Jābir ibn Hayyān
For other people known as Geber, see Geber.
| Jābir ibn Hayyān | |
|---|---|
15th-century European portrait of "Geber", Codici Ashburnhamiani 1166, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence | |
| Title | Abu Musa Jābir ibn Hayyān |
| Born | 722 AD |
| Died | c. 804 AD |
| Ethnicity | Persian[1] or Arab[2][3] |
| School tradition | Shī‘ah[4][5] |
| 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 | Ja'far al-Sadiq, Alchemy, Harbi al-Himyari |
| Influenced | Al-Kindi, Alchemy, Chemistry |
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 Latinized as "Geber" in the Christian West and in 13th century Europe an anonymous writer, usually referred to as Pseudo-Geber, produced alchemical and metallurgical writings under the pen-name Geber.
Early references
In 987 Ibn al-Nadim compiled the Kitab al-Fihrist which mentions Jabir as a spiritual leader and as a companion to Jafar as-Sadiq (he is not listed among the students of Jafar as-Sadiq but many of the writings of the Jabirian corpus are dedicated to Jafar as-Sadiq). In another reference al-Nadim reports that a group of 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.[9] 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.[10]Life and background
Jabir was a Natural Philosopher who lived mostly in the 8th century, he was born in Tus, Khorasan, in Iran (Persia),[6] then ruled by the Umayyad Caliphate. Jabir in the classical sources has been entitled differently as al-Azdi or al-Kufi or al-Tusi or al-Sufi.[11] There is a difference of opinion[11] as to whether he was an Arab from Kufa who lived in Khurasan or a Persian from Khorasan who later went to Kufa or whether he was, as some have suggested, of Syrian origin and later lived in Persia and Iraq.[11] His ethnic background is not clear,[11] and sources reference him as an Arab or a Persian.[1] 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.[12][13] while Henry Corbin believes Geber seems to have been a client of the 'Azd tribe.[14] 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").[citation needed] Hayyan had supported the Abbasid revolt against the Umayyads, and was sent by them to the province of Khorasan (present day Afghanistan and Iran) to gather support for their cause. He was eventually caught by the Ummayads and executed. His family fled to Yemen,[12][15] where Jābir grew up and studied the Quran, mathematics and other subjects.[12] 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. 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.
It has been asserted that Jābir was a student of the sixth Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq and Harbi al-Himyari,[5][8] however other scholars have questioned this theory.[16]
The Jabirian corpus
An illustration of the various experiments and instruments used by Jabir Ibn Hayyan.
The scope of the 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.[10]
- 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'.
People
Jābir's interest in alchemy was probably inspired by his teacher Ja'far as-Sadiq. When he used to talk about alchemy, he would say "my master Ja'far as-Sadiq taught me about calcium, evaporation, distillation and crystallization and everything I learned in alchemy was from my master Ja'far as-Sadiq." Imam Jafar was famed for his depth and breadth of knowldege. In addition to his knowledge of Islamic sciences, Imam Jafar was well educated in natural sciences, mathematics, philosophy , astronomy , anatomy , chemistry (alchemy), and other subjects. The foremost Islamic alchemist Jabir bin Hayyan (known in Europe as Geber) was his most prominent student. Other famous students of his were Imam Abu Hanifa and Imam Malik Ibn Anas, the founders of two Sunni schools of jurisprudence, and Wasil ibn Ata, the founder of the Mutazilite school of Islamic thought. Imam Jafar was known for his liberal views on learning, and was keen to debate with scholars of different faiths and of different beliefs. Imam Abu Hanifa is quoted by many souces as having said "My knowledge extends to only two years. The two I spent with Imam Jafar Sadiq", some Islamic scholars have gone so far as to call Imam Jafar Saddiq as the root of most of Islamic jurisprudence, having a massive influence on Hanafi, Maliki and Shia schools of thought extending well into mainstream Hanbali and Shafi'i thought. Imam Jafar also attained a surpassing knowledge in astronomy and in the science of medicine. it is said that he wrote more than five hundred books on health care which were compiled and annotated by another great scholar and scientist of Islam, Jabir bin HayyanJābir professes to draw his inspiration from earlier writers, legendary and historic, on the subject.[20] In his writings, Jābir pays tribute to Egyptian and Greek alchemists Zosimos, Democritus, Hermes Trismegistus, Agathodaimon, but also Plato, Aristotle, Galen, Pythagoras, and Socrates as well as the commentators Alexander of Aphrodisias Simplicius, Porphyry and others.[10] 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 root of medieval alchemy.[21] 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.[22] Ruska had suggested that the Sasanian medical schools played an important role in the spread of interest in alchemy.[21] 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.[10]
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.[23] 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.[24] 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 sunHolmyard says that Jabir proves by experiment that these are not ordinary sulfur and mercury.[12]
The seeds of the modern classification of elements into metals and non-metals could be seen in his chemical nomenclature. He proposed three categories:[25]
- "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.
