Abbas ibn Firnas
عباس بن فرناس
Abbas ibn Firnas, the Andalusi astronomer who discovered in his workshop a way of making crystal — and who, in a remarkable experiment, launched himself on a glider, sailed high in the air, fell and rose unharmed, thus foreshadowing the idea of flight in the Middle Ages.
At a glance
- Roles
- Scholar
- Era
- The Umayyad Period
- Region
- al-Andalus & Europe
- Review
- Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it
Overview
Abbas ibn Firnas was a Muslim astronomer in al-Andalus. In his workshop he discovered a method for making crystal. Hasan Ibrahim Hasan describes his experiment with flight on a gliding machine: he rose high into the air, then fell and got up unharmed, and Hasan regards him as a forerunner of the idea of flight from the Middle Ages onward. 1
His name is linked with Cordoba. The dates of his life need an additional source.
Connections
- Related to
- Cordoba
People and things also explored
جامع قرطبة· خزانة كتب قصر قرطبة· وقعة الأرك· فتح قرطبة· حصار الأذفونش قرطبة ودخولها في طاعة الموحدين· استيلاء العدو على قرطبة· وقعة الربض· فتنة الربض بقرطبة
Sources
- Tarikh al-Islam — Hasan Ibrahim Hasan
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Abbas ibn Firnas”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/abbas-ibn-firnas/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-17.