Persian vertical-axis windmill
Molino de viento de eje vertical
- Date
- c. century IX · confidence low
- Place
- Sistan, eastern Persia (Iran / Afghanistan)
- Credited to
- Builders of Sistan; described by Muslim geographers of the 9th-10th centuries (al-Istakhri, al-Masudi)
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A mill with vertical sails of reed matting enclosed by walls that channel the constant wind of the '120 days'. The first known use of wind as a mechanical engine to grind grain and pump water.
The first reliable mentions (al-Masudi, al-Istakhri) are from the 9th-10th centuries, though tradition traces it back to Caliph Umar (c. 640).
What it led to
- extension of irrigation and milling in regions without watercourses
- diffusion of the concept through the Islamic world as far as al-Andalus and Egypt
- a distant inspiration for the European horizontal-axis windmill