Seen the latest toy robots that are able to perform intricate actions? Well, did you know that Muslims played a major role in bringing about the technology and information needed to program those robots and others like Honda’s latest humanoid robot, Asimo?
Leonardo da Vinci designed a programmable mechanical lion in 1515. But he got the know-how from an earlier Muslim inventor: Ibn Ismail Ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari who lived in Baghdad in the 1200s. He designed a boatload of programmable robots, which he wrote about in 1206 in The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices.
The forgotten Muslim inventors of the past played a major role in establishing the foundation of current technological advances.
Popular Mechanics Sep 2007
Radical Robots
