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David B. Thomas

Science an nology in Is

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World of Islam Festival: Science and Tecbnoloxy in Islam 19

This exhibition, the result of collaboration between the Science Museum and the World of Islam Festival Trust, was conceived by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Professor of the History of Science and I’hilosophy at Tehran University. He envisaged an exhibition which would view Islamic science, technology and medicine not sim- ply as a bridge between classical antiquity and the medieval and Renaissance West but as a distinct cultural activity deriving its inspiration from the Holy Qur‘än.

The exhibition was organized by a small committee, with the selection of exhibits being made by Anthony Turner, working freelance, and Francis Mad- dison, Curator of the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford. Items were borrowed from thirty-five institutions in fourteen countries in Europe, the United States of America and the Middle East. The exhibition was designed by Michael Preston, the Science Museum’s Exhibition Officer. Lending institutions were offered a government indemnity in place of insurance on objects lent. The total indemnities given amounted to about 65 2.5 million.

Science

After an initial introduction to the exhibition, the subject which occupied pride of place was astronomy, an area in which Islamic achievement was considerable and one in which many instruments still survive. We were fortunate in assem- bling the most important collection of Islamic celestial globes and astrolabes ever displayed. Amongst the collection was the earliest dated scientific instrument made in Europe, a Moorish astrolabe of A.D. 1026/27 lent by the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh. Astrolabes were, indeed, the first precision scientific instruments made in quantity. The earliest celestial globe .was dated A.D. 1140 and came from the Iran Bastan Museum, Tehran. The mathematics section included a thirteenth-century manuscript of Omar Iulayyam’s work on algebra lent by Columbia University Library, New York.

Islamic medicine, developed from classical Greek concepts by such philoso- phers as Razes and Avicenna, was represented in the exhibition by what is per- haps the earliest illustrated surgical treatise, the work of Abulcasis. A fifteenth- century copy of this work was lent by the Orientabteilung der Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Iculturbesitz, West Berlin. Islamic medicine is usually associated with herbal remedies, and the medical section of the exhibition was adjacent to the cases devoted to natural history. Botanical illustration, a subject which is of more than academic interest when the drawing is the means of identlfying the source of an efficacious plant extract, is one in which the Muslims excelled. This section included a projected slide sequence of colourful miniatures taken from manuscripts, many from the works of al-Qazwini (Fig. 15); a thirteenth-century copy of his work was lent by the Staatsbibliothek, Munich. The borrowing of a large number of items from the Wellcome Museum for the History of Medicine made possible the reconstruction of an Islamic pharmacy as one of the exhibits (Fig. II;).

For several centuries, the Muslim empire covered a major part of the known world stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to India. Its vast extent encouraged the study of cartography, descriptive geography and navigation. The exhibition displayed maps from the world geography of al-Idrisi as well as a mariner’s atlas and a number of compasses. Muslims everywhere need to know their position in relation to Mecca for prayer, and in the same section was included a selection of qibla indicators, devices used to determine this dlrection.

Technolog y 15

As well as the very finest astrolabes, celestial globes, balances and other scientific instruments, there were exhibits on aspects of the technology of Islam, such as

SCIENCE MUSEUM, London. Scieilce aiid T e c b t z o ~ ~ l Islam exhibition. One Of

1 GO botanical and zoological illustrations shown in the au~o-visual section ofthe

tile production, falconry, writing materials, metalwork and coin minting. exhibition.

20 David B. Thomas

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16 Reconstruction of an Islamic pharmacy. 17 Reconstructed waterclod;: based on a manuscript by al-Jazari dated 1206, translated by Donald Hill. 18 Reconstruction of thirteenth-century pump for raising water. Reconstruction by Sevem-Lamb Ltd.

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It was felt that an exhibition which included Islamic technology should display some of the medieval mechanical devices which were the most elaborate and complex mechanismus made before the invention of the mechanical clock in the fourteenth century. Unfortunately, none of the original machines still exist in a complete working form and so a number of reconstiactions were made. The lar- gest and most elaborate of these reconstructions was a water-clock with musical automata and astronomical indicators built according to a manuscript descrip- tion, the earliest authenticated copy of which dates from A.D. 1206. The manu- script, which included virtually all the details of measurements and materials necessary for an accurate reconstruction, was written by al-Jazari and called by him The Book of .Knowledge o f Ingenious Mechanical Devices. The clock stood nearly 4 metres in height and was on a base about 3 metres square. Each hour a door opened revealing a painted figure behind and two eagles, one on either side, bent forward dropping golden balls into two vases. On the sixth, ninth and twelfth hours the automata played (Fig. 17).

Another working reproduction of an al-Jazari device described in the same book was of the first power-pump ever described. Although the structed metal force pumps, their pumps were all worked manually.

Al-Jaaari's force pump, a half-scale model of which was commissioned, was a landmark in the history of mechanical engineering, for it was driven by a water- wheel (Fig. 18).

The area allocated to the exhibition was about 450 square metres. The gallery was not air-conditioned and in order to be able to include the many rare manu- scripts which were lent for the exhibition an enclosure within the gallery was constructed. This area included an air-conditioning unit which maintained an appropriate temperature and humidity throughout the hottest and driest summer whch London had experienced in 250 years. In order to increase the exhibition

World Islam Festival: Scietace atzd TechzoLog in Islam 21

area a temporary mezzanine gallery was constructed over the air-conditioned enclosure.

Attendance at the exhibition was less than expected (around 40,000), but a great deal of interest was shown by television and film companies, and as well as appearing on British television, the exhibition was filmed by crews for the Fed- eral Republic of Germany, Italy, Iraq, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

In retrospect the exhibition might be said to have been too diffuse. The exhib- its covered a wide range of activities from primitive agricultural implements to fine elaborate astrolabes ; it included objects which were made in three continents over a period of roughly one thousand years. However, all were in some way scientific or technological. The exhibition illuminated one hitherto neglected area of the history of science and technology. We managed to borrow much of the material which we wished to display and I am very grateful for the assistance given by the very many institutions which took part in the exhibition.

19 An Arab fishing craft known as a Shahoaf; 5.5 metres in length. It was the largest item in the exhibition. Originally from Dubai, it was lent by Exeter Maritime Museum. The traditional methods of boat building were shown in a series of photographs.

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