Donald Routledge Hill (6 August 1922 – 30 May 1994)D. A. King, “In Memoriam: Donald Routledge Hill (1922-1994)”, ''Arabic Sciences and Philosophy,'' Volume 5 / Issue 02 / September 1995, pp 297-302 was a British

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

and historian of science and technology best known for his translation of ''The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices'' of the Muslim engineer

Ismail al-Jazari Badīʿ az-Zaman Abu l-ʿIzz ibn Ismāʿīl ibn ar-Razāz al-Jazarī (1136–1206, ar, بديع الزمان أَبُ اَلْعِزِ إبْنُ إسْماعِيلِ إبْنُ الرِّزاز الجزري, ) was a polymath: a scholar, ...

.Hill Donald(1993)

Life and work

Born in London, after secondary school Hill served in the British army, in the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

from 1941 to 1946. Two years he served in the Eighth Army in North Africa until he was wounded in action in Italy. Back in England he studied Engineering at the London University, obtaining his engineering degree in 1949. In 1964 he obtained his M.Litt in Islamic History at the University of Durham, and in 1970 his PhD from the University of London. Late 1940s Hill started his career working for the

Iraq Petroleum Company The Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC), formerly known as the Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC), is an oil company that had a virtual monopoly on all oil exploration and production in Iraq between 1925 and 1961. It is jointly owned by some of the worl ...

in Lebanon, Syria and Qatar. Back in England he worked for several petrochemical companies until his retirement in 1984. Al-jazari water device

Alongside more general works on the

history of technology The history of technology is the history of the invention of tools and techniques and is one of the categories of world history. Technology can refer to methods ranging from as simple as stone tools to the complex genetic engineering and info ...

, Hill wrote works on the history of

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

and technology in the medieval Islamic world and translated ''The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices'' of Ismail al-Jazari.

Selected publications

;Books * Hill, Donald Routledge (1984). ''A History of Engineering in Classical and Medieval Times'', London: Croom Helm & La Salle, Illinois: Open Court, 1984. . * al-Hassan, Ahmad Y., & Hill, Donald R. (1986). ''Islamic technology: An illustrated history'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/UNESCO. . * * Hill, Donald Routledge (1976). ''On The Construction of Water-Clocks — Kitab Arshimidas Fi'amal Al-Binkamat'', London: Turner & Devereux Occasional Paper No. 4. * Ibn Ismail Ibn al-Razzaz Al-Jazari & Hill, Donald Routledge (ed. & transl.) (1988), ''The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices: Kitáb fí ma'rifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya'', Islamabad: Pakistan Hijara Council. . *

Banū Mūsā The Banū Mūsā brothers ("Sons of Moses"), namely Abū Jaʿfar, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir (before 803 – February 873); Abū al‐Qāsim, Aḥmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir (d. 9th century); and Al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir (d. 9th ce ...

& Hill, Donald Routledge (ed. & transl.) (1989), ''The Book of Ingenious Devices '', Islamabad: Pakistan Hijara Council. ;Articles, a selection: * Hill, Donald R (1993). ''Science and Technology in Ninth Century Baghdad'', in ''Science in Western and Eastern Civilization in Carolongian Times'', ed. P. L. Bouzer and D. Lohrmann; Birkhäuser; Boston.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, David Routledge 1922 births 1994 deaths 20th-century English historians Historians of science Historians of technology Alumni of the University of London Engineers from London Alumni of St Cuthbert's Society, Durham British Army personnel of World War II British expatriates in Lebanon British expatriates in Syria British expatriates in Qatar