WELCOME to the “Why We Were Forgotten?” series, where I expose often forgotten scholars of Muslim civilization and their unforgettable works.
In this 3rd episode, I reveal the first human who attempted to fly!
Throughout centuries, people dreamed of flying. The Egyptians drew pharaohs with wings, the Chinese and Greeks had myths about flight, and pre-Islamic Arabic legends were filled with flying magicians.
I am sure you know Leonardo Da Vinci (15th century) and the Wright brothers (20th century) who are considered pioneers in flying, right?
But are they considered pioneers in school-taught history or real-life history?
Let’s go back to our historical gap spanning from the 7th to the 16th century.
In the 9th century, Abbas ibn Firnas was the first person who attempted to build a flying machine and actually fly.
He was born in 810 AD in Ronda. Even though he studied medicine and astrology in Cordoba, Spain (a center of learning for the Muslim world), he always felt the desire to make his own inventions.
As he aged, his dream to fly grew stronger, and finally, even at the age of 70, he patiently built a pair of wings from silk and eagle feathers.
This old man mounted a hill in the Rusafa area (near Cordoba), and as he stood on the top before a gathered crowd in his bird-like costume, he calmly said:
And with lots of confidence in his words, he took off from the cliff…
Everyone was surprised as they saw a man flying. Abbas Ibn Firnas navigated in the air for more than 10 minutes.
Unfortunately, as he landed, he broke his back. Although he couldn’t fly again, his desire to improve increased even more.
After the injury, he realized that tails were as important as wings since birds land using their tails. Since he did not have one, he couldn’t land safely.
All modern airplanes are designed to land on their rear wheels first, which now makes Ibn Firnas’s comment ahead of its time.
After Abbas Ibn Firnas, aviation history was silent for a long time until his research inspired the famous Italian artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci hundreds of years later.
Abbas Ibn Firnas’s first glider later also inspired other inventors, including the Wright brothers, to build the first airplane.
But unfortunately, due to our historical gap, the Wright brothers are considered flight pioneers and Leonardo da Vinci remains the leading engineer to establish proper scientific thinking on the quest for flight. Although he did not attempt to fly himself.
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Bye for now!
-Fatima