Damascus: Clock Makers

Date: c. 1154-1167

Muhammad b. ʿAli Rustam al-Khurasani Fakhr al-Din b. al-Saʿati constructed a water clock above the gate of the Umayyad Mosque, known as Bab Jayrun. The clock was rebuilt by the same man following a fire in 562/1166-67. An account of his work was written in 1203 by his son, Ridwan Muhammad b. ʿAli Rustam al-Khurasani Fakhr al-Din b. al-Saʿati. An earlier water clock existed above another entrance to the building known as Bab al-Saʿa (Clock Gate). See also: Clockmaker; Blacksmith; Locksmith.

Citation: Flood, Finbarr B., The Great Mosque of Damascus: Studies in the Making of an Umayyad visual Culture, Islamic History and Civilization. Studies and Texts 33 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2001), pp. 114-18, 129-30.

Damascus: Clock Repairers

Date: Before 1143

Abu al-Qaysarani (d. 1143) is recorded as having repaired the ancient water clock above the Bab al-Saʿa (Clock Gate) of the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus. See also: Clockmaker; Blacksmith; Locksmith.

Citation: Flood, Finbarr B., The Great Mosque of Damascus: Studies in the Making of an Umayyad visual Culture, Islamic History and Civilization. Studies and Texts 33 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2001), p. 121.

Date: Before 1203

The biography of Muʿayyad al-Din Abu al-Fadl Muhammad b. ʿAbd al-Karim (d. 599/1202-1203) records that, among his many other pursuits, he repaired and maintained water clocks in the Umayyad Mosque. He was born in Damascus.

Citation: Ibn Abi Usaybiʿa (d. 1270),ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ fī ṭabaqāt  al-aṭibbāʾ, (ed.) N. Rida (Beirut, 1964), II, 190-91. Translated by Terry Allen: http://www.sonic.net/~tallen/palmtree/ayyarch/ch11.htm#muayyad (last consulted: 8 June 2016).

See also: Mayer, Leo Ary, Islamic Woodcarvers and their Works (Geneva: Albert Kundig, 1958), p. 53; Bloom, Jonathan, ‘Woodwork in Syria, Palestine and Egypt during the 12th and 13th Centuries’, in Robert Hillenbrand and Sylvia Auld (eds), Ayyubid Jerusalem: The Holy City in Context, 1187-1250 (London: Altajir Trust, 2009), p. 132; Milwright, Marcus, Islamic Arts and Crafts: An Anthology (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017), p. 52.

Date: Before 1203

Ridwan Muhammad b. ʿAli Rustam al-Khurasani Fakhr al-Din b. al-Saʿati worked on the repair of the water clock above the gate of the Umayyad Mosque, known as Bab Jayrun. This clock had been made by his father, Muhammad b. ʿAli Rustam al-Khurasani Fakhr al-Din b. al-Saʿati between c. 1154 and 1167. Ridwan wrote a treatise on the clock in 1203. See also: Clockmaker; Blacksmith; Locksmith.

Citation: Flood, Finbarr B., The Great Mosque of Damascus: Studies in the Making of an Umayyad visual Culture, Islamic History and Civilization. Studies and Texts 33 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2001), pp. 117-18.