn Khaldun says in his history: “The Caliph Abd al-Malik (Ben Marwan, d. 86 AH / 706 AD) instructed Hassan Ibn al-Nu’man (died after 80 AH / 700 AD), a worker in Africa, to take a ‘house of industry’ in Tunisia to build marine machines in order to ensure the ceremonies of jihad. Sicily".

It seems that the Umayyads and the Abbasids expanded in establishing the roles of the maritime industry in the cities and ports of the Levantine coast in early times; The geographer Al-Yaqubi (d. after 292 AH / 905 AD) said - in his book 'Countries' - speaking about the city of Tyre: "It is the city of coasts and contains the House of Industry, and from it the Sultan's boats come out to invade the Romans."

Great care

However, an important development occurred in the "house of industry" in Egypt in the middle of the third / ninth century AD; Especially following the advent of the Turkish leader Ahmed bin Tulun (d. 270 AH/883 AD) as governor of the Abbasids, as he quickly separated from the rule of the country, the founders of the Tulunid State, and then followed him in the interest in the fleets, Muhammad ibn Tughaj al-Ikhshid (d. 334 AH / 948AD), the founder of the Ikhshidid state.

On the interest of these two men in the naval power; Al-Maqrizi says in 'Al-Mawā`iz wa-l-I'tibar: "The Emir.Ahmed bin Tulun took care of the construction of warships in this 'industry' ( Dar al-Sina'a)., and this 'industry' did not remain until the days of the king. Muhammad bin Tughaj al-Ikhshid, so he established [ A house] of industry on the coast of Fustat, Egypt, and the location of this 'industry' was made the chosen orchard. Yahya al-Antaki (d. 458 AH / 1067 AD) - in his history - describes the events of an official inauguration in Egypt showing the care of the Ikhshidid princes in the manufacture of fleets. He says that "he rode Camphor al-Ikhshid (d. 356 AH / 967 AD) to the House of Industry and stood to cast a great warship that was on it to the sea."

If we look at the important information collected by al-Maqrizi from previous historians whose dates have been lost; We will see that the naval fleet industry in Egypt reached its zenith in the time of the Fatimids. He says that their Caliph Al-Muizz Li-Din Allah (d. 365AH/976AD) “established the House of Industry in Al-Maqs ( near Ramses Square in Cairo), and built in it six hundred boats, the like of which had not been seen in the sea, on a port. While he has advanced, he is old, strong and well-groomed!!

In the Levant region, Beirut embraced one of the most important shipbuilding roles in the Mamluk state, after mobilizing specialized human capabilities and energies for it. Salih bin Yahya (d. 840 AH / 1436 AD) informs us - in 'The History of Beirut' - that after the Latin Cypriot attack on the city of Alexandria in 767 AH / 1365 AD, the Mamluks decided to build many boats from the Beirut forest, "porters and stalls to enter Cyprus ( Cyprus), so they brought craftsmen. From all the kingdoms, they built a platform in the middle of Beirut, and boats were working on it a distance from the sea.”

In the Islamic West; The Umayyad sultans of Andalusia and those who followed were also interested in establishing the role of making warships and commercial ships. Even the American civilization historian Will Durant says - in 'The Story of Civilization' - that Andalusia had "a merchant fleet of more than a thousand ships carrying the crops of Andalusia and its products to Africa and Asia, and the ships coming from a hundred holes were crowded with it."

The most important role of the shipbuilding industry was the Andalusian fleets that were built in the city of Almeria; Ibn Said al-Mughrabi (d. 685 AH / 1286 AD) says - in 'Al-Maghrib' - that Almeria "has a wall on the bank of the sea ( the Mediterranean) and in it is the House of Industry". The city of Dania was also a large marine industry house. Al-Humairi (d. 900 AH / 1495 AD) said - in 'Al-Rawd al-Attar' - that "the ships came on it and issued from it, and from it the fleet would go out to the conquest, and with it most of it originates because it is the house of its establishment."

It is noteworthy that the Umayyads in Andalusia did not care about strengthening their war fleets before the disaster of the Vikings attack - whom Andalusian historians call “the Magi” or “Ardmans” (Normans) - on the shores of the southern country in 229 AH / 844 AD, from which they penetrated north to Seville, where they killed and looted. It is the incident mentioned by Ibn Sa`id - in “Al-Maghrib” - saying: “The Magi’s boats appeared on the coasts of western Andalusia., and in the year two hundred thirty (230 AH/845 AD) they came to Seville and it was an awrah ( without a garrison), so they entered it and prosecuted it for seven days!” !

