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An illustration of a handwashing device from “The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices” showing one of the world’s earliest robot inventions. The 12th century inventor, Ismail al-Jazari, inspired a professor and his student to write a children’s book.

The Original Robots

Celebrating the inventions of the Islamic Golden Age

By Misty Shock Rule

In their new children’s book, “Robots and Other Amazing Gadgets Invented 800 Years Ago,” Professor Faisal Hossain, an expert in hydrology, and Qishi Zhou, a graduate student in engineering, explore the work of a 12th-century scholar, artist and engineer who is considered the “father of robotics.”

The book, published this month by Mascot Books, explores the origins of eight of Ismail al-Jazari’s inventions. They include a four-cycle gear system, a bloodmeasurement device, an elephant-shaped water clock and a robot that helps wash and dry hands.

Hossain first learned about al-Jazari’s work a few years ago in the long-ago inventor’s own compilation, “The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices.” The genius and variety of his inventions, conceived during the Islamic Golden Age, amazed the UW professor.

Zhou and Hossain met when the student was participating in the College of Engineering’s industry capstone program. Zhou's team was creating a remote-controlled culvert inspection vehicle under Hossain’s guidance. The two connected over water issues and a shared desire to serve the community of workers who focus on water for research, industry, policy, planning and utilities. For the project, they trained their efforts on developing robots and gadgets to solve societal problems and improve quality of life. “This was almost like a microcosm of what Ismail al-Jazari did 800 years ago when he used automation to create tools to improve quality of life,” Hossain says.

They decided to jointly tell the story of the 12th-century inventor and encourage children to engage with the natural world and explore technology there. “The natural world is a laboratory,” says Hossain. Harnessing how water works and moves, for example, was part of designing the first robot. The message “we want our kids to take: Spend more time outside watching and learning from nature and less time with computers,” he says.

One of Hossain’s favorite al-Jazari inventions is a robot that dispenses water for cleaning and performing ablution (a ritual washing). While the user is cleaning themself, the robot plays a flute-like sound and then hands over a towel. Every sequence of the task is timed and organized.

Al-Jazari used water—hydrostatic pressure and water physics—to drive his devices. “It never dawned on me that such concepts could be used to drive automation and even build robots when there was no electricity,” Hossain says. “It just drove home the concept that water is as powerful and relevant as today’s electronics, computers and information technology. This thought makes me feel quite proud as a hydrologist.”