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and belief in monism. True to form, nearly eleven centuries after his death, al-Hallaj continues to polarize the Sufis, Islamic philosophers and theologians to this day.

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      In 1806 war with Russia broke out again. A revolt of the Janissaries and conservatives who opposed his reforms led to Selim’s deposition and imprisonment in 1807. Mustafa IV was placed on the throne. A loyal army marched on Constantinople to restore Selim. It entered the city in 1808, just after Selim had been strangled on Mustafa’s orders. Mustafa was executed and another of Selim’s cousins, Mahmud II, was put on the throne. During Selim’s reign Egypt became virtually independent under Muhammad Ali, as did Albania under Ali Pasha. Selim’s well-intentioned and efficient reforms came too late to arrest the decay of the Ottoman empire

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      In April 1936, as his behest, various Arab groups united to form the Arab Higher Committee under his leadership. Al Husseini took refuge in the Muslim shrines of Jerusalem and then managed to flee, first to Lebanon and then Syria From there he continued to direct the Arab revolt, which ended in March 1939 with a death toll of 3,232 Arabs 329 Jews and 135 Britons. soon after the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 al Husseini arrived in Baghdad as a political refugee and began rallying anti Zionist and anti British sentiments in Iraq. At the end of the war al Husseini was arrested by the French forces but soon managed to escape to Cairo. After the Palestine War his attempts to form a government of all Palestine in the Egyptian occupied Gaza Strip were cold shouldered by Cairo. He moved to Beirut in 1959.

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       Biography:

      Little is known about al-Jazari and most of that comes from the introduction to his Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices. He was named after the area in which he was born (the city of Jazirat ibn Umar). Like his father before him, he served as chief engineer at the Artuklu Palace, the residence of the Mardin branch of the Turkish Artuqid dynasty which ruled across eastern Anatolia as vassals of the Zangid rulers of Mosul and later Ayyubid general Saladin. He was born in the Kurdish city of Tor, now located in the district of Cizre in south-Eastern Turkey.

      His Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices appears to have been quite popular as it appears in a large number of manuscript copies, and as he explains repeatedly, he only describes devices he has built himself. According to Mayr, the book’s style resembles that of a modern “do-it-yourself book.

      Some of his devices were inspired by earlier devices, such as one of his monumental water clocks, which were based on that of a Pseudo-Archimedes. He also cites the influence of the Banu Musa brothers for his fountains, al-Asturlabi for the design of a candle clock, and Hibat Allah ibn al-Husayn (d. 1139) for musical automata. Al-Jazari goes on to describe the improvements he made to the work of his predecessors, and describes a number of devices, techniques and components that are original innovations which do not appear in the works by his predecessors.

       Mechanisms and methods:

      While many of al-Jazari’s inventions may now appear to be trivial, the most significant aspect of al-Jazari’s machines are the mechanisms, components, ideas, methods, and design features which they employ.

       Camshaft:

      The camshaft, a shaft to which cams are attached, was first introduced in 1206 by al-Jazari, who employed them in his automata, water clocks (such as the candle clock) and water-raising machines. The cam and camshaft later appeared in European mechanisms from the 14th century.

       Crankshaft and crank-slider mechanism:

      The eccentrically mounted handle of the rotary hand mill in 5th century BC Spain that spread across the Roman Empire constitutes a crank. The earliest evidence of a crank and connecting rod mechanism dates to the 3rd century AD Hierapolis sawmill in the Roman Empire. The crank also appears in the mid-9th century in several of the hydraulic devices described by the Banū Mūsā brothers in their Book of Ingenious Devices.

      In 1206, al-Jazari invented an early crankshaft, which he incorporated with a crank-connecting rod mechanism in his twin-cylinder pump. Like the modern crankshaft, Al-Jazari’s mechanism consisted of a wheel setting several crank pins into motion, with

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