The Arab navigator Ahmad ibn Majid was a seasoned guide for bringing ships through the transits and ports that crossed the Indian Ocean from Africa to Asia. Born in Oman, he was a poet and scholar who wrote more than forty works, composed elegant verses, and compiled an extensive encyclopedia of navigational principles, star positions, accounts of seasonal winds, reckoning systems, and the traditional lore of sailors and other navigators, including members of his own revered family. He was a master of different rudder and sail designs and a student of compass bearings.

Maritime South Asia was a world he knew well. For centuries, Muslim trade had dominated, spreading faith and teaching along with cargoes of glass and perfumes, rivaling and bargaining with Chinese merchants, some in settlements and entrepôts left behind by Zheng He.