Abstract

It was Alexander von Humboldt who formally articulated that the compass, invented by the Chinese, had been introduced to Europe via the Arab world. Humboldt argued that the compass was introduced to Europe from the East after its use had become general throughout the Indian Seas and the coasts of Persia and Arabia in Book II of Cosmos in 1847. Before Humboldt’s time in Europe, there were various claims regarding the origin of the compass — some asserting that it came from China, others from Germany, and still others that the European mariner’s compass had been transmitted to China. However, owing to Humboldt’s reputation and academic influence, the claim that the Chinese compass had been transmitted to Europe via the Arabs became widespread. Considering the fact that the floating needle, a kind of compass, was used for sailing around 1100 in China, 1187 in Europe and 1242 in the Arab world, respectively, and many mistakes were implied in Humboldt’s claim, the view that the Chinese-invented compass was introduced to Europe through Arabic people is not supported by historical facts. By critically reviewing the validity of Humboldt’s opinion, this article proposes an alternative synthesis: the development of direction-finding devices appears not to follow a unilinear chain of diffusion but to reflect cross-civilizational references and partial independence.

Read the Article via the following link https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/08438714251391503

More articles and book reviews can be found via the follow link https://journals.sagepub.com/home/IJH

Figure 1. A Zhinan (Sinan).

Source. Zhenduo Wang, ‘The Invention of Magnetic Needle and Compass in Ancient China’, Wenwu (文物), 3 (1978), 54. as used in A critical review of Alexander von Humboldt’s argument on the Chinese origin of the compass by S. June Kim and Minhyeok Heo (2025)