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We Tell the Story of Chemistry
Detail from a miniature from Ibn Butlan's Risalat da`wat al-atibba. Courtesy of
the L.A. May er Museum for Islamic Art, Jerusalem.
Gabriele Ferrario
Note: Arabic words in this article are given in a simplified transliteration system:
no graphical distinction is made among long and short vowels and emphatic and
non-emphatic consonants. The expression “Arabic alchemy” refers to the vast
literature on alchemy written in the Arabic language. Among those defined as
“Arabic alchemists” we therefore find scholars of different ethnic origins—many
from Persia—who produced their works in the Arabic language.
According to the 10th-century scholar Ibn Al-Nadim, the philosopher
Muhammad ibn Zakariya Al-Razi (9th century) claimed that “the
study of philosophy could not be considered complete, and a learned
man could not be called a philosopher, until he has succeeded in
producing the alchemical transmutation.” For many years Western
scholars ignored Al-Razi’s praise for alchemy, seeing alchemy
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instead as a pseudoscience, false in its purposes and fundamentally
wrong in its methods, closer to magic and superstition than to the
“enlightened” sciences. Only in recent years have pioneering studies
conducted by historians of science, philologists, and historians of the
book demonstrated the importance of alchemical practices and
discoveries in creating the foundations of modern chemistry. A new
generation of scholarship is revealing not only the extent to which
early modern chemistry was based on alchemical practice but also
the depth to which European alchemists relied on Arabic sources. Yet
scholars are only beginning to scratch the surface of Arabic alchemy:
a general history based on direct sources still has to be written, and
an enormous number of Arabic alchemical manuscripts remain
unread and unedited—sometimes not even cataloged—in Middle
Eastern and European libraries. This brief survey is offered in hopes
of giving Chemical Heritage’s readers a glimpse into this fascinating
yet largely unexplored world.
The Origins of Arabic Alchemy
In the 7th century the Arabs started a process of territorial expansion that quickly
brought them empire and influence ranging from India to Andalusia. Fruitful
contacts with ancient cultural traditions were a natural consequence of this
territorial expansion, and Arabic culture proved ready to absorb and reinterpret
much of the technical and theoretical innovations of previous civilizations. This was
certainly the case with respect to alchemy, which had been practiced and studied in
ancient Greece and Hellenistic Egypt. The Arabs arrived in Egypt to find a
substantial alchemical tradition; early written documents testify that Egyptian
alchemists had developed advanced practical knowledge in the fields of
pharmacology and metal, stone, and glass working. The first translations of
alchemical treatises from Greek and Coptic sources into Arabic were reportedly
commissioned by Khalid ibn Yazid, who died around the beginning of the 8th
century. By the second part of that century Arabic knowledge of alchemy was already
far enough advanced to produce the Corpus Jabirianum— an impressively large
body of alchemical works attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan. The Corpus, together with
the alchemical works of Al-Razi, marks the creative peak of Arabic alchemy.
As is typical in the chain of transmission of ancient knowledge, the origins of
alchemy are steeped in legend, and the links of this chain are either mythical or real
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Chemical Heritage Foundation 315 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, PA 1 9106 215.925.2222
Site by The Berndt Group
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authorities in the fields of ancient science and philosophy. The doctrines on which
Arabic alchemy relied derived from the multicultural milieu of Hellenistic Egypt and
included a mixture of local, Hebrew, Christian, Gnostic, ancient Greek, Indian, and
Mesopotamian influences.
The presence of the Arabic definite article al in alchemy is a clear indication of the
Arabic roots of the word. Hypotheses about the etymology of the Arabic term al-
kimiya hint at the possible sources for early alchemical knowledge in the Arab world.
One of the most plausible hypotheses traces the origin of the word back to the
Egyptian word kam-it or kem-it, which indicated the color black and, by extension,
the land of Egypt, known as the Black Land. Another hypothesis links kimiya to a
Syriac transliteration of the Greek word khumeia or khemeia, meaning the art of
melting metals and of producing alloys.
