Born in Upper Mesopotamia al-Jazari was employed, from about 1180 onwards, by the rulers of Diyar Bakr. He was in service of three consecutive Artuqid rulers:Nur al-Din Muhammad iv Arslan, Qutb al-Din Sukman ibn Muhammad and Nasir al-Din Mahmud ibn Muhammad.
His reputation rests upon his book, Kitab fi ma’rifat al-hiyal alhan-dasiyya (The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices), which composed in 1206 on the orders of his master Nasir al-Din Mahmud, a prince of the Artuqid dynasty of Diyar Bakr. It took 7 years to complete the book.
It is a compilation detailed descriptions of the construction and operation of a variety of mechanism, machines, and devices which he divides into six categories: clocks, drinking vessels, pitchers and basin, fountains and flutes, water-raising machines and miscellaneous.
The first attempt to translate this book by Wiedmann and Hawser, who translated parts of it into German in the first quarter of the twentieth century.
Biography of Al-Jazari (1136-1206)