A growing power This

incident raised the alarm, warning of the dangers of the country devoid of a naval force capable of defending it against the attacks of seasoned sea invaders. It prompted active efforts to establish naval warships that quickly became reputable and prestige. Even after only five years, the Umayyad Prince Abd al-Rahman II (d. 238 AH / 852 AD) was able to issue his order 234 AH / 849 AD to prepare a fleet "from three hundred boats to the islands of Mallorca and Menwara ( off the eastern coast of Andalusia) to harm their people with the boats of Islam passing through them. They opened them.” The Balearic Islands became an active part of the Islamic civilization of Andalusia for four centuries.

The truth is that the Umayyad fleet in Andalusia reached a very great degree of strength during the time of the Caliph Abd al-Rahman al-Nasir (d. 350 AH / 961 AD), and in this regard Ibn Khaldun says: “The Andalusian fleet - in the days of Abd al-Rahman al-Nasir - ended with two hundred boats or so. and its port for landing and taking off. Almeria".

During the reign of the most famous Umayyad minister in Andalusia, Al-Mansur bin Abi Amer (d. 392 AH / 1003 AD), the campaigns of conquest of the strongholds of the Christian kingdoms in the north and west of the country multiplied, to the extent that “the number of his conquests was fifty-seven, all of which he conducted himself”; According to Ibn Adhari, who tells us that Al-Mansur decided 387 AH / 989 AD to expand his naval control in western Andalusia (today's Portugal), so he ordered the "establishment of a large fleet . and he equipped it with his marines . and supplies, food, equipment and weapons were carried, in order to demonstrate the influence of resolve."

The Almohad state - when it established its sovereignty over Andalusia in the middle of the sixth / 12th century AD - employed the prowess of the Andalusians in marine sciences and fleet industry; So a new “house of industry” was established in the Moroccan city of Salé under the supervision of the engineer Muhammad bin Ali Al-Ishbili (a man of the sixth / 12th century AD), whom the Nasiri al-Salawi (d. People skilled in moving bodies ( bodies) and lifting weights, with insight into the use of war machines.

Al-Salawi spoke about the importance of this facility, and said: “Dar al-Sina’a. is the house in which the naval fleets and jihadist boats were made. Oud ( timber) was brought to it from the ‘Al-Mamoura Forest’ (today it is located north of the capital, Rabat), then it is made there and then sent to The valley, and that was an important matter in the state of the Almohads.”

Thanks to those unremitting efforts driven by the rise in the power of Christians inside Andalusia and on the coasts of the Levant, in the eastern Mediterranean; The power of the Almohad fleet grew under the leadership of Admiral Ahmed Al-Siqilli (d. after 581 AH / 1185 AD), especially during the days of Sultan Yusuf bin Abdul-Mumin (d. 580 AH / 1184 AD), who "the Muslim fleets on his reign - in abundance and persistence - ended to what they did not reach before or after." ; According to Ibn Khaldun, who informs us of the invocation of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi in al-Mansur al-Muwahhid (d. 595 AH / 1199 AD), "the king of Morocco asked for the extension of the fleets to shift at sea between the fleets of foreigners and their goals from supplying the Christian [kingdoms] at the borders of the Levant."

Organization and financing The

concern of the Islamic countries in establishing the houses of the warship industry entailed a parallel interest in organizing the work in them in management and supervision, and in allocating human resources and industrial materials to ensure the performance of its mission and the achievement of its set goals. Al-Bakri Andalusian gives us - in 'Pathways and Kingdoms' - important details about how the "house of industry" was established for warships in Tunisia during the Umayyad days, and about the source of the manpower that worked in it.

In this, al-Bakri says that Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan wrote to his “brother Abd al-Aziz (bin Marwan d. 85 AH/700 CE) - who is the governor of Egypt – to send to the camp of Tunis a thousand Copts with his family and his son, and to carry them from Egypt and help them well until they reach Tarshish, which is Tunisia. And he wrote to [Hassan] Ibn al-Nu'man to build for them a house of industry that would be strength and preparation for Muslims until the end of time. So the Copts arrived at Hassan while he was residing in Tunis.

