Ismail Al-Jazari was a polymath: a scholar, inventor, mechanical engineer, artisan, artist, and mathematician from the Artuqid Dynasty of Jazira in Mesopotamia. ‘The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices’ is a medieval Arabic book written by Ismail al-Jazari in the 12th century. It describes over fifty mechanical devices and automata, including clocks, water-raising machines, musical automatons, and humanoid robots. Al-Jazari provides detailed instructions for constructing each device and includes anecdotes and historical references. The book had a significant influence on the development of European clockmaking and automata, offering insights into daily life and technological innovations in the Islamic world during the medieval period. It’s his book that influenced key concepts of modern-day robotics.
In the annals of India's social reform, two luminaries stand preeminent: Jotirao Phule and E.V. Ramasamy, colloquially known as Periyar. Their endeavours, ensconced in the 19th and 20th centuries, continue to sculpt the contemporary struggle against the entrenched caste system. Phule's educational renaissance Phule, born in 1827, was an intellectual vanguard who perceived education as the ultimate equaliser. He inaugurated the inaugural school for girls from lower castes in Pune, subverting the Brahminical hegemony that had long monopolized erudition. His Satyashodhak Samaj endeavoured to obliterate caste hierarchies through radical social reform. His magnum opus, "Gulamgiri" (Slavery), delineated poignant parallels between India's caste system and the subjugation of African-Americans, igniting a discourse on caste as an apparatus of servitude. Periyar's rationalist odyssey Periyar, born in 1879, assumed the mantle of social reform through the Dravidian moveme...
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