Al-Jazari does not write about himself except a little, as explained in Part I. There is still quite a bit we can learn about the man from the wonderful book he wrote.

The Kuttab

In the 12th century, the Kuttab (كُطَّاب) was the primary school of the Muslim world. The main purpose of the Kuttab was to teach the Quran: children, mainly boys and occasionally girls, memorized it, learned correct recitation, and acquired basic religious knowledge. The education included reading and writing, verb conjugations, and basic arithmetic, as well as skills valuable for everyday life, commerce, and administration. The emphasis was on memorization and discipline, which often included corporal punishment. Scholars estimate that 15–25% of the male population was literate. Most of them studied at the Kuttab, and wealthy and educated families hired private tutors. The poor, rural, urban, and nomadic classes did not learn to read or write at all. The Kuttab was often a small local institution, sometimes just a room attached to a mosque, a private house, or a shaded shelter under a veranda. The teachers were usually called muʿalm (معلّم). They received a low salary from the students’ families or from the waqf (وَقْف, endowment) that supported education. The students sat on mats and wrote verses from the Quran on wooden tablets that could be washed for reuse. The Kuttab was seen as much a religious duty as an educational tool.

Kuttab, from Maqamat Al-Hariri ( مقامات الحريري), 13th-century manuscript, British Library.

The Mathematical Perspective

Al-Jazari’s education and training can also be viewed from a mathematical perspective. In the 12th century, there were no secondary schools. The few who wished to, and could afford it, continued their studies with the help of private tutors. Mathematics in the Islamic world in the 12th century was a rich and mature discipline, fully integrated into the sciences, engineering, and even Muslim life. Algebra, for example, was used in inheritance law (علم الفرائض), land division, and commercial contracts. As early as the 9th century, Al-Khwarizmi (الخوارزمی) wrote the foundational book on algebra and compiled trigonometric tables. This mathematical culture later passed to Latin Europe, and parts of it became the foundations of science in the late Middle Ages and early modern period.

Let’s consider, for a moment, the elephant clock. The sinking buoy pulls a rope, which rotates a pulley about its axis. On the pulley sits a scribe that indicates the passing minutes. All this will only work if the diameter of the pulley matches the path of the sinking buoy and the length of the rope. This requires the use of geometry and relationships (proportionality). There is not a single equation in the chapter on the elephant clock. There is no use of algebra, Euclidean geometry, or trigonometry. Al-Jazari’s mathematics is not explicit but is found within the machines. Al-Jazari apparently worked by trial and error and the healthy intuition of a craftsman.

A Soviet stamp commemorating the Persian mathematician and astronomer Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi

The mathematical background, or rather the lack thereof, supports the claim that Al-Jazari studied in the Kuttab and nothing more.

Apprenticeship

An apprentice is a young person who learns a profession or craft through an apprenticeship with a skilled craftsman, a Master. As part of the apprenticeship, the apprentice serves as an assistant to the craftsman and sometimes even as a servant. In the Middle Ages, throughout the Muslim world, in Christian Europe, and beyond, this was the royal road to learning blacksmithing and metal work, and it is very likely that Al-Jazari studied with such a Master as an apprentice.

Guilds were a central part of the social structure in medieval Western Europe. The entry into a guild was through apprenticeship. After several years of training, the apprentice was qualified as a “journeyman,” a craftsman whose training was complete but who was not yet able to set up his own workshop. The journeyman found their livelihood by working for a daily wage for another craftsman, and by moving among various craftsmen, they helped spread new knowledge and techniques. After several years of work, travel, and experience, a journeyman could be ordained to the rank of a “Master”. We have countless European documents on the subject of guilds and training, including contracts signed between apprentices’ parents and the master who took them under their protection. In contrast, in the Muslim world, apart from a few apprenticeship contracts in the Cairo Genizah, there are no apprenticeship contracts at all; there is no historical evidence for the existence of craft guilds, and there is not even an Arabic term for them. Ultimately, it was Goitein (Shlomo Dov Goitein, the central historian in the study of the Cairo Genizah) who rejected this outright: “There was no such term because guilds in the narrow sense of the word had not yet arisen.”

The historical differences between Western Europe and Islamic countries had little if any effect on the daily life of the apprentice. The vast majority of students who completed the Kuttab, as well as those who did not receive primary education, received vocational training. Children joined their parents in agricultural or urban work or as apprentices to professionals in the workshops of the markets. Even in the absence of written contracts, training began between the ages of 10 and 14. The agreement, even if oral, stipulated that the artisan was obliged to teach the boy his craft (صناعة). Although some of the contracts in the Cairo Geniza are for only a few months. It is clear that no one learns blacksmithing or any other metalworking technique in a few months. In Western Europe, where records exist, the apprenticeship lasted 7 years, and it is likely that this was also the case in Muslim countries. These contracts also specified the master’s duties (training, food, lodging, and often clothing). And the duties of the apprentice with an emphasis on behavioral requirements: the apprentices had to be obedient, loyal, and not “degrade” the workshop. In the Muslim world, these were oral agreements based on Muslim law. Al-Jazari is a very skilled craftsman, and the book is full of details that demonstrate his intimate knowledge of metalworking. For example, when he explains how to make the main water tank for the castle clock, he does not content himself with a drawing and the choice of materials (copper) but details how to obtain a perfect cylinder using a precise wooden disc and how to ensure that the cylinder is the same in diameter throughout. Al-Jazari makes extensive use of iron, copper, bronze, and lead, as well as a variety of processing techniques, such as hammering, casting, and soldering. In the Middle Ages, there was no other way to learn metalworking than through apprenticeship.

Medieval blacksmith at work, 14th century Sloane Manuscript No. 3983, British Library

Al-Jazari – Professional Literature

Al-Jazari’s approach to the professional literature of his time is impressive. In the post on the castle clock, we saw that Al-Jazari knew and criticized the work of Archimedes, and in the post on the fountain with two tipping buckets, we discussed his dispute with the Banu Musa, but the highlight is in the chapter on the perpetual flute, where he cites three sources:

 “I came across a well-known paper by Apollonius, the Indian carpenter: he made a wheel which turns slowly and opens water outlets…”

“I also examined another old instrument, about which I found no written report, but a drawing. In this, the flute is like a nay having eight holes”.

“I [also] examined a paper written in Baghdad in the year 517 A.H. by the eminent inventor Hibat Allah al-Husayn al-Asturlibl, in which he makes a real innovation….

During my time as a teacher at the Davidson Institute for Science Education and in academia, I have seen how difficult it is for students to read an article critically. The fact that Al-Jazari does this regularly is impressive and tells us something about the man.

Mechanical treatises were relatively rare, certainly compared to manuscripts in medicine, theology, or law. The previous important book is by the Banu Musa and contains no such references to earlier sources. In this respect, Al-Jazari is truly groundbreaking, bringing engineering literature closer to classical knowledge. This is all the more surprising since the Banu Musa brothers were educated at the House of Wisdom, a magnificent institution in the heart of Baghdad with a very broad mathematical and scientific education, and Al-Jazari studied only the Kuttab.