Essays and commentary
Essays, commentary, and critical perspectives on Maldivian maritime heritage, society, and thought.
Compiled by Ahamed Nazim Sattar using Ibn Mājid’s Kitāb al Fawāʾid and Tibbetts’s Arab Navigation in the Indian Ocean. Best read together with Guided by the Stars: The Stellar Geometry of the Maldivian Dhoni by Mohamed Nasheed.
Early Maldivian boat builders employed a sophisticated method known as stellar proportional measurement, a subset of astronomical proportional design. Within this archaic system, celestial bodies, particularly fixed stars served as reference points for determining the geometric proportions of a vessel. Builders relied on star positions, angular relationships between stars and the horizon, and seasonal star paths to establish length ratios, hull curvature, keel alignment, and overall symmetry.
Addu Hulhudhoo Arāiragē Mūsā Mālimī ge Niyamināmā A pilot’s book from Addu Hulhudhoo, c. 1920 · Thaana with Arabic rubrics
