On 8 June, A.D. 632, the Prophet Mohammed (Peace and Prayers be upon
Him) died, having accomplished the marvelous task of uniting the tribes
of Arabia into a homogeneous and powerful nation.
In the interval, Persia, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, the whole
North Africa, Gibraltar and Spain had been submitted to the Islamic
State, and a new civilization had been established.
The Arabs quickly assimilated the culture and knowledge of the peoples
they ruled, while the latter in turn-Persians, Syrians, Copts, Berbers,
and others-adopted the Arabic language. The nationality of the Muslim
thus became submerged, and the term Arab acquired a linguistic sense
rather than a strictly ethnological one.
As soon as Islamic State had been established, the Arabs began to
encourage learning of all kinds. schools, colleges, libraries,
observatories and hospitals were built throughout the whole Islamic
State, and were adequately staffed and endowed.
In the same time, scholars were invited to Damascus and Baghdad without
distinction of nationality or creed. Greek manuscripts were acquired in
large numbers and were studied, translated and provided with scholarly
and illuminating commentaries.
The old learning was thus infused with a new vigor, and the intellectual
freedom of men of the desert stimulated the search for knowledge and
science.
In early days at least, the Muslims were eager seekers for knowledge,
and Baghdad was the intellectual center of the world.
Historians have justly remarked that the school of Baghdad was
characterized by a new scientific spirit.
Proceeding from the known to the unknown; taking precise account of
phenomena; accepting nothing as true which was not confirmed by
experience, or established by experiment, such were fundamental
principles taught and acclaimed by the then masters of the sciences.
Cultural Background
Three of the 'Abbasid Caliphs distinguished themselves greatly in this
respect: the second, al-Mansur (754-775), who founded Baghdad, and, even
more so, the fifth, Harun-al-Rashid whose fame has been immortalized by
many legends and the seventh, Al-Ma'mun (813-833). All of them
encouraged the work of the translators who were busily unlocking the
treasures of Greek knowledge.
First of all the word 'alchemy', as the article al- indicates, is Arabic
(al-klmya'). The origin of the word kimya', pre-Arabic, is arguable.
Several more or less plausible or legendary hypotheses have been
advanced. For some the word came from the Egyptian kemi (black), whence
the Greek kemia which might indicate two things:
Egypt, 'the black land' according to Plutarch - alchemy would be
preeminently the science of Egypt; 'the Black', the original matter of
transmutation, i.e. the art of treating 'black metal' to produce
precious metals.
For others, the word 'chemy' could have come from the Greek khymeia,
'fusion', i.e. the art of melting gold and silver. A Byzantine text
states that Diocletian ordered the destruction of Egyptian books
relating to khymeia, to the 'fusion' of gold and silver.
Islamic Alchemy In Western Writings
Following the work of French chemist Marcellin Berthelot on alchemy,
many researchers on the basis of original texts discovered and published,
became interested in the study of alchemy with the Arabs: Lippmann,
Wiedemann, Ganzenmuller, Stapleton, Holmyard, Plessner and especially
Paul Kraus whose work about Jabir ibn Hayyan is still a classic in this
subject. More recently Henry Corbin in his research on Shi'ism has tried
to give an esoteric interpretation of the great alchemy texts. His ideas
created a school of thought and some contemporary authors, Roger
Deladriere and Pierre Lory for instance, did not escape his influence.
Arabic alchemy is no longer the 'terra incognita' which, a century ago,
challenged the insight of historians of science.
The large quantity of accumulated facts suggested a synthetic
presentation to Fuat Sezgin and Manfred Ullmann. The former produced his
in the frame of his series Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums; the
fourth volume, appearing in 1971, dedicated several pages to alchemy. In
his turn, Ullmann, in his book Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften in
Islam, appearing in 1972, presented in about a hundred pages the whole
of Arabic alchemic literature studying successively the translations and
pseudoepigraphs from Greek authors, Egyptian, Indian, Persian, Jewish
and Christian sources, then alchemy theories, the research of the
elixir, laboratory experiments and the material employed, and the whole
is copiously documented.
Pythagoras is often mentioned in Arabic philosophy and in gnomic literature. Jaldaki calls him al-mu’allim al-awwal because he acquired the science from hermetic texts. Jabir refers to him as an alchemic author and speaks of Ta'ifat Fthaghurus, the school of Pythagoras, and of his book Kitab almu’sahhahat (Book of Adjustments). Other quotations refer to Pythagoras's theory of numbers. Tughra'i mentions him several times and refers to his treatise about 'natural numbers'. The fragments of texts which are attributed to him could have come either from Turba philosophorum, where he is among the participants, or from other texts.
