alJazari

alJazari refers to the medieval Muslim engineer and inventor from the Jazira region of Upper Mesopotamia, who lived roughly between 1136 and 1206. He served at the court of the Artuqids in Diyarbakir and other cities, where he built a range of hydraulic and automata devices for palace entertainment and practical use. His work reflects the advanced state of mechanical engineering in the Islamic world during the 12th and early 13th centuries.

His principal surviving work is Kitab fi ma'rifat al-hiyal al-handasiya, commonly translated as The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices. Written around 1206, the book is a comprehensive manual describing about 100 mechanical devices, with diagrams and instructions. The devices cover water-raising machines, clocks, fountains, and automata, including musical mechanisms and automated figures. One notable feature is the use of a crankshaft and connecting rod to convert rotary motion into linear motion, an early example of such mechanisms in engineering literature. The work also details an elaborate elephant clock and other timekeeping devices that combined engineering with spectacle.

Legacy and significance: al-Jazari’s treatise is a major source for the history of medieval engineering, illustrating systematic design, experimentation, and the integration of art and technology. It influenced later engineers within the Islamic world and, through later translations and transmissions, contributed to the broader European medieval engineering tradition. Modern reconstructions and studies of his devices help illuminate the ingenuity of Islamic mechanical innovation in the period.