Jharkhand PSC Prelim Exam 18-Dec-2016 Solved Paper

(3) Neither Marco Polo nor Ibn Batuta refers to the use of the magnetic compass on either Chinese or Indian ships and its use by navigators in the Indian seas is specifically denied by Niccolo Conti, who voyaged widely over these seas during 1419-44. The earliest reference in Persian to this instrument is in the Jawami ul Hikayat of Aufi who wrote this work at the court of Iltutmish.
He tells us of sailors finding their way by using a magnetized iron shaped like a fish, though he makes a silly slip in claiming that the needle pointed towards the qibla or direction of Mecca.