3. Taqi al-Din and his Treatise: Historical and Textual Context
Previous | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Next 3. Taqi al-Din and his Treatise: Historical and Textual Context The real name of our scholar is Muhammad Ibn Ma‘arūf, but he was nicknamed Taqī al-Dīn. He is more known under this kunya. Al-Rāsid is often added to his name to attest his main scientific interest in astronomy and his fame as founder and director of the Istanbul observatory (1575-1580). Taqī al-Dīn was born in Damascus as he mentioned it in his book Al-Turuq al-Saniya. He was born in 1525/1526, and he died in Istanbul in 1585 [9]. 3.1. Overview on the Treatise Al-Turuq al-Saniya The book of Taqī al-Dīn Al-Turuq al-Saniya fi'1-ālāt al-rūhaniyya was written in Damascus about 1551. Its manuscript copy held in Chester Beatty Library in Dublin is dated back to 1551-52 (959 H), and the title page indicates that it was reviewed a year later by a student. The treatise, which is not yet translated into English, contains descriptions and illustrations of clocks, weight-lifting equipment, pumps and various other machines. It survived in several manuscript copies preserved at different libraries throughout the world: Dār al-kutub al-misriya in Cairo (MS Falak 3845, Miqat 557/4), Chester Beatty Library in Dublin (MS 5232), the library of Kandilli Observatotry in Istanbul (MS 96, autograph). In 1976, Ahmad Yusuf al-Hassan published an offset reproduction of the Dublin's manuscript copy, that he accompanied with a thorough study[10]. The treatise includes six sections dealing in order with:
- clepsydras,
- devices for lifting weights,
- devices for raising water,
- fountains and continually playing flutes and kettle-drums,
- irrigation devices,
- self-moving spits.
In this work, Taqī al-Dīn focuses on the geometrical-mechanical structure of the machines, following the method of analysis used previously by the Banū Mūsā and Al-Jazarī. The machines described in the book can be summarised as follows: 1. The Moon pot or the Moon box: It is an astronomical clock known in Arab mechanical technology as pointed out by Taqī al-Dīn himself in his other book of mechanics Al-Kawākeb al-durriya fī ‘l-bankāmāt al-dawriya (The Luminous Stars in Mechanical Clocks). 2. A series of four types of clocks, including water clocks and sand clocks. 3. Weight-moving machines including a lifting-apparatus worked by gears (crane), a tool worked by ropes and reels, and another one worked by a spiral. 4. Water-Raising Machines: several types of water-raising machines to which a whole section is dedicated. They include: the pump with two opposing cylinders, the spiral pump, the pump of the rope with cloth balls, and the six-cylinder pump. 5. Making a fluting machine, taps and fountains. 6. Sundry subtleties: they contain the description of eleven tricks such as the water-carrier, the two cups of justice and injustice, the sailor's boat and others. Similar tools were also described in the books of Banū Mūsā and Al-Jazarī. 7. A Machine that automatically rotates a spit that carries meat over fire: It represents the working of a rudimentary steam engine and steam turbine, predating the more famous discovery of steam power by Giovanni Branca in 1629 [11]. 3.2. Description of the Pump with Six Cylinders In the following section, we provide information about the pump with six cylinders. A clear investigation in the pump will take place. Many questions will be answered here such as: how does it work? What is it made from? And how efficient it is? The best way to start investigating and understanding this pump is to read the description of Taqī al-Dīn himself. Then, when his description is not clear and detailed enough, we search for details from some other sources that were written in the same period of time. The section will contain a translation of Taqī al-Dīn's description, done from the Arabic text of Al-Turuq al-Saniya. The description of the six-cylinder pump holds on three pages in the manuscript of Chester Bettay Library in Dublin (MS 5232, pp. pp. 36-38) (see fig. 21, 22 and 23). Taqī al-Dīn described the pump long time ago, so the language he used might be difficult to understand. However, his description was translated without changing the style. The explanations are written into brackets within the text. He said: "Take a block of wood two arms long and divide it into six