Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf

Ottoman polymath who built the first steam turbine and advanced astronomical instruments

Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf (1526–1585) was an Ottoman inventor, astronomer, and engineer whose innovations predated European industrial advancements. His most notable invention, a rudimentary steam turbine in 1551, demonstrated mechanical power generation concepts centuries before James Watt.

As chief astronomer under Sultan Murad III, Taqi ad-Din designed the Istanbul Observatory in 1577, equipped with groundbreaking tools like the ‘observational clock’ for tracking celestial movements. His astronomical tables, Unbored Pearl, corrected Ptolemaic errors about planetary orbits.

In mechanics, his ‘six-cylinder water pump’ revolutionized irrigation. Historian Fuat Sezgin notes that Taqi ad-Din’s ‘work on optics influenced Kepler’s theories’. Despite his observatory’s destruction in 1580 due to political strife, his manuscripts circulated through Venice and Prague.

Modern engineers at MIT recreated his steam turbine in 2009, proving its functionality. Taqi ad-Din’s story highlights the overlooked scientific brilliance of the Islamic Golden Age.