Mechanics

FEATURED ARTICLES

A New Arabic Text of Mechanics: Sinan ibn Thabit on the Theory of Simple Machines

The Arabic manuscript Orient fol. 3306 preserved at the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin was in its original form a precious collection of Arabic scientific texts of mechanics and optics. It contains a...

LEARN MORE

Al-Jazari's Third Water-Raising Device: Analysis of its Mathematical and Mechanical Principles

Five pumps or water-raising machines are described by al-Jazari in his monumental treatise of mechanics Al-Jami' bayn al-‘ilm wa 'l-‘amal al-nafi' fi sina'at al-hiyal (A Compendium on the Theory and...

LEARN MORE

Overview on al-Jazari and his Mechanical Devices

In this article, Professor Yavuz Unat, a known historian of science from Ankara University, draws a general survey on al-Jazari and his treatise. He describes some of his machines and points out the...

LEARN MORE

The Mechanics of Banu Musa in the Light of Modern System and Control Engineering

This article is a review of the book published recently by Professor Attila Bir (Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Istanbul) on Banu Musa's book of...

LEARN MORE

Pioneers of Automatic Control Systems

Although the feedback concept, which is lying in the foundation of dynamic systems, has been perceived relative recently, the idea was understood and applied correctly by the Muslim scientists.

LEARN MORE

A Review of Early Muslim Control Engineering

During the period of Islamic-Arabic extraordinary activity in Science and Technology (9th-13th century), there are some recorded contributions to the area of Automatic Control mainly in the...

LEARN MORE

Pages

LATEST ARTICLES

Figure 1: Picture of one of al-Jazari's automatic machines: a musical toy in the form of a boat. From a manuscript of his book copied in Syria in 715 H/1315 CE (opaque watercolour, ink and gold on paper). Source: http://www.asia.si.edu/collections/zoomObject.cfm?ObjectId=9919.

800 Years Later: In Memory of Al-Jazari, A Genius Mechanical Engineer

Al-Jazari (1136-1206) was an important Arab Muslim scholar. He was an inventor and mechanical engineer who...

LEARN MORE

Figure 1: Elephant clock of al-Jazari, from a MS copy of his treatise The Book of Knowledgeof Ingenious Mechanical Device copied in Syria in 1315 by Farkh ibn 'Abd al-Latif (Ink, colors, and gold on paper; height. 30 cm – width 19.7 cm). Source: Metropolitan Museum, New York: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/07/wae/hob_57.51.23.htm.