Bab Jayrun water clock and Ridwan ibn al-Sa'ati's treatise
Reloj hidráulico de Bab Yayrun y tratado de Ridwan ibn al-Saati
- Date
- 1203 · confidence medium
- Place
- Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, Syria
- Credited to
- Muhammad al-Sa'ati and his son Ridwan ibn al-Sa'ati
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A monumental water clock beside the Bab Jayrun gate of the Umayyad Mosque, which showed the hours by a water mechanism and helped regulate prayer times. Ridwan described it in 1203 in an illustrated treatise, one of the best sources on medieval clockmaking.
Muhammad al-Sa'ati built the clock around 1160-1170; Ridwan's treatise (1203) is the secure date. The clock suffered fires and repairs and was rebuilt in the 19th century.
What it led to
- Arabic public clockmaking, descended from the tradition of the Banu Musa and al-Jazari
- spread of public clocks in Levantine and European cities
- texts of medieval mechanical technology translated and discussed by historians