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\'Abbas Ibn Firnas, or \'Abbas Qasim Ibn Firnas (Latinized name: Armen Firman) (810 – 887 A.D.) (Arabic: العباس بن فرناس) was a Berber« Ibn Firnas (\'Abbâs) » by Ahmed Djebbar, Dictionnaire culturel des science, by Collective under the direction of Nicolas Witkowski, Du Regard Editions, 2003, ISBN 2-84105-128-5."\'Abbas Ibn Firnas". John H. Lienhard. The Engines of Our Ingenuity. NPR. KUHF-FM Houston. 2004. No. 1910. Transcript. polymath: an aviator, chemist, humanitarian, inventor, musician, physician, poet, and technologist.Lynn Townsend White, Jr. (Spring, 1961). "Eilmer of Malmesbury, an Eleventh Century Aviator: A Case Study of Technological Innovation, Its Context and Tradition", Technology and Culture 2 (2), p. 97-111 [100-101]. He was born in Izn-Rand Onda, al-Andalus (today\'s Ronda, Spain), and lived in the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba in al-Andalus, together with the Iraqi contemporary musician Ziryab. Like Ziryab, Ibn Firnas worked at a huge variety of enterprises. He was studied in chemistry, physics, and astronomy. He also set up astronomical tables and wrote poetry. The name \'Abbas ibn Firnas\' was later Latinized as Armen Firman.
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He designed a water clock called Al-Maqata. He also devised means of manufacturing colorless glass by additions to the frit from which it was produced, and he developed a chain of rings that could be used to display the motions of the planets and stars. He also developed a process for cutting rock crystal. Up to then, only the Egyptians knew how to facet crystal. Thereafter Spain no longer needed to export quartz to Egypt, but could finish it at home.
Another one of his inventions was an artificial weather simulation room, in which spectators saw stars and clouds, and were astonished by artificial thunder and lightning. These were due to mechanisms hidden in the basement.
Minaret of the Great Mosque, today - Córdoba, Spain
In 852, under the new Caliph \'Abd al-Rahman II, Armen Firmen decided to fly off the minaret of the Mezquita mosque in Córdoba using a huge wing-like cloak to break his fall, which he survived with minor injuries. This was the first example of an early parachute.
Ibn Firnas recognized that aviation was a difficult task and asked himself in a personal ledger:
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In 875, at an age of 65 years, Ibn Firnas made the first attempt at controlled flight when he invented a hang glider with artificial wings as flight control surfaces, and launched himself from the Mount of the Bride (Jabal al-\'arus) in the Rusafa Area, near Córdoba. He apparently managed to fly for quite some time, by some accounts as long as ten minutes. This was the first attempt at controlled flight, as he was able to alter his altitude and change his direction in order to return to where he flew from. The flight was largely successful, and was widely observed by a crowd that he had invited. However, after successfully returning to his starting point, the landing was bad and he eventually crashed to the ground. He injured his back, and left critics saying he hadn\'t taken proper account of the way birds pull up into a stall, and land on their tails. He\'d provided neither a tail, nor means for such a maneuver, and he later said that the landing could have been improved by providing a tail apparatus.
Ibn Firnas died twelve years later in 887, at the age of 77 years old.
Ibn Firnas stated the following moments before he flew:
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Several eye witnesses reported the event. One of the witnesses reported:Witness accounts to his gliding flight: [1]
"Having constructed the final version of his glider, to celebrate its success he invited the people of Cordoba to come and witness his flight. People watched from a nearby mountain as he flew some distance, but then the glider plummeted to the ground causing him to injure his back…"
Another acount states:
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Another witness, the poet Mu\'min ibn Said (d. 886), reported:
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Based on these and several other eyewitness accounts, the historian Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari described the event as follows:
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Ibn Firnas\' flight was apparently the inspiration for Eilmer of Malmesbury, more than a century later, who would fly for about 200 meters using a similar glider in England (circa 1010).Lynn Townsend White, Jr. (1978). "Eilmer of Malmesbury, An Eleventh Century Aviator", Medieval Religion and Technology, Chapter 4. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
As Westerners teach their children about Sir George Cayley, Lilienthal and Santos-Dumont the Islamic countries tell theirs about Ibn Firnas, a thousand years before their time. The Libyans produced a postage stamp honoring him. The Iraqis built a statue in his memory on the way to Baghdad International Airport, and the Ibn Firnas Airport to the north of Baghdad is named for him. Ibn Firnas crater on the Moon is also named in his honor.
According to Paul Lunde, "had he lived in the Florence of the Medici, [Abbas ibn Firnas] would have been a “Renaissance man”."Paul Lunde, Science in Al-Andalus, Saudi Aramco World, July 2004, pp. 20-27.
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