Scientific inventions in Islamic civilization.. Beauty and creativity

Wednesday, 28 July 2010

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Written by Dr. Ragheb Elsergany

Preface

Muslims' skills in technological sciences were not confined to the building of mosques, minarets, domes, barrages, dams etc., but their works demonstrated creativity, as well as that sense of beauty, which characterized the Muslim scientist. Muslim scientists made use of those sciences to bring comfort and delight to humans.

Islamic civilization scientists created a number of complicated mechanical inventions to perform a number of functions. In addition to those tools operational efficiency, they had an aesthetic function, which was by no means less significant than the operational one. Such and aesthetic function could be noticed in some inventions, such as:

Clocks

Ibn Kathir reported that one of the Ummayad Mosque gates was called the Hours Gate, as there were a number of clocks placed at that gate. Those clocks were invented by clockmaker and engineer Mohammed Ibn Ali father of Fakhr Al-Din Ridhwan Al-Sa’ati[1]. Those clocks were used to show each hour passing during the daytime. One of those clocks had sparrows, a snake of copper and a crow. When the clock strikes an hour, the snake gets out, the sparrows twitter, the crow caws and a small copper ball falls down into a cup, therefore people know that an hour had passed[2]. Al-Jazari also made a clock similar to that clock[3].

Ibn Jubaryr described that clock saying “The original device was located on the right side of the person who leaves the Ummayad Mosque from Jayrun gate. The description of the clock comes as follows: The clock has twelve brass doors; each one rotates on the hour to show its back face with the number of hour that has passed. Above each door there is a copper dome, each dome rises after an hour has passed. At the sides of the copper doors two falcons throw copper balls into a large copper cup to produce a ring. There is a semi-circular disc called the night circle that contains 12 circular openings that get lit when the clock turns to show time at night[4].

In the second Hegira century (the ninth century AD, about 870 AD), the Abbasid Caliph Harun Al-Rashid sent a magnificent present to Charlemagne, king of the Franks (France). The present was a huge clock, which runs on hydraulic power. When an hour passes, some metal balls, representing the number of hours that had passed, fall down one after the other on a huge copper plate making a musical sound, which is heard all around the palace. At the same time, one of the clock’s twelve doors is opened from which a knight gets out to go around the clock, then, go back to the place from which he came out. When the clock strikes twelve, twelve knights get out from the twelve doors at the same time to make a complete circuit around the clock, and then go through the doors, which are shut behind them.

That is the description that came in both Arab and foreign references of that clock, which was, at that time, an artistic wonder. The clock astonished Charlemagne and his entourage. However, monks of the palace thought that there was a devil inside the clock moving it. Therefore, they waited till night fell, brought hatchets and destroyed it completely, but they did not find anything inside it. History references point out that the Arabs greatly developed those types of machines. Caliph Ma’mun presented the French king with a more advanced clock, which ran on mechanical power by iron weights hung with chains, instead of hydraulic power[5].

That shows how sublime the Islamic mentality was in thought and creativity. That creativity did not separate the aesthetic aspect from the practical one of scientific innovations and inventions.

The Robot

If the world is now about to enter a new era called (Robot Era) now that robot technology has made rapid progress over the past few years, Islamic sources point out that the robot was firstly known in the Islamic civilization era.

The robot was first invented by the mechanical engineering scientist Badi’ Al-Zaman Abu Al-Izz Ibn Ismail Ibn Al-Razzaz Al-Jazari who lived in the sixth hegira century. Al-Jazari was the first to make a mobile robot to carry out domestic services. The caliph asked Al-Jazari to make a machine to help him, instead of servants, whenever he wants to perform Wudu' (Ablution) to pray. Al-Jazari made a machine in the shape of a servant that carries a pitcher of water in one hand and a towel in the other. That robot has a bird standing on his turban. When the time of prayer comes, the bird twitters, then the robot moves forward towards the caliph and pours water in certain amounts. When the caliph finishes his ablution, the robot gives him the towel, and then the bird sings as the robot goes back to its place[6].

Automatic Quran Holder

In 1975, a manuscript of useful mechanics entitled Al-Asrar fi Natae'ij Al-Afkar (The Book of Secrets) was found in the Laurentian Library. That manuscript dated back to the Arab Spanish era. It has important texts on hydraulic pistons and mills and describes more than thirty mechanical devices, in addition to a very developed solar clock. Juan Vernet, professor of history of Arab sciences at the University of Barcelona, says "It was confirmed that the book of (The Secrets of Ideas) was written by the Spanish Arab author Ahmed (or Mohammed) Ibn Khalaf Al-Muradi, who lived in the fifth Hegira century (the eleventh century AD). The book aims at teaching how to make mechanical dolls, many of which could be used as water clocks". Vernet insists that there are some links between Al-Muradi's book and another one translated by Sandra Marie Schmirler into German in 1922. Vernet also emphasizes that the French architect Villard de Honnecourt, who lived in the second half of the twelfth century AD, had knowledge of Al-Muradi's technological mobile inventions[7].

The most important mechanical device described in Al-Muradi's book is the "Automatic Quran Holder" in Cordoba Mosque. That automatic holder makes it easy for anybody to read a copy of the Noble Qur'an without being touched, as the holder works automatically. The set, which is formed of the holder and the copy of Quran, is carried by a mobile shelf in a closed box placed in the upper part of the mosque. The holder works when a key turns in the box whose door immediately opens automatically. The shelf rises automatically carrying a copy of the Noble Qur'an. At the same time, the holder opens and the box closes. If the key was turned in the opposite direction, the same movements would happen in the opposite direction. Those movements take place through the use of belts and mechanisms that are hidden[8].

With those inventions, Muslims gifted world with machines and devices showing the aesthetic sense and good taste of their civilization.

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