Banu Musa hydraulic organ

Episode 17 The Banu Musa (Sons of Musa) Inventions and Automatons

Islamic Golden Age (2017)

By Eamon Gearon

Film Review

Between 750 and 1250 AD there was a proliferation of mechanical automatons in the Muslim world.  These included games, toys and gadgets that washed your hands or poured drinks.

The most famous of the Islamic automaton makers were the Banu Musa (sons of Musa), three sons of a Persian bandit named Musa Ibn Shakir. After giving up a life of crime, Ibn Shakir became a renowned astronomer employed by caliph al-Ma-M’un. His son Muhammad became an astronomer, Ahmad a mathematician and Al-Hassan an engineer.

Between them they created scores of complex mechanical toys and astronomical tables. In 850 AD they published the Book of Tricks, dedicated to preserving ancient mechanical knowledge from Greece, Rome, Persia, China and India.

Among their inventions was a coin-operated vending machine to dispense holy water, the earliest design for a steam powered engine, automatic water fountains that changed shape via differently shaped spouts, the first hydraulically powered organ, the first steam powered flute (the earliest example of machine programming) and a gas mask for men who cleaned polluted wells.

Their work went on to influence the work of Ishmael al-Jaziri, the Turkish 12th century father of modern robotics.

Al Jazari’s inventions included robots programmed to provide guests with towels, programmable on-off switches for fountains, automated water and candle-driven mechanical clocks and a variety of water pumps, and hydraulic systems.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5756987/5757021