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We Tell the Story of Chemistry
Detail from a miniature from Ibn Butlan's Risalat da`wat al-atibba. Courtesy of
the L.A. May er Museum for Islamic Art, Jerusalem.
Gabriele Ferrario
A third interesting but far-fetched etymology suggests that the word al-kimiya
derives from the Hebrew kim Yah, meaning “divine science.” The idea of a
connection between the origins of alchemical knowledge and the Jews was
widespread among medieval Arabic alchemists, who saw in this etymology a possible
confirmation of their belief. These alchemists tended to attribute the mythical
origins of alchemy alternately to the angels who rose against God, to the patriarch
Enoch, to King Solomon, or to other biblical characters who taught humankind the
secrets of minerals and metals. This interpretive strategy dignified the origins of
alchemy and attributed alchemical books pseudepigraphically to authorities of the
past, providing a safe mechanism for spreading alchemical knowledge, which could
otherwise be persecuted for its proximity to magic.
In contrast with the modern term alchemy, the word al-kimiya lacks abstract
meaning. Rather than designating the complex of practical and theoretical
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knowledge we now refer to as alchemy, it was used to describe the substance
through which base metals could be transmuted into noble ones. In Arabic
alchemical books al-kimiya tended to be a synonym of al-iksir (elixir) and was
frequently used with the more general meaning of a “medium for obtaining
something.” Expressions like kimiya al-sa‘ada (the way of obtaining happiness),
kimiya al-ghana (the way of obtaining richness), and kimiya alqulub (the way of
touching hearts) testify to the broad meaning of this word. What we now call
alchemy was called by other words: san‘at al-kimiya or san‘at al-iksir (the art or
production of the elixir), ‘ilm al-sina‘a (the knowledge of the art or production), al-
hikma (the wisdom), al-‘amal al-a‘zam (the great work), or simply al-sana‘a. Arabic
alchemists called themselves kimawi, kimi, kimiya’i, san‘awi, or iksiri.
The contribution of Arabic alchemists to the history of alchemy is profound. They
excelled in the field of practical laboratory experience and offered the first
descriptions of some of the substances still used in modern chemistry. Muriatic
(hydrochloric) acid, sulfuric acid, and nitric acid are discoveries of Arabic
alchemists, as are soda (al-natrun) and potassium (al-qali). The words used in
Arabic alchemical books have left a deep mark on the language of chemistry: besides
the word alchemy itself, we see Arabic influence in alcohol (al-kohl), elixir (al-iksir),
and alembic (al-inbiq). Moreover, Arabic alchemists perfected the process of
distillation, equipping their distilling apparatuses with thermometers in order to
better regulate the heating during alchemical operations. Finally, the discovery of the
solvent later known as aqua regia—a mixture of nitric and muriatic acids—is
reported to be one of their most important contributions to later alchemy and
chemistry.
Arabic books on alchemy stimulated theoretical reflections on the power and the
limits of humans to change matter. Moreover, we have the Arabic alchemical
tradition to thank for transmitting the legacy of the ancient and Hellenistic worlds to
the Latin West.
Theoretical Assumptions
The alchemical authorities most often quoted as sources in Arabic alchemical texts
were Greek philosophers, such as Pythagoras, Archelaus, Socrates, and Plato. During
the Middle Ages, Aristotle himself was considered the authentic author of the fourth
book of Meteorologica, which deals extensively with the physical interactions of
earthly phenomena, and of one letter on alchemy addressed to his pupil Alexander
the Great. Arabic language sources also quoted Hermes, the supposed repository of
the knowledge God gave to man before the Deluge and to whom legend attributes the
famous Tabula smaragdina (Emerald Tablet); Agathodaimon; Ostanes, the Persian
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Chemical Heritage Foundation 315 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, PA 1 9106 215.925.2222
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©2010 Chemical Heritage Foundation
magician; Mary the Jewess (probably 3rd century), for whom the bain marie (akin to
a double boiler) is named; and Zosimus of Panopolis (3rd–4th centuries), believed to
be the author of an alchemical encyclopedia in 28 books. Indeed, Zosimus is said to
have introduced religious and mystical elements into the alchemical discourse: his
books meld Egyptian magic, Greek philosophy, Neoplatonism, Babylonian astrology,
Christian theology, pagan mythology, and doctrines of Hebrew origin in a highly
symbolic writing full of allusions to the interior transformations of the alchemist’s
soul.
