Clocks · Water clock with automata
Al-Jazari's Elephant Clock
DocumentedEditorial status
Combines Indian, Persian, Egyptian and Chinese motifs; a celebrated example of Islamic mechanical engineering.
- Maker / attribution
- Ismail al-Jazari
- Attribution as recorded
- Ismail al-Jazari
- Country of origin
- Artuqid Anatolia
- Place of manufacture
- Diyarbakır
- Date
- Described 1206
- Historical period
- Medieval Period
- Movement
- Sinking-bowl water timer
- Escapement
- Not applicable / undocumented
- Winding / power
- Water
- Case / materials
- Described: elephant figure with howdah
- Dimensions
- Undocumented
- Holding / location
- Known from manuscripts; modern reconstructions exist
Mechanisms in this object
- No mechanism records linked yet.
Related reading
- Clocks Before Europe: Kaifeng, Diyarbakır and the Long Prehistory of the Escapement
- The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, Ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari, trans. Donald R. Hill (1974 (translation))
About this record
Fields marked "Undocumented" have not been verified by our editors and are intentionally left blank rather than estimated. Corrections with sources are welcome.
