Jābir ibn Hayyān

Jābir ibn Hayyān
15th-century European portrait of "Geber", Codici Ashburnhamiani 1166, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence
Name:	Jābir ibn Hayyān
Title:	Abu Musa Jābir ibn Hayyān
Birth:	721 AD
Death:	c. 815 AD
Ethnicity:	Persian and/or Arab
Main interests:	Alchemy and Chemistry, Astronomy, Astrology, Medicine and Pharmacy, Philosophy, Physics, philanthropist
Works:	Kitab al-Kimya, Kitab al-Sab'een, Book of the Kingdom, Book of the Balances , Book of Eastern Mercury, etc.
Influences:	Alchemy, Harbi al-Himyari, Ja'far al-Sadiq
Influenced:	Alchemy, Chemistry

Abu Musa Jābir ibn Hayyān (Arabic: جابر بن حيان‎), (Persian: جابر بن حيان) (born c. 721 in Tous–died c. 815 in Kufa)^[1] was a prominent polymath: a chemist and alchemist, astronomer and astrologer, engineer, geologist, philosopher, physicist, and pharmacist and physician. He is considered by some to be the "father of chemistry."^[2] His ethnic background is not clear;^[3] although some sources state that he was an Arab ^[4] other sources introduce him as Persian^[5][6] Jābir is held to be the first practical alchemist.^[7]

As early as the tenth century, the identity and exact corpus of works of Jābir was in dispute in Islamic circles.^[8] His name was Latinised as "Geber" in the Christian West and in 13th century Europe an anonymous writer produced a non-trivial body of alchemical and metallurgical writings under the pen-name Geber. This person is usually referred to as Pseudo-Geber.

Biography

Early references

Abu Musa (sometimes Abu AbdAllah) Jabir ibn Haiyan al-Azdl (al-Tusl, al-Artusl, al-Harram, al-Sufi, also al-Kufi or al-Tartusi)^[9] In 987 Ibn al-Nadim compiled the Kitab al-Fihrist which mentions Jabir as a spiritual leader and a companion to Jafar al-Sadiq (he is not listed among the students of Jafar but many of the writings of the Jabirian corpus are dedicated to Jafar). In an other reference al-Nadim reports that a group philosophers claimed Jabir was one of their own members. Another group, reported by al-Nadim, says only The Large Book of Mercy is genuine and that the rest are pseudographical. Their assertions are rejected by al-Nadim.^[10] Joining al-Nadim in asserting a real Jabir; Ibn-Wahshiyya ("Jaber ibn Hayyn al-Sufi ...book on poison is a great work..") Rejecting a real Jabir; (the philosopher c.970) Abu Sulayman al-Mantiqi claims the real author is one al-Hasan ibn al-Nakad al-Mawili. 14th century critic of Arabic literature, Jamal al-Din ibn Nubata al-Misri declares all the writings attributed to Jabir doubtful.^[9]

Life and background

An artistic depiction of "Geber"

Jabir was a Natural Philosopher who lived mostly in the 8th century, according to some sources he was from Kurdish origin from the city of Harran, and other sources say he was born in Tus (Iran), Khorasan, in Iran (Persia),^[1] then ruled by the Umayyad Caliphate. In some sources, he is reported to have been the son of Hayyan al-Azdi, a pharmacist of the Arabian Azd tribe who emigrated from Yemen to Kufa (in present-day Iraq) during the Umayyad Caliphate.^[11][12] Jābir became an alchemist at the court of Caliph Harun al-Rashid, for whom he wrote the Kitab al-Zuhra ("The Book of Venus", on "the noble art of alchemy"). Hayyan had supported the Abbasid revolt against the Umayyads, and was sent by them to the province of Khorasan (in present Iran) to gather support for their cause. He was eventually caught by the Ummayads and executed. His family fled to Yemen,^[11][13] where Jābir grew up and studied the Quran, mathematics and other subjects.^[11] Jābir's father's profession may have contributed greatly to his interest in alchemy.

After the Abbasids took power, Jābir went back to Kufa. He began his career practicing medicine, under the patronage of a Vizir (from the noble Persian family Barmakids) of Caliph Harun al-Rashid.

