Medieval

During the Muslim Agricultural Revolution from the 7th to 13th centuries, Muslim engineers developed numerous innovative industrial uses of hydropower, early industrial uses of tidal power, wind power, and fossil fuels such as petroleum, and the earliest large factory complexes (tiraz in Arabic). The industrial uses of watermills in the Islamic world date back to the 7th century, while horizontal-wheeled and vertical-wheeled water mills were both in widespread use since at least the 9th century. A variety of industrial mills were invented in the Islamic world, including fulling mills, gristmills, hullers, paper mills, sawmills, ship mills, stamp mills, steel mills, sugar refineries, tide mills, and windmills. By the 11th century, every province throughout the Islamic world had these industrial mills in operation, from the Middle East and Central Asia to al-Andalus and North Africa.

Muslim engineers also invented crankshafts and water turbines, employed gears in mills and water-raising machines, and pioneered the use of dams as a source of water power to provide additional power to watermills and water-raising machines. Such advances made it possible for many industrial tasks that were previously driven by manual labour in ancient times to be mechanized and driven by machinery to some extent in the medieval Islamic world. The transfer of these technologies to medieval Europe later laid the foundations for the Industrial Revolution in 18th century Europe.

In 1206, al-Jazari invented the crankshaft and connecting rod, and employed them in a crank-connecting rod system for two of his water-raising machines. His invention of the crankshaft is considered one of the most important mechanical inventions after the wheel, as it transforms continuous rotary motion into a linear reciprocating motion, and is central to modern machinery such as the steam engine and the internal combustion engine. In 1551, Taqi al-Din invented a practical steam turbine as a prime mover for rotating a spit. A similar steam turbine later appeared in Europe a century later, which eventually led to the steam engine and Industrial Revolution in 18th century Europe