Abstract
The concepts of ‘trial and error’ and ‘methodological doubt’ are given in the context of the book of navigation Kitāb al-Fawā’id by the great Arabian navigator and writer Aḥmad Ibn Mājid. In a preceding paper (I) we summarised and commented on the text sections in his book that are essential for the analysis. While these concepts were developed in the 19th century by Conwy Lloyd Morgan and in the 17th century by René Descartes, respectively, we show that comparable concepts were also developed and applied more than 200 years earlier by Ibn Mājid. We highlight the emergence of these concepts in recent history as they are closely linked to the development of evolutionary theory and epistemology. We also place our findings into the scientific and philosophical context of Ibn Mājid’s time. Finally, we discuss our results in the framework of the transfer of knowledge from Arabic sources.