Jābir may have been a student of the celebrated Islamic teacher and sixth Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq and Harbi al-Himyari.^[14][8] His connections to the Barmakid cost him dearly in the end. When that family fell from grace in 803, Jābir was placed under house arrest in Kufa, where he remained until his death.

The Jabirian corpus

In total, nearly 3,000 treatises and articles are credited to Jabir ibn Hayyan.^[15] Following the pioneering work of Paul Kraus, who demonstrated that a corpus of some several hundred works ascribed to Jābir were probably a medley from different hands,^[16][9] mostly dating to the late ninth and early tenth centuries, many scholars believe that many of these works consist of commentaries and additions by his followers, particularly of an Ismaili persuasion.^[17]

The scope of the Arabic corpus is vast: cosmology, music, medicine, magic, biology, chemical technology, geometry, grammar, metaphysics, logic artificial generation of living beings, along with astrological predictions, and symbolic Imâmî myths.^[9]

• The 112 Books dedicated to the Barmakids, viziers of Caliph Harun al-Rashid. This group includes the Arabic version of the Emerald Tablet, an ancient work that proved a recurring foundation of and source for alchemical operations. In the Middle Ages it was translated into Latin (Tabula Smaragdina) and widely diffused among European alchemists.
• The Seventy Books, most of which were translated into Latin during the Middle Ages. This group includes the Kitab al-Zuhra ("Book of Venus") and the Kitab Al-Ahjar ("Book of Stones").
• The Ten Books on Rectification, containing descriptions of alchemists such as Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
• The Books on Balance; this group includes his most famous 'Theory of the balance in Nature'.

Jābir states in his Book of Stones (4:12) that "The purpose is to baffle and lead into error everyone except those whom God loves and provides for". His works seem to have been deliberately written in highly esoteric code (see steganography), so that only those who had been initiated into his alchemical school could understand them. It is therefore difficult at best for the modern reader to discern which aspects of Jābir's work are to be read as symbols (and what those symbols mean), and what is to be taken literally. Because his works rarely made overt sense, the term gibberish is believed to have originally referred to his writings (Hauck, p. 19).

People

Jābir's interest in alchemy was probably inspired by his teacher Ja'far al-Sadiq. Ibn Hayyan was deeply religious, and repeatedly emphasizes in his works that alchemy is possible only by subjugating oneself completely to the will of Allah and becoming a literal instrument of Allah on Earth, since the manipulation of reality is possible only for Allah. The Book of Stones prescribes long and elaborate sequences of specific prayers that must be performed without error alone in the desert before one can even consider alchemical experimentation.

Jābir professes to draw his inspiration from earlier writers, Legendary and historic, on the subject.^[18] In his writings, Jābir pays tribute to Egyptian and Greek alchemists Zosimos, Democritus, Hermes Trismegistus, Agathodaimon, but also Plato, Aristotle, Galen, Pythagoras, and Socratesas well as the commentators Alexander of Aphrodisias Simplicius, Porphyry and others.^[9] A huge pseudo-epigraphic literature of alchemical books was composed in Arabic, among which the names of Persian authors also appear like Jāmāsb, Ostanes, Mani, testifying that alchemy-like operations on metals and other substances were also practiced in Persia. The great number of Persian technical names (zaybaq = mercury, nošāder = sal-ammoniac) also corroborates the idea of an important Iranian roots of medieval alchemy.^[19] Ibn al-Nadim reports a dialogue between Aristotle and Ostanes, the Persian alchemist of Achaemenid era, which is in Jabirian corpus under the title of Kitab Musahhaha Aristutalis.^[20] Ruska had suggested that the Sasanian medical schools played an important role in the spread of interest in alchemy.^[19] He emphasizes the long history of alchemy, "whose origin is Arius ... the first man who applied the first experiment on the [philosopher's] stone... and he declares that man possesses the ability to imitate the workings of Nature" (Nasr, Seyyed Hussein, Science and Civilization of Islam).

Theories

Jābir's alchemical investigations ostensibly revolved around the ultimate goal of takwin — the artificial creation of life. The Book of Stones includes several recipes for creating creatures such as scorpions, snakes, and even humans in a laboratory environment, which are subject to the control of their creator. What Jābir meant by these recipes is unknown.

