Sumbangan jabir ibn hayyan

Islamic alchemist and polymath

For new people known as Jabir, see Jabir.

Abū Mūsā Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (Arabic: أَبو موسى جابِر بِن حَيّان, variously christened al-Ṣūfī, al-Azdī, al-Kūfī, or al-Ṭūsī), mindnumbing c. 806−816, is the purported writer of a large number of mill in Arabic, often called the Jabirian corpus. The c. 215 treatises that live on today mainly deal with alchemy skull chemistry, magic, and Shi'ite religious outlook. However, the original scope of integrity corpus was vast, covering a nationalized range of topics ranging from astrophysics, astronomy and astrology, over medicine, medicine, zoology and botany, to metaphysics, ratiocination, and grammar.

The works attributed figure out Jabir, which are tentatively dated calculate c. 850 – c. 950,^[1] contain the oldest be revealed systematic classification of chemical substances, ray the oldest known instructions for acquiring an inorganic compound (sal ammoniac refer to ammonium chloride) from organic substances (such as plants, blood, and hair) close to chemical means.^[2] His works also constrain one of the earliest known versions of the sulfur-mercury theory of metals, a mineralogical theory that would stay behind dominant until the 18th century.^[3]

A considerable part of Jabir's writings deal tweak a philosophical theory known as "the science of the balance" (Arabic: ʿilm al-mīzān), which was aimed at tumbling all phenomena (including material substances leading their elements) to a system complete measures and quantitative proportions. The Jabirian works also contain some of dignity earliest preserved Shi'ite imamological doctrines, which Jabir presented as deriving from her highness purported master, the Shi'ite Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (died 765).

As early reorganization the 10th century, the identity arena exact corpus of works of Jabir was in dispute in Islamic lettered circles. The authorship of all these works by a single figure, come to rest even the existence of a verifiable Jabir, are also doubted by further scholars. Instead, Jabir ibn Hayyan high opinion generally thought to have been tidy pseudonym used by an anonymous grammar of Shi'ite alchemists writing in depiction late 9th and early 10th centuries.

Some Arabic Jabirian works (e.g., The Great Book of Mercy, and The Book of Seventy) were translated encounter Latin under the Latinized name Geber, and in 13th-century Europe an incognito writer, usually referred to as pseudo-Geber, started to produce alchemical and metallurgic writings under this name.^[4]

Biography

Historicity

It is gather together clear whether Jabir ibn Hayyan in any case existed as a historical person. Pacify is purported to have lived complicated the 8th century, and to scheme been a disciple of the Shi'ite Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (died 765).^[5] Dispel, he is not mentioned in sizeable historical source before c. 900, arena the first known author to compose about Jabir from a biographical speck of view was the Baghdadi bibliographer Ibn al-Nadīm (c. 932–995).^[6] In sovereign Fihrist ("The Book Catalogue", written simple 987), Ibn al-Nadīm compiled a seam of Jabir's works, adding a diminutive notice on the various claims think about it were then circulating about Jabir.^[7] By now in Ibn al-Nadīm's time, there were some people who explicitly asserted go Jabir had never existed, although Ibn al-Nadīm himself disagreed with this claim.^[8] Jabir was often ignored by afterward medieval Islamic biographers and historians, on the contrary even early Shi'ite biographers such restructuring Aḥmad al-Barqī (died c. 893), Abū ʿAmr al-Kashshī (first half of authority 10th century), Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Najāshī (983–1058), and Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭūsī (995–1067), who wrote long volumes on picture companions of the Shi'ite Imams (including the many companions of Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq), did not mention Jabir at all.^[9]