In the Abbasid era; Caliph al-Mutawakkil (d. 247 AH/861 AD) paid great attention to fleets; In 239 AH / 853 AD “the livelihood ( salaries) was made for the invaders of the sea as it is for the invaders of the land, and the princes assigned him archers. in matters of war, and at that time people have a desire to fight the enemies of God and establish His religion, [so] there is no offense ( undoubtedly) that the servants of the fleet had sanctity and prestige”; As Al-Maqrizi says in 'Al-Muawa'at wa'l-I'tibar'.

Abu al-Hasan al-Sabi (d. 448 AH/1057 AD) - in 'Tuhfat al-Umara' - informs us that in the first third of the fourth / tenth century AD, "the livelihoods of navigators in [different types of ships from] planes and shawls ( collection of shatha: warship) and al-Sumayriyyat (  The collection of Samira: a small warship), the corvettes, the slips ( speedboats) and the crossing boats.: five hundred dinars ( today approximately 85 thousand US dollars) each month.

Ibn al-Atheer narrates - in 'Al-Kamil' - that in 269 AH / 882 AD, the commander of the army, the Abbasid Prince Talha Al-Muwafaq (d. 278 AH / 891 AD) mobilized his naval forces to fight the owners of the Zanj revolution in southern Iraq, and "I counted what was in . the types of ships, and they were about ten thousand navigators." Those on whom the sustenance is made from the treasury is paid a share ( monthly salaries), except for the ships of the people of the military in which the mir is carried and the people ride on it for their needs, and only what each commander had of the sailors, chariots and boats.

We find that the Abbasids arranged a special job called “the Wilayat of Thaghr al-Bahr” and took great care of it, as is clear from the text of the decision to appoint one of the Abbasid caliphs to one of the holders of this position; Qudamah bin Jaafar (d. 337 AH / 948 AD) reported this decision in 'Al-Kharaj and the Writing Industry', and it was stated: "And he ordered him to inspect the order of the ships that were built so that he can judge them and improve their machines, choose the manufacturers for them, and supervise what was in the ports., and his order Only those who are ( expert) skilled in medicine, clever, patient and curative, and those who carry them with them on boats should be the best of soldiers.with sincere intentions, anticipation, and daring against the enemy.”

By the end of the 6th / 12th century AD; The finance and military writer Al-Assaad Ibn Mamati (d. 606 AH / 1209 AD) described - in “The Laws of Diwans” - the conditions of maritime affairs in Ayyubid Egypt and its most important shipyards; He said, “The building industry ( plural of building: the fleet) in which the mentioned boats are built, and they have employees who summon what he needs, and he releases money and items to them, and accounts are taken from them ( accounts reports) in which are sold wrecks and others and their accounts are returned, and industries ( roles) Shipbuilding) there are now three: in Egypt ( Cairo), Alexandria and Damietta.

In the Mamluk era, we see al-Qalqshandi (d. 821 AH / 1418 AD) talking - in 'Subh al-A'sha' - about a government administration called "Diwan al-Jihad"; He says, "It is the Diwan of Buildings ( fleets) and its place was with 'industry' in Egypt, and in it was the construction of boats for the fleet and the carrying of royal crops and logs ( timber) and others, and from it it was spent on the captains of the boats and their men, and if his easement ( his income) did not meet what he needed, he was summoned. him from the treasury ( public treasury) to suffice him.”

Diversity and specialization

of the Islamic naval fleets in the Levant and Egypt played a pivotal and influential role in resisting aggression during the era of the Crusades (492-690 AH/1099-1291 AD); In the year 550 AH / 1160 AD, the commander of the Egyptian Fatimid fleet was an expert emir in his name, as Ibn al-Qalanisi (d. 555 AH / 1160 AD) mentions - in 'The History of Damascus' - that the Minister of the Fatimids, Tala'i bin Ruzaik the Armenian (d. 556 AH / 1161 AD) "consented to take over ( command) The Egyptian fleet, presented by the navy, was very valiant and perceptive about the works of the sea!

The classes of ships that Muslims used in their war and commercial fleets, and even in the fields of tourism and transportation, varied. They assigned to each class of people the appropriate marine boats, and assigned to each field the appropriate ships of various shapes and sizes, with different objectives and functions, and with varying speeds, capabilities and equipment.

