Harbi al-Himyari

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Harbi al-Himyari (Arabic: حربي الحميري‎ transliteration: Ḥarbī al-Ḥimyārī), was an Arab scholar from Yemen, who lived between the 7th and 8th century. He is famous as the teacher of the Islamic alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan, whose is considered the Father of Chemistry.

[edit] References

• Eric John Holmyard, Makers of Chemistry. London: Oxford University Press, 1931

[edit] Al Himyari

Biographical information about the Al Himyari ( author of Kitāb ar-Rawḍ al-mi‘tār) is extremely limited. The Encyclopaedia of Islam refers to Himyari as a fakīh born in Magreb. Firstly we do not know for certain the exact period in which Al Himyari lived - for instance T. Lewicki, states that al-Ḥimyarī died in 1494 while others claim Al Himyari died in 1326

[edit] Al-Himyari's Account

Al Himyari - who was practically unheard of in the West until 1975 - claims in his account that the Arabs who invaded Malta in AD 870 – 1090 wiped out the 'entire' Maltese population, thereby annihilating any traces of a Punic inheritance in Malta . Al Himyari also claims that Malta was repopulated around the year 1050 AD by "Arabic-speaking" people - that is around 40 years before the Arabs themselves were defeated by Count Roger of Normandy, who liberated Malta from the Arabs in 1091. I cannot accept this for the following reasons

1) Al Himyari was writing his account some 4 centuries after the events had occurred - so clearly he himself had no primary nor any direct information of these events and he must have relied on various sources - some of these sources may not only have been unreliable - they would also have been biased since the account is written by the conquerors. Historical accounts written by many Middle East historians often do not record negative events - not even major defeats in battle! Of course History is always recorded by the conquerors and to make matters worse neither the Phoenicians (Carthaginians) nor the Maltese were known for their history writing! To compound matters further the general Arab view is to deny all things Phoenician in their history, this probably for religious reasons - so that even Lebanon the cradle of the Phoenicians belittles its Phoenician past.

2) We now have Scientific evidence collected in 2004 which shows that nearly 60% of the Maltese population carries the Y gene from the Phoenicians vide:- http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature2/online_extra.html

3) - During this period 870-1090 many inhabitants of the Maltese Islands lived in Caves - Troglodytes so it would have been well nigh impossible to chase and eradicate the whole population

4) There is evidence that the Arabs actually permitted the Maltese to remain Christian - provided they paid extra Taxes. If as Himyari contends the Maltese were eradicated and Malta was repopulated by Muslims - the population would have remained Muslim - this clearly is not the case.