Archelaos
Archelaos is mentioned in the Fihrist (p. 352, 25) and by al-Kindi in his Fada'il Misr (p. 191, 11). He is considered as the disciple of Anaxagoras and the teacher of Socrates. He should not be confused with his Byzantine namesake, author of an alchemic poem of 336 verses. The Arabs consider him as the author of Turba philosophorum (Mu.shafal aljama'a) and attribute to him the Risalat madd al-ba hr dhat al-ru'ya, a text which had been revealed in a vision about the tide and which was translated into Latin with the title Visio Arislei. This text is introduced as the continuation of Turba philosophorum.
Socrates
Socrates is considered not only as a wise man but also as an alchemist. Jabir calls him 'the father and mother of all philosophers' and considers him as the prototype of the real chemist. From Socrates to Jabir, there is a continuous tradition which attributes entire treatises to him. Jabir affirms that Socrates was opposed to the writing down of alchemic knowledge to avoid its exposition to the ignorance of the masses. Most references to Socrates refer to his arithmetical speculations (theory of the balance) and also to artificial generation.
Plato (Aflatun)
Olympiodorus already (at the end of the sixth century) considered Plato
as an alchemist and Ibn al-Nadlm mentions him in the list of alchemists.
Butrus al-Ilmlml mentions an alchemic device called ,hammam Aflatun
(Plato's bath).
Among the books attributed to him by the Arabs we can mention the Summa
Platonis of which we only have the Latin version. There is a commentary
to this book - the Kitab al-Rawabi' - whose Arabic text was edited by
Badawi and whose Latin translation is known by the name Liber quartorum.
The contents of this work are mainly alchemic but it contains also
information on geometry, physiology and astrology. The ancient authors
cited are Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Hipparchus, Proclus, the Sophists,
Ostanes, Hermes, Asclepius and Hippocrates.
We note also that Plato takes up the story in the forty-fifth discourse
in Turba philosophorum; this speech ends with the phrase al-tabi'a
tulzimu-ltabi'ata wa-l-tabi'atu taqharu-i-tabSata wa-i-tabi'ata tafra hu
li-l-tabl'ati (nature necessarily accompanies nature, nature overcomes
nature, nature rejoices in nature), an aphorism often mentioned in
Arabic alchemic literature under the name of Plato or anonymously. It
comes from the Physika kai Mystika of Democritus.
Aristotle (Aristu)
Aristotle is considered as an alchemist author not so much because of
his fourth book Meteorologica but because of his reputation as an
all-round scholar. He wrote a book on alchemy for his disciple
Alexander. In 618, by order of Heraclius, the book was translated into
Syriac by the monk Jean, and the Bishop of Nisibis, Eliyya bar Shinaya,
made sure of its orthodoxy. Finally Abdishu' bar Brika, Bishop of
Sinjar, and later of Nisibis, made a commentary on it in Syriac of
which there still exists an Arabic translation. The text contains an
introduction in which Abdlshu reports the legendary history of the text
followed by a Ietter from Alexander to Aristotle where the former poses
questions to which the latter responds. This dialogue is called sahifat
kanz Allah al-akbar (Epistle of the Great Treasure of God). it includes
three chapters: (1) About the great principles of alchemy; (2) Alchemic
operations; (3) The elixir. Pythagoras, Democritus, Asclepiades, Hermes,
Plato, Ostanes and Balmas are mentioned in the text.
We also have a dialogue between Aristotle and the Indian Yuhin sent by
the Indian king as messenger to Alexander. Ibn al-Nadim reports this
dialogue to Ostanes. Finally in the Jabirian corpus there is a Kitab
Musahhaha Aristutalis.
Porphyry (d. c. 303)
Porphyry is often mentioned, especially by Jabir who attributes artificial generation to him. The later alchemists such as Tughra'i and Jaldakl also mention him.
Galen (Jahnus) (d. c. 199 AD)
According to a note in Kitab al-hajar 'ala ra'y Balinas, Galen was interested in alchemy before dedicating himself to philosophy. In fact, he is sometimes mentioned as an authority on alchemy' and fragments of alchemy texts attributed to Galen can be found in the National Library of Cairo.
Bolos the Democritean of Mendes
Bolos the Democritean lived in the second century before Christ. The
work of this scholar is varied: alchemy, astrology, medicine. He is
probably at the origin of the alchemic tradition transmitted by the work
of pseudo-Democritus: Physika kai Mystika. He expounds there the four
traditional branches of alchemy: gold, silver, precious stones, dyes.
