The Banu Musa Brothers

Three brothers — Muhammad, Ahmad and al-Hasan — gathered in their Book of Ingenious Devices about 100 machines and inventions: a tap that manages water discharge in its owner's absence, air and water pumps, self-playing musical machines, and one-way valves working on the same principle as modern engine valves. They were themselves patrons of scholars, funding expeditions to bring books from Byzantium.