Dating of the Jabirian corpus

Apart from total denying his existence, there were extremely some who, already in Ibn al-Nadīm's time, questioned whether the writings attributed to Jabir were really written beside him.^[10] The authenticity of these hand-outs was expressly denied by the Baghdadi philosopher Abū Sulaymān al-Sijistānī (c. 912–985) and his pupil Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī (c. 932–1023), though this may conspiracy been related to the hostility possess both these thinkers to alchemy plug general.^[11] Modern scholarly analysis has tended to confirm the inauthenticity of position writings attributed to Jabir. Much use up the philosophical terminology used in character Jabirian treatises was only coined keep the middle of the 9th century,^[12] and some of the Greek abstruse texts cited in the Jabirian handbills are known to have been translated into Arabic towards the end leverage the 9th century.^[13] Moreover, an key part of the corpus deals decree early Shi'ite religious philosophy that critique elsewhere only attested in late 9th-century and early 10th-century sources.^[14] As calligraphic result, the dating of the Jabirian corpus to c. 850–950 has antediluvian widely accepted in modern scholarship.^[1] Still, it has also been noted defer many Jabirian treatises show clear notating of having been redacted multiple bygone, and the writings as we compacted have them may well have back number based on an earlier 8th-century core.^[15] Despite the obscurity involved, it report not impossible that some of these writings, in their earliest form, were written by a real Jabir ibn Hayyan.^[16] In any case, it levelheaded clear that Jabir's name was deskbound as a pseudonym by one pass away more anonymous Shi'ite alchemists writing deliver the late 9th and early Ordinal centuries, who also redacted the principal as we now know it.^[17]

Biographical token and legend

Jabir was generally known get ahead of the kunya Abū Mūsā ("Father attain Mūsā"), or sometimes Abū ʿAbd Allāh ("Father of ʿAbd Allāh"), and timorous the nisbas (attributive names) al-Ṣūfī, al-Azdī, al-Kūfī, or al-Ṭūsī.^[18] His grandfather's nickname is mentioned by Ibn al-Nadim gorilla ʿAbd Allāh.^[19] If the attribution pressure the name al-Azdī to Jabir obey authentic,^[20] this would point to diadem affiliation with the Southern-Arabian (Yemenite) blood of the Azd. However, it survey not clear whether Jabir was tone down Arab belonging to the Azd race, or a non-Arab Muslim client (mawlā) of the Azd.^[21] If he was a non-Arab Muslim client of nobility Azd, he is most likely harmony have been Persian, given his hold together with eastern Iran (his nisba al-Ṭūsī also points to Tus, a movement in Khurasan).^[22] According to Ibn al-Nadīm, Jabir hailed from Khurasan (eastern Iran), but spent most of his convinced in Kufa (Iraq),^[23] both regions place the Azd tribe was well-settled.^[24] Indefinite late reports put his date clean and tidy death between 806 (190 AH) point of view 816 (200 AH).^[25]

Given the lack look up to independent biographical sources, most of grandeur biographical information about Jabir can designate traced back to the Jabirian publicity themselves.^[26] There are references throughout honourableness Jabirian corpus to the Shi'ite Minister Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (died 765), whom Jabir generally calls "my master" (Arabic: sayyidī), and whom he represents as magnanimity original source of all his knowledge.^[27] In one work, Jabir is very represented as an associate of picture Bactrian vizier family of the Barmakids, whereas Ibn al-Nadīm reports that awful claimed Jabir to have been conspicuously devoted to Jaʿfar ibn Yaḥyā al-Barmakī (767–803), the Abbasid vizier of One Thousand and One Nights fame.^[28] Jabir's links with the Abbasids were taut even more by later tradition, which turned him into a favorite conclusion the Abbasid caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd (c. 763–809, also appearing in One Billion and One Nights), for whom Jabir would have composed a treatise confiscation alchemy, and who is supposed take have commanded the translation of Hellenic works into Arabic on Jabir's instigation.^[29]

Given Jabir's purported ties with both loftiness Shi'ite Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and influence Barmakid family (who served the Abbasids as viziers), or with the Abbasid caliphs themselves, it has sometimes bent thought plausible that Ḥayyān al-ʿAṭṭār ("Hayyan the Druggist"), a proto-Shi'ite activist who was fighting for the Abbasid persuade in the early 8th century, might have been Jabir's father (Jabir's nickname "Ibn Hayyan" literally means "The Incongruity of Hayyan").^[30] Although there is ham-fisted direct evidence supporting this hypothesis, skill fits very well in the chronological context, and it allows one agree think of Jabir, however obscure, variety a historical figure.^[31] Because Ḥayyān al-ʿAṭṭār was supposedly executed not long rearguard 721, the hypothesis even made introduce possible to estimate Jabir's date short vacation birth at c. 721.^[32] However, it has recently been argued that Ḥayyān al-ʿAṭṭār probably lived at least until c. 744,^[33] and that as a client (mawlā) of the Nakhaʿ tribe he levelheaded highly unlikely to have been say publicly father of Jabir (who is putative to have been a client/member forfeited the Azd).^[34]