One can find the famous formula which aims to synthesize the
quintessence of the alchemic art: 'one nature is charmed by another
nature, one nature overcomes another nature, one nature dominates
another nature'.
How can this axiom be explained in practical terms? Zosimus, commentator
of the fourth century, explains: 'we can proceed with the transmutation
of common metal into noble metal by working alloys or by purifying the
metals, basing ourselves on the affinity between metals, knowing their
"sympathies and antipathies". Raw material, sympathy, transmutation by
qualitative change (of the colours), we have thus the principles that
constitute alchemy.' Thus the school of Bolos brings to the Egyptian
technique a philosophical reasoning which will open the way to the
science of the Great Work. 'Once again', says Festugiere, 'we see the
union of the Greek spirit and the Oriental art.' The art exists, from
ancient times; the goldsmiths of Egypt work metals, stones and purple.
But although they have innumerable recipes transmitted from father to
son and kept in temple archives, they lack a reasoning method. No-one
has yet joined these practices with the principles which explain and
justify them. There is practice but not theory. This is what the Greek
spirit provides. The merit of Bolos of Mendes was to join theory and
experiment and thus found a pseudoscience which would cross the ages up
to modern chemistry.
About the same time alchemy was practiced in most Egyptian towns. This
first alchemy is a mixture of hermetic or Gnostic elements and old Greek
philosophy: Heraclitus, Empedocles and their speculations about the four
elements, Parmenides with his theory on the unity of the whole, the
Platonic cosmogony of Timaeus.
Zosimus
The most famous character of this time is Zosimus of Panopolis (Akhmim,
in Upper Egypt). He probably lived at the end of the third and beginning
of the fourth century; he wrote an encyclopedia with twenty-eight books
on alchemy which he dedicated to his sister Theosebeia. Some sections
are original but most of it reproduces old texts lost to the present
time. His name in Arabic, because of the ambiguity of the writing, is
often transcribed under different forms: Risimus, Rusim, Rusam. Al-Qifli
affirms that he lived before Islam.
Some of his aphorisms and anecdotes are reported by Arab authors such as
Jahiz, Ibn Durayd, al-Tawhidi,. Ibn Arfa' Ra's calls him 'the universal
wise man and the brilliant flame' (al-hakim aljami' wa-i-shihab
al-lami'). Ibn al-Nadlm mentions four books from Zosimus: Kitab
al-mafatih f-l-santa; Kitab al-sab’tuna risala; Kitab al-'anasir; Kitab
ila jamb alhukama' fi-lsan'a.
The epistle from Zosimus to Theosebeia has the title Mushaf al-suwar
(The Book of Images). The name of Theosebeia is often rendered as
Atusabiya, Amtuthasiya, Uthasiya, etc. Zosimus can be placed at the end
of an evolution in alchemy. With Bolos, it became philosophical; with
Zosimus it becomes a mystical religion where the idea of salvation is
predominant. In fact, the period which separates Bolos the Democritean
from Zosimus saw intense alchemic activity. Vastly different elements -
Egyptian magic, Greek philosophy, neo-Platonism, Babylonian astrology,
Christian theology, pagan mythology - can be found in Zosimus' texts.
He is full of gnostic and hermetic books, he knows the Jewish
speculations about the Old Testament. He gives to alchemy a religious
character which will remain forever, at least in its traditional course,
since with the Arab alchemists it will retain its concrete technical
character before meeting the Ismaeli gnostic speculations.
Zosimus and his contemporaries who collected their predecessors'
traditions insist on their connection with the Egypt of the Pharaohs or
with the Persia of Zoroastra and Ostanes. We can find texts under the
name of Agathodaimon compared with Hermes. Some written pieces even say
that alchemic texts were engraved in hieroglyphs on steles but it was
absolutely forbidden to divulge them.
This Greek-Egyptian alchemy survived in Alexandria for several
centuries. From here it will go to Constantinople, where several
recensions of the 'collection of Greek alchemists' were compiled, and to
the Arabs when they conquered Egypt in the seventh century.
Hermes and Hermetic literature
According to Ibn al-Nadlm (351, 19) Arab alchemists considered the
Babylonian Hermes as the first one to have mentioned the art of alchemy.
Exiled by his countrymen, he came to Egypt where he became king. He
wrote a certain number of books on alchemy and was equally interested in
the study of the hidden forces of nature.
