Al-Jazari
Summary
In my previous article, I told you about Al-Jazari in humanoid robots. Let’s take a closer look at Cezerî, one of the names that had his name written in capital letters in history.
Cezerî or with his full name İsmâil bin er-Rezzaz al-Cezerî. He is an inventor and engineer who worked in the Golden Age of Islam. He was born in 1136 in the Tor district of Cizre. Completing his education at Camia Madrasa, he concentrated on physics and mechanics and made many discoveries.
Cezerî, like his father, was the chief engineer at the Artuklu Palace, the residence of the Mardin branch of the Artuqid Principality, which ruled as a vassal in Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia. He then served the Zengi Dynasty of Mosul and the Sultan of the Ayyubid State, Saladin Ayyubi. He is considered by many to have been the inspiration for Leonardo da Vinci, pioneering the science of cybernetics and building and operating the first robot. (Cybernetics: It is the science that studies the control and management of all complex systems, living and non-living.)
He described approximately 50 mechanical devices and instructions on how to construct them. Among these, the invention of the “water clock with an elephant” is known the most.
Al-Jazari, “The Book Containing Benefiting from Mechanical Movements in Engineering” (El Câmi-u’l Beyn’el İlmî ve Al-Ameli’en Nafi fi Sina’ati’l Hiyal, Arabic: بَيْنْ اَلْعِلْمِ وَالْالَمِ َلِ َالََََََstyleural person from Hiyal ْ) has. In this extraordinary book, in which he illustrates the principles of use of more than 50 devices and the possibilities of their use, he says that “Any technical science that is not put into practice will remain between right and wrong.”
Although the original of this book has not survived, 10 of the 15 copies are in different museums in Europe and 5 are in the libraries of Topkapı and Süleymaniye. Although it is stated in the Western literature that a steam-powered pigeon was made by the Greek mathematician Archytas around 300 BC, the earliest known written record in the field of robotics belongs to Al-Jazari.
Studies And Systems
- Cezeri’s Ablution Automaton
For this setup, the water coming from the water tank on a robot man along the column on the right passes through the automatic man’s hand and reaches the jug. After a while, the jug filled with water became heavy and bent and poured into the pool where the ruler would take ablution. In addition, the air trapped by the rise of the water in the jug causes the bird at the top to sing. The lightening test returns to its original place. This process is repeated several times. Meanwhile, the water poured from the jug to the ruler begins to be transferred to the tank hidden under the automatic man in the pool. With the filling of the water in the buoy in this tank, it slowly rises up and automatically extends the arm of the man holding the towel to the monarch. Extending the towel indicates the end of the process.
- Elephant Water Clock
The elephant water clock is Cezeri’s most famous and most widely heard invention.
It is in the shape of an elephant with a square lectern on its back, a fortress on the columns at the corners of the lectern, a small dome on the fortress, and a bird on top of the dome. In the first half hour, the hawk on the right drops the ball to the snake. Then the snake puts the ball in the vase. The elephant driver hits the elephant on the head with an ax. The ball comes out of the elephant’s chest, falls on a bell hanging on its belly, making a sound, thus signaling that half an hour has passed. In the remaining half hour, the same events continue on the left side of the mechanism and thus an hour has passed.
- Wind Turbine
Another area that al-Jazari put his signature on is horizontal axis windmills. In the fifth chapter of his book, there are five figures about tools that raise water from a shallow well or a flowing river. In these devices, horizontal axis wind turbines are used as lifting power. It is known that windmills were introduced to the western world by the Islamic world at the beginning of the 12th century. It is even known that these wind systems, developed in the 12th century, were used to pump water, grind grain and provide mechanical power with wind energy until the beginning of the 20th century. First, BC. He states that the vertical axis wind turbine was used by the Persians around 700 BC, and then Ebu-l Iz, who lived in Diyarbakır at the beginning of the 12th century, claimed to have developed the first modern vertical wind turbine.
It is said by many researchers that horizontal axis windmills were first developed in northern European countries such as France, Germany, England and the Netherlands. However, the use of horizontal axis machines with wind power was used by Al-Jazari in water lifting device before these countries. In this device, it is seen that not only wind power is used, but also today’s cylinder, piston and valve parts are used together.
Al-Jazari is also considered to be one of the first mechanics to deal with the construction of automatic machines in history. It is a very important method used by Cezeri, who makes practical and groping empirical studies rather than theoretical studies; was to build models of the devices he was going to do from paper and to benefit from the rules of geometry.
Using a similar mechanism that worked with the same system centuries before the first calculator, in the watch he developed, Cezeri not only established automatic systems; he also succeeded in establishing a balance between automatically working systems. 600 years before Jacquard’s automatic weaving loom, which is considered the first of the automatic controlled machines, Cezeri developed the automatic maid that decides when to pour water and when to serve fruit and beverages according to the level of water in different chambers.
The most important feature that distinguishes Cezeri from other scientists of his time is that many scientists of his age kept engineering secrets to themselves and did not publish them, while Al-Jazari was a pioneer in the development of the robotics field 800 years ago by putting all his secrets into a book. As a matter of fact, the fact that he attaches importance to the aesthetic appearance in all the machines he develops and uses many artistic figures to color the external appearance of the mechanism makes it different from the others.
Famous Works
- Elephant water clock
- Peacock pitcher
- Oil lamp clock
- Candle clocks
- Fountains
- Automatic water machine
- Vending machines for ablution
- Saz playing robots
-History of Istanbul Cezeri Museum
The Istanbul Cezeri museum has allowed many people to get to know Cezeri, the most famous engineer of the Middle Ages. The Cezeri Museum was established in 2018, inspired by Cezeri.
Cezeri, who is considered the father of modern mechanics, fascinated people with his ideas and worked as a chief engineer in the Artuqid Palace for 26 years, came to the fore again after 800 years of work with 15 years of work.
-Istanbul Cezeri Museum Artifacts
Cezeri is a very important scientist with his knowledge, intelligence, ideas and engineering philosophy. Cezeri designed more than 500 machines. Not only that, it also produced these machines.
Istanbul Cezeri Museum aims to popularize this heritage by introducing the world community cultural heritage to people.
-Where is Istanbul Cezeri Museum?
Altunizade mah. Mahir Iz Cad. No:30/1 Altunizade, Uskudar, Istanbul
As we come to the end of the article, I would like to express my gratitude to Al-Jazari for the benefits he has provided to engineering science with his work as a mechanical engineering student. You can also access articles about his work in the field of engineering via the link i left.
See you in my new articles.
Editor: Orhan Gazi Barak