identical divisions. Make in each division two circular holes one of them passes through to the other side and the other side [suction hole] and the other does not pass through but turns and meets the first hole [delivery hole]. Make below all the holes that pass through a frieze on a top of it a tight lid [clack valve], as it was mentioned in the first section of this chapter. Then make six pipes of wood or iron [delivery pipes] and fit underneath each one a frieze on a top of it a tight lid as mentioned [clack valve] and fit them on the top of each hole of the holes that does not pass through so that the frieze becomes at the bottom and fit on each hole of the holes that pass through a proper pipe with identical ends and middle hole each is one span long [piston cylinder]. Make an iron bar for each one (piston rod) and make at his end two small metal disks wrapped between them a lubricated string of cannabis as mentioned before [piston] and in it's other end a hole and fit it in the pipe properly after you turn the ends of the long pipes to each other and equate them horizontally and fit above them a collective pipe for them all and make it as long as you want the water to reach. Then put this block in the water and fix it from its sides and make opposite each head a crosspiece and put on the two crosspieces a parallel bar [pivot bar] to the bar ends in the pipe. Then make six hands of iron with a hole in the middle and at one end [connecting rods]. Fit the holes at the end in the bars and the holes in the middle in nails fitted on the crosspiece [pivots]. Then fit at the end of each standing bars in the six pipes [piston rods] a weight of lead weighs more than the water that fills in the long pipe that takes the water upwards so that if the pipe got filled with water and the bar was up, the lead pushes it until it rises in the long pipe the same amount that the bar moves down. Then make opposite to each crosspiece another one. Make on them a hexagonal bar [camshaft] with two axes in its ends that rotate smoothly and it has to be parallel to the ends of the hands [connecting rods]. Then, fit on it's side a big wheel. Then make in one of the faces of the hexagonal axis an apparent tooth [cam] nailed in it. It has to be parallel the first hand [connecting rod] so if the wheel rotated to the hands side, the tooth pushes the hand so the bar with the weight rises completely. And when it is released, the bar falls because of the lead weight. Then make in the next face of the hexagonal bar another tooth parallel to the third hand and so on until the sixth hand. As its clearly obvious that if the wheel rotated to the hands side, the first tooth pushes the first hand. So when the bar is lifted up it pulls the water because the lid [piston] is fitted tightly on the pipe. And if it is been released it's the pushes so it rises in the pipe. And Its also known that whenever one of the hands was released from it's tooth [cam], the other caught so the water flow from the collective pipe becomes continuous and it is one of the proper methods but it's the best and this is it's picture. Its obvious that its work with six pipes is not necessary as it is possible with one pipe and the required may be achieved by the water flow. But it is preferred that it is not to be with less than three pipes so the water flows in a continuous manner and that could be achieved by two pipes as it can be seen; and Allah knows best [12]." End Notes [9] On the life and works of Taqī al-Dīn, see Salim Ayduz Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Ma'ruf: A Bio-Bibliographical Essay (published 26 June, 2008 ) and Ihsan Fazlioglu, Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Ma'rūf: Survey on his Works and Scientific Method. [10] Ahmad Y. Al-Hassan, Taqī al-Dīn wa-‘l-handasa al mīkanīkiya al-‘arabiya, op. cit. [11] See A. Y. Al-Hassan, Taqī al-Dīn and the First Steam Turbine. Naturally, according to the dominant paradigm, even when one surveys the growth of the steam-engine from "Hero to Worcester" (B. C. 200 to A. D. 1650)", there is no place for any Islamic contribution: see The Growth of the Steam Engine (1878), Chapter 1. [12] Taqī al-Dīn, Al-Turuq al-Saniya, in A. Y. Al-Hassan, Taqī al-Dīn wa-‘l-handasa al mīkanīkiya al-‘arabiya, op. cit., pp. 47-48. Previous | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Next
by: FSTC, Mon 21 July, 2008
| 
