Room 31 | Islamic Middle East gallery
Explore artefacts made over a period of more than 1000 years in the heart of the Islamic world.
Galleries : 258 objects
Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Devices
- loan
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Description
This unusual manuscript is a copy of one of the most popular treatises of engineering produced in the Islamic tradition, The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Devices. First composed by al-Jazari in 1206 AD, it is a compendium of mechanical devices primarily intended for princely entertainment, such as elaborate clocks, automated fountains and drinking vessels, and machines activated by heat or water. In the treatise the devices are described in detail, and an illustration of each assembled machine is also provided.
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Details
- Associated place
- Date
- 1486 (AH 891)
- Artist/maker
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Abu al-‘Izz Isma‘il ibn al-Razza al-Jazari (active c. 1174 - c. 1204) (author)
- Material and technique
- ink and colour on paper
- Dimensions
- album 27 x 19 cm (height x width)
- Material index
- Technique index
- Object type index
- No. of items
- 1
- Credit line
- Lent by the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
- Accession no.
- LI1487.2
Location
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- returned to owner
Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.
Notice
Objects may have since been removed or replaced from a gallery. Click into an individual object record to confirm whether or not an object is currently on display. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis, so contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular Eastern Art object.
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