Laboratory equipment and material
The works in Latin under the name of Geber include these important chemical processes (Von Meyer, 1906): The manufacture of nitric and sulfuric acids; The separation of gold from other metals through the agency of lead and saltpeter (potassium nitrate). The concept of a chemical compound; the mineral cinnabar, for example, as being composed of sulfur and mercury The purification of mercury. The classification of salts as water soluble, under the generic title "sal." The introduction of the word "alkali" to designate substances such as lye and other bases. The production of nitric acid by distilling a mixture of saltpeter (potassium nitrate), copper vitriol (copper sulfate), and alum (naturally occurring sulfate of iron, potassium, sodium or aluminum). The production of sulfuric acid through the heating of alum . The production of aqua regia, a solvent capable of dissolving gold, by mixing salmiac (ammonium chloride) and nitric acid. The production of alum from alum shale by recrystallizing it from water. The purification of substances through crystallization The precipitation of silver nitrate crystals from a solution by the addition of common salt, thus establishing a test for the presence of both silver and salt. The preparation of mercuric oxide from mercury by heating it with a metallic oxide, and mercuric chloride by heating mercury with common salt, alum and saltpeter. The preparation of arsenious acid. The dissolving of sulfur in solutions of alkalies, and its transformation when it interacts with aqua regia. The theory that the different metals are composed of varying degrees of sulfur and mercury. The production of saltpeter by mixing potash (potassium carbonate) and nitric acid. ,[31]Asimov, Isaac. 1982. Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-17771-2
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."[32]
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."[33] Fractional distillation of alcohol first occurs about 1100 probably in Salerno. Magister Salernus (died 1167) provides one of the earliest direct recipes.[33] Directions to make sulfuric acid, nitric acid and aqua regis appear in Liber Fornacum, De inventione perfectionis, and the Summa.[33]Legacy
Whether there was a real Jabir in the 8th century or not, his name would become the most famous in alchemy.[16] 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[30] and justified their search for the philosopher's stone.[34][35] 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."[30]
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.[36] The word gibberish is theorized to be derived from the Latinised version off Jābir's name,[37] in reference to the incomprehensible technical jargon often used by alchemists, the most famous of whom was Jābir.[38] 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."[39]
The Geber problem
The identity of the author of works attributed to Jabir has long been discussed.[8] According to a famous controversy,[40] pseudo-Geber has been considered as the unknown author of several books in Alchemy.[41] This was first independently suggested, on textual and other grounds, by the nineteenth-century historians Hermann Kopp and Marcellin Berthelot.[42] 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.[43] 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 they are not direct translations of "Jabir" but are the work of a 13th century Latin alchemist.[44] 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 of Geber's identity, whether he is the original Jābir or a "pseudo-Geber" adopting his name, is still in dispute(1962).[45]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 three centuries.
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.[46] About this historical figure, however, there is considerable uncertainty(1910).[47]
This is sometimes called the "Geber-Jābir problem".[48]
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.[43]
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").[49]
- Liber fornacum ("Book of Stills"),
- De investigatione perfectionis ("On the Investigation of Perfection"), and
- De inventione veritatis ("On the Discovery of Truth").
