Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbbās ibn Firnās ibn Wardās al-Tākurunnī (Arabic: أَبُو ٱلْقَاسِمِ، عَبَّاسُ بْنُ فِرْنَاسِ بْنِ وَرْدَاسَ ٱلتَّاكُرُنِّيُّ; about 809/810–887 CE), also known as ʿAbbās ibn Firnās (Arabic: عَبَّاسُ بْنُ فِرْنَاسٍ), was an Andalusi expert in many fields. He was an inventor, astronomer, doctor, chemist, engineer, musician, and poet. He is reported to have tried to fly without using machines.
Ibn Firnās made important discoveries in astronomy and engineering. He created a tool that showed how planets and stars move in space. He also developed a way to make clear glass and created magnifying lenses used for reading, which were called reading stones.
Early life
Many scholars agree that Ibn Firnas, whose full name was Abu al-Qasim Abbas ibn Firnas ibn Wirdas al-Takurini, was born in Ronda, a city in the Takurunna province. He lived in Córdoba and was an Umayyad mawlā, meaning he was a client under the protection of a noble family of Berber descent. His family background may have been connected to the early Muslim conquests of the Iberian Peninsula. Later writings that highlight Arabic contributions to science often mention Abbas ibn Firnas as part of the Islamic cultural heritage or as a muladí, a term for people born in the Iberian Peninsula to Muslim parents.
Work
Abbas ibn Firnas created a way to make clear glass, invented different types of glass planispheres, made corrective lenses called "reading stones," designed a machine with a series of objects to show how planets and stars move, and created a method to cut rock crystal. This method allowed Al-Andalus to stop sending quartz to Egypt for cutting. He brought the Sindhind to Al-Andalus, which had a big effect on astronomy in Europe. He also created the al-Maqata, a water clock, and a model for a type of metronome.
Aviation
About 700 years after Ibn Firnas died, the Algerian historian Ahmad al-Maqqari (died 1632) wrote about him in his works. Al-Maqqari used many old sources that are no longer available, but he did not name specific sources for details about Ibn Firnas’s famous flight attempt. However, he claimed that one line from a ninth-century Arab poem might refer to the event. The poem was written by Mu'min ibn Said, a court poet in Córdoba during the time of Muhammad I (died 886), who ruled the Emirate of Córdoba. Mu'min ibn Said knew Ibn Firnas and often criticized him. The relevant line in the poem says: "He flew faster than the phoenix in his flight when he dressed his body in the feathers of a vulture." No other surviving records mention this event.
Some people have suggested that Ibn Firnas’s glider flight attempt might have influenced Eilmer of Malmesbury’s similar attempt in England between 1000 and 1010, but there is no proof to support this idea.
Armen Firman
About 20 years before Ibn Firnas tried to fly, some sources say he saw a man named Armen Firman wrap himself in a loose cloak made stiff with wooden sticks and jump from a tower in Córdoba. Firman hoped the cloak would act as wings to help him glide. His attempt did not work, but the cloak slowed his fall, causing only small injuries.
Other sources that focus on Ibn Firnas' flight do not mention Armen Firman at all. Al-Maqqari, the only primary source describing Ibn Firnas' flight, also does not refer to Firman. Because Firman’s jump is said to have inspired Ibn Firnas, the absence of Firman in Al-Maqqari’s account suggests that later writers may have mixed up the two events. It is likely that Armen Firman is another name for Abbas ibn Firnas.
Legacy
In 1973, a statue of Ibn Firnas created by sculptor Badri al-Samarrai was placed at Baghdad International Airport in Iraq. In 1976, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) decided to name a moon crater after him as Ibn Firnas. In 2011, one of the bridges crossing the Guadalquivir River in Córdoba, Spain, was named the "Abbas ibn Firnás Bridge." A British airline that operates one plane, Firnas Airways, was also named after him.