Kamal (navigation)

A simple wooden kamal.

A kamal, often called simply khashaba (wood in Arabic),[1] is a celestial navigation device that determines latitude. The invention of the kamal allowed for the earliest known latitude sailing,[2] and was thus the earliest step towards the use of quantitative methods in navigation.[3] It originated with Arab navigators of the late 9th century,[4] and was employed in the Indian Ocean from the 10th century.[2] It was adopted by Indian navigators soon after,[5] and then adopted by Chinese navigators some time before the 16th century.[3]

  1. ^ Al Salimi and Staples, A Maritime Lexicon, Hildesheim, Olms, 2019, 398.
  2. ^ a b (McGrail 2004, p. 316)
  3. ^ a b (McGrail 2004, p. 393)
  4. ^ (McGrail 2004, pp. 85–6)
  5. ^ Raju, C. K. (2007), Cultural Foundations of Mathematics: The Nature of Mathematical Proof and Transmission of the Calculus From India to Europe in the 16th c. CE (PDF), Delhi: Pearson Longman, pp. 240–59, ISBN 978-81-317-0871-2, retrieved 10 September 2008