- Testamentum gerberi
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 Routledge 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 90-04-09466-4
Popular culture
- Geber is mentioned in Paulo Coelho's 1993 bestseller, The Alchemist.[51]
- Jabbir is said to be the creator of a (fictional) mystical chess set in Katherine Neville's novels The Eight and The Fire
- In S.H.I.E.L.D, Jabir appears as the 8th century leader of the organization.
- Jabir is mentioned in the American sitcom The Big Bang Theory, in the episode "The Guitarist Amplification".
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
- ^ a b
- William R. Newman, Gehennical Fire: The Lives of George Starkey, an American Alchemist in the Scientific Revolution, Harvard University Press, 1994. p.94: "According to traditional bio-bibliography of Muslims, Jabir ibn Hayyan was a Persian alchemist who lived at some time in the eight century and wrote a wealth of books on virtually every aspect of natural philosophy"
- William R. Newman, The Occult and Manifest Among the Alchemist, in F. J. Ragep, Sally P Ragep, Steven John Livesey, Tradition, Transmission, Transformation: Proceedings of Two Conferences on pre-Modern science held at University of Oklahoma, Brill, 1996/1997, p.178: "This language of extracting the hidden nature formed an important lemma for the extensive corpus associated with the Persian alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan"
- Henry Corbin, "The Voyage and the Messenger: Iran and Philosophy", Translated by Joseph H. Rowe, North Atlantic Books, 1998. p.45: "The Nisba al-Azdin certainly does not necessarily indicate Arab origin. Geber seems to have been a client (mawla) of the Azd tribe established in Kufa"
- Tamara M. Green, "The City of the Moon God: Religious Traditions of Harran (Religions in the Graeco-Roman World)", Brill, 1992. p.177: "His most famous student was the Persian *Jabir ibn Hayyan (b. circa 721 C.E.), under whose name the vast corpus of alchemical writing circulated in the medieval period in both the east and west, although many of the works attributed to Jabir have been demonstrated to be likely product of later Ismaili' tradition."
- David Gordon White, "The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India", University of Chicago Press, 1996. p.447
- William R. Newman, Promethean Ambitions: Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature, University of Chicago Press, 2004. p.181: "The corpus ascribed to the eight-century Persian sage Jabir ibn Hayyan.."
- Wilbur Applebaum, The Scientific revolution and the foundation of modern science, Greenwood Press, 1995. p.44: "The chief source of Arabic alchemy was associated with the name, in its Latinized form, of Geber, an eighth-century Persian."
- Neil Kamil, Fortress of the Soul: Violence, Metaphysics, and Material Life in the Huguenots New World, 1517-1751 (Early America: History, Context, Culture), JHU Press, 2005. p.182: "The ninth-century Persian alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan, also known as Geber, is accurately called pseudo-Geber since most of the works published under this name in the West were forgeries"
- Aleksandr Sergeevich Povarennykh, Crystal Chemical Classification of Minerals, Plenum Press, 1972, v.1, ISBN 0-306-30348-5, p.4: "The first to give separate consideration to minerals and other inorganic substances were the following: The Persian alchemist Jabir (721-815)..."
- George Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science, Pub. for the Carnegie Institution of Washington, by the Williams & Wilkins Company, 1931, vol.2 pt.1, page 1044: "Was Geber, as the name would imply, the Persian alchemist Jabir ibn Haiyan?"
- Dan Merkur, in The psychoanalytic study of society (eds. Bryce Boyer, et al.), vol. 18, Routledge, ISBN 0-88163-161-2, page 352: "I would note that the Persian alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan developed the theory that all metals consist of different 'balances' ..."
- Anthony Gross, The Dissolution of the Lancastrian Kingship: Sir John Fortescue and the Crisis of Monarchy in Fifteenth-century England, Paul Watkins, 1996, ISBN 1-871615-90-9, p.19: "Ever since the Seventy Books attributed to the Persian alchemist Jabir Ibn Hayyan had been translated into Latin ...."
