Introduction

Abstract

The name of the author of this work was Badī’al-Zamān Abū al-’Izz Isma’īl b. al-Razzāz al-Jazarī. Badī’al-Zamān means ‘Prodigy of the Age’ and was applied to other well-known men - to al-Hamadhānī for instance. Ibn al-Razzāz is translated by Sarton¹ as ‘son of the rice-merchant’, assuming a derivation from ruzz, which means ‘rice’. There appears to be no sound basis for this translation; the name may in fact be of Syriac or Aramaic origin.² The appellation ‘al-Jazarī’ refers to his homeland, al-Jazīra or Mesopotamia, which lies between the upper reaches of the Tigris and the Euphrates.