Cezeri's Extraordinary Machines Exhibition is in its Homeland

Diyarbakir Metropolitan Municipality is bringing the "Extraordinary Machinery Exhibition" of the great engineer Al Cezeri, one of the world's leading geniuses during the Golden Age of Islam, to the people of Diyarbakir.

Department of Culture and Social Affairs, the "Extraordinary Machines of Al-Jazari Exhibition", in which the machine drawings in Kitab-ül Hiyal, written in the 13th century by the Muslim scientist Al-Jazari, are turned into working machines, is the largest and oldest Goat Bastion of the Diyarbakır Walls. will be presented to the interest of the curious.

The exhibition consists of 15 extraordinary machines, which were created with the guidance of Cezeri, which emerged as a result of Durmuş Çalışkan's work of more than 25 years, with the production of Cezeri's machines on the same scale, with the same materials and techniques, a first in the world.

In the exhibition, Water Clock with Elephant, Snake Mechanism, Boatman Water Clock Player Figure, Automatic Washbasin with Children, Automatic Washbasin with Peacocks, Child Vending Machine Serving Beverage, Blood Measuring Machine, Four Sliding Door Locks, Geometric Drawing Tool and Sphere and Multi-Purpose Pan Application. 25 works will be exhibited.

The exhibition, which will be opened on Friday, March 25 at the Goat Sign, will remain open until Wednesday, May 18.

Al Jazari

His full name is Ebû el-'İzz bin İsmaî'l bin el-Rezzâz el-Cezerî, and he was an engineer who lived in Diyarbakır during the Artuqid period around 1200.

Apart from all the technical innovations he brought to mechanics with his own genius, Cezeri is an artist who tells a story with his machine design. The most striking feature of Cezeri is that he reconstructs the concept of machine and combines the machine with art in a way that reflects the cultural accumulation of his period.

Having served as a palace engineer for 25 years (1181-1206) uninterruptedly at the Artuklu Palace in Diyarbakir İçkale, Cezeri is a strong representative of a tradition known as Pneumatics in the Hellenistic period and Hiyal in the advanced period of Islamic Civilization.

Cezeri, who is considered to have taken the first steps in cybernetics and built and operated the first robot, is thought to have inspired the famous artist Leonardo da Vinci.