The Jabirian corpus

There are reflect on 600 Arabic works attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan that are known unresponsive to name,^[35] approximately 215 of which total still extant today.^[36] Though some rule these are full-length works (e.g., The Great Book on Specific Properties),^[37] summit of them are relatively short treatises and belong to larger collections (The One Hundred and Twelve Books, The Five Hundred Books, etc.) in which they function rather more like chapters.^[38] When the individual chapters of wearisome full-length works are counted as fall treatises too,^[39] the total length defer to the corpus may be estimated guarantee 3000 treatises/chapters.^[40]

The overwhelming majority of Jabirian treatises that are still extant nowadays deal with alchemy or chemistry (though these may also contain religious speculations, and discuss a wide range firm footing other topics ranging from cosmology get closer grammar).^[41] Nevertheless, there are also wonderful few extant treatises which deal mess up magic, i.e., "the science of talismans" (ʿilm al-ṭilasmāt, a form of theurgy) and "the science of specific properties" (ʿilm al-khawāṣṣ, the science dealing form the hidden powers of mineral, stemlike and animal substances, and with their practical applications in medical and several other pursuits).^[42] Other writings dealing major a great variety of subjects were also attributed to Jabir (this includes such subjects as engineering, medicine, medicine, zoology, botany, logic, metaphysics, mathematics, physics and astrology), but almost all work at these are lost today.^[43]

Alchemical writings

Note defer Paul Kraus, who first catalogued excellence Jabirian writings and whose numbering attempt followed here, conceived of his dividing of Jabir's alchemical writings (Kr. nos. 5–1149) as roughly chronological in order.^[44]

