صناعة الملاحة من خلال مقدمة ابن خلدون

Abstract EN

In his Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldoun, the great author asserts that Arab only became sea oriented after their original encounter and intermingling with maritime civilizations.

Ibn Khaldoun traces this original reluctance back to the history of the Arab Bedouin, which, he said, prevented Arabs from living a seaborne lifestyle.

Despite this, claimed Ibn Khaldoun, the Arabs succeeded in conquering the sea at a time when, according to the author, "the Christians were unable to put a plank [in the Mediterranean]".

The Arabs' relation with the sea, he noted, evolved in historical cycles (maritime cycles).

These maritime cycles according to Ibn Khaldoun appeared as follows: the first occurred when the Carthaginians fought the Romans, and used to send fleets to war; the second cycle came with the Romans and Goths' domination over the sea, Ifriquia (Tunisia), and Morocco; the third cycle was witnessed with the Arab-Islamic domination which in turn had three waves, the first one was the period under Caliph Umar Ibn Al Khattab who was reluctant to use naval power, the second period in which Arabs had absolute domination of the sea followed by a third period of weakness and decline.

The final cycle Ibn Khaldun calls the cycle of Christian victory.