Author
thirteen diagrams with captions in Persian.
Diagrams:
Top section of water-clock
Publication Date
16th century (CE, Gregorian)
Subject
1
Type
Book
Language
ara,fas
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
Yes
Pages Count
1
Library
Qatar Digital Library
Library Asset ID
Add MS 23391, ff 2r-21r
Record ID
vdc_100023493171.0x000001
Library Location
British Library: Oriental Manuscripts
Date
16th century (CE, Gregorian)
Notes
Treatise on the hydraulic and pneumatic machinery of water-clocks with thirteen diagrams, attributed to Archimedes (Ἀρχιμήδης; Archimedes; fl. 3rd century BC). The title is given wrongly as Archimedean's book on the work of the sikamat (
Kitāb Arshimīdash fī ‘amal al-sakāmāt
; f. 2v, line 1); the final word should read penkamat (
al-binkāmāt
, 'water-clocks'). The treatise is a compilation material from Greek, Byzantine, Persian and Arabic sources, and some sections may in fact be derived from Archimedes.
Begins (f. 2v, lines 3-6):
If you want that, go for copper and make a safe from it
For water (!), its height is three spans by two spans, so let it be
Round, level, worn, well-welded, let it be
Lists...
Ends (f. 21r, lines 7-11):
...So we install the funnel on the outside end of the pipe and install it
Water until it reaches the desired amount, which we described below
Its work will progress, God willing, and machines may be produced from this machine
Great, so understand what we have described, and there is no power except in God, then what we intended from
That's it, and God bless you...
The text is accomapied by thirteen diagrams with captions in Persian.
Diagrams:
Top section of water-clock, showing a man's head whose eyes change color on the hour a bird's head that drops balls onto a
cymbal
A percussion instrument consisting of thin round plates.
, and the mechanisms that drive these devices (f. 2r);
Pipes, float and float chamber (f. 5r);
Pipe out of which water enters the sump (f. 5v);
Semi-circular plate indicating the twelve signs of the zodiac, and pipe with division marker and tap (f. 6v);
A device found in a previous diagram (f. 8v);
Drum container, water container, and water-sump container of a water-clock (f. 9r)
Top section of a water-clock, showing a woman's head flanked by columns marked to indicate the 24 hours of the day (f. 11r);
Automata of an executioner and fettered prisioners (f. 12v);
Automaton of an executioner on horseback (f. 14v);
Statues of men that rise and fall on rods to indicate the hours of the day inscribed on columns, and the mechanism that drives them (f. 16r);
Mechanical snakes that emerge from holes at the foot of a mountain on the hour and the mechanism that drives them (f. 17r);
A tree containing birds which emit cries on the hour when the snakes on folio 17r emerge from their holes, and the mechanism that drives them (f. 19r);
Flautist automaton (f. 20v).
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Translation:
On the Construction of Water-Clocks. Kitāb Arshimīdas fī ‘amal al-binkamāt
, Donald R. Hill ed. and trans., Turner and Devereux Occasional Papers no. 4 (London, Turner and Devereux, 1976)