As the common people had ships for their travels and transportation; For the elite of the people, princes, ministers, governors, and senior merchants were assigned their ships equipped with what suits their ranks of pomp and comfort facilities, and that is why Ibn Battuta (d. 779 AH / 1377 AD) tells us - on his journey - about the existence of types of ships dedicated to “the sultan and the subjects”, and he states that he chose for himself in One of his diplomatic trips "a fine boat of boats prepared for the boarding of princes."

The activity of ship transport - trade and tourism - was very profitable. People used it to move about during their daily activities and in their private parks. When Abu al-Hasan al-Shabashti (d. 388 AH / 999 AD) - in his book 'The Homes' - was exposed to talk about the Christian "Monastery of Ashmouni Festival" in Iraq, he described it as "one of the great days in Baghdad, [as ] Its people gather to him as they gather for some of their feasts, and no one remains from the people of amusement and play who does not go out to him, and some of them are in [ships] planes and some of them are in the zabzab and al-Sumayriyyat, each human being according to his ability!

Al-Hafiz al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (d. 463 AH/1072 AD) - in 'The History of Baghdad' - provides data on the revenues of maritime transport services in Iraq; He says that "the Hebrew Samirat ( Maadiyat) of the Tigris was counted in days. [Abbasid Prince] Talha al-Muwaffaq (d. 278 AH/891 AD) was thirty thousand, and it was estimated that their navigators earned ninety thousand dirhams each day ( today approximately $110,000) "! And when the traveler Ibn Battuta recorded his observations in Egypt, he said, “Thirty-six thousand boats built by the Sultan and the parish pass ascending to Upper Egypt and descending to Alexandria and Damietta with all kinds of bounties and facilities!!”

As for the types of ships; Among the most important of them are the warships, whose missions and sizes varied, as we find in a text by Nuwairi al-Iskandarani (d. after 775 AH / 1372 AD) in “Kitab al-Ilam,” in which he spoke about the impact of the Cypriot attack on Alexandria in 767 AH / 1366 AD. He mentioned the types of ships that were used in Mediterranean: “The Qaraqir ( plural of karqur: the great or tall ship), boats, taraied, crows, al-Shuani, al-Shayati ( plural of Shaiti), al-Salalir ( plural of salora: a small ship for archers), and decathlons ( plural of decathlon).

Al-Nuwari then detailed the various uses of these ships; He said that "each of them has its place in the war, the transport of armies and horses, and the loading ( carrying) of goods and the requirements of the soldiers: and the gargoyles for carrying goods, and some of them have three backs ( floors) and they have three castles ( plural of qul`: sail) with which they move in the stormy wind; Prey, for they open brothels ( back doors) with doors that open and close intended for carrying horses because of the war; as for ravens, they carry invaders ( soldiers) and walk them with ploughs and oars, and some of them have a hundred and eighty oars and less.”

Al-Nuwairi adds that the “Al-Shaiti boat is towed with eighty oars, and its function is Al-Main ( transporting supplies). Because the gargoyles do not stand except in the place with abundant water, and the salwar [its size] is between the Shayti and the Ashari, and the boats are useful for the Muslim invaders in time of war at sea. on the ships of the Franks.

Lexical richness

Before that, Muslims knew the naval "barges" used in wars, which they took from the Indians; Al-Tabari mentioned - in his history - that in 251 AH/865 AD, “ten naval ships called ‘barges’ entered from Basra [to Baghdad], on each ship was Ishtiam/Istiam ( chief navigator), three oil tankers, a carpenter, a baker, and thirty-nine men. of rowers and fighters, for each ship has forty-five men.”

Their era also knew giant warships, as mentioned by Ibn al-Atheer when he recorded the incident of the capture of the Ayyubid fleet over its Frankish rival of the Kingdom of Sicily in the year 570 AH / 1174 AD, although the Sicilian naval force was a "many fleet numbered two hundred 'Shini' ( 'Shuna': the warship) They carry men, and thirty-six 'prey' carrying horses, six large boats carrying a war machine, and forty boats carrying provisions, and they have fifty thousand footmen, and one thousand five hundred cavalry, of which five hundred are riding ( a Byzantine military squad of Turkish origins)!!"!!