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We Tell the Story of Chemistry
Detail from a miniature from Ibn Butlan's Risalat da`wat al-atibba. Courtesy of
the L.A. May er Museum for Islamic Art, Jerusalem.
Gabriele Ferrario
Arabic alchemists largely worked from an Aristotelian theory of the formation of
matter in which the four elementary qualities (heat, coldness, dryness, and moisture)
generate first-degree compounds (hot, cold, dry, and moist), which, in turn, combine
in pairs, acquire matter, and generate the four elements: hot + dry + matter = fire;
hot + moist + matter = air; cold + moist + matter = water; cold + dry + matter =
earth. Everything on earth consists of varying proportions of these four elements. A
particularly clear explanation of how alchemists made sense of Aristotelian theory
can be found in the pseudo-Avicennian treatise De Anima in arte alchimiae (Basel,
1572), an alchemical work probably of Arabic origins that survives only in Latin
translation. According to this treatise, every existing body is a compound of the four
elements: if a body is defined as cold and dry, this means that the qualities of
coldness and dryness predominate, while heat and moisture occur in minor
proportions and thus remain concealed. An external cause—either natural or
artificial—could generate a change in the structure of the body, rebalancing the
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natural proportion of its external and internal qualities, thereby changing its
appearance. The alchemist in his laboratory seeks to artificially overturn the balance
of qualities in the body he is trying to transmute by adding or removing heat,
coldness, dryness, or moisture.
Arabic natural philosophy similarly accepted the classical theory of the formation of
minerals in mines. This explanation held that two different movements take place in
the depths of caves as the caverns are heated by the sun: particles of water (cold and
moist) rise to the surface and generate vapors (bukhar) when they make contact with
air (hot and moist); particles of earth (cold and dry), however, rise to the surface and
generate fumes (duhan). The meeting of vapors and fumes creates quicksilver, if the
vapors predominate, or sulfur, if the fumes predominate. Gold is generated when
quicksilver and sulfur are pure and in a balanced proportion, and the soil and astral
conditions are positive. Imperfections in any of these conditions create metals of
progressively lesser value. An impressive description of the formation of metals in
caves can be read in Epistle 19, on mineralogy, of the Rasa’il Ikhwan al-safa’
(Epistles of the Brethrens of Purity), a 10th-century encyclopedia of science, religion,
and ethics attributed to a group of philosophers influenced by Neoplatonism and
Pythagorism.
The alchemist’s goal, to be achieved through study and practical expertise in the
laboratory, was to reproduce these natural processes in a shorter period or to
interfere somehow with the natural processes to produce “natural accidents.” The
alchemist’s knowledge was, therefore, often compared to the creative power of God
(for instance, in the 10th-century treatise Rutbat al-hakim, by Al-Majriti) and
represented the highest level of knowledge attainable by humans. Yet Arabic
alchemists were, for the most part, able to harmonize alchemical doctrines with
Islam. The belief in a pure and absolute version of monotheism led Islamic theology
to assume the existence of a single creator: according to classical Islamic philosophy,
God is the creator of everything that exists and is the direct cause of every action that
takes place in the sublunary world. Since only God can create a change—a fasl
(differentia specifica, substantial difference)—alchemy, with its aim of changing the
internal nature of metals and stones, could have been considered religiously
unacceptable. In the 12th century, however, the alchemist Al-Tughra’i proposed an
intriguing solution: since nothing can be created unless God wants it to be so, the
alchemist simply prepares matter to receive the fasl God will bestow.