Jābir's alchemical investigations were theoretically grounded in an elaborate numerology related to Pythagorean and Neoplatonic systems. The nature and properties of elements was defined through numeric values assigned the Arabic consonants present in their name, ultimately culminating in the number 17.

By Jabirs' time Aristotelian physics, had become Neoplatonic. Each Aristotelian element was composed of these qualities: fire was both hot and dry, earth, cold and dry, water cold and moist, and air, hot and moist. This came from the elementary qualities which are theoretical in nature plus substance. In metals two of these qualities were interior and two were exterior. For example, lead was cold and dry and gold was hot and moist. Thus, Jābir theorized, by rearranging the qualities of one metal, a different metal would result. Like Zosimos, Jabir believed this would require a catalyst, an al-iksir, the elusive elixir that would make this transformation possible — which in European alchemy became known as the philosopher's stone.^[9]

According to Jabir's mercury-sulfur theory, metals differ from each in so far as they contain different proportions of the sulfur and mercury. These are not the elements that we know by those names, but certain principles to which those elements are the closest approximation in nature.^[21] Based on Aristotle's "exhalation" theory the dry and moist exhalations become sulfur and mercury (sometimes called "sophic" or "philosophic" mercury and sulfur). The sulfur-mercury theory is first recorded in a 7th century work Secret of Creation credited (falsely) to Balinus (Apollonius of Tyana). This view becomes wide spread.^[22] In the Book of Explanation Jabir says

the metals are all, in essence, composed of mercury combined and coagulated with sulphur [that has risen to it in earthy, smoke-like vapors]. They differ from one another only because of the difference of their accidental qualities, and this difference is due to the difference of their sulphur, which again is caused by a variation in the soils and in their positions with respect to the heat of the sun

Holmyard says that Jabir proves by experiment that these are not ordinary sulfur and mercury.^[11]

The seeds of the modern classification of elements into metals and non-metals could be seen in his chemical nomenclature. He proposed three categories:^[23]

• "Spirits" which vaporise on heating, like arsenic (realgar, orpiment), camphor, mercury, sulfur, sal ammoniac, and ammonium chloride.
• "Metals", like gold, silver, lead, tin, copper, iron, and khar-sini
• Non-malleable substances, that can be converted into powders, such as stones.

The origins of the idea of chemical equivalents might be traced back to Jabir, in whose time it was recognized that "a certain quantity of acid is necessary in order to neutralize a given amount of base."^[24] Jābir also made important contributions to medicine, astronomy/astrology, and other sciences. Only a few of his books have been edited and published, and fewer still are available in translation.

Laboratory equipment and material

Ambix, cucurbit and retort of Zosimus, from Marcelin Berthelot, Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs (3 vol., Paris, 1887-1888).

Jabirian corpus is renowned for its contributions to alchemy. It shows a clear recognition of the importance of experimentation, "The first essential in chemistry is that thou shouldest perform practical work and conduct experiments, for he who performs not practical work nor makes experiments will never attain to the least degree of mastery."^[25] He is credited with the use of over twenty types of now-basic chemical laboratory equipment,^[26] such as the alembic^[27] and retort, and with the description of many now-commonplace chemical processes – such as crystallisation, various forms of alchemical "distilation", and substances citric acid (the sour component of lemons and other unripe fruits), acetic acid (from vinegar) and tartaric acid (from wine-making residues), arsenic, antimony and bismuth, sulfur, and mercury^{[28] [26]} that have become the foundation of today's chemistry.^[29]

Jabir applied his chemical knowledge to the improvement of many manufacturing processes, such as making steel and other metals, preventing rust, engraving gold, dyeing and waterproofing cloth, tanning leather, and the chemical analysis of pigments and other substances. He noted the use of manganese dioxide in glassmaking, to counteract the green tinge produced by iron — a process that is still used today. According to Ismail al-Faruqi and Lois Lamya al-Faruqi, "In response to Jafar al-Sadik's wishes, [Jabir ibn Hayyan] invented a kind of paper that resisted fire, and an ink that could be read at night. He invented an additive which, when applied to an iron surface, inhibited rust and when applied to a textile, would make it water repellent."^[30]

