Sulaiman Al Mahri

• al-ʿUmda al-mahriyya fī ḍabṭ al-ʿulūm al-baḥriyya (Al-Mahrī’s Pillar on the Exactitude of Maritime Sciences)

• al-Minhāj al-Fākhir fī ʿIlm al-Baḥr al-Zākhir (The Precious Method on the Science of the Rising Sea)

• Tuḥfat al-Fuḥūl fī Tamhīd al-Uṣūl ʿIlm al-Baḥr (The Worthy Men’s Gift on the Introduction to the Principles of Maritime Science)

• Sharḥ Tuḥfat al-Fuḥūl fī Tamhīd al-Uṣūl ʿIlm al-Baḥr (A Commentary to The Worthy Men’s Gift on the Introduction to the Principles of Maritime Science)

• Qilādat al-Shumūs wa-Istikhrāj Qawāʾid al-Usūs (Necklace of Suns and the Calculation of the Rules of the Bases)

• Mirʾāt al-Salāk li-Kurāt al-Aflāk (Mirror of Travellers into the Heavenly Spheres)

Al-Mahrī is known for reducing Ibn Majids's list of stars for navigation from 70 to 15.Medieval Arab Navigation on the Indian Ocean: Latitude Determinations Journal article by Alfred Clark; The Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 113, 1993 Combinations of these lists of stars were used by Arab navigators and mariners up to the early 16th century.Between east and west: the Moluccas and the traffic in spices up to the Arrival of Europeans. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society by R. A. Donkin

In his treatises, al-Mahri noted the islands off the west coast of Siam (Malaya). The most important destination covered by these navigational texts is Malacca, which had become the region's principal trading center for Arab navigators during the 15th century.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}} Singapore, parts of Samarra, Java, China, the coasts of Burma and Andaman and Nicobar Islands were the focal points of his texts.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}}

He grouped the shores of Malaya with Siam, and the mainland to the east with China as a single kingdom. This passage from al-Mahri’s book illustrates the limits of Arab navigators:

Know that to the south of the Island of Java are found many Islands called Timor and that to the east of Timor are the Islands of Bandam, also a large number. The latter are places of sandalwood, aloeswood and mace. These islands are called Isles of Clove as airs of Jawa are called Maluku islands.

Since many of the islands have not been identified with confidence, the extent of his travel and familiarity with the region is not known.Early mapping of Southeast Asia, by Thomas Suárez p. 52

Al Mahri's division of Andaman and Nicobar Islands into two parts helped Arab and Portuguese navigators.Al-Hind: the making of the Indo-Islamic world by André Wink p. 214 Even in the mid-16th century Sidi Ali Çelebī translated parts of al-Mahri’s texts into Turkish.The Persian Gulf States: a general survey, by Alvin J. Cottrell p. 16

With the exception oh his astronomical treatise, Mir’at al-salāk li-kurāt al-aflāk,For which work, see [https://zenodo.org/records/7981485 the article by Staples, Acevedo and Bénard]. all his works were first published in Arabic by Ibrahim Khoury in Damascus, 1971, as part of the four-volume collection Al-ʿUlūm al-baḥrīyah ʿinda al-ʿarab (Maritime Sciences Among the Arabs).

• Islamic scholars
• List of Arab scientists and scholars

• [https://zenodo.org/records/10718847 Conspectus of Works of Sulaymān al-Mahrī] (Muḥtawayāt mu’allafāt Sulaymān al-Mahrī), a full detailed list of the contents of al-Mahrī’s works.

• [https://rutter-project.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/benard_acevedo_tn2_v2-1.pdf Technical note on Indian Ocean Arab Navigation Studies] by J. Acevedo and I. Bénard of the [https://rutter-project.org/ RUTTER Project], listing all known manuscripts, editions and works of Sulayman al-Mahri.

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Category:16th-century explorers

Category:1480s births

Category:1550 deaths

Category:15th-century Arab people

Category:16th-century Arab people

Category:Navigators

Category:16th-century geographers

Category:Explorers of Asia