Egypt: 'Device for Display at a Drinking Party', from al Jazari's 'Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices' (1354 CE)

A painting on paper in color and gold leaf from al-Jazari's Kitab fi marifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya (The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices).

Abū al-'Iz Ibn Ismā'īl ibn al-Razāz al-Jazarī (1136–1206) was a polymath: a scholar, inventor, mechanical engineer, craftsman, artist, mathematician and astronomer from Al-Jazira, Mesopotamia, who worked in service of the Artuqid dynasty in Diyarbakır, Asia Minor. He is best known for writing the Kitáb fí ma'rifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya (Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices) in 1206, where he described fifty mechanical devices along with instructions on how to construct them.

Copyright:

Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Credit:

Pictures From History

Theme:

ISLAMIC SCIENCE