Islam Wiki
Advertisement

Abbas Ibn Firnas (810 – 887 A.D.), also known as Abbas Qasim Ibn Firnas and العباس بن فرناس (Arabic language), was Berber polymath:[1][2] an inventor, engineer, aviator, physician, Arabic poet, and Andalusian musician.[2] He was born in Izn-Rand Onda, Al-Andalus (today's Ronda, Spain), and lived in the Emirate of Córdoba. He is known for an early attempt at aviation.[3][4]

He has been commemorated on stamps from Libya, by a statue near the Baghdad International Airport, and by a namesake airport north of Baghdad. The crater Ibn Firnas on the Moon is also named in his honor.

Overview[]

Abu al-Qasim Abbas ibn Firnas ibn Wirdas al-Takurini (c. 809/810 – 887 A.D.), also known as Abbas ibn Firnas (Arabic: عباس بن فرناس‎), latinized Armen Firman, was an Andalusian polymath: an inventor, physician, chemist, engineer, Andalusian musician, and Arabic-language poet. He was reported to have experimented with a form of flight. He left his hometown in the pursuit of knowledge, and went to Cordoba. He studied a range of knowledge and master in many field like astronomy, engineering and music. He took interest in music but the but his inventing of a flying device made him legendary. The flying device he was invented was the first man made object to have flown man in the history to make scientific attempts at flying, that's why he was usually known as the father of "AVIATION" He created a workshop, where He usually performed various experiments, like He attempted to make transparent glass wear items using various materials which he assembled form his surroundings. He created a water- time- piece which is known as AL-MAQATA. In the field of astronomy, firnas created various significant instrument that he applied in studying the sky. He made remarkable efforts in making ornaments by shaping rock into various design. Apart from this, He made a legendary affirmation invention, He created a para glider. But failed in his attempt. As He didn't know how to land the glider. And got severe injuries which almost crippled him. His critiques contended that he hurt himself because he didn't try a proper research towards his invention. This lead to his death in the year 877AD.

Ibn Firnas made various contributions in the field of astronomy and engineering. He constructed a device which indicated the ovementn of the planets and stars in the Universe. In addition, Ibn Firnas came up with a procedure to manufacture coourless glass and made magnifying lenses for reading, which were known as reading stones.

Work[]

Ibn Firnas designed a water clock called Al-Maqata, devised a means of manufacturing colorless glass, made corrective lenses ("reading stones"), developed a chain of rings that could be used to simulate the motions of the planets and stars, and developed a process for cutting rock crystal that allowed Spain to cease exporting quartz to Egypt to be cut.[5][4]

In his house, he invented an artificial weather simulation room, in which spectators saw stars and clouds, and were astonished by artificial thunder and lightning, which were produced by mechanisms located in his basement laboratory.[6][7] How he achieved those artificial thunder and lightning effects is unknown, though it is possible that some electricity may have been involved.

Another invention was when he devised "some sort of metronome."[4]

Aviation[]

He is also said to have made an attempt at flight using a set of wings. In the words of the Moroccan historian Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari (d. 1632):[8]

Among other very curious experiments which he made, one is his trying to fly. He covered himself with feathers for the purpose, attached a couple of wings to his body, and, getting on an eminence, flung himself down into the air, when according to the testimony of several trustworthy writers who witnessed the performance, he flew a considerable distance, as if he had been a bird, but, in alighting again on the place whence he had started, his back was very much hurt, for not knowing that birds when they alight come down upon their tails, he forgot to provide himself with one.[4]

This account is described seven centuries later by al-Maqqari, who used "many early sources no longer extant." One reference cited by him was a 9th century poem written by Mu'min ibn Said, a court poet of Cordoba under Muhammad I (d. 886), who was acquainted with and usually critical of Ibn Firnas.[4] The pertinent verse runs: "He flew faster than the phoenix in his flight when he dressed his body in the feathers of a vulture."[8][9]

Ibn Firnas' glider flight is considered by John Harding to be the first attempt at heavier-than-air flight in aviation history.[10] It may have inspired two later attempts at flight: one by Jauhari who died in either 1003 or 1008 while attempting to fly from the roof of a mosque in Nishapur, Khorasan, Iran, and the other by Eilmer of Malmesbury between 1000 and 1010 in England.[4]

Armen Firman[]

For the Australian rock-group by the same name, see: Armen Firman (band)

Armen Firman may be the latinized name of Abbas Ibn Firnas,[11] or, alternatively, he may have been the man who inspired Ibn Firnas.[12]

There is some contradiction in the modern record: According to some secondary sources, about 20 years before Ibn Firnas attempted to fly he may have witnessed Firman as he wrapped himself in a loose cloak stiffened with wooden struts and jumped from a tower in Córdoba, Spain, intending to use the garment as wings on which he could glide. The alleged attempt at flight was unsuccessful, but the garment slowed his fall enough that he only sustained minor injuries.[12]

