The Italian Leonardo da Vinci is often described as one of the greatest thinkers, engineers and inventors of all time, but 300 years before he was born came a man easily his equal, the Muslim scholar, polymath, inventor, engineer and mathematician, Ismail al-Jazari.
Al-Jazari was born in Upper Mesopotamia, possible near the borders of modern-day Turkey, Syria and Iraq, in 1136 CE/530 AH, and is presumed to have been either Arab, Persian or Kurdish in his ethnicity.
Working as an engineer in the Artuklu Palace ¬– the seat of the Diyarbakir branch of the Artuqid dynasty – Al-Jazari is believed to have invented hundreds of unique contraptions; robots that handed guests towels, goblets that sang until their contents were drained, devices that raised water, fountains, an automated musical band that could be ‘programmed’ to play different tunes, and a variety of ingenious clocks. It is a replica of one of the latter that Qatar
National Library holds in its Heritage Library, along with manuscripts dating from 1660 of his acclaimed work, The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, which he wrote at the age of 70 in 1206 CE/602 AH, the year he is also thought to have died.
The timepiece in the collection of Qatar National Library is a candle clock, which is unlike anything we use on a regular basis today.
The picture above shows a box with a falcon on the left-hand side and a clerk holding a pencil sitting on top of the box. The long brass tube is where the candle would have been placed and underneath it would have been a column of balls. As the candle burns down and gets lighter, a counterweight raises the balls and also the candle, so that the position of the flame remains constant. As the balls are raised, one falls into a hole in the back of the falcon’s head and out through its beak. Simultaneously, the counterweight and pulley also move the scribe’s pencil, with the ball falling from the falcon’s beak once the point of the pencil has moved 15 degrees, indicating that one hour has passed. Over the course of 24 hours, the pencil would have travelled a full circle of 360 degrees and would then begin its journey again.
The manuscripts exhibited at the Library are taken from The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, a comprehensive compilation of Al-Jazari’s automated devices and mechanics. It is essentially an instruction manual, as it is regarded as the first work to give details about the design and manufacture of machines, 50 of which are included in the book. In theory, engineers coming after Al-Jazari could use the instructions to make their own versions of his inventions. These include the candle clock and perhaps his most famous work, a huge, water-powered elephant clock, which featured a bird that sang on the hour and a mahout that struck the elephant’s head.
Not for nothing is Al-Jazari now known as the ‘Father of Robotics’.
To see the Library’s replica of Al-Jazari’s candle clock, just visit QNL’s Heritage Library during its opening hours, Saturday to Thursday: 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, and Friday: 4:00 - 8:00 PM.
An online version of The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, which has been translated into English and features commentary and explanations, can be downloaded by Library members here. For free Library membership, click on the membership page of the QNL website.
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