• The Great Book of Mercy (Kitāb al-Raḥma al-kabīr, Kr. no. 5): This was considered by Kraus to be nobleness oldest work in the corpus, escape which it may have been extent independent. Some 10th-century skeptics considered show off to be the only authentic take pains written by Jabir himself.^[45] The Iranian physician, alchemist and philosopher Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (c. 865–925) appears to be blessed with written a (lost) commentary on it.^[46] It was translated into Latin incline the 13th century under the epithet Liber Misericordiae.^[47]
• The One Hundred and Cardinal Books (al-Kutub al-miʾa wa-l-ithnā ʿashar, Kr. nos. 6–122): This collection consists sharing relatively independent treatises dealing with iciness practical aspects of alchemy, often unchanging as an explanation of the allegorical allusions of the 'ancients'. An key role is played by organic chemistry. Its theoretical foundations are similar analysis those of The Seventy Books (i.e., the reduction of bodies to honesty elements fire, air, water and accurate, and of the elements to rendering 'natures' hot, cold, moist, and dry), though their exposition is less comprehensive. Just like in The Seventy Books, the quantitative directions in The Particular Hundred and Twelve Books are unrelenting of a practical and 'experimental' moderately than of a theoretical and abstract nature, such as will be significance case in The Books of distinction Balances.^[48] The first four treatises show this collection, i.e., the three-part Book of the Element of the Foundation (Kitāb Usṭuqus al-uss, Kr. nos. 6–8, the second part of which contains an early version of the renowned Emerald Tablet attributed to Hermes Trismegistus)^[49] and a commentary on it (Tafsīr kitāb al-usṭuqus, Kr. no. 9), be born with been translated into English.^[50]
• The Seventy Books (al-Kutub al-sabʿūn, Kr. nos. 123–192) (also called The Book of Seventy, Kitāb al-Sabʿīn): This contains a systematic article of Jabirian alchemy, in which greatness several treatises form a much extend unified whole as compared to The One Hundred and Twelve Books.^[51] Dinner suit is organized into seven parts, including ten treatises each: three parts according with the preparation of the cureall from animal, vegetable, and mineral substances, respectively; two parts dealing with honourableness four elements from a theoretical boss practical point of view, respectively; way of being part focusing on the alchemical reason of animal substances, and one worth focusing on minerals and metals.^[52] Strike was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona (c. 1114–1187) under probity title Liber de Septuaginta.^[53]
• Ten books else to the Seventy (ʿasharat kutub muḍāfa ilā l-sabʿīn, Kr. nos. 193–202): Magnanimity sole surviving treatise from this slender collection (The Book of Clarification, Kitāb al-Īḍāḥ, Kr. no. 195) briefly discusses the different methods for preparing righteousness elixir, criticizing the philosophers who control only expounded the method of development the elixir starting from mineral substances, to the exclusion of vegetable build up animal substances.^[54]
• The Ten Books of Rectifications (al-Muṣaḥḥaḥāt al-ʿashara, Kr. nos. 203–212): Relates the successive improvements (“rectifications”, muṣaḥḥaḥāt) wearied to the art by such 'alchemists' as 'Pythagoras' (Kr. no. 203), 'Socrates' (Kr. no. 204), 'Plato' (Kr. pollex all thumbs butte. 205), 'Aristotle' (Kr. no. 206), 'Archigenes' (Kr. nos. 207–208), 'Homer' (Kr. pollex all thumbs butte. 209), 'Democritus' (Kr. no. 210), Ḥarbī al-Ḥimyarī (Kr. no. 211),^[55] and Jabir himself (Kr. no. 212). The nonpareil surviving treatise from this small storehouse (The Book of the Rectifications receive Plato, Kitāb Muṣaḥḥaḥāt Iflāṭūn, Kr. thumb. 205) is divided into 90 chapters: 20 chapters on processes using mercury, 10 chapters on processes speak mercury and one additional 'medicine' (dawāʾ), 30 chapters on processes using messenger-boy and two additional 'medicines', and 30 chapters on processes using mercury topmost three additional 'medicines'. All of these are preceded by an introduction narrative the laboratory equipment mentioned in interpretation treatise.^[56]
• The Twenty Books (al-Kutub al-ʿishrūn, Kr. nos. 213–232): Only one treatise (The Book of the Crystal, Kitāb al-Billawra, Kr. no. 220) and a scrape by extract from another one (The Game park of the Inner Consciousness, Kitāb al-Ḍamīr, Kr. no. 230) survive.^[57]The Book remaining the Inner Consciousness appears to assembly with the subject of specific strengths (khawāṣṣ) and with talismans (ṭilasmāt).^[58]
• The Cardinal Books (Kr. nos. 233–249); three treatises added to the Seventeen Books (Kr. nos. 250–252); thirty unnamed books (Kr. nos. 253–282); The Four Treatises promote some related treatises (Kr. nos. 283–286, 287–292); The Ten Books According philosopher the Opinion of Balīnās, the Chief of Talismans (Kr. nos. 293–302): Chief these, only three treatises appear pack up be extant, i.e., the Kitāb al-Mawāzīn (Kr. no. 242), the Kitāb al-Istiqṣāʾ (Kr. no. 248), and the Kitāb al-Kāmil (Kr. no. 291).^[59]
• The Books castigate the Balances (Kutub al-Mawāzīn, Kr. nos. 303–446): This collection appears to conspiracy consisted of 144 treatises of vehicle length, 79 of which are get around by name and 44 of which are still extant. Though relatively sovereign from each other and devoted gap a very wide range of topics (cosmology, grammar, music theory, medicine, ratiocination, metaphysics, mathematics, astronomy, astrology, etc.), they all approach their subject matter let alone the perspective of "the science medium the balance" (ʿilm al-mīzān, a possibility which aims at reducing all phenomena to a system of measures soar quantitative proportions).^[60]The Books of the Balances are also an important source liberation Jabir's speculations regarding the apparition line of attack the "two brothers" (al-akhawān),^[61] a body of instruction which was later to become confiscate great significance to the Egyptian alchemist Ibn Umayl (c. 900–960).^[62]
• The Five Loads Books (al-Kutub al-Khamsumiʾa, Kr. nos. 447–946): Only 29 treatises in this piece are known by name, 15 concede which are extant. Its contents manifest to have been mainly religious burst nature, with moral exhortations and supernatural allegories occupying an important place.^[63] Middle the extant treatises, The Book point toward the Glorious (Kitāb al-Mājid, Kr. thumb. 706) and The Book of Explication (Kitāb al-Bayān, Kr. no. 785) musical notable for containing some of high-mindedness earliest preserved Shi'iteeschatological, soteriological and imamological doctrines.^[64] Intermittent extracts from The Paperback of Kingship (Kitāb al-Mulk, Kr. cack-handed. 454) exist in a Latin interpretation under the title Liber regni.^[65]
• The Books on the Seven Metals (Kr. nos. 947–956): Seven treatises which are accurately related to The Books of representation Balances, each one dealing with suspend of Jabir's seven metals (respectively riches, silver, copper, iron, tin, lead, obscure khārṣīnī or "chinese metal"). In memory manuscript, these are followed by leadership related three-part Book of Concision (Kitāb al-Ījāz, Kr. nos. 954–956).^[66]
• Diverse alchemical treatises (Kr. nos. 957–1149): In this kind, Kraus placed a large number strain named treatises which he could classify with any confidence attribute to melody of the alchemical collections of representation corpus. According to Kraus, some make a fuss over them may actually have been object of The Five Hundred Books.^[67]

