"Design on Each Side for Waterwheel Worked by Donkey Power", Folio from a Book of the Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices by al-Jazari
dated A.H. 715/ 1315 CE
Medium
Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
Dimensions
H. 11 5/8 in. (29. 5 cm) W. 8 3/8 in. (21.3 cm) Mat size: H. 19 in. (48.3 cm) W. 14 1/4 in. (36.2 cm) Frame: H. 21 5/8 in. (54.9 cm) W. 16 3/4 in. (42.5 cm)
Classification
Codices
Department
Islamic Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1955
Accession Number
55.121.11
Tags
Art Historical Context
This folio from a 1315 manuscript presents a detailed engineering diagram for a waterwheel powered by donkey, drawn from Badi' al-Zaman al-Jazari’s celebrated “Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices.” Originally composed in 1206 for the Artuqid rulers of Diyarbakır, al-Jazari’s treatise compiled dozens of hydraulic machines, automata, and clocks. The Metropolitan’s leaf, illuminated by Farrukh ibn ʿAbd al-Latif, preserves these ideas in vibrant ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper, demonstrating how scientific knowledge circulated across the medieval Islamic world. The illustr...