The Muslim sailors realized the nature of the topography of each sea, so they chose for them the types of ships that suited them. Therefore, the Red Sea boats were completely different from the Mediterranean ships due to the abundance of coral reefs and rocks in the Red Sea, and its distance from the movement of the ships of the Crusader enemies.

Most of the boats in this sea were called “the jellab” to transport pilgrims, and the Andalusian traveler Ibn Jubayr (d. 614 AH / 1217 AD) traveled on it and described the method of its manufacture, saying: “The jellab that they spend in this Pharaonic sea is fabricated, not using a nail at all, but it is sewn With straps ( ropes) of kanbar ( wicks made of coconut).

In addition to the richness of the vocabulary of ship names; We find a wide range of names and terms related to the ship and the process of its manufacture and life within it on the high seas; Ibn Manzur (d. 711 AH / 1311 AD) - in 'Lisan al-Arab' - cites the term "caulking" as a description of the process of installing ship boards. He says that "caulk. is the one who caulks ships and inserts between the screws of the boards and their beading: it is grooved and grooved and sharpened. calculus".

He also mentions the term ship shipping, saying: “Shipping: filling the ship and completing its entire equipment,” and he says that “the port is the place where ships are docked, that is, they are collected and tied.” Among the common terminology of ships is "the captain", about whom Murtada Al-Zubaidi (d. 1205 AH / 1790 CE) says - in 'Taj al-Arous' - that he is "the one who conducts the ship", that is, the captain of the ship, the captain or the chief.

The captain is different from the nokhada - or the nakhauda - which is often called a person who owns ships for the purpose of trade, transport or fishing, and may also be a captain. On his journey to India, Ibn Battuta got to know one of these Nawakhas who owned many ships, and he says of him: “Among them is Al-Nakhuda Ibrahim [Ben Khawaja Bahra] who has six boats dedicated to him.” He also met with “Al-Nakhuda Mithqal, the famous name, the owner of great money and many boats.” for his trade with India, China, Yemen and Persia!

A maritime society,

and due to the long period of travels and voyages on the seas, even weeks and sometimes months; The Muslims designed giant ships for trade and transport and provided them with everything that ensured the comfort of their passengers and their catering needs. They contained sleeping facilities and others for cooking and bathing, and a large section was devoted to storing food enough for hundreds of passengers. Some ships are multi-layered and roles, so one of them becomes more like a floating city. Also, there are many goods and commodities offered for sale to passengers, as if it is a mobile university market!

The traveler Ibn Jubayr al-Andalusi tells us about his observations of the course of life in these giant ships; He says that during his return from the East to Andalusia 581 AH / 1185 AD on the board of a large ship, “the provisions were in people’s hands, but they [they were] from this boat - by God’s grace - in a city that gathers facilities, so everything that needs to be bought is found: bread and water and all fruits and blood ( plural of edam), such as pomegranate, quince, Sindhi watermelon, pear., chickpeas and beans - raw and cooked - onions, garlic, figs, cheese, whale, and other things that are too long to mention; we have seen all that are sold inside the ship!!

Ibn Battuta - in his journey - describes the capacity of ships in the seas of Islamic India and China, and says that some of them consist of “four appearances ( floors), and in which there are houses and alms ( Egyptian collection: a single suite with its facilities) and rooms for merchants, and the Egyptian ones have houses and sundas (  the bathroom), and it has a key that its owner blocks it and carries with him the slave girls and women, and perhaps the man is in his Egypt, so no one else is known by him who is on the boat., and [men] the navy in which they live their children and they grow ( plant) vegetables, legumes and ginger in wooden basins!!

for fear of losing money and baggage; Merchants and sailors used to distribute their money and trade on more than one ship when necessary. It came to Al-Jahiz (d. 255 AH / 869 AD) in 'Al-Bakhla': "Ibn Sirin (d. 110 AH / 729 AD) said to some mariners: How do you do with your money? He said: We divide it into ships. If one is broken, one is safe! And if it wasn't for safety more, we wouldn't have carried our treasures into the sea."

And on the comforts and means of safety included in the naval fleets, both civil and military; The life of the sea was famous for its adventures and inconveniences, and the natural horrors faced by its people related to sea conditions and weather fluctuations, or human dangers such as kidnapping and piracy. Incidents of this were recorded in the stories and legends of sea voyages, and a type of “marine literature” emerged in Arab culture, beginning with the shores of the city of Seraph on the western coast of Iran; It was a meeting point for sailors and merchants of different races and countries.