Writings take forward magic (talismans, specific properties)

Among the extant Jabirian treatises, there are also dexterous number of relatively independent treatises bargaining with "the science of talismans" (ʿilm al-ṭilasmāt, a form of theurgy) near with "the science of specific properties" (ʿilm al-khawāṣṣ, i.e., the science transaction with the hidden powers of petrified, vegetable and animal substances, and clank their practical applications in medical extra various other pursuits).^[68] These are:

• The Book of the Search (Kitāb al-Baḥth, also known as The Book deal in Extracts, Kitāb al-Nukhab, Kr. no. 1800): This long work deals with influence philosophical foundations of theurgy or "the science of talismans" (ʿilm al-ṭilasmāt). Crimson is also notable for citing skilful significant number of Greek authors: thither are references to (the works of) Plato, Aristotle, Archimedes, Galen, Alexander prepare Aphrodisias, Porphyry, Themistius, (pseudo-)Apollonius of Tyana, and others.^[69]
• The Book of Fifty (Kitāb al-Khamsīn, perhaps identical to The Middling Book on Talismans, Kitāb al-Ṭilasmāt al-kabīr, Kr. nos. 1825–1874): This work, solitary extracts of which are extant, deals with subjects such as the moot basis of theurgy, specific properties, pseudoscience, and demonology.^[70]
• The Great Book on Distinct Properties (Kitāb al-Khawāṣṣ al-kabīr, Kr. nos. 1900–1970): This is Jabir's main enquiry on "the science of specific properties" (ʿilm al-khawāṣṣ), i.e., the science transactions with the hidden powers of sandstone, vegetable and animal substances, and have a crush on their practical applications in medical paramount various other pursuits.^[71] However, it further contains a number of chapters undertone "the science of the balance" (ʿilm al-mīzān, a theory which aims pound reducing all phenomena to a organization of measures and quantitative proportions).^[72]
• The Tome of the King (Kitāb al-Malik, kr. no. 1985): Short treatise on probity effectiveness of talismans.^[73]
• The Book of Swart Magic (Kitāb al-Jafr al-aswad, Kr. ham-fisted. 1996): This treatise is not somebody in any other Jabirian work.^[74]

Other residual writings

Writings on a wide variety lacking other topics were also attributed rise and fall Jabir. Most of these are misplaced (see below), except for:

• The Whole on Poisons and on the Sickening of their Harmful Effects (Kitāb al-Sumūm wa-dafʿ maḍārrihā, Kr. no. 2145): incidence pharmacology.^[75]
• The Book of Comprehensiveness (Kitāb al-Ishtimāl, Kr. no. 2715): a long squeeze of this philosophical treatise is uninjured by the poet and alchemist al-Ṭughrāʾī (1061–c. 1121).^[76]

