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Lot Essay
This is a beautifully written and early copy of an interesting and rare text on mechanical devices.
The Banu Musa ibn Shakir were three brothers who were among the most important figures in the intellectual history of Baghdad in the 3rd/9th century.Their names were Muhammad, Ahmad and Hasan. Their father was a noted astronomer and close companion of the Caliph al-Ma'mun, and on the father's death, the three sons were educated in Baghdad and became skilled in astronomy, geometry, mathematics and mechanics.
Under Ma'mun's successors the brothers became wealthy and succesful and devoted themselves to seeking out the work of their predecessors, bringing manuscripts in Greek and Syriac back to Baghdad. They sponsored the translation of these works into Arabic, many of which were carried out by Hunayn ibn Ishaq. The Banu Musa therefore played a key role in the translation of many Greek works into Arabic and in the foundation of the important contribution of the Islamic world to the sciences.
The Kitab al-Hiyal is the most important of the brothers' works. It contains descriptions of 100 small machines. About 80 of them are trick vessels that demonstrate astonishing mastery of automatic controls. The inspiration is to be found in machine treatises of the Hellenistic writers. The Kitab al-Hiyal goers well beyond its Greek predecessors, however, especially in the use of components of automatic controls. Many of their ideas, techniques and components were of considerable importance in the development of machine technology. The work was popular throughout the Middle Ages in the Islamic world, including Andalusia and some of their ideas may have entered Northern Europe via Spain.
Hill, D.R.in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. vii, pp. 640-1
See also, Hill, D.R: The book of ingenious devices, an annotated translation of the Banu Musa's Kitab al-Hiyal, Dordrecht, 1979.
The manuscript is written in a beautiful and confident hand with clear spaces left for the diagrams. At the end of the manuscript the scribe states that he copied the text exactly as he found it, so presumably the spaces left were precisely the same shape as the original copy. The drawings lack the same confidence, and do not always fit the spaces. However, they would still appear to be of an early date. One may speculate that they were added slightly later by an owner of the manuscript who understood the devices, but was not so skilled as a draughtsman.
An inscription below the colophon states that Yusuf al-Azhari had legally acquired this manuscript from Sheikh 'Abd al-Rahman al-Ta'i, the time keeper at the Azhar mosque in Jumada I 981 (September 1573 AD). This owner's name and seal impression also appear on the opening flyleaf. The inscriptions and seal impressions appear to be Ottoman.
The Banu Musa ibn Shakir were three brothers who were among the most important figures in the intellectual history of Baghdad in the 3rd/9th century.Their names were Muhammad, Ahmad and Hasan. Their father was a noted astronomer and close companion of the Caliph al-Ma'mun, and on the father's death, the three sons were educated in Baghdad and became skilled in astronomy, geometry, mathematics and mechanics.
Under Ma'mun's successors the brothers became wealthy and succesful and devoted themselves to seeking out the work of their predecessors, bringing manuscripts in Greek and Syriac back to Baghdad. They sponsored the translation of these works into Arabic, many of which were carried out by Hunayn ibn Ishaq. The Banu Musa therefore played a key role in the translation of many Greek works into Arabic and in the foundation of the important contribution of the Islamic world to the sciences.
The Kitab al-Hiyal is the most important of the brothers' works. It contains descriptions of 100 small machines. About 80 of them are trick vessels that demonstrate astonishing mastery of automatic controls. The inspiration is to be found in machine treatises of the Hellenistic writers. The Kitab al-Hiyal goers well beyond its Greek predecessors, however, especially in the use of components of automatic controls. Many of their ideas, techniques and components were of considerable importance in the development of machine technology. The work was popular throughout the Middle Ages in the Islamic world, including Andalusia and some of their ideas may have entered Northern Europe via Spain.
Hill, D.R.in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. vii, pp. 640-1
See also, Hill, D.R: The book of ingenious devices, an annotated translation of the Banu Musa's Kitab al-Hiyal, Dordrecht, 1979.
The manuscript is written in a beautiful and confident hand with clear spaces left for the diagrams. At the end of the manuscript the scribe states that he copied the text exactly as he found it, so presumably the spaces left were precisely the same shape as the original copy. The drawings lack the same confidence, and do not always fit the spaces. However, they would still appear to be of an early date. One may speculate that they were added slightly later by an owner of the manuscript who understood the devices, but was not so skilled as a draughtsman.
An inscription below the colophon states that Yusuf al-Azhari had legally acquired this manuscript from Sheikh 'Abd al-Rahman al-Ta'i, the time keeper at the Azhar mosque in Jumada I 981 (September 1573 AD). This owner's name and seal impression also appear on the opening flyleaf. The inscriptions and seal impressions appear to be Ottoman.