The Fihrist gives a list of thirteen books of Hermes about alchemy but
in fact some of them are about magic. Other texts have been traced:
Alfalakiyya al-kubra (The Great Epistle of the Celestial Spheres) by
Hermes of Denderah; Risalat al-sirr; Kitab Hirmis ila Tat f-l-santa;
Risalat harb al-kawakEb al-barbawiyya; Tadblr Hirmis al-Haramisa;
sahlfat Hirmis al'ugma, commentated by Jaldaki; Risalat Qabas al-qabis
fi tadbir Hirmis al-Haramisa.
Sirr al-Khaliqa of Ballnas
The Kitab Sirr al-khaliqa wa santat al-tabia also has the title Kitab al-'ilal (The Book of Causes); it was sometimes called simply li-lashya'. In the introduction a certain Sajiyus is introduced, a priest from Nablus who commented on the story of Bal.
The Arabs appeared in history in the seventh century. Alchemy had by
then gone through a long path. The first contacts took place in Egypt,
in Alexandria, where the traditions went back several centuries before
Christianity.
Muslim alchemy was derived from the Greek. The frequency with which
Greek authors are quoted, the numerous theories that are common to both
Greek and Arabic alchemy, and the large number of Arab technical terms
clearly taken over from Hellenic treatises (e.g. hayuli, atisyus,
athalia, iksir, qambar,S) prove beyond doubt the affiliation of Muslim
and Greek alchemy. The transmission was made partly through direct
contact in Egypt, partly through the medium of Syrian Christian
translators, and partly by way of Persia. There are unmistakable traces
of Persian influence, manifested distinctly by linguistic affinities in
technical names and usage and in names of minerals. These traces are
sufficiently well marked to render it probable that Persia was, indeed,
one of the main channels through which alchemy came to Islam; and it is
not without interest to note that many of the principal Muslim
alchemists were Persians.
It has already been observed that Chinese alchemy has so much in common
with Greek and Arabic alchemy as to afford support to the hypothesis
that all three had a common origin; and there is some reason to believe
that the Chinese practiced a kind of alchemy long before the days of
Islam. The remote origins of Arabic alchemy are therefore still to some
extent uncertain, but there is very little to recommend the suggestion
that the Arabs received any direct introduction to alchemy from the
Chinese. Whatever may be the cause of the similarity between Chinese,
Greek and Muslim alchemical ideas.
JABIR IBN HAIYAN (721-815)
The greatest chemist of Islam has long been familiar to western readers
under the name of Geber, which is the medieval rendering of the Arabic
Jabir. Since the work of Paul Kraus we are on more solid ground with
Jabir ibn Haiyan.
He is Abu Musa Jabir ibn Haiyan al-Azdl (al-Tusl, al-~artusl, al-Harram
meaning that he was a Sabian?; al-Sufi). Flourished mostly in kufa. The
most famous Arabic' alchemist; the alchemist Geberu of the Middle Ages.
He may be the author of a book on the astrolabe, but his fame rests on
his alchemical writings preserved in Arabic: the 'Book of the Kingdom',
the 'Little Book of the Balances', the 'Book of Mercury', the 'Book of
Concentration', the 'Book of Eastern Mercury', and others. According to
the treatises already translated (by Berthelot), his alchemical
doctrines were very anthropomorphic and animistic. But other treatises
(not yet available in translation) show him in a better light. We find
in them remarkably sound views on methods of chemical research; a
theory on the geologic formation of metals; the so-called
sulphur-mercury theory of metals (the six metals differ essentially
because of different proportions of sulphur and mercury in them);
preparation of various substances (e.g., basic lead carbonate; arsenic
and antimony from their sulphides). Jabir deals also with various
applications, e.g., refinement of metals, preparation of steel, dyeing
of cloth and leather, varnishes to water-proof cloth and protect iron,
use of manganese dioxide in glass making, use of iron pyrites for
writing in gold, distillation of vinegar to concentrate acetic acid. He
observed the imponderability of magnetic force.
It is possible that some of the facts mentioned in the Latin works,
ascribed to Geber and dating from the twelfth century and later, must
also be placed to Jabir's credit. It is impossible to reach definite
conclusions until all the Arabic writings ascribed to Jabir have been
properly edited and discussed. It is only then that we shall be able to
measure the full extent of his contributions, but even on the slender
basis of our present knowledge, Jabir appears already as a very great
personality, one of the greatest in mediaeval science.
Jabir admits the Aristotelian theory about the composition of
matter-earth, water, air, fire-but he develops it along a different
path. First, there are four elementary qualities, or natures: heat,
cold, dryness, humidity. When they get together with a substance they
form compounds of the first degree, i.e. hot, cold, dry, wet. The union
of two of these qualities gives
hot + dry + substance -------------- fire
hot + wet + substance -------------- air
cold + wet + substance ------------- water
cold + dry + substance ------------- earth
One of his chief contributions to the theory of chemistry lies in his
views upon the constitution of metals. To understand his conceptions
properly, we must hark back to Aristotle, whose philosophy of nature was
universally accepted in its main principles by the scientists of Islam.
