Editing Watermill (section)

===Arabic world===
[[File:An Afghan Water Mill in Afghanistan WDL11490.png|thumb|An Afghan water mill photographed during the [[Second Anglo-Afghan War]] (1878–1880). The rectangular water mill has a thatched roof and traditional design with a small horizontal mill-house built of stone or perhaps mud bricks.]]

Engineers under the [[Caliphates]] adopted watermill technology from former provinces of the [[Byzantine Empire]], having been applied for centuries in those provinces prior to the [[Early Muslim conquests|Muslim conquests]], including modern-day [[Syria]], [[Jordan]], [[Israel]], [[Algeria]], [[Tunisia]], [[Morocco]], and [[Spain]] (see [[List of ancient watermills]]).<ref>{{harvnb|Wikander|1985|pp=158−162}}</ref>

The industrial uses of watermills in the Islamic world date back to the 7th century, while horizontal-wheeled and vertical-wheeled watermills were both in widespread use by the 9th century.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}} A variety of industrial watermills were used in the Islamic world, including [[gristmill]]s, [[huller]]s, [[sawmill]]s, ship mills, [[stamp mill]]s, [[steel mill]]s, [[Sugar refinery|sugar mills]], and [[tide mill]]s. By the 11th century, every province throughout the Islamic world had these industrial watermills in operation, from [[al-Andalus]] and [[North Africa]] to the [[Middle East]] and [[Central Asia]].<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Adam Robert | first1 = Lucas  | year = 2005 | title = Industrial Milling in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds: A Survey of the Evidence for an Industrial Revolution in Medieval Europe | journal = Technology and Culture | volume = 46 | issue = 1| pages = 1–30 [10] | doi=10.1353/tech.2005.0026| s2cid = 109564224 }}</ref> Muslim and Middle Eastern Christian engineers also used [[crankshaft]]s and [[water turbine]]s, [[gear]]s in watermills and water-raising [[machine]]s, and  [[dam]]s as a source of water, used to provide additional power to watermills and water-raising machines.<ref>[[Ahmad Y Hassan]], [http://www.history-science-technology.com/Articles/articles%2071.htm Transfer Of Islamic Technology To The West, Part II: Transmission Of Islamic Engineering]</ref> Fulling mills, and steel mills may have spread from [[Al-Andalus]] to Christian Spain in the 12th century. Industrial watermills were also employed in large [[factory]] complexes built in al-Andalus between the 11th and 13th centuries.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Adam Robert | first1 = Lucas  | year = 2005 | title = Industrial Milling in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds: A Survey of the Evidence for an Industrial Revolution in Medieval Europe | journal = Technology and Culture | volume = 46 | issue = 1| pages = 1–30 [11] | doi=10.1353/tech.2005.0026| s2cid = 109564224 }}</ref>

The engineers of the Islamic world used several solutions to achieve the maximum output from a watermill. One solution was to mount them to [[pier]]s of [[bridge]]s to take advantage of the increased flow. Another solution was the ship mill, a type of watermill powered by water wheels mounted on the sides of [[ship]]s [[Mooring (watercraft)|moored]] in [[midstream]]. This technique was employed along the [[Tigris]] and [[Euphrates]] rivers in 10th-century [[Iraq]], where large ship mills made of [[teak]] and [[iron]] could produce 10 [[ton]]s of [[Gristmill|flour from corn]] every day for the [[granary]] in [[Baghdad]].<ref name=Hill2 >Hill; see also [http://home.swipnet.se/islam/articles/HistoryofSciences.htm Mechanical Engineering] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071225091836/http://home.swipnet.se/islam/articles/HistoryofSciences.htm |date=2007-12-25 }})</ref>