The history of navigation and new discoveries captures - both in the global format, and in the framework of the achievements of individual peoples. Many people would be interested to know who can be considered the first sailors, and which people have achieved the greatest success in this direction, however, to answer such questions in full and on the fly will be difficult. Each nation has its own discoveries, including in the field of navigation.
Were the Chinese successful sailors? Did Sinbad the Sailor Exist? These and other questions await their answers.
Chinese sailors and their achievements
At the beginning of the 15th century, the Chinese fleet ruled the seas. After all, the Chinese learned to build junks, which at that time were superior in size to any European ships - and 4-5 times. Merchant ships sailed from China along the coast, duplicating the Silk Road, which went to Europe almost across the continent and was quite dangerous. China was at that moment a highly developed country, bordering Vietnam and Manchuria. And the sailors of the great state successfully sailed from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian, performing primarily the function of transporting goods. Chinese sailors even reached the island of Sumatra.
Ancient sources have strong evidence that the Chinese sailed to India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Ceylon, and also approached Africa, crossing the Arabian Sea.Here they could meet other famous sailors of those times - Arabs and Persians, who also mastered the elements of the sea primarily for trade.
The compass, which was invented by them, helped the Chinese feel confident in the troubled waters. The first compasses were installed on ships permanently, and instead of a needle, a construction similar to a spoon was placed on them. It was not fixed and could rotate freely, pointing to the north in the same way as modern mechanical devices of this kind do. Until the moment the compass was invented by the Chinese, it did not appear in other nations. So to challenge authorship in the creation of this device is impossible.
Did Sinbad the Sailor Exist?
So, the Chinese went to the Arabian Sea to get their own goods, primarily silk, and get tusks of rhinos and elephants, spices, and much more. They met with Persian merchants and were well acquainted with the country where, in the Middle Ages, numerous legends about Sinbad - a sailor - were composed. Of course, this man became a collective way, and apparently, this is a fictional hero, but at the time when these legends were created, the description of his adventures was more than relevant. At that time, all of humanity was actively engaged in the conquest of the seas and oceans - from Europeans and Chinese in their ships, to Polynesians in fragile dugout boats.
Sinbad’s adventures and descriptions of this hero himself could be based on various personalities and events.So, Ibn Batuta from Morocco spent 30 years traveling - he lived in the 14th century. Marco Polo from Venice also spent many years sailing, glorifying his name for centuries.
If we return to the tales of the Thousand and One Nights, it is worth noting that here Sinbad is described as a traveler and merchant, born in Basra or Baghdad, under the Abbasids. He travels in the region of Africa, South Asia, faced with amazing things. Sinbad is a Persian name, and perhaps the original adventures were written in Persia. But the work is written in Arabic. Its author is clearly an enlightened man, he definitely read the works about India of that time. And the name Sinbad itself may be distorted from Sindhupati - in Sanskrit this word means “lord of the seas”.
The Middle Ages was associated with numerous sea discoveries, people learned to master the water element and travel on it. For this, the Chinese built their junks, and the Persians and Arabs set off across seven seas not only to trade, but also to explore new lands.
