Stalker (1979)
Egon Schiele (1890-1918)
“The Elephant Clock”, Folio from a Book of the Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices by Badi’ al-Zaman ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari (1136–1206)
صفحة من كتاب الجامع بين العلم والعمل النافع في صناعة الحيل للعالم بديع الزمان أَبو العز بن إسماعيل بن الرزاز الجزري
Calligrapher: Farrukh ibn `Abd al-Latif
Dated A.H. 715/A.D. 1315
Made in SyriaOne of the finest surviving examples of Mamluk painting, this manuscript page belongs to a dispersed copy of the Kitab fi ma‘rifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya (Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices) transcribed by Farrukh ibn ‘Abd al-Latif in A.H. 715/1315 A.D. Originally composed at the beginning of the thirteenth century by Badi‘ al-Zaman ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari (1136–1206) for the Artuqid ruler of Amid ( present-day Diyarbakir), Nasir al-Din Mahmud (r. 1201–22), the treatise discusses fifty mechanical devices used for princely entertainment. In addition to clocks, the text mentions drinking vessels, fountains, automated devices for hand-washing and bloodletting, and other machines activated by heat or hydraulic mechanisms.
The spectacular automated clock illustrated here is the subject of one chapter, which includes detailed instructions for its assembly. Every half hour, the rider would hit the elephant with his pickax and the bird would turn, allowing the falcon to release a pellet into the dragon’s mouth. The dragon would next drop the ball into a pot, where it hit a gong before ending up in a bowl at the bottom of the pot. The time would then be determined by counting the balls gathered in the bowl.
The illustration reflects the impact of the Arab style of manuscript painting developed in Iraq and Syria during the thirteenth century. In particular, features such as the rider’s halo, the robe with tiraz bands, and the turban with loose ends appear in thirteenth-century copies of Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica and al-Hariri’s Maqamat. At the same time, the conservative nature of the illustrations accompanying scientific manuscripts accounts for the representation of the dragons as open-mouthed serpents with coiled and scaled bodies, a formula that occurs in the oldest known copy of al-Jazari’s treatise, made in 1206. In acknowledging the achievements of Jaziran artistic centers while finely reinterpreting the contents of the treatise, the 1315 manuscript remains one of the most accomplished copies of al-Jazari’s work.