Perhaps because of alchemy’s association with divine knowledge, Arabic alchemical
treatises persistently appeal to secrecy: alchemists should avoid the transmission of
recipes to greedy people whose main aim is to obtain riches rather than wisdom. As
would their European followers several centuries later, Arabic alchemists used
rhetorical tricks to conceal the secrets of the art from the uninitiated. In the
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introductory essay to his translation of the first 10 books of Jabir ibn Hayyan’s Kitab
al-sab‘in (The Book of the Seventy), Pierre Lory underlines the author’s habit of
“scattering knowledge” (tabdid al-‘ilm) by intentionally presenting alchemical
procedures out of order so that only the initiated could understand how to read the
text. Alchemical authors used a highly enigmatic language, marked by abundant
metaphors and technical and allusive terminology, to describe their processes and
ingredients. Like the Hellenistic alchemists before them, the Arabic alchemists
referred to a metal by the name of the planet that was thought to exert influence over
it, so that recipes included Moon for silver, Mercury for quicksilver, Venus for
copper, Sun for gold, Mars for iron, Jupiter for tin, and Saturn for lead. Modern
readers must bear in mind that even when the names of the alchemical ingredients
appear identical to those used in modern chemistry, they rarely designate the same
substance.
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We Tell the Story of Chemistry
Detail from a miniature from Ibn Butlan's Risalat da`wat al-atibba. Courtesy of
the L.A. May er Museum for Islamic Art, Jerusalem.
Gabriele Ferrario
Arabic Alchemists
Our knowledge of Arabic alchemists has been largely mediated through the voices of
their Latin translators, whose works are more likely to have survived to the present
day. Scholarly research in this field is still in the preliminary stages, and every new
discovery, every new edition of a manuscript, can lead to substantial changes in our
perception of the history of Arabic alchemy. Even so, two philosophers have emerged
as leading figures.
Jabir ibn Hayyan was born in Tus (in present-day Iran) in 721/2. Besides his Islamic
studies, he was well educated in mathematics and science. After settling in the city of
Kufa, he became the court alchemist of the Abbasid caliph Harun Al-Rashid (786–
809) and was reportedly a close friend of the sixth imam, Ja‘far AlSadiq. He
probably died in 803. Given the enormous number of alchemical books that have
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been attributed to him (more than 300) and the fact that the word jabir can mean
“the one who rectifies things,” some scholars have suggested that the Corpus
Jabirianum should be seen as the work of a group of anonymous alchemists. Some
of the most famous books traditionally attributed to Jabir include Mi’a wa-ithna
‘ashara kitaban (The One Hundred and Twelve Books), which explains how to
produce the elixir from vegetables and animals and was supposedly based on Ja‘far
Al-Sadiq’s teachings; Kitab al-sab’in (The Book of the Seventy), a rich source for
studying the operations and the equipment of medieval Arabic alchemy; Kutub al-
tashih (The Books on Rectification), a survey of the progress of earlier alchemists;
and Kitab al-mizan (The Book of the Balance), in which Jabir clearly outlines the
double aim of his alchemical practice as both the transmutation of bodies in the
laboratory and the transformation of his own soul. Jabir’s importance is not limited
to the history of Arabic alchemy: numerous translations of his works appeared in
Latin, and an abundant pseudo-Jabirian literature was transmitted under the name
of Geber.
Muhammad ibn Zakariya Al-Razi was born around 864 in the city of Rayy (in
present-day Iran). A versatile mind, he was well learned in mathematics, astronomy,
astrology, music, and medicine. In this last field Latin translations of his works—
together with Avicenna’s Canon—became the basis of the cursus studiorum for
European students of medicine. Tradition holds that he lost his sight as a
consequence of one of his alchemical experiments, but in spite of his blindness he
was appointed head of the Baghdad hospital, where he remained in charge until his
death in 925. His most important and influential alchemical book is the Sirr al-
Asrar (the Latin Secretum secretorum, Secret of Secrets), in which he explains
alchemical operations in detail and describes the equipment and ingredients needed
in a medieval alchemical laboratory in a plain and clear style.