According to Aristotle, it still be remembered, all substances are
composed of the four elements, fire, air, water, and earth, which are
themselves interconvertible. The immediate constituents of minerals and
metals are two exhalations, one an 'earthy smoke' and the other a watery
vapour'; the former consists of small particles of earth on the way to
becoming fire, while the latter consists of small particles of water on
the way to becoming air. Neither exhalation is ever entirely free from
some admixture of the other. Stones and other minerals are formed when
the two exhalations become imprisoned in the earth, the dry or smoky
exhalation predominating; metals are formed under similar circumstances
if the watery exhalation predominates.
Jabir accepted this theory of the constitution of metals, but appears to
have regarded it as too indefinite to explain observed facts or to
afford a guide to practical methods of transmutation. He therefore
modified it in such a fashion as to make it less vague, and the theory
he suggested survived, with some alterations and additions, until the
beginning of modern chemistry in the eighteenth century. The two
exhalations, he believed, when imprisoned in the bowels of the earth,
are not immediately changed into minerals or metals, but undergo an
intermediate conversion. The dry or smoky exhalation is converted into
sulphur and the watery one into mercury, and it is only by the
subsequent combination of sulphur and mercury that metals are formed.
The reason of the existence of different varieties of metals is that the
sulphur and mercury are not always pure, and that they do not always
combine in the same proportion. If they are perfectly pure and if, also,
they combine in the most complete natural equilibrium, then the product
is the most perfect of metals, namely gold. Defects in purity or
proportion, or both, result in the formation of silver, lead, tin, iron
or copper, but since these metals are essentially composed of the same
constituents as gold, the accidents of combination may be removed by
suitable treatment. Such treatment is the object of alchemy.
The idea that the transmutation of the metals was possible had the
excellent merit of provoking incessant experiment, but unfortunately the
alchemists were always prone to theorize to an inordinate extent.
Moreover, at Alexandria, the mystical beliefs of the Gnostics and the
Neo-Platonists - however admirable and attractive in themselves - had a very
detrimental effect upon experimental science. Alchemy thus became less
and less a matter for experimental research and more and more the
subject of ineffable speculation and superstitious practice, not to say
fraudulent deception.
The practical applications of chemistry were not neglected. Jabir
describes processes for the preparation of steel and the refinement of
other metals, for dyeing cloth and leather, for making varnishes to
waterproof cloth and to protect iron, for the preparation of hair-dyes
and so on. He gives a recipe for making an illuminating ink for
manuscripts from 'golden' marcasite, to replace the much more expensive
one made from gold itself, and he mentions the use of manganese dioxide
in glass-making. He knew how to concentrate acetic acid by the
distillation of vinegar, and was also acquainted with citric acid and
other organic substances.
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya al-Razi (866-925)
After the death of Jabir, nearly a century elapsed before Islam produced
a worthy successor. History records a few alchemists in the interval,
but it is only with the Persian chemist and physician Abu Bakr Muhammad
ibn Zakariyya al-Razi (known to the West as Rhazes) that Jabir's great
example is successfully followed.
According to one of his biographers, Razi was born in A.D. 866 at Ray,
an ancient town on the southern slopes of the Elburz Range that skirts
the south of the Caspian Sea. In his early youth he devoted himself to
the study of music, literature, philosophy, manichaeism, magic and
alchemy.
After his first visit to Baghdad, when he was at least 30 years of age,
that he seriously took up the study of medicine under the well-known
doctor Ali ibn Sahl (a Jewish convert to Islam, belonging to the
famous medical school of Tabaristan or Hyrcania). Razi showed such skill
in the subject that he quickly surpassed his master, and wrote no fewer
than a hundred medical books. He also composed 33 treatises on natural
science (exclusive of alchemy), on mathematics and astronomy, and more
than 45 on philosophy, logic and theology. On alchemy, in addition to
his Compendium of Tweltne Treatises and Book of Secrets, he wrote about
a dozen other books, two of which were refutations of works by other
authors in which the possibility of alchemy had been attacked.
As to the man himself, one of the inhabitants of Ray who recollected
Razi described him as a man with a large square head. He used to take
his seat in the lecture room, with his own pupils next him, and the
pupils of these men behind them, and, behind these again, other pupils.