- ^ Kraus, P. (1962). "Djābir B. Ḥayyān". Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2 (2nd ed.). Brill Academic Publishers. pp. 357–359. "As for Djābir's historic personality, Holmyard has suggested that his father was "a certain Azdī called Hayyan, druggist of Kufa...mentioned...in connection with the political machinations that, in the eighth century, finally resulted in the overthrow of the Umayyad dynasty."
- ^ Holmyard, E. J.; Jabir, Richard Russell (1997-09). The Works of Geber. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7661-0015-2. "Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan, generally known merely as Jabir, was the son of a druggist belonging to the famous South Arabian tribe of Al-Azd. Members of this tribe had settled at the town of Kufa, in Iraq, shortly after the Muhammadan conquest in the seventh century A.D., and it was in Kufa that Hayyan the druggist lived."
- ^ Henderson, Joseph L.; Dyane N. Sherwood (2003). Transformation of the Psyche: The Symbolic Alchemy of the Splendor Solis. East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press. pp. 11. ISBN 1-58391-950-3.
- ^ a b Haq, Syed N. (1994). Names, Natures and Things. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Volume 158/ Kluwar Academic Publishers. pp. 14–20. ISBN 0-7923-3254-7.
- ^ a b "Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 11 February 2008.
- ^ Julian, Franklyn, Dictionary of the Occult, Kessinger Publishing, 2003, ISBN 0-7661-2816-4, ISBN 978-0-7661-2816-3, p. 8.
- ^ a b c Glick, Thomas; Eds (2005). Medieval science, technology, and medicine: an encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. pp. 279. ISBN 0-415-96930-1
- ^ Glick, Thomas F.; Livesey, Steven John; Wallis, Faith (2005). Medieval science, technology, and medicine: an encyclopedia. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-96930-7. Retrieved 19 June 2010.
- ^ a b c d e Haq, Syed Nomanul (28 February 1995). Names, Natures and Things: The Alchemist Jabir Ibn Hayyan and His Kitab Al-Ahjar (Book of Stones). Springer. pp. 3. ISBN 978-0-7923-3254-1. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
- ^ a b c d S.N. Nasr, "Life Sciences, Alchemy and Medicine", The Cambridge History of Iran, Cambridge, Volume 4, 1975, p. 412: "Jabir is entitled in the traditional sources as al-Azdi, al-Kufi, al-Tusi, al-Sufi. There is a debate as to whether he was an Arab from Kufa who lived in Khurasan or a Persian from Khorasan who later went to Kufa or whether he was, as some have suggested, of Syrian origin and later lived in Persia and Iraq".
- ^ a b c d Holmyard, Eric John (1931). Makers of chemistry. The Clarendon press. Retrieved 19 June 2010.
- ^ Richard Russell (1928). Holmyard, E.J.. ed. The Works of Geber. ISBN 0-7661-0015-4.
- ^ Henry Corbin, "The Voyage and the Messenger: Iran and Philosophy", Translated by Joseph H. Rowe, North Atlantic Books, 1998. p.45: "The Nisba al-Azdin certainly does not necessarily indicate Arab origin. Geber seems to have been a client of the Azd tribe established in Kufa"
- ^ E. J. Holmyard (ed.) The Arabic Works of Jabir ibn Hayyan, translated by Richard Russell in 1678. New York, E. P. Dutton (1928); Also Paris, P. Geuther.
- ^ a b "Iranica JAʿFAR AL-ṢĀDEQ iv. And Esoteric sciences". Retrieved 11 June 2011 The historical relations between Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq and Jāber b. Ḥayyān remain very controversial, as they are linked to still unresolved questions about dating, composition, and authorship of the texts attributed to Jāber. Scholars such as Julius Ruska, Paul Kraus, and Pierre Lory consider Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq’s involvement in the transmission of alchemical knowledge as a literary fiction, whereas Fuat Sezgin, Toufic Fahd, and Nomanul Haq are rather inclined to accept the existence of alchemical activity in Medina in Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq’s time, although they remain cautious regarding the authenticity of the attribution of the Jaberian corpus to Jāber b. Ḥayyān and of the alchemical works to Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq (Ruska, 1924, pp. 40-52; idem, 1927, pp. 264-66; Kraus, I, pp. LV-LVII; Lory, pp. 14-21, 57-59, 101-7; Sezgin, I, p. 529, IV, pp. 128-31; Fahd, 1970, pp. 139-41; Nomanul Haq, pp. 3-47)..
