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Banu Musa Brothers (d. 873) were known for their amazing trick devices

The three brothers, Muhammad, Ahmad and al-Hasan, were great mathematicians, translators and creators of trick devices. They were part of the famous House of Wisdom in Baghdad in the 9^th century. Their most notable work is their ‘Book of Ingenious Devices’ that details over 100 trick devices that they designed.

Al-Jazari (1136 – 1206) was known for his many automatons, outlined in The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices

Al-Jazari, born in 12th century Turkey, was a great polymath, who worked in the fields of mathematics, astronomy and art. He is best known though as an exceptional engineer who created many awe-inspiring automatic machines that he documented in The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices. Unlike the Greeks he studied, he assembled mechanical devices by methodical practical application rather than by trial and error. In his pursuit of creating beautiful, yet functional machines, he realised that he could make them operate independently, in essence creating the first programmable robots.

Taqi al-Din (1526 – 1585) was known as one of the greatest engineers of all time

Taqi al-Din, born in 16th century Turkey, was a great polymath who was a successful mathematician, botanist, zoologist and physician. He is best remembered as an engineer and was hailed by his contemporaries in the Ottoman Empire as one of the greatest engineers of all time. Amongst his many publications was The Sublime Methods of Spiritual Machines in which he discussed the workings of a rudimentary steam engine 100 years before it was 'discovered' in the West.