Whenever any one came with a question, he used first to ask the back
row. If they could answer, he went away; but, if not, he used to pass on
to the others, and they, in their turn, if they could give a correct
answer, tried to satisfy him; otherwise Razi would speak on the subject
himself. He was a liberal and generous man, and so compassionate to the
poor and sick that he used to distribute alms to them freely and even
nurse them himself. He was always reading or copying, and "I never
visited him" (said the narrator) "without finding him at work on either a
rough or a fair copy". His eyes were always watering 'on account of his
excessive consumption of beans', and he became blind towards the end of
his life. He died in his native town on 26 October, A.D, 925, at the age
of 60 years and 2 months.
Razi is of exceptional importance in the history of chemistry, since in
his books we find for the first time a systematic classification of
carefully observed and verified facts regarding chemical substances,
reactions and apparatus, described in language almost entirely free
from mysticism and ambiguity.
Razi's scheme of classification of the substances used in chemistry
shows such a sound, it is the first time that we find such a systematic
classification. The list of these products as mentioned in Sirr al-asrar
book is as follows:
A. The earthly substances (al-'aqaqtr al-turabiyya) Mineral substances
1. The SPIRITS (al-arwah). Mercury, sat ammoniac, arsenic sulphate (orpiment and realgar),
sulphur
2. The BODIES (al-ajsad). Gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin, Kharsind
3. The STONES (al-ahjar). Pyrites (marqashita), iron oxide (daws), Zinc oxide (tutiya), azurite, malachite, turquoise, haematite, arsenic oxide, lead sulphate(kohl), mica and asbestos, gypsum, glass
4. The VITRIOLS (al-zajat). Black, alums (al-shubub), white (qalqadzs), green (qalqand), yellow (qulqutar), red
5. BORAX (al-bawariq)
6. The SALTS (al-amlah)
B. Vegetable substances. Rarely used, they are mainly employed by physicians.
C. Animal substances. Hair, scalp, brain, bile, blood, milk, urine, eggs, horn, shell.
To these 'natural substances' we need to add a certain number of
artificially obtained substances; al-Razl mentions litharge, lead oxide,
verdigris, copper oxide, zinc oxide, cinnabar, caustic soda, a solution
of polysulphur of calcium and other alloys.
The insistence of al-Razl in promoting research work in the laboratory
brought its fruits in pharmacy.
Razi gives also a list of the apparatus used in chemistry. This consists
of two classes: (i) instruments used for melting metals, and (ii) those
used for the manipulation of substances generally.
In the first class were included the following:
Blacksmith's hearth Bellows Crucible Descensory Ladle Tongs Shears Hammer or Pestle File Semi-cylindrical iron mouldThe second class included:
Crucible Flasks Alembic Phials Receiving flask Cars Aludel Cauldron Beakers Sand-bath Glass cups Water-bath Shallow iron pan Large oven Sieve Hair-cloth Heating-lamps Filter of linen Cylindrical stove Potter's Kiln Chafing-dish Mortar Flat stone mortar Stone roller Round mold Glass funnel
It will be observed that the list was comprehensive, but Razi completes
the subject by giving details of making composite pieces of apparatus,
and in general provides the same kind of information as is to be found
nowadays in manuals of laboratory arts. Like Jabir, Razi was a firm believer in the possibility of transmutation, and Stapleton describes his scheme of procedure
approximately as follows:
The first stage: consisted in the cleansing and purification of the
substances employed, by means of distillation, calcination,
amalgamation, sublimation and other processes. Having freed the crude
materials from their impurities,
The next stage:
was to reduce them to an easily fusible condition. This
was done by an operation known as aeration, that resulted in a product
which readily melted, without any evolution of fumes, when dropped upon
a heated metal plate.
The third stage: was to bring the 'berated' products to a further state
of disintegration by the process of solution. The solutions of different
substances, suitably chosen in proportion to the amount of 'bodies',
'spirits', &c., they were supposed to possess, were brought together by
the process of combination.
Finally: the combined solutions underwent the process of coagulation or
solidification, the product which it was hoped would result, being the
Elixir. This, as previously explained, was a substance of which a small
quantity, when projected upon a larger quantity of baser metal, would
convert the latter into silver or gold.
From a general study of his chemical works, Stapleton says that hence
forward Razi must be accepted as one of the most remarkable seekers
after knowledge that the world has ever seen - not only 'unique in his age
and unequaled in his time', but without a peer until modern science
began to dawn in Europe with Galileo and Robert Boyle. The evidence of
his passion for objective truth that is furnished by his chemical
writings, as well as the genius shown by the wide range of books he
wrote on other subjects, force us to the conclusion that - with the
possible exception of his acknowledged master, Jabir - Razi was the most
noteworthy intellectual follower of the Greek philosophers of the
seventh to fourth centuries B.C. that mankind produced for 1900 years
after the death of Aristotle. His supreme merit lay in his rejection of
magical and astrological practices, and adherence to nothing that could
not be proved, by experiment and test, to be actual fact.
