The light of the day · Monday 2 November
A palace engineer drew fifty machines and how to build them
In 1206, at the Artuqid court in Diyarbakir, al-Jazari finished the Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices. It describes about fifty machines with exploded diagrams and step by step instructions: water clocks including an elephant clock combining Indian, Greek, Chinese and Arab parts, hand washing basins that pour and refill, musical automata, and pumps for raising water. Historians of technology point to his use of the crankshaft joined to a connecting rod, and of segmental gears and a camshaft, in working machines. He wrote that he would describe nothing he had not built and tested himself. He died the year the book was completed.
Al-Jazari · Diyarbakir, 1206 CE
Monday 2 November 2026 · 21 Jumada al-Ula 1448 AH
The word · The Qur'an
مَكِّيّ
Makki
A verse or surah revealed before the migration to Madinah, whatever place it came down in.
The usual definition is by time rather than geography, so a verse revealed at Makkah during the farewell pilgrimage still counts as Madani. Makki passages tend to be shorter and more urgent, dealing with belief, resurrection and the earlier prophets, and often open with O mankind. Around eighty six surahs are classed as Makki, with several disputed.
The Path · chapter 6 of 71
نوح السفينة
Nuh: Ark Building 950 Years
950 years of dawah. Only a handful believed. The Ark was built on land by Allah’s command.
Shirk enters through exaggeration of the righteous, not through open rebellion
The library
The whole library, free
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