The Book of Ingenious Devices: (Kitāb al-Ḥiyal)

273 Pages·1979·22.524 MB·English

by  Banū (auth.)

The Book of
Ingenious Devices
Vaf;can
The Bookof
Ingenious Devices
(Kitiib al-ijiyal)
by the Banü (so ns of) Müsa bin Shäkir
Translated and annotated
by
Donald R. Hill
D. Reide! Publishing Company
Dordrecht, Holland / Boston, U.S.A. / London, England
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publieatjon Data
Mut:Iammad ibn Müsa ibn Shäkir, d. 873.
The book of ingenious devices (Kitäb al-~1iyal).
Translation of Kitäb al-l;1iyal.
Bibliography: p.
Ineludes index.
I. Meehanical engineering - Early work s to 1800. 2. Mechanical movements - Early
works to 1080. I. A):lmad ibn Müsa, ibn Shakir, 9th eenL, joint author. II. l:Iasan ibn Mlisa ibn
Shiikir. 9th cent., joint author. I II . Hill, Donald Routledge. IV. Title.
TJ144.M8313 620.1'06 78-18865
ISSN-13: 978-94-009-9788-2 e-ISSN-13: 978-94-009-9786-8
OOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-9786-8
Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company,
P.O. Sox 17, Dordrecht, Holland
Süid and distributed in the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico
by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Inc.
Lincoln Building, 160 Old Derby Street, Hingham,
Mass. 02043, U.SA
All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 1979 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
Soncover reprint of the hardeover 1s t edition 1979
No part of the material proteeted by this copyright notice may bc reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanieal,
including photocopying, reeording or by any informationa! storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner
To the memory of my parents
Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowlcdgements ix
Part I. Introduction
1. Life and Works of the Banü Müsa
2. The Manuscripts of The Book of lngenious Devices
3. Earlier Information on The Book oj'lngenious Devi"e.\' 17
4. Historical Context of The Book 0/ lngenious Devices 19
5. Motifs 25
6. Transliteration of Arabic letters 33
7. Presentation and Translation 34
8. Notes to Introduction 36
Part II. The Book of Ingenious Devices
List of Models 39
Translation and Annotations 45
Appendix 244
Bibliography 250
Glossary 253
Index 266
Preface and Acknowledgements
As with my previous book, on al-lazarI, the main purpose of this book is to provide
scholars with an English version of the original Arabic, in this case assembled from all
the known doeuments. No full version of the Banü Müsa's work has yet been published
in any language, and I feel that it is of the greatest importanee to present this important
work under one eover. The discovery of a third major manuseript, superior to the two
already known, adds eonsiderably to the value of such a work, not least beeause the
reputation of the Banü Müsa is enhaneed by the realisation that many of the errors in
the other two manuseripts were the fault of eopyists and draughtsmen. Eaeh Model is
provided with an untouched photograph from one of the manuscripts, a line drawing
Jiving equivalent Roman lettering, and a commentary. Where I feIt it to be necessary I
have added my own explanatory drawings. By this means, I hope that the eonstruction
and operation of the Models will be made fully comprehensible.
I take great pleasure in expressing my gratitude to the Leverhulme Trust Fund for
making me aResearch Award from 1974 to 1976, which has been of the greatest help to
me in pursuing my research. To Dr David A. King of the Smithsonian Institution
Project in Medieval Islamic Astronomy in Egypt I owe a great debt, sinee it was he who
made me aware of the existence of MS. A.3474 in the Topkapi Library in Istanbul.
Without this manuscript, which proved to be a copy of the Banü Müsa's treatise
superior to the two major MSS already known, this work would have been much the
poorer. I also thank Prof. Fuad Sezgin of Frankfurt University for assisting me to
obtain mierofilm ofimportant doeuments. I also wish to express my appreciation of the
growing co-operation between myself and Prof. Al}.mad Y. al-l:;Iassan and his
eolleagues in Aleppo University. I expeet this eo-operation to bear fruit in the
publieation of the Arabic texts to whieh my own works will be eomplementary.
I express my gratitude to Prof. Galal Shawki of Cairo University for supplying me
with information about the values ofweights and measures used by the Banü Müsa and
for suggesting a possible identifieation for 'Utärid, whose glosses on the text appear
several times in the Vatican manuserip!.
To these specifie cases I must add my gratitude to the many members of the aeademie
