Fine English Paperback. Pbo. 4to. (28 x 20 cm). In Turkish. 32, [6] p., b/w ills. Ebu'l-Izz-Cezerî Kongresi. 14 Mart, 1996, Kayseri. A study on Abu al-'Iz Ibn Isma'il ibn al-Razaz al-Jazari, (1136-1206). It's considered that he was pioneer in the field of cybernetics. He was a polymath; a scholar, inventor, mechanical engineer, craftsman, artist, and mathematician from Jazirat ibn Umar (current Cizre, Ottoman Turkey), who lived during the Islamic Golden Age (Middle Ages). He is best known for writing the al-Jami? bain al-?ilm wa al-?amal al-nafi? fi ?ina?at al-?iyal (The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices) in 1206, where he described 100 mechanical devices, some 80 of which are trick vessels of various kinds, along with instructions on how to construct them. Some of his devices were inspired by earlier devices, such as one of his monumental water clocks, which was based on that of a Pseudo-Archimedes. He also cites the influence of the Banu Musa brothers (and also Leonardo Da Vinci) for his fountains, al-Asturlabi for the design of a candle clock, and Hibat Allah ibn al-Husayn (d. 1139) for musical automata. Al-Jazari goes on to describe the improvements he made to the work of his predecessors, and describes a number of devices, techniques and components that are original innovations which do not appear in the works by his precessors.
