Female Cupbearer (painting, recto; text, verso), illustrated folio from a manuscript of Kitab fi Ma'rifat al-Hiyal al-Handasiya (Book of the Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices) of al-Jazari

Badi’ al-Zaman Abu al-Izz Isma’il b. al-Razzaz al-Jazari's compendium of mechanical devices stands out for combining theory with practice and providing the earliest mentions of mechanical devices that were thought to have been invented in later periods in Europe. Ibn al-Jazari was an engineer who lived in Amid and possibly Diyar Bakr, and was in the service of the Artuqid rulers of Diyar Bakir: Nur al-Din and his sons Qutb al-Din and Nasr al-Din. The book was commissioned by Nasr al-Din, and it was completed in 1204 A.D. or 1206 A.D. This folio, however, comes from a Mamluk copy of the book which was written in 1354 A.D by the scribe, Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Izmiri. In this illustration, a female cupbearer comes out from a cupboard holding a wine glass in one hand and a handkerchief in the other. Each 1/8th of an hour, she comes out of the cupboard to serve a glass of wine. The ruler drinks the wine and can use the handkerchief if they wish. After that he closes the cupboard door, which initiates the mechanism again. As the illustration shows, the device consists of a wine tank that fills a smaller reservoir. Once the reservoir is filled, it pours the wine into the drinking glass in the Lady’s hand, who then comes out of the cupboard. The text to the right of the illustration is part of the explanation of the device.