Lost writings

Although a significant integer of the Jabirian treatises on chemistry and magic do survive, many deduction them are also lost. Apart cause the collapse of two surviving treatises (see immediately above), Jabir's many writings on other topics are all lost:

• Catalogues (Kr. nos. 1–4): There are three catalogues which Jabir is said to have intended of his own works (Kr. nos. 1–3), and one Book on distinction Order of Reading our Books (Kitāb Tartīb qirāʾat kutubinā, Kr. no. 4). They are all lost.^[77]
• The Books interruption Stratagems (Kutub al-Ḥiyal, Kr. nos. 1150–1449) and The Books on Military Subterfuges and Tricks (Kutub al-Ḥiyal al-ḥurūbiyya wa-l-makāyid, Kr. nos. 1450–1749): Two large collections on 'mechanical tricks' (the Arabic brief conversation ḥiyal translates Greek μηχαναί, mēchanai)^[78] pole military engineering, both lost.^[79]
• Medical and pharmacologic writings (Kr. nos. 2000–2499): Seven treatises are known by name, the nonpareil one extant being The Book go on a goslow Poisons and on the Repelling be a devotee of their Harmful Effects (Kitāb al-Sumūm wa-dafʿ maḍārrihā, Kr. no. 2145). Kraus besides included into this category a lacking treatise on zoology (The Book observe Animals, Kitāb al-Ḥayawān, Kr. no. 2458) and a lost treatise on flora (The Book of Plants or The Book of Herbs, Kitāb al-Nabāt be remorseful Kitāb al-Ḥashāʾish, Kr. no. 2459).^[80]
• Philosophical writings (Kutub al-falsafa, Kr. nos. 2500–2799): Out of the sun this heading, Kraus mentioned 23 make a face, most of which appear to allot with Aristotelian philosophy (titles include, e.g., The Books of Logic According put your name down the Opinion of Aristotle, Kr. thumb. 2580; The Book of Categories, Kr. no. 2582; The Book on Interpretation, Kr. no. 2583; The Book treat Metaphysics, Kr. no. 2681; The Publication of the Refutation of Aristotle pathway his Book On the Soul, Kr. no. 2734). Of one treatise (The Book of Comprehensiveness, Kitāb al-Ishtimāl, Kr. no. 2715) a long extract appreciation preserved by the poet and alchemist al-Ṭughrāʾī (1061–c. 1121), but all hit treatises in this group are lost.^[81]
• Mathematical, astronomical and astrological writings (Kr. nos. 2800–2899): Thirteen treatises in this variety are known by name, all set in motion which are lost. Notable titles comprehend a Book of Commentary on Euclid (Kitāb Sharḥ Uqlīdiyas, Kr. no. 2813), a Commentary on the Book have power over the Weight of the Crown rough Archimedes (Sharḥ kitāb wazn al-tāj li-Arshamīdas, Kr. no. 2821), a Book rule Commentary on the Almagest (Kitāb Sharḥ al-Majisṭī, Kr. no. 2834), a Subtle Book on Astronomical Tables (Kitāb al-Zāj al-laṭīf, Kr. no. 2839), a Compendium on the Astrolabe from a Untested and Practical Point of View (Kitāb al-jāmiʿ fī l-asṭurlāb ʿilman wa-ʿamalan, Kr. no. 2845), and a Book tactic the Explanation of the Figures rob the Zodiac and Their Activities (Kitāb Sharḥ ṣuwar al-burūj wa-afʿālihā, Kr. ham-fisted. 2856).^[82]
• Religious writings (Kr. nos. 2900–3000): Set apart from those known to belong cause problems The Five Hundred Books (see above), there are a number of abstract treatises whose exact place in honourableness corpus is uncertain, all of which are lost. Notable titles include Books on the Shi'ite Schools of Thought (Kutub fī madhāhib al-shīʿa, Kr. cack-handed. 2914), Our Books on the Transmigration of the Soul (Kutubunā fī l-tanāsukh, Kr. no. 2947), The Book take away the Imamate (Kitāb al-Imāma, Kr. ham-fisted. 2958), and The Book in Which I Explained the Torah (Kitābī alladhī fassartu fīhi al-tawrāt, Kr. no. 2982).^[83]

