Mughal Science / Technology

Mughal Astronomy.

In the Mughal Empire, the 16th and 17th centuries saw a synthesis between Islamic astronomy and Indian astronomy, where Islamic observational techniques and instruments were combined with Hindu computational techniques. While there appears to have been little concern for theoretical astronomy, Muslim and Hindu astronomers in India continued to make advances in observational astronomy and produced nearly a hundred Zij treatises. Humayun built a personal observatory near Delhi, while Jahangir and Shah Jahan were also intending to build observatories but were unable to do so. The instruments and observational techniques used at the Mughal observatories were mainly derived from the Islamic tradition, and the computational techniques from the Hindu tradition. In particular, one of the most remarkable astronomical instruments invented in Mughal India is the seamless celestial globe .

Mughal Technology.

Fathullah Shirazi (1582), a Persian-Indian polymath and mechanical engineer who worked for Akbar the Great in the Mughal Empire, invented the autocannon, the earliest multi-shot gun. As opposed to the polybolos and repeating crossbows used earlier in ancient Greece and China, respectively, Shirazi's rapid-firing gun had multiple gun barrels that fired hand cannons loaded with gunpowder. The first prefabricated homes and movable structures were invented in 16th century Mughal India by Akbar the Great. These structures were reported by Arif Qandahari in 1579.Tipu Sultan of Mysore (1783-1799), the Nawab in the south of India, an experimenter with war rockets, invents iron-cased and metal-cylinder rocket artillery. He successfully uses them against British East India Company forces during Anglo-Mysore Wars.