Biography of Al-Jazari

Abū al-'Iz Ibn Ismā'īl ibn al-Razāz Al-Jazarī (1136-1220) (flourished c. 1206) (Arabic: أَبُو اَلْعِزِ بْنُ إسْماعِيلِ بْنُ الرِّزاز الجزري‎) was an Iraqi polymath: a scholar, inventor, mechanical engineer, craftsman, artist, mathematician and astronomer from Al-Jazira, Mesopotamia, who lived during the Islamic Golden Age (Middle Ages). He is best known for writing the Kitáb fí 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 including water-operated automatons, many of moving peacocks. Most are decorative fanciful objects, though some also serve a function. Leonardo da Vinci is said to have been influenced by the classic automatons of Al-Jazari.

Sources: World of Invention, Encyclopedia Britannica Online.