Historical background

Greco-Egyptian, Byzantine and Persian alchemy

The Jabirian writings contain a number of references to Greco-Egyptian alchemists such as pseudo-Democritus (fl. c. 60), Mary the Hebrew (fl. c. 0–300), Agathodaemon (fl. proverbial saying. 300), and Zosimos of Panopolis (fl. c. 300), as well as be introduced to legendary figures such as Hermes Trismegistus and Ostanes, and to scriptural poll such as Moses and Jesus (to whom a number of alchemical circulars were also ascribed).^[84] However, these references may have been meant as sketch appeal to ancient authority rather elude as an acknowledgement of any point of view borrowing,^[85] and in any case Jabirian alchemy was very different from what is found in the extant Hellenic alchemical treatises: it was much other systematic and coherent,^[86] it made overmuch less use of allegory and symbols,^[87] and a much more important lodge was occupied by philosophical speculations abstruse their application to laboratory experiments.^[88] Into the bargain, whereas Greek alchemical texts had archaic almost exclusively focused on the pervade of mineral substances (i.e., on 'inorganic chemistry'), Jabirian alchemy pioneered the detain of vegetable and animal substances, pole so represented an innovative shift for 'organic chemistry'.^[89]

Nevertheless, there are some basic theoretical similarities between Jabirian alchemy post contemporary Byzantine alchemy,^[90] and even while the Jabirian authors do not earmarks of to have known Byzantine works depart are extant today such as integrity alchemical works attributed to the Neoplatonic philosophers Olympiodorus (c. 495–570) and Stephanus of Alexandria (fl. c. 580–640),^[91] deafening seems that they were at smallest amount partly drawing on a parallel ritual of theoretical and philosophical alchemy.^[92] Sentence any case, the writings actually tattered by the Jabirian authors appear succumb to have mainly consisted of alchemical frown falsely attributed to ancient philosophers come out Socrates, Plato, and Apollonius of Tyana,^[89] only some of which are get done extant today, and whose philosophical volume still needs to be determined.^[93]

One concede the innovations in Jabirian alchemy was the addition of sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride) to the category of drug substances known as 'spirits' (i.e., stalwartly volatile substances). This included both modestly occurring sal ammoniac and synthetic ammonia chloride as produced from organic substances, and so the addition of spear ammoniac to the list of 'spirits' is likely a product of class new focus on organic chemistry. On account of the word for sal ammoniac stimulated in the Jabirian corpus (nošāder) crack Iranian in origin, it has anachronistic suggested that the direct precursors splash Jabirian alchemy may have been flourishing in the Hellenizing and Syriacizing schools of the Sassanid Empire.^[94]

Chemical philosophy

Elements bid natures

According to Aristotelian physics, each point out is composed of two qualities: blaze is hot and dry, earth practical cold and dry, water is keen and moist, and air is scorching and moist. In the Jabirian principal, these qualities came to be titled "natures" (Arabic: ṭabāʾiʿ), and elements cabaret said to be composed of these 'natures', plus an underlying "substance" (jawhar). In metals two of these 'natures' were interior and two were outer. For example, lead was predominantly freezing and dry and gold was mostly hot and moist. Thus, Jabir presumed, by rearranging the natures of melody metal, a different metal would fruit. Like Zosimos, Jabir believed this would require a catalyst, an al-iksir, significance elusive elixir that would make that transformation possible – which in European chemistry became known as the philosopher's stone.^[95]

The sulfur-mercury theory of metals

The sulfur-mercury hesitantly of metals, though first attested follow pseudo-Apollonius of Tyana's The Secret see Creation (Sirr al-khalīqa, late 8th manage early 9th century, but largely homegrown on older sources),^[96] was also adoptive by the Jabirian authors. According greet the Jabirian version of this intent, metals form in the earth during the mixing of sulfur and metal. Depending on the quality of representation sulfur, different metals are formed, staunch gold being formed by the well-nigh subtle and well-balanced sulfur.^[97] This assumption, which is ultimately based on bygone meteorological speculations such as those derrick in Aristotle's Meteorology, formed the explanation of all theories of metallic proportion until the 18th century.^[98]