We find the oldest of these stories in a book entitled 'The Seraphic Journey', whose collection dates back to the second half of the third / ninth century AD, in which the merchant Suleiman the Seraphic al-Basri (d. after 330 AH / 942 AD) describes his journey to China and the stories he heard from Arab captains traveling between Basra and China.

The seraph tells us about the hurricanes and whirlwinds that the captains and the Nawakhatha were watching at the time in the Indian Sea; He says: "A group of the Nawakhdhas mentioned to me that they might have seen in this sea white clouds of small pieces, from which a long white tongue emerges until it contacts the sea water, and if it contacts the sea, the sea will turn upside down and great whirlwinds rise from it. Nothing passes through it without destroying it!"

A legacy of knowledge

The outcome of centuries of navigation by Muslim fleets - in the waters of various seas, in peace, war, tourism and trade - was enough for them to accumulate rich experiences, and leave a huge heritage in the field of marine sciences and the arts of navigation; Therefore, we find Al-Hasan bin Abdullah Al-Abbasi (d. 710 AH / 1310 AD) singling out - in 'Athar al-Awal' - the tenth chapter of the words "On the wars of the sea", describing these wars and giving advice to the leaders, saying: He preserves it), and strengthens it a lot and saves its machines, so that if something of that is damaged, he finds what is left of it, and he takes care in its evaluation ( coating it with bitumen: pitch). tides, etc.

Al-Abbasi reveals the tools and tactics that must be used during the naval clash with the enemy; So the marine warrior recommends that he “throw into the boats jars ( cans) of finely tuned ( chemical) that are not extinguished, for it blinds them with its dust and inflames them if it dissipates (such as tear gas), and throws oil, pots of snakes and scorpions, and pots of soft soap, as it slips. Their feet are hung around the boats, leather and felt moistened with vinegar or water to ward off the oil [fire], and he guards against the enemy’s attack on him at night, so he does not take fire on the boats or light a lamp.”

Another important source in knowing the details of the life and battles of the sea is the book “Royal Rulings and Legal Controls in the Art of Fighting in the Sea” by Muhammad bin Munkali Al-Nasiri (d. after 770 AH / 1368 AD), who was one of the leaders of the Mamluk army in the era of Sultan Al-Ashraf Shaaban (d. 778 AH / 1376 AD). ); It devotes sections to indicate the appropriate times for the manufacture of ships and the times of take-off and landing, and the foods and drinks that a sea passenger must consume before departure and during travel so as not to harm his health; For example, he says: “[A person] should be full of food when he goes to sea, and if he vomits, he will have enough in his stomach to vomit, then food should be reduced after that”!

In the history of Arab marine geography, we find various news and knowledge about the seas and their sciences, navigation and rules, especially those related to astronomy, which the lords knew about the houses and constellations and the celestial changes related to the rising and setting of the stars, and the appropriate dates - in terms of weather conditions and destinations of winds - for journeys taking off and landing. And they knew this through what was called "analogue science" and some meteorological and astronomical instruments.

The rabbinates and the Nawakhdhas used these Arab astronomical and geographic knowledge, and some of them became famous for their experience and knowledge. This Al-Masoudi mentions - in “Morouj Al-Dhahab” - that “Abdullah bin Wazir (died after 332 AH / 944 AD) owner of the city of Jibla [the Levant] . did not remain at this time ( 332 AH / 944 AD) . I saw more than him in the Rumi sea (  the Mediterranean) and there are no teeth from it, and whoever rides it from among the owners of warships and workers is not submissive to his words and he acknowledges his vision and cleverness, despite his religion and the old jihad in it.”

The captains and sailors inherited books and scrolls that include sailing rules, methods, and guides. We find the oldest reference to these marine guides in the geographer, al-Faqih al-Maqdisi al-Bashari (d. 380 AH / 991 AD) in 'Ahsan al-Taqasim'; He says: “As for me, I traveled about two thousand leagues (approximately 9000 km) and circled the entire [Arabian] island from Qulzum ( the Red Sea) to Abadan (an Iranian city in the north-east of the Persian Gulf), except that the boats made us wander to its island ( the ocean). Al-Hindi) and I went to Luja, and I accompanied sheikhs in it who were born and brought up from rabbinates ( rabbinates), agents and merchants, and I saw them among the people who saw it., and I saw with them notebooks on this that they study and rely on and work on what is included in it!!

