Jabir ibn Hayyan

"Jabir ibn Hayyan" and "Geber" were also pen names of an anonymous 14th century Spanish alchemist: see Pseudo-Geber. For the crater, see Geber (crater).

Jabir ibn Hayyan

Jabir ibn Hayyan (fl. eighth and early ninth centuries) is an Islamic thinker from the early medieval period to whom is ascribed authorship of a large number of alchemical, practical and philosophical works. Many of these works were translated and distributed throughout the learning centers of Medieval Europe under latinized form of Jabir's name, Geber.

The two earliest biographical sources that mention Jabir are from the tenth century. The first, Notes of Abu Suaiman al-Mantiqi al-Sijistani, disputes the authorship of several works ascribed to him, and casts doubt on his very existence. Another work, the Katib al-Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim, part biography and part bibliography written around 987, ascribes a long list of works to Jabir and insists that he is a real personage.

Ibn al-Nadim links Jabir with his teacher, the sixth shiite imam, Jafar ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq, who lived between 700 and 765. Others say his teacher was another Jafar, the Barmecide visier Jafar ibn Yahya, who was put to death in 803 by the ruler Harun al-Rashid. Either of these hypotheses lead to the conclusion that Jabir's life straddled the 8th and 9th Centuries.

There can be no doubt that works ascribed to Jabir, particularly under the latinized moniker, Geber, have had a profound influence on the development of chemical knowledge in the West, including as they do advanced chemical processes such as the manufacture of nitric, hydrochloric and sulfuric acids and the introduction of the experimental method. Many of Jabir's works, however, are written in esoteric prose that are hardly decipherable in a scientific context. The authorship of some works, particularly those in Latin with no Arabic originals, are disputed by modern scholars, many of whom claim that the chemical knowledge they display is far ahead of what was known to 9th Century practitioners. Still, there are a minority who make a case for Jabir's authorship of all the works attributed to him.

biography

Twentieth Century scholar E.J. Holmyard attempts to piece together a life of Jabir from a variety of early sources and a knowledge of the history of the times. According to Holmyard, Jabir Ibn Hayyan was born 721 or 722, in the town of Tus, in Khorasan, not far from the city of Meshed in modern Iran. His father, Hayyan, was of the Al-Azd tribe, originally of south Arabia, some members of which had resettled in Kufa. Hayyan became enmeshed in the political intrigues of his time, and was executed shortly after Jabir's birth.

Jabir's family fled to Arabia, where Jabir studied under the scholar Harbi al-Himyari. In later years, he became the disciple of Jafar al-Sadiq, a shi'ite imman connected with the Abbasids, who, under the Caliphate of Harun al-Rashid, later assumed power in the region. Because his father had died supporting the Abbasids, Jabir was able to form a close association with the Barmecides, who acted as the Caliph's ministers. He was thus able to practice medicine under the protection of the Caliphate.

In one of his works, Jabir relates that he cured a handmaid belonging to the household of Yahya ibn Khalid, a Barmecide, by administering a specially prepared potion. For the Caliph himself, Jabir wrote an alchemical work, The Book of the Blossom, which includes information on experimental techniques. He also is said to have facilitated the acquisition of copies of Greek and Latin authors for translation into Arabic.

Jabir kept a working laboratory in Kufa, the ruins of which were discovered 200 years after his death.

In 803, Jafar ibn Yahya was put to death and the Barmecides were banished after earning the disfavor of the Caliphate. Jabir fled to Kufa, where he is said to have lived long enough to pursuade the succeeding Caliph, Al-Ma'mun, to nominate a successor of Jabir's choice. According to this tradition, Jabir would have died only after the naming of the successor, Ali al-Rida, in 917.

Contributions to chemistry

Jabir's works include references to experimentation. He is credited with the invention of many types of now-basic chemical laboratory equipment, and with the discovery and description of many chemical substances and processes – such as the hydrochloric and nitric acids, distillation, and crystallisation – that have become the foundation of modern chemistry and chemical engineering.

He also paved the way for most of the later Islamic alchemists, including Razi, Tughrai and al-Iraqi, who lived in the 9th, 12th and 13th centuries respectively. His books strongly influenced the medieval European alchemists and justified their search for the philosopher's stone.