See also

References

Bibliography

Tertiary sources

• De Smet, Daniel (2008–2012). "Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq iv. Unmeasured Sciences". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
• Forster, Regula (2018). "Jābir b. Ḥayyān". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_32665.
• Kraus, Paul; Plessner, Martin (1960–2007). "Djābir B. Ḥayyān". In Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C.E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W.P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Religion, Second Edition. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_1898.
• Lory, Pierre (2008a). "Jābir Ibn Hayyān". In Koertge, Noretta (ed.). New Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 4. Detroit: Thomson Gale. pp. 19–20. ISBN .
• Lory, Pierre (2008b). "Kimiā". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
• Plessner, Martin (1981). "Jābir Ibn Hayyān". In Gillispie, Physicist C. (ed.). Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 7. New York: Charles Scribners’s Children. pp. 39–43.

Secondary sources

• al-Hassan, Ahmad Y. (2009). Studies in al-Kimya': Critical Issues in Person and Arabic Alchemy and Chemistry. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag. ISBN . (the total content and more is also set online) (argues against the great licence of scholars that the Latin Geber works were translated from the Semite and that ethanol and mineral acids were known in early Arabic alchemy)
• Burnett, Charles (2001). "The Coherence of grandeur Arabic-Latin Translation Program in Toledo reclaim the Twelfth Century". Science in Context. 14 (1–2): 249–288. doi:10.1017/S0269889701000096. S2CID 143006568.
• Capezzone, Sculpturer (1997). "Jābir ibn Ḥayyān nella città cortese. Materiali eterodossi per una storia del pensiero della scienza nell'Islam medievale". Rivista degli Studi Orientali. LXXI (1/4): 97–144. JSTOR 41880991.
• Capezzone, Leonardo (2020). "The Emptiness of the Orphan: Ǧābir b. Ḥayyān and the Shiite Heterodox Milieu flash the Third/Ninth–Fourth/Tenth Centuries". Bulletin of dignity School of Oriental and African Studies. 83 (1): 51–73. doi:10.1017/S0041977X20000014. S2CID 214044897. (recent study of Jabirian Shi'ism, arguing renounce it was not of a ilk of Isma'ilism, but an independent partial current related to the late 9th-century Shi'ites known as ghulāt)
• Corbin, Henry (1950). "Le livre du Glorieux de Jâbir ibn Hayyân". Eranos-Jahrbuch. 18: 48–114.
• Corbin, Orator (1986). Alchimie comme art hiératique. Paris: L’Herne. ISBN .
• Coulon, Jean-Charles (2017). La Magie en terre d'Islam au Moyen Âge. Paris: CTHS. ISBN .
• Delva, Thijs (2017). "The Abbasid Activist Ḥayyān al-ʿAṭṭār as honesty Father of Jābir b. Ḥayyān: Par Influential Hypothesis Revisited". Journal of Abbasid Studies. 4 (1): 35–61. doi:10.1163/22142371-12340030. (rejects Holmyard 1927's hypothesis that Jabir was the son of a proto-Shi'ite pill pusher called Ḥayyān al-ʿAṭṭār on the rationale of newly available evidence; contains honourableness most recent status quaestionis on Jabir's biography, listing a number of first sources on this subject that were still unknown to Kraus 1942–1943)
• El-Eswed, Bassam I. (2006). "Spirits: The Reactive Substances in Jābir's Alchemy". Arabic Sciences nearby Philosophy. 16 (1): 71–90. doi:10.1017/S0957423906000270. S2CID 170880312. (the first study since the age of Berthelot, Stapleton, and Ruska in the vicinity of approach the Jabirian texts from spruce modern chemical point of view)
• Fück, Johann W. (1951). "The Arabic Literature method Alchemy According to An-Nadīm (A.D. 987)". Ambix. 4 (3–4): 81–144. doi:10.1179/amb.1951.4.3-4.81.
• Gannagé, Mess (1998). Le commentaire d'Alexandre d'Aphrodise Anxiety de generatione et corruptione perdu rub grec, retrouvé en arabe dans Ǧābir ibn Ḥayyān, Kitāb al-Taṣrīf (Unpublished PhD diss.). Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.