- ^ Josef W. Meri, Jere L. Bacharach (2006). Medieval Islamic Civilization. Taylor and Francis. p. 25. ISBN 0-415-96691-4
- ^ Jabir Ibn Hayyan. Vol. 1. Le corpus des ecrits jabiriens. George Olms Verlag, 1989
- ^ Paul Kraus, Jabir ibn Hayyan: Contribution à l'histoire des idées scientifiques dans l'Islam, cited Robert Irwin, 'The long siesta' in Times Literary Supllement, 25/1/2008 p.8
- ^ Julian, Franklyn, Dictionary of the Occult, Kessinger Publishing, 2003, ISBN 0-7661-2816-4, ISBN 978-0-7661-2816-3, p. 9.
- ^ a b KIMIĀ (“Alchemy”), encyclopedia Iranica, Retrieved on 14 February 2009.
- ^ {{cite web|url=http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/private/cmje/heritage/History_of_Islamic_Science.pdf |title=History of Islamic Science |publisher=[[University of Southern California}}
- ^ Holmyard, E. J. (1931). Makers of Chemistry. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 57–8.
- ^ Norris, John (March 2006). "The Mineral Exhalation Theory of Metallogenesis in Pre-Modern Mineral Science". Ambix (Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry) 53: 43–65. doi:10.1179/174582306X93183.
- ^ Georges C. Anawati, "Arabic alchemy", in R. Rashed (1996), The Encyclopaedia of the History of Arabic Science, Vol. 3, p. 853-902 [866].
- ^ Schufle, J. A.; Thomas, George (Winter 1971). "Equivalent Weights from Bergman's Data on Phlogiston Content of Metals". Isis 62 (4): 500. doi:10.1086/350792
- ^ a b Holmyard, E. J. (1931). Makers of Chemistry. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 60.
- ^ a b Ansari, Farzana Latif; Qureshi, Rumana; Qureshi, Masood Latif (1998). Electrocyclic reactions: from fundamentals to research. Wiley-VCH. p. 2. ISBN 3-527-29755-3
- ^ Will Durant (1980). The Age of Faith (The Story of Civilization, Volume 4), p. 162-186. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-01200-2.
- ^ a b c Ḥusain, Muẓaffar. Islam's Contribution to Science. Page 94.
- ^ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedAsimov.2C_Isaac._1982.; see the help page. - ^ Ismail al-Faruqi and Lois Lamya al-Faruqi (1986), The Cultural Atlas of Islam, p. 328, New York
- ^ a b c Forbes, Robert James (1970). A short history of the art of distillation: from the beginnings up to the death of Cellier Blumenthal. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-00617-1. Retrieved 26 June 2010.
- ^ Ragai, Jehane (1992). "The Philosopher's Stone: Alchemy and Chemistry". Journal of Comparative Poetics 12 (Metaphor and Allegory in the Middle Ages): 58–77
- ^ Holmyard, E. J. (1924). "Maslama al-Majriti and the Rutbatu'l-Hakim". Isis 6 (3): 293–305
- ^ Kraus, Paul, Jâbir ibn Hayyân, Contribution à l'histoire des idées scientifiques dans l'Islam. I. Le corpus des écrits jâbiriens. II. Jâbir et la science grecque,. Cairo (1942-1943). Repr. By Fuat Sezgin, (Natural Sciences in Islam. 67-68), Frankfurt. 2002
- ^ gibberish, Grose 1811 Dictionary
- ^ Seaborg, Glenn T. (March 1980). "Our heritage of the elements". Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B (Springer Boston) 11 (1): 5–19
- ^ Holmyard, Eric John. Alchemy. Page 82
- ^ Arthur John Hopkins, Alchemy Child of Greek Philosophