Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbbās ibn Firnās ibn Wardās al-Tākurunnī (; c. 809/810 – 887 CE), known as ʿAbbās ibn Firnās () was an Andalusi polymath: an inventor, astronomer, physician, chemist, engineer, musician, and poet.
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. and was an Umayyad (client) of Berber descent. His lineage may have been linked to the early Muslim conquests of the Iberian Peninsula. Later accounts emphasizing Arabic contributions to science may identify Abbas ibn Firnas in the broader frame of Islamic cultural heritage or as native muladí.
Work
Abbas ibn Firnas devised a means of manufacturing colourless glass, invented various glass planispheres, made corrective lenses ("reading stones"), devised an apparatus consisting of a chain of objects that could be used to simulate the motions of the planets and stars, and developed a process for cutting rock crystal that allowed Al-Andalus to cease exporting quartz to Egypt to be cut. He also designed the al-Maqata, a water clock, and a prototype for a kind of metronome.
Aviation
Some seven centuries after the death of Firnas, the Algerian historian Ahmad al-Maqqari (d. 1632) wrote a description of Ibn Firnas that included the following: