Abbas Ibn Firnas

Life & Legacy

Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbbās ibn Firnās ibn Wardās al-Tākurunnī (Arabic: أَبُو ٱلْقَاسِمِ، عَبَّاسُ بْنُ فِرْنَاسِ بْنِ وَرْدَاسَ ٱلتَّاكُرُنِّيُّ; c. 809/810 – 887 CE), known as ʿAbbās ibn Firnās (Arabic: عَبَّاسُ بْنُ فِرْنَاسٍ) was an Andalusi polymath: an inventor, astronomer, physician, chemist, engineer, musician, and poet. He was reported to have experimented with unpowered flight.
Ibn Firnas made various contributions in the field of astronomy and engineering. He constructed a device which indicated the motion of the planets and stars in the Universe. In addition, Ibn Firnas came up with a procedure to manufacture colourless glass and made magnifying lenses for reading, which were known as reading stones.