Syria Gallery

Peacock-shaped Hand Washing Device (recto); Text Page, Arabic Prose (verso), 1315

Peacock-shaped Hand Washing Device (recto); Text Page, Arabic Prose (verso), 1315. This leaf from a 1315 Syrian copy of Ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari's The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices , written in 1206, depicts a peacock basin automaton for ritual hand washing. There are 15 surviving manuscript copies of al-Jazari's work, ranging from the early 13th to the late 19th century. An engineer from upper Mesopotamia, al-Jazari was in the service of King Nasri al-Din when he completed his masterwork, an anthology of automated devices including clocks, trick vessels for drinking sessions, devices for washing, fountains, water-raising machines, and measuring instruments. His designs clearly illustrate that automata were not innovations from Western Europe, but they stemmed from a tradition known in the ancient, Islamic, and Byzantine worlds. We do not know with certainty that al-Jazari's device was ever actually constructed

© Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?, c1830s. Creator: GH Adcock

Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?, c1830s. Biblical scene, Acts 26: 14: And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. The conversion of Paul on the road to road to Damascus: Saul of Tarsus, (whose Latin name was Paul), was travelling from Jerusalem to Damascus on a mission to arrest the disciples of Jesus and bring them back to Jerusalem, when the resurrected Jesus appeared to him in a great light. Paul was struck blind, but after three days his sight was restored, and he became a follower of Jesus. Engraving after Study for the Conversion of St Paul, 1799, by Edward Dayes

© The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Man who Pretends to be Asleep While the Thief Enters his House..., 18th century

The Man who Pretends to be Asleep While the Thief Enters his House Becomes Drowsy and Really Falls Asleep, Folio from a Kalila wa Dimna, 18th century

© /Heritage Images

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