community who, over the past four years, have aided my efforts with advice,
encouragement and, most of all, friendship. To single out any individual by name
would be invidious and unneeessary.
I aeknowledge with gratitude the assistanee given to me by libraries in providing me
with photographie eopies of material in their possession, partieularly the libraries of
Topkapi, Istanbul; Vatiean; Berlin; Gotha; and Leiden. Also for their granting me
permission to reproduee photographs from their manuseripts in this book. It is,
furthermore a pleasure to thank the staff of the libraries whieh Iuse regularly, for their
eourteous and efficient serviees, namely the British Library, the Library of the School
of Oriental and Afriean Studies and Senate House Library - the last two named being
institutions of the University of London.
ix
x Prclace and Acknol1'ledxements
I now take for granted the high quality of the typescripts I receive from Mrs Nina
Fuller, for which I record my continuing gratitude.
I would likc to express my deepest thanks to the Reidel staff for their efficiencyand
the quality of their work, and indeed for the kindness and courtesy which they have
always extended to me.
Those who know my dear wife Pat understand how much I owe to her
eneonragement and support, and how impossible it would be for me to express my
gratitude in a manner that would do justice to my deepest feelings.
Part I
Introduction
1. Life and Works of the Banü Müsa
The Banü (sons of) Müsa were among the most important figures in the intellectual
and politicallife of ninth century Baghdad and played a key rõle in the founding and
development of Arabic scienee and teehnology. Fortunately we have a good deal of
information about them in biographieal and historieal work s, the most important of
which are listed briefly below, with the abbreviations used in referenees given in
parentheses after eaeh souree.· Separate artieles are devoted to the Banü Müsa in
several works, of whieh the earliest is the Fihrist of Ibn al-NadIm,l eomposed
377/987-8, pp. 378-379 (F). Ibn al-Qifti, 568/1172-646jl248, p. 208 draws some of
his material from Ibn al-NadIm and some from unknown sourees (Q). Additional
information is given by Ibn Khallikan, 608/1211-681/1282, pp. 161-163 in his
Biographies of lllustrious Men (K), and by Bar Hebraeus, 623/1226-685jl286,
History of the Dynasties, pp. 264-267 (H). Abu' l-Fidä', 672/1273-732/1331,
Universal History, vol. I, Bk 2, p. 49 provides what is virtually a eopy of Ibn
Khallikan's artiele (A). There are other works whieh do not contain separate entries on
the Banü Müsa, but rather a number of seattered referenees to their aetivities. Perhaps
the most important of these is the great history of al-TabarI, 224/839-310/923,
Series III (T). Al-TabarI was living in Baghdad while the brothers were aetive in the
politieal and intelleetual life of the cityand his mentions of them, though brief,
therefore have particular value. Of a similar nature are a number of referenees in the
first volume of the biographical dietionary ofIbn AbI V~aybi'a, 590/1194--668jl270,
whieh are ofinterest for the light they throw upon the relationships of the brothers with
the Caliphs and with other scholars (V). Finally, there are a number ofreferenees to the
brothers' astronomieal studies in Ibn Yünus, d. 399/1009 (Y), and in the Chronology of
al-BIrünI, 362/973--c.442/1050 (B).
The three brothers were ealled, in order of seniority, Mul)ammad, Al)mad and al
l:;Iasan. We do not know their dates ofbirth but Mul)ammad died in 259/873 (F.K) and
eould hardly then have been less than seventy years old beeause the youngest brother
al-l:;Iasan was already a brilliant geometrieian in the reign of al-Ma'mün (198/813-
218/833) (H. 264). Their father, Müsa bin ~äkir, is usually deseribed as al-Munajjim
meaning either astronomer or astrologer, although in his youth he is said to have been
a resoureeful highwayman who made the roads in Khurä.sän unsafe (H. 264). By all
aeeounts, however, he beeame a noted astronorner and a elose companion of al
Ma'mün when the latter was residing at Marw in Khurasän before he beeame Caliph in
198/813. When Müsa died he eommitted his sons to the eare of al-Ma'mün who
entrusted Isl)aq b. IbrahIm al-Musa'bI with their guardianship. Isl)äq sent them to the
bayt al-/.likma (house of wisdom) where their tutor was Yal)ya b. AbI Man~ür and they
eompleted their edueation in that establishment. In general they were said to have been
* In other words each Arabic source is given a letter reference, e.g. F, Q, K, H, A and so on, and these are
llsed in this section in-association with page numbers. Thus H. 264 signifies page 264 of Bar Hebraeus',
History of the Dynasties.