Later Arab Alchemists
No account of chemistry in Islam would be even approximately complete
which omitted to mention four of Arab Alchemists: Abu'l-Qasim of Iraq,
Aidamir al-Jildaki, Al-Tughra‘i and Al-Majriti.
The first of these men lived in the thirteenth century, probably at
Cairo, and has left us several books which, apart from their intrinsic
interest, serve to indicate the trend of alchemical thought and practice
in Islam after the process of transmission to Europe had been in action
for some considerable time. It is very obvious that in Abu'l-Qasim's time
the reaction of European scientific thought upon Islam had not yet
begun, and the contrast between the two intellectual worlds could not be
better exemplified than in the persons of Abu'l-Qasim and his
contemporary Roger Bacon.
The driving force of Islam was beginning to
grow weak, while the new stimulus that Arabic learning had given to
Europe had resulted in a scientific renaissance which was to reach its
full development not long afterwards. Abu'l-Qasim's outlook is that of
his predecessors of three or four centuries earlier, and although there
was unquestionably some advance in empirical practical chemistry, the
theoretical views expressed are supported by quotations not merely from
Jabir but from the still earlier alchemists of the Alexandrian school.
Abu'l-Qasim himself seems to have been a good experimentalist and a
comparatively logical thinker, but his general views often represent a
retrograde movement upon those of Jabir.
Aidamir al-Jildaki (?-1342)
Who also lived for part of his life at Cairo, is of importance chiefly on account of his extensive and deep knowledge of Muslim chemical literature. He apparently spent the major portion of his existence in collecting and explaining all the books upon alchemy that he could discover, and labours are now beginning to receive their reward; for writings form an indispensable source of a great deal of our knowledge of chemistry and chemists in Islam. In a few instances it is possible to observe that he must have carried out experimental work himself, but for the most part his books are commentaries upon the works of earlier writers. Thus his great End of the Search is a commentary upon Abu'l-Qasim's book Knowledge acquired concerning the Cultivation of Gold, and although his explanations are not seldom more obscure than the passages they are designed to illuminate, he had the admirable habit of making innumerable and lengthy quotations from Khalid, Jabir, Razi and many other authors, and his books are thus a rich storehouse of information upon Muslim chemistry. It is therefore necessary to inquire into the question whether his quotations and historical facts are authentic, and whether his reliability is to be accepted or doubted. Fortunately, it often happens that a book from which he quotes is extant, and his quotations in such cases can of course be checked. A test conducted on these lines has shown that Jildaki was conscientious and although he does not always come through unscathed, his general trustworthiness can be safely assumed. He thus deserves the warmest thanks of all who are interested in the history of chemistry.
Al-Tughra’i (1063-1120)
This alchemist, who was a civil servant under the Seljuks Malik-shah and
Muhammad, has great importance as a poet and a writer. His Lamiyyat
al'ajam is very famous. He was executed in 1121.
In his Nihaya, Jaldakl tries to appraise the scientific value of
al-Tughra'l: he was the most important alchemist since Jabir; his style
has become perfect but his books can only be read by those who are
already advanced in the great art. In his Kitab al-Masabt,h wa-l-maf
tech (The Lamps and the Keys), he reports the teaching of the Ancients;
he is more theoretical than practical. He declares in his poem that he
has inherited his alchemy knowledge from Hermes. According to Jaldakl,
his most important book on alchemy is MafAti,h al-rahma wa masabl,h
al-,hikma.
Al-Majriti ( -1007)
In Andalusia, under the Caliphat of al-Hakam II (961-76) flourished
scholars in all the domains, including alchemy. One of these was Maslama
b. Ahmad, from Cordoba, better known under the name al-Majriti because
he lived for a long time in Madrid. He assimilated Muslim sciences in
the Arab Orient where he seems to have had close contacts with the
originators of the famous Epistles of Ikhwan al-Safa'. He brought to
Spain a new edition of this encyclopaedia. He is known in particular for
his astronomical work: a revision of the Persian astronomical tables in
Arabic chronology, a commentary on the Planispherium of Ptolemy and a
treatise on the astrolabe. The last two were translated quite early into
Latin and were very successful .