In spite of his leanings toward mysticism and superstition, he more clearly recognised and proclaimed the importance of experimentation. "The first essential in chemistry", he declared, "is that you should perform practical work and conduct experiments, for he who performs not practical work nor makes experiments will never attain the least degree of mastery."

Jabir is also credited with the invention and development of several chemical instruments that are still used today, such as the alembic, which made distillation easy, safe, and efficient. By distilling various salts together with sulfuric acid, Jabir discovered hydrochloric acid (from salt) and nitric acid (from saltpeter). By combining the two, he invented aqua regia, one of the few substances that can dissolve gold. Besides its obvious applications to gold extraction and purification, this discovery would fuel the dreams and despair of alchemists for the next thousand years. He is also credited with the discovery of citric acid (the sour component of lemons and other unripe fruits), acetic acid (from vinegar), and tartaric acid (from wine-making residues).

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 developed the use of manganese dioxide in glassmaking, to counteract the green tinge produced by iron — a process that is still used today. He noted that boiling wine released a flammable vapor, thus paving the way to Al-Razi's discovery of ethanol.

The seeds of the modern classification of elements into metals and non-metals could be seen in his chemical nomenclature. "Spirits" vaporised on heating, like camphor, arsenic, and ammonium chloride. "Metals" like gold, silver, lead, copper, and iron, according to Jabir, are composed of different proportions of mercury and sulfur.

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 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 terms introduced by Jabir, such as alkali, have found their way into various European languages and have become part of scientific vocabulary.

Contributions to alchemy

Jabir 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").

Jabir 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, 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 Jabir'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).

Jabir'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 Jabir meant by these recipes is today unknown.

Jabir's interest in alchemy was probably inspired by his teacher Ja'far al-Sadiq, and he was himself called "the Sufi", indicating that he followed the ascetic form of mysticism within Islam. 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. Alchemy had a long relationship with Shi'ite mysticism; according to the first Imam, Ali ibn Abi Talib, "alchemy is the sister of prophecy".

In his writings, Jabir pays tribute to Egyptian and Greek alchemists Hermes Trismegistus, Agathodaimon, Pythagoras, and Socrates. He emphasises 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 Hossein, Science and Civilization of Islam).

Jabir'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.

To Aristotelian physics, Jabir added the four properties of hotness, coldness, dryness, and moistness (Burkhardt, p. 29). Each Aristotelian element was characterised by 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, Jabir theorised, by rearranging the qualities of one metal, based on their sulfur/mercury content, a different metal would result. (Burckhardt, p. 29) This theory appears to have originated the search for al-iksir, the elusive elixir that would make this transformation possible — which in European alchemy became known as the philosopher's stone.

Jabir also made important contributions to medicine, astronomy, and other sciences. Only a few of his books have been edited and published, and fewer still are available in translation. The Geber crater, located on the Moon, is named after him.

Popular culture

• The word gibberish is sometimes theorized to be derived from his name,[1] though sources such as the Oxford English Dictionary suggest it 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)

Quotations

• "The first essential in chemistry, is that you should perform practical work and conduct experiments, for he who performs not practical work nor makes experiments will never attain the least degree of mastery."^{[citation needed]}
• His last statement: "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."^{[citation needed]}

What others have said about Jabir

• Max Meyerhoff: "His influence may be traced throughout the whole historic course of European alchemy and chemistry."^{[citation needed]}

Writings by Jabir

The writings of Jabir Ibn Hayyan can be divided into four categories:

• 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 is the foundation of the Hermetic or "spiritual" alchemy. 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'.

Some scholars suspect that some of these works were not written by Jabir himself, but are instead commentaries and additions by his followers. In any case, they all can be considered works of the 'Jabir' school of alchemy.

Translations Jabir

• 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).
• 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.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Britannica
• Encarta Encyclopedia
• Columbia Encyclopedia
• Chemical Heritage Foundation
• Muslim Heritage article
• Article at Islam Online
• Article at Famous Muslims
• Article at Islam Online
• Article at Al Shindagah (mostly derived from this Wikipedia article, but includes an extract of Jabir's The Discovery of secrets)
• The Time of Jabir ibn Haiyan section from "History of Islamic Science"

See also

• Islamic Science
• Alchemy
• Chemistry
• Al-Razi
• Al-Kindi
• List of Arab scientists and scholars
• List of Iranian scientists and scholars

Credits

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