Alcohol and the Mineral Acids

According to Forbes "no proof was ever found that the Arabs knew alcohol or any mineral acid in a period before they were discovered in Italy, whatever the opinion of some modern authors may be on this point."^[31] Fractional distillation of alcohol first occurs about 1100 probably in Salerno. Magister Salernus (died 1167) provides one of the earliest direct recipes.^[31] Directions to make sulfuric acid, nitric acid and aqua regis appear in Liber Fornacum, De inventione perfectionis, and the Summa.^[31]

Legacy

The crater Geber on the Moon is named after him.

He paved the way for most of the later alchemists, including al-Kindi, al-Razi, al-Tughrai and al-Iraqi, who lived in the 9th-13th centuries. His books strongly influenced the medieval European alchemists^[29] and justified their search for the philosopher's stone.^[32][33]

In the Middle Ages, Jabir's treatises on alchemy were translated into Latin and became standard texts for European alchemists. These include the Kitab al-Kimya (titled Book of the Composition of Alchemy in Europe), translated by Robert of Chester (1144); and the Kitab al-Sab'een (Book of Seventy) by Gerard of Cremona (before 1187). Marcelin Berthelot translated some of his books under the fanciful titles Book of the Kingdom, Book of the Balances, and Book of Eastern Mercury. Several technical Arabic terms introduced by Jabir, such as alkali, have found their way into various European languages and have become part of scientific vocabulary.

Max Meyerhoff states the following on Jabir ibn Hayyan: "His influence may be traced throughout the whole historic course of European alchemy and chemistry."^[29]

The historian of chemistry Erick John Holmyard gives credit to Jābir for developing alchemy into an experimental science and he writes that Jābir's importance to the history of chemistry is equal to that of Robert Boyle and Antoine Lavoisier. The historian Paul Kraus, who had studied most of Jābir's extant works in Arabic and Latin, summarized the importance of Jābir to the history of chemistry by comparing his experimental and systematic works in chemistry with that of the allegorical and unintelligible works of the ancient Greek alchemists.^[34] The word gibberish is theorized to be derived from the Latinised version off Jābir's name,^[35] in reference to the incomprehensible technical jargon often used by alchemists, the most famous of whom was Jābir.^[36] Other sources such as the Oxford English Dictionary suggest the term stems from gibber; however, the first known recorded use of the term "gibberish" was before the first known recorded use of the word "gibber" (see Gibberish).

Quotation

• "My wealth let sons and brethren part. Some things they cannot share: my work well done, my noble heart — these are mine own to wear."^[37]

The Geber Problem

The identity of the author of works attributed to Jabir has long been discussed.^[8] According to a famous controversy,^[38] pseudo-Geber has been considered as the unknown author of several books in Alchemy.^[39] This was first independently suggested, on textual and other grounds, by the nineteenth-century historians Hermann Kopp and Marcellin Berthelot.^[40] Jabir, by reputation 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, the Geber of the Middle Ages.^[41] The works in Latin corpus were considered to be translations until the studies of Kopp, Hoefer, Berthelot, and Lippman. Although they reflect earlier Arabic alchemy the are not direct translations of "Jabir" but are the work of a 13th century Latin alchemist.^[42] Eric Holmyard says in his book Makers of Chemistry Clarendon press.(1931) [1].)

There are, however, certain other Latin works, entitled The Sum of Perfection, The Investigation of Perfection, The Invention of Verity, The Book of Furnaces, and The Testament, which pass under his name but of which no Arabic original is known. A problem which historians of chemistry have not yet succeeded in solving is whether these works are genuine or not.

