Ismail Al-Jazari (1136–1206), scholar and polymath who lived during the Islamic Golden Age and is considered as one of the greatest engineers of all time, he invented a lot of mechanical devices that showed the summit of scientific progress the Abbasids dynasty reached in the 12th century and his inventions also contributed to the industrial revolution 600 years later. Al-Jazari designed more than 50 different types of devices including clocks, robots, hand washing devices, musical devices, machines for raising water, etc they all can be found in his most famous book “The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices”.
Al-Jazari considered “The Elephant Clock” as his most beloved invention.
In the last 800 years, a lot of research and studies focused on Al-Jazari’s work, and particularly on his famous The Elephant Clock, it was admired both for its mechanical innovation and its appreciation of the all civilization’s cultural diversity.
The seven meters high clock is a true masterpiece and most civilizations or cultures are manifested in the clock’s components. The clock uses Greek water raising technology, an elephant to represent the Indian and African culture, an Egyptian phoenix, figures and turban to represent Arabic culture, Persian carpet, and Chinese dragons, all these symbols are unified under one mechanical neat device, a device that gives accurately “the time” just because all these different components work and complete each other.
The world increasingly consist of various ethnicities, cultures, religions and civilizations, and to move forward, it needs a unique global platform like The Elephant Clock that does not exclude or marginalize none. To do that, we must have a level of understanding about each other in order to facilitate collaboration and cooperation. Learning about other cultures helps us understand different perspectives within the world we live in, and helps dispel negative stereotypes and personal biases about different groups. A lot of challenges should be faced and instead of pointing the finger at this or that, we have to support the idea that every person can make a unique and positive contribution to the society no matter how different they are. We ElephantClock Technology inspired and named after this idea.