An important alchemy work, Rutbat' al-Hakzm wa mudkhal al-tathm (Rank of
the Wise Man and Isagoge oh! Teaching), is attributed to him, and an
astrological work called Chayat al-Haklm. The last was translated into
Spanish in 1256 by order of Alfonso the Wise, King of Castile and Leon
(from 1252 to 1284), and later it became popular in Latin under the name
of Picatrix. Rabelais in Pantagruel mentions it when he speaks of the
"Reverend Father of Devil Picatrix, rector of the diabolic faculty in
Toledo". The attribution of the book to al-Majriti was considered false
as the internal critique shows that this work could only have been
written after 1009, while al-Majriti died in 1007.
Holmyard redeveloped an interest in Rutbat al-Haklm. The author first
expresses his views on the way an aspiring alchemist should be educated:
by study mathematics, books from Euclid and Ptolemy, natural sciences
with Aristotle or Apollonius of Tyana; then he needs to acquire a manual
ability and practice precise observation, reasoning about chemical
substances and their reactions; in his research he needs to follow the
laws of nature, like a physician: a physician diagnoses the disease and
administers the medicine, but it is Nature who acts.
Until the time of Jabir, chemistry was 'without form and void'. The
solid technical knowledge of the craftsmen was lost in the vapourings of
occultists, and if there were any men with a more reasonable view of
chemical science, its aims, its objects and its methods, we find no
record of them. By the efforts of Jabir and Razi, the two Muslim
chemical geniuses, much of the vast accretion of unbridled speculation
was cleared away, and chemistry first began to take shape as a true
science. Experimental fact was at last informed with the beginnings of
reasonable theory, while on the practical side a workmanlike scheme of
classification was evolved and a divide range of substances was
carefully investigated and systematically characterized. The common
laboratory methods of distillation, sublimation, calcination, reduction,
solution and crystallization were improved and their general purposes
well understood. The refinement of metals, by cupellation and in other
ways, was brought to a high degree of perfection, and the careful assay
of gold and silver was accompanied by extraordinary accuracy in methods
of weighing and in the determination of specific gravity.
On the theoretical side, the idea that 'base' metals could be transmuted
into gold or silver overshadowed every other. The generally accepted
belief was that elixirs could be prepared which, by an action we should
now describe as catalytic, would convert practically unlimited amounts
of lead, mercury, tin, copper, or even iron into silver first and then
into gold. There were alternative theories as to the means whereby
transmutation could be effected, but as we may more conveniently study
these in their later developments a mere reference to them in passing
may be sufficient at the moment. The philosophical justification for the
almost universal credence in the possibility of transmutation is to be
found ultimately in the Aristotelian conception of the Four Elements and
proximately in Jabir's theory that all metals are composed of sulphur
and mercury. Its practical justification lay in the elegant manner in
which it explained numerous phenomena and stimulated unceasing research.
Chemistry, in the work of the great chemists from Jabir to the time of
Avicenna, was concerned chiefly not so much with alchemy but with
concrete technical matters such as the development of apparatus, the
preparations of, and the study of their reactions. The development of
chemistry in the period, although almost entirely empirical, was of
great importance in that a new high level was attained in the
accumulation of chemical data. The previous period of such great growth
had taken place long before 3000-500 B.C., in Mesopotamia. In many ways,
Muslim chemistry grew in the same manner as it did in Mesopotamia with
the difference that the Arabs were more careful in their larger number
of experiments, made careful notations of their laboratory results, and
developed their laboratory apparatus to a high point of perfection. This
was the real beginning of scientific method in the science of chemistry.
Not only did the Muslims organize their scientific knowledge as did
ancient Mesopotamians before them, but they used experiments to gain
scientific data. Because of this accent on experiment in later times,
there is much more practical discussion of the categories of matter in
the Muslim literature than may be found in the Mesopotamian literature
where appearances were of prime consideration.
Alongside experiment, logical speculation took its place in chemical
science as an important adjunct. Although Muslim theorizing was grossly
inadequate, it was, however, carried out by important chemists in an
effort to explain results of laboratory work and not necessarily to add
to the so-called 'natures'. This was a distinct Muslim advancement over
their Greek, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian predecessors.
References:
1. G. Sarton, "Introduction to the history of science," Williams and Wilkins,
Baltimore, 1927
2. E.J. Holmyard, "Makers of Chemistry," Oxford, at The Clarendon Press, 1939
3. E.Farber ,"Great Chemists ", Interscience Publishers,1961
4. E.Von-Meyer, History of Chemistry, 1906
5. J. M. Stillman, Story of Alchemy And Early Chemistry
6. J. R. Partington, A Short History of Chemistry, 1939.