A painting on paper in color and gold leaf from al-Jazari's ' Kitab fi marifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya' (The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices). The various elements that comprise this water-powered clock move and make a sound every half hour.

Abu al-'Iz Ibn Isma'il ibn al-Razaz al-Jazari (1136-1206) was a polymath: a scholar; inventor; mechanical engineer; craftsman; artist; mathematician and astronomer from Al-Jazira; Mesopotamia; who worked in service of the Artuqid dynasty in Diyarbakir; Asia Minor. He is best known for writing the Kit醔 f?ma'rifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya (Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices) in 1206; where he described fifty mechanical devices along with instructions on how to construct them.