From this point of view, the tasks of the captains or the Nawakhas were specific, with established traditions and rules that were passed down through the generations, but they reached their climax with Ahmed bin Majid Al-Najdi (d. 906 AH / 1501 AD), nicknamed "The Lion of the Sea" and the chief and most famous of the Arab captains, and the inventor of the marine compass, which he calls "the right" or "needle". In his book 'Al-Fawa'id fi Usul al-Bahriyya wa al-Qa'id'; We see him emphasizing the captains in inspecting the ships before they pass the seas; Addressing the navigator, he says: "Contemplate the ship while it is above the earth and write down all its faults, and few in our time do that. And if you ride in it, make a stick with a rag in it so that you know [the blowing] of the wind."

An influential contribution

Then, Ibn Majid directs the master to the necessity of the place in which the compass should be placed, lest there be anything at the base of the ship that would disturb its balance. He says: "Sit the 'right' in its place and first inspect the installation of the truth, because there are boats that have defects in their carpentry, so they will cross you from your course, so take the matter first." He also advises the captains to listen to sincere and wise opinions and to have virtuous morals, as he says: “Inspect all the passengers and the soldiers, and contemplate their rise, so that you may know them when they are evil. and listen to all their words, take their goodness and abandon their ugly, and be firm and strong in your words, the softness of nature.”

In addition to the compass with which the Muslim captains used to determine the correct direction of their path in unknown seas; They also owned vision binoculars with which they could observe the rocks and reefs in the seas that might damage the ship’s hull, including those referred to by al-Humairi - in “Al-Rawd al-Attar” - saying that “Nawatiyyah. the boats have tight machines placed at the top of the mast ( the sail) which He is at the front of the boat, so the mariner sits and sees what appears in front of him of the troch ( sea rocks) that are hidden under the water, and he says to the catcher (by steering): Take you and pay for you! They resort to it for fear of his punishment!!

And Qutb al-Din al-Nahrawali al-Makki (d. 990 AH / 1582 AD) tells us - in 'Yemeni Lightning in the Ottoman Conquest' - that Ahmed bin Majid was the one who helped the Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama (d. 918 AH / 1524 AD) to reach India at the beginning of the tenth century AH / 16 AD. .

In this, Nahrawali says: “They [the Portuguese] continued on that ( their attempt to reach India) for a while while they were perishing in that place ( the Cape of Good Hope). until a crow ( a large warship) got rid of them to the Indian Sea., A skilled seafarer called Ahmed bin Majid, his friend, the chief of the Franks, guided them, and he was called Al-Amlande ( Almirante, meaning the Portuguese admiral). He told them, “Do not approach the coast from that place. Go deep into the sea, then return, so that the waves will not reach you.” When they did that, many of their boats were spared from breaking, and they multiplied in the Indian Sea.

And if Muslim sailors helped Vasco da Gama find the way to India and Southeast Asia; They were also the first to draw a map of the new world - in the tenth / 16th century AD - comparable in accuracy to today's satellite images, and by that we mean the maps drawn by the cartographer and the Ottoman naval commander Muhyi al-Din Piri Reis (d. 961 AH / 1553 AD), and he is the nephew of the naval commander. The Ottoman Kamal Reis (d. 917 AH / 1511 AD) was one of those who contributed to saving the Muslims of Andalusia and transporting them to the coasts of North Africa and the Ottoman Empire.

The most prominent thing in the maps of Piri Reis - especially the second map that he drew and gifted to Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (d. 974 AH / 1566 AD) in 935 AH / 1529 AD - was that he drew the continents of the New World at that time (North and South America) in a surprising way, so that on August 26 August 1956 AD (1379 AH) The American Georgetown University held a symposium to discuss Berry Reiss maps, and all the present scholars agreed that these maps have “a health that astonishes the mind, [they] are above the level of their era [a] in geography, and far superior to the level of geography science among Westerners" at the time; As reported by Yilmaz Oztuna (d. 1434 AH / 2012 AD) in 'The History of the Ottoman Empire'.