However by 1957 AD when he (Holmyard) wrote Alchemy. Courier Dover Publications. p. 134. ISBN 978-0-486-26298-7. Holmyard had abandoned the idea of an Arabic original. (although they are based on "Islamic" alchemical theories)

The question at once arises whether the Latin works are genuine translations from the Arabic, or written by a Latin author and, according to common practice, ascribed to Jabir in order to heighten their authority. That they are based on Muslim alchemical theory and practice is not questioned, but the same may be said of most Latin treatises on alchemy of that period; and from various turns of phrase it seems likely that their author could read Arabic. But the general style of the works is to clear and systematic to find a close parallel in any of the known writings of the Jabirian corpus, and we look in vain in them for any references to the characteristically Jabirian ideas of "balance" and the alphabetic numerology. Indeed for their age they have a remarkably matter of fact air about them, theory being stated with a minimum of prolixity and much precise practical detail being given. The general impression they convey is that they are the product of an occidental rather than an oriental mind, and a likely guess would be that they were written by a European scholar, possibly in Moorish Spain. Whatever their origin, they became the principal authorities in early Western alchemy and held that position for two or there centuries.

The question of Geber's identity, whether he is the original Jābir or a "pseudo-Geber" adopting his name, is still in dispute(1962).^[43]

It is said that Geber, the Latinized form of "Jābir," was adopted presumably because of the great reputation of a supposed 8th-century alchemist by the name of Jābir ibn Hayyān.^[44] About this historical figure, however, there is considerable uncertainty(1910).^[45]
This is sometimes called the "Geber-Jābir problem".^[46]
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 important to consider that it is impossible to reach definite conclusions until all the Arabic writings ascribed to Jābir have been properly edited and discussed.^[41]

The Pseudo-Geber corpus

The Latin corpus consists of books with an author named "Geber" for which researchers have failed to find a text in Arabic. Although these books are heavily influenced by Arabic books written by Jābir, the "real" Geber, and by Al Razi and others, they were never written in Arabic. They are in Latin only, they date from about the year 1310, and their author is called Pseudo-Geber:

• Summa perfectionis magisterii ("The Height of the Perfection of Mastery").^[47]
• Liber fornacum ("Book of Stills"),
• De investigatione perfectionis ("On the Investigation of Perfection"), and
• De inventione veritatis ("On the Discovery of Truth").
• Testamentum gerberi

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th books listed above "are merely extracts from or summaries of the Summa Perfectionis Magisterii with later additions."^[48]

English translations of Jābir and the pseudo-Geber

• E. J. Holmyard (ed.) The Arabic Works of Jabir ibn Hayyan, translated by Richard Russel in 1678. New York, E. P. Dutton (1928); Also Paris, P. Geuther.
• Syed Nomanul Haq, Names, Natures and Things: The Alchemists Jabir ibn Hayyan and his Kitab al-Ahjar (Book of Stones), [Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science p. 158] (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1994), ISBN 0-7923-3254-7.
• Donald R. Hill, 'The Literature of Arabic Alchemy' in Religion: Learning and Science in the Abbasid Period, ed. by M.J.L. Young, J.D. Latham and R.B. Serjeant (Cambridge University Press, 1990) pp. 328–341, esp. pp 333–5.
• William Newman, New Light on the Identity of Geber, Sudhoffs Archiv, 1985, Vol.69, pp. 76–90.
• Geber and William Newman The Summa Perfectionis of Pseudo-Geber: A Critical Edition, Translation and Study ISBN 9004094664

Popular culture

• Geber is mentioned in Paulo Coelho's 1993 bestseller, The Alchemist.^[49]

• There is a villain in the Japanese manga and anime series Bio Booster Armor Guyver by the name of Jearvill bun Hiyern (translated in various ways), who is most likely named after ibn Hayyan.

• Jabbir is said to be the creator of a (fictional) mystical chess set in Katherine Neville's novels The Eight and The Fire

See also

• Alchemy
• Alchemy and chemistry in medieval Islam
• Chemistry
• Al-Kindi
• List of Arab scientists and scholars
• List of Iranian scientists and scholars
• List of Shi'a Muslims
• Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi
• Science in medieval Islam

References

External links

• Britannica
• Encarta Encyclopedia (Archived 2009-10-31)
• Columbia Encyclopedia
• Chemical Heritage
• Article at Islam Online
• Article at Famous Muslims
• Article at Islam Online
• Article at Al Shindagah (includes an extract of Jabir's The Discovery of secrets)
• The Time of Jabir ibn Haiyan section from "History of Islamic Science"