However, there is no reference to Armen Firman in other secondary sources, all of which deal exhaustively with Ibn Firnas' flight attempt.[4][13][14][4] since Firman's jump is said to have been Ibn Firnas' source of inspiration,[12] the lack of any mention of Firman in al-Maqqari's account casts doubt on whether he existed and whether his tower jump was later confused with Ibn Firnas' gliding attempt in secondary writings.[12]

See also[]

References[]

  1. « Ibn Firnas ('Abbâs) » by Ahmed Djebbar, Dictionnaire culturel des science, by Collective under the direction of Nicolas Witkowski, Du Regard Editions, 2003, ISBN 2-84105-128-5.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Lynn Townsend White, Jr. (Spring, 1961). "Eilmer of Malmesbury, an Eleventh Century Aviator: A Case Study of Technological Innovation, Its Context and Tradition", Technology and Culture 2 (2), p. 97-111 [100]:
    "Ibn Firnas was a polymath: a physician, a rather bad poet, the first to make glass from stones (quartz), a student of music, and inventor of some sort of metronome."

  3. John H. Lienhard (2004). "'Abbas Ibn Firnas". The Engines of Our Ingenuity. episode 1910. NPR. KUHF-FM Houston.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Lynn Townsend White, Jr. (Spring, 1961). "Eilmer of Malmesbury, an Eleventh Century Aviator: A Case Study of Technological Innovation, Its Context and Tradition", Technology and Culture 2 (2), p. 97-111 [100f.]
  5. Lienhard, John H. "ABBAS IBN FIRNAS". The Engines of Our Ingenuity. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
  6. Lynn Townsend White, Jr. (Spring, 1961). "Eilmer of Malmesbury, an Eleventh Century Aviator: A Case Study of Technological Innovation, Its Context and Tradition", Technology and Culture 2 (2), p. 97-111 [100-1]
  7. Imamuddin, S. M. (1981), Muslim Spain 711-1492 A.D., Brill Publishers, p. 166, ISBN 9004061312
  8. 8.0 8.1 Lynn Townsend White, Jr. (Spring, 1961). "Eilmer of Malmesbury, an Eleventh Century Aviator: A Case Study of Technological Innovation, Its Context and Tradition", Technology and Culture 2 (2), p. 97-111 [101]
  9. Lynn Townsend White, Jr. (Spring, 1961). "Eilmer of Malmesbury, an Eleventh Century Aviator: A Case Study of Technological Innovation, Its Context and Tradition", Technology and Culture 2 (2), p. 97-111 [101]:
    The Moroccan historian al-Maqqari, who died in 1632 A.D. but who used many early sources no longer extant, tells of a certain Abu'l Qasim 'Abbas b. Firnas who lived in Cordoba in the later ninth century. [...] No modern historian can be satisfied with a source written 750 years after the event, and it is astonishing that, if indeed several eye-witnesses recorded Firnas's flight, no mention of it independent of al-Maqqari has survived. Yet al-Maqqari cites a contemporary poem by Mu'min b. Said, a minor court poet of Cordoba under Muhammad I (d. 886 A.D.), which appears to refer to this flight and which has the greater evidential value because Mu'min did not like b. Firnas: he criticized one of his metaphors and disapproved his artificial thunder. [...] Although the evidence is slender, we must conclude that b. Firnas was the first man to fly successfully, and that he has priority over Eilmer for this honor.

  10. Harding, John (2006), Flying's strangest moments: extraordinary but true stories from over one thousand years of aviation history, Robson Publishing, pp. 1–2, ISBN 1861059345
  11. Arabic and Islamic Names of the Moon Craters MuslimHeritage 9-28-07
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 No. 1910: Abbas Ibn Firnas John H. Lienhard, Engines of our Ingenuity
  13. Terias, Elias, "Sobre el vuelo de Abbas Ibn Firnas", Al-Andalus, Vol. 29, No. 2 (1964), p. 365-369
  14. Lévi-Provençal, E. "ʿAbbās b. Firnās b. Wardūs, Abu 'l-Ḳāsim." Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, Edited by: P. Bearman , Th. Bianquis , C.E. Bosworth , E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs, 2009

Bibliography[]

  • J. Vernet, Abbas Ibn Firnas. Dictionary of Scientific Biography (C.C. Gilespie, ed.) Vol. I, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970-1980. pg. 5.
  • Lynn Townsend White, Jr. (Spring, 1961). "Eilmer of Malmesbury, an Eleventh Century Aviator: A Case Study of Technological Innovation, Its Context and Tradition", Technology and Culture 2 (2), p. 97-111 [100f.]
  • Salim T.S. Al-Hassani (ed.), Elisabeth Woodcock (au.), and Rabah Saoud (au.). 2006. 1001 Inventions. Muslum Heritage in Our World. Manchester: Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation. See pages 308-13. (ISBN 978-0-9555035-0-4)
Advertisement