Historians of science would do well to look to the works of Al-Razi rather than Jabir’s
highly complex and symbolic Corpus for evidence on how to reconstruct a medieval
alchemical laboratory. Al-Razi mentions two groups of instruments: those used for
melting metals and those used for preparing other substances. In the first group he
lists the furnace (kur), bellows (minfakh), crucible (bawtaqa), double crucible (but
bar but, known as botus barbatus to Latin alchemists), spoon (mighrafa), tweezers
(masik), scissors (miqta‘), hammer (mukassir), and file (mibrad). In the second
group we find the cucurbit (qar’), alembic with evacuation tube (anbiq dhu khatm),
receiving matrass (qabila), blind alembic (al-anibiq al-a‘ma), vessel for liquids
(qadah), cauldron (marjal or tanjir), and oven (al-tannur), as well as a cylindrical
pot used for heating the matrass (mustawqid), different kinds of vessels (qarura),
funnels, sieves, filters, and so on. Al-Razi’s clear descriptions of operations have
made it possible to identify some of the alchemical procedures referred to in Arabic
texts: tadbir is the word used in general for defining the treatment of bodies; sahq
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©2010 Chemical Heritage Foundation
indicates grinding, decomposing, and the production of amalgams; hall or tahlil is
solution; iqama is the procedure for solidifying; sabk is the fusion of metals; and
taqtir means distillation and filtering.
As with the works attributed to Geber, many of the books attributed to Al-Razi— or
the Latin author Rhazes—are pseudepigraphical. Given Al-Razi’s wide fame and the
general medieval trend to fake the attribution of alchemical books, this should not
come as a surprise.
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We Tell the Story of Chemistry
Detail from a miniature from Ibn Butlan's Risalat da`wat al-atibba. Courtesy of
the L.A. May er Museum for Islamic Art, Jerusalem.
Al-Kimya: Notes on Arabic AlchemyGabriele Ferrario
The Legacy of Arabic Alchemy
Today no one doubts that Latin alchemy is mainly based on Arabic heritage. Before
the first infiltrations of Arabic alchemical texts, the Latin West knew only a few
translations of Greek books of recipes, largely out of context. The history of the
influence of Arabic alchemy in the West faces some major problems directly
connected with its sources: not all the Latin translations from Arabic are cataloged or
identified, their handwritten tradition is scarcely known, and translators’ names are
rarely specified.
Translations of complete Arabic alchemical treatises started to appear with
regularity in the first half of the 12th century. Robert of Chester, Hugo of Santalla,
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©2010 Chemical Heritage Foundation
Arnold of Villanove, Albert the Great, Gerard of Cremona, and Raymond of Marseille
dedicated their efforts to the translation of Arabic alchemical treatises by Jabir, Al-
Razi, and other known or anonymous Arabic alchemists. By the first decades of the
13th century, Arabic-language alchemical knowledge seems to have been completely
absorbed by Latin authors who started to produce original works on alchemy
strongly influenced by what they could read in previous translations. Alchemical
passages in the works of Albert the Great, Roger Bacon, Michael Scot, and Hermann
of Caryntia testify to the degree of assimilation of Arabic-language alchemical
doctrines in the West. It was only in the Renaissance that Latin authors, in search of
closer contacts with the ancients, started to recreate a line of tradition that reached
back directly to the Greeks, skipping over the Islamic world altogether.
Gabriele Ferrario recently obtained a Ph.D. in Oriental studies at Ca’ Foscari
University in Venice. He is currently Frances A. Yates Fellow at the Warburg
Institute (London) and has been awarded a Neville Fellowship at CHF for early
2008.
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