Kitāb Arshimīdas fī al-binkāmāt كتاب أرشميدس في البنكامات Archimedes أرشميدس

Content

Treatise on the hydraulic and pneumatic machinery of water-clocks with thirteen diagrams, attributed to Archimedes (Ἀρχιμήδης; أرشميدس; fl. 3rd century BC). The title is given wrongly as كتاب أرشميدش في عمل السكامات ( Kitāb Arshimīdash fī ‘amal al-sakāmāt ; f. 2v, line 1); the final word should read البنكامات ( al-binkāmāt , 'water-clocks'). The treatise is a compilation material from Greek, Byzantine, Persian and Arabic sources, and some sections may in fact be derived from Archimedes.

Begins (f. 2v, lines 3-6):

إذا أردت ذلك فاعمد إلى نحاس فاتخذ منه خزانة

للماء (!) يكون ارتفاعها ثلثة أشبار في شبرين وليكن

مدورة مستويه مهتدمة جيدة اللحام وليكن لها

قوائم ...

Ends (f. 21r, lines 7-11):

... فنركب القمع في طرف الأنبوب من خارج ونصب

الماء حتى يبلغ المقدار الذي يراد منها الذي وصفناه فيما

تقدم من عملها إن شاء الله وقد يستخرج من هذه الآلة آلات

كبيرة فافهم ما وصفناه ولا قوة إلا بالله ثم ما أردنا من

ذلك وبالله التوفيق ...

The text is accomapied by thirteen diagrams with captions in Persian.

Diagrams:

• Top section of water-clock, showing a man's head whose eyes change colour on the hour a bird's head that drops balls onto a cymbal A percussion instrument consisting of thin round plates. , and the mechanisms that drive these devices (f. 2r);
• Pipes, float and float chamber (f. 5r);
• Pipe out of which water enters the sump (f. 5v);
• Semi-circular plate indicating the twelve signs of the zodiac, and pipe with division marker and tap (f. 6v);
• A device found in a previous diagram (f. 8v);
• Drum container, water container, and water-sump container of a water-clock (f. 9r)
• Top section of a water-clock, showing a woman's head flanked by columns marked to indicated the 24 hours of the day (f. 11r);
• Automata of an executioner and fettered prisioners (f. 12v);
• Automaton of an executioner on horseback (f. 14v);
• Statues of men that rise and fall on rods to indicate the hours of the day inscribed on columns, and the mechanism that drives them (f. 16r);
• Mechanical snakes that emerge from holes at the foot of a mountain on the hour and the mechanism that drives them (f. 17r);
• A tree containing birds which emit cries on the hour when the snakes on folio 17r emerge from their holes, and the mechanism that drives them (f. 19r);
• Flautist automaton (f. 20v).

Extent and format

Ff. 2r-21r

It is part of

Kitāb Arshimīdas fī al-binkāmāt كتاب أرشميدس في البنكامات Archimedes أرشميدس and Ṣan‘at al-zāmir صنعة الزامر Apollonius the carpenter and geometer أبلنيوس النجار الهندسي

64 images

Ref: Add MS 23391

Written in

Arabic, Farsi and Persian in Arabic script

Type

Manuscript item

Access & Reference

Original held at

British Library: Oriental Manuscripts

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

Add MS 23391, ff 2r-21r

History of this record

Date(s)

16th century (CE, Gregorian)

Related material

Select Bibliography

Translation:

On the Construction of Water-Clocks. Kitāb Arshimīdas fī ‘amal al-binkamāt , Donald R. Hill ed. and trans., Turner and Devereux Occasional Papers no. 4 (London, Turner and Devereux, 1976)

Subjects

Water clocksMechanics--Early works to 1800

People & organisations

Archimedes

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Kitāb Arshimīdas fī al-binkāmāt كتاب أرشميدس في البنكامات Archimedes أرشميدس, British Library: Oriental Manuscripts, Add MS 23391, ff 2r-21r, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023493171.0x000001> [accessed 26 November 2024]

Link to this record

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