Al-Jaldaki
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Izz al-Din Aydamir al-Jaldaki (عز الدين علي بن محمد أيدمر بن علي الجلدكي), also written al-Jildaki, was a 14th century Persian physician and alchemist from Khorasan.
Al-Jaldaki was one of the last and one of the greatest of medieval Islamic alchemists.
He was born in Jaldak, a district of Khorasan about 15 kilometers from Mashhad in Iran.
In his writings he reveals that he spent seventeen years travelling through Iraq, Asia Minor, Yemen, North Africa, and Syria, finally settling in Egypt where he composed many of his treatises.
He was a prolific author of alchemical writings, of which the National Library of Medicine has three. His treatises, which reflect interests much broader than simply alchemy, preserve extensive quotations from earlier authors.
He died in Cairo in 1342.
[edit] Sources
- Manfred Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam, Handbuch der Orientalistik, Abteilung I, Ergänzungsband VI, Abschnitt 2 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1972), pp. 237-42.
- C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur, 1st edition, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1889-1936). Second edition, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1943-49). Page references will be to those of the first edition, with the 2nd edition page numbers given in parentheses, vol. 2, p. 138-9 (173-5)
- G. Strohmaier, 'Djildaki' in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, ed. by H.A.R. Gibbs, B. Lewis, Ch. Pellat, C. Bosworth et al., 11 vols. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1960-2002), Supplement, p. 270
- Donald Hill, 'Alchemical Literature' in Religion, learning and science in the 'Abbasid period, ed. by M.J.L Young, J.D. Latham, and R.B. Serjeant (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) pp. 328-41, esp. p. 339-40.
- Georges C. Anawati, 'Arabic alchemy' in Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, ed. R. Rashed (London: Routledge, 1996), vol. 3, pp. 853-885, esp. p. 874.
