His name was given to Turkey's flying car "Al-Jazari", the inventor of the first human robot in history

Al-Jazari is considered one of the most famous engineers and inventors in history. How not, he is the first to create the science of robotics and made important contributions to the emergence of many machines and inventions, not only that, but he is considered the most prominent inspirer of Leonardo da Vinci who lived centuries after him.

Istanbul hosts a special museum called "Istanbul Al-Jazari Museum ( IJM )", which was established in 2018 with the aim of displaying Al-Jazari's scientific heritage by reproducing his most prominent machines and inventions. The Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Council (TÜBİTAK) also holds a periodic exhibition to introduce Al-Jazari's exceptional machines and inventions that take visitors back to 8 centuries ago, the golden age of Islamic scholars.

To this day, Al-Jazari is receiving the attention of Turkish scientists and inventors. The Baykar company, which manufactures the famous "Bayraktar" drones, named Al-Jazari's name on its flying car model, which is considered a premature invention, as is the case with Al-Jazari's inventions in the 12th century AD.

In this report, we review the life of the Muslim world, which displays the most famous museums in the world, such as the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul and the French Louvre Museum, in addition to a university library, his famous book under the title "Combining science and useful work in the craftsmanship", in appreciation of his scientific achievements ahead of its time, which contributed Pushing humanity towards the age of machines and industry.

Birth and upbringing

The scientist Badi Al-Zaman Abu Al-Ezz bin Ismail bin Al-Razzaz Al-Jazari, nicknamed "Al-Jazari", was born in the town of Cizre, which today belongs to the city of Şırnak in southeastern Turkey, in 1136.

Because of his passion and love for science, Al-Jazari was able, through his study of the various types of knowledge and sciences available in his time, to become a scientist, inventor, engineer, mechanic, artist and mathematician.

For 25 years, Al-Jazari enjoyed the care and attention of the rulers of Diyarbakir from Bani Artaq. He became the chief mechanical engineer at the court, which enabled him to become one of the most prominent engineers and inventors in history. His inventions contributed to the emergence of many machines that played an important role in the field of industry, kinetics and robotics.

Inventions ahead of their time

Al-Jazari was not only able to learn the techniques and sciences of his Arab and non-Arab ancestors, but was also an innovator of sciences and techniques that no one had preceded before. Thanks to his amazing mechanical inventions, he was called the "Father of Modern Era Engineering", and because of the invention of an early programmable human robot, he was called "The father of robots".

Al-Jazari was able to invent a machine in the form of a maid next to two basins for washing hands, whereby the automated maid would fill the basin with clean water whenever it emptied. In addition, Al-Jazari has developed water-lifting machines and water clocks with an alarm system, as well as self-control systems and automatic doors that move using hydropower.

Al-Jazari also developed many machines that were ahead of their time by employing only water and candles to operate and move them, perhaps the most prominent of which is the famous “elephant clock” that works with a water system and was designed in the form of an elephant carrying on its back characters and figures from 6 different civilizations (Arab, Egyptian, African, Greek, Chinese and Indian), And it sounds every half an hour, in addition to the invention of the camshaft that rotates by the pressure of the engine pistons, which generates a driving force forward based on self-motion, which is the first seed in the sciences of engines and water pumps.

His famous book

At the request of Sultan Nasr al-Din Mahmud, al-Jazari compiled his most prominent inventions in a book called "The Combined Science and Useful Work in the Making of Tricks", which is considered the most important book in mechanical engineering sciences in the golden age of Islam. The book also aroused the interest of historians of technology and art historians as well.

Al-Jazari's book is distinguished by its elaborate practical aspects; Al-Jazari described the finer details of his machines and the various devices used in them. It is noteworthy that the book was translated into English in 1979 by the English engineer Donald Rutledge Hill, and it was also translated into German. According to Otto Meyer, the style in which al-Jazari wrote is similar to modern do-it-yourself books.

In his book, Al-Jazari described 50 devices and machines in infinite detail, and classified them into 6 different basic categories according to use and method of manufacture, in a simple Arabic language that is easy to understand and with colorful illustrations.

European battle against American tech giants

Amazon has received an impressive blow in the European arena after Italian courts imposed a huge antitrust fine against the giant, amounting to 1.1 billion euros, last Thursday, for misusing its dominance in the market.

European Union lawmakers have made a real breakthrough in how to target big tech companies, including Google and Apple, as part of Brussels' moves to curb antitrust practices, the Financial newspaper reported . The Financial Times finally.

Intelligence officials warn the United States will end its influence if it does not protect these five technologies

The Italian punishment comes after a series of strikes suffered by American technology giants in Europe in the past few months, and in general, the European Union countries accuse American technology giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft of 5 major charges. It is: not paying enough taxes, stifle competition, and the misuse of personal data, steal media content, and the threat of democracy spreading false news, as reported platform "France 24" (france24) Finally.

Stifle competition

American digital giants - collectively called GAFAM - are regularly criticized for dominating the market by driving out competitors and nipping them in the bud.

The European Union imposed fines totaling 8.25 billion euros on Google for abusing its dominant market position across many of its products.

Last month, the General Court of the European Union in Luxembourg fined Google €2.4 billion imposed in 2017 for abusing its power over its online shopping competitors.

The European Union also fined Microsoft 561 million euros in 2013 for imposing the Internet Explorer search engine on Windows 7 users.

Amazon, Apple and Facebook are targets of EU investigations into possible violations of competition rules. The European Union has also revealed plans to impose hefty fines of up to 10% of sales on technology companies that violate competition rules, which could lead to their undoing.

Taxes

Germany, France, Italy and Spain won a major victory last June when the Group of Seven (G7) countries agreed to a minimum global corporate tax rate of at least 15%, primarily targeting tech giants that were paying little or no tax on Launching complex tax evasion schemes.

In one of the most notorious cases, the European Commission found in 2016 that Ireland granted "unlawful tax benefits to Apple", ordering the company to pay €13 billion in benefits to Irish taxpayers.

After an EU court later ruled in Apple's favour, the commission went to the European Court of Justice to appeal.

The following year, Amazon was asked to pay €250 million to Luxembourg for similar alleged violations there, and although that was overturned by the EU General Court in May this year, the European Court of Justice will hear the appeal.

Personal data

Tech giants are regularly criticized for how they collect and use personal data. The European Union led the charge to rein them in with the 2018 General Data Protection Regulation, which has since become an international reference.

According to this regulation, technology companies must seek consent when they collect personal information, and they may not use data collected from multiple sources for user profiles involuntarily.

Luxembourg authorities fined Amazon 746 million euros last July for violating European Union data protection rules.

After Twitter was fined nearly 500,000 euros, the Irish regulator opened an investigation against Facebook in April after the personal data of 530 million users was hacked.

France also fined Google and Amazon a total of 135 million euros for violating the rules on computer cookies.

Fake news and hate speech

Social networks are often accused of failing to rein in misinformation and hate speech. The European Parliament and member states have agreed to compel these platforms to remove content that incites violence and hatred between people and peoples, and to do so within one hour.

EU rules now also ban the use of algorithms to spread false information and hate speech, which some major platforms are suspected of doing in order to increase ad revenue.

Pay for content

GAFAM is accused by the media of making money from journalistic content without sharing the revenue.

To address this, European Union law in 2019 created a form of copyright called “neighboring rights,” which would allow news platforms and websites to claim compensation for the use of their content. After initial resistance, Google signed payments for content agreements with several French newspapers last year, a world first.

However, this did not prevent the company from being fined half a billion euros by the French competition authority in July for failing to negotiate "in good faith" with news organizations, and the company has appealed this ruling.

And the battle is still going on, most intensely in the European arenas, against the invasiveness of technology companies, and their attempt to earn huge amounts of money without paying almost anything in return.