Al-Jazari

Al-Jazari (1136–1206) was an Arab Muslim polymath, engineer, and inventor who served the Artuqid dynasty in what is now southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. He is considered one of the most important mechanical engineers of the medieval Islamic world.

His seminal work is commonly titled "The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices," completed in 1206. The lavishly illustrated manuscript described over 50 mechanical devices with detailed construction instructions for each.

Al-Jazari designed water clocks, hand-washing automata, water-raising pumps, and early programmable machines driven by cams and water power. His descriptions of crankshafts and escapement mechanisms were centuries ahead of comparable European engineering.

While not robots in the modern sense, Al-Jazari created some of the earliest known programmable automata—mechanical figures powered by water that performed specific sequences of actions. His hand-washing automaton, featuring a humanoid figure that drains and refills a basin, is often cited as an early ancestor of robotics.