Work

Kachchhi-Gujarati navigation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: an intangible knowledge system, charted

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: This article offers a detailed analysis of a Kachchhi-Gujarati manuscript chart of the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden dating probably from the eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries and held at the Royal Geographical Society–Institute of British Geographers in London (mr Asia S.4.). The origins and possible dating of the manuscript are examined. Astronomical data inscribed on the chart, establishing latitude and providing sailing directions, are identified, interpreted, and projected. Its Devanagari toponyms are transcribed and identified with real-world locations. Coastal profiles and unnamed features representing significant navigational landmarks are individuated. Islamic buildings depicted on the chart are identified as specific regional mosque-shrines. The presence of Ottoman and other regional polities are inferred. The place of the chart within an early modern tradition of western-Indian navigational manuscripts and a wider Indian Ocean tradition is explored. Our analysis establishes the chart as a detailed and highly practical navigational work—countering earlier scholarly denigrations of its accuracy. In contrast, we show it to be one of the most detailed surviving indigenous navigational charts produced in an Indian Ocean tradition.

Source: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

DOI: 10.1017/s1356186325101284

Authors: John P. Cooper, Kumail Rajani

Institution: University of Exeter

Language: English

Topic: Historical Geography and Cartography

Subfield: Geography, Planning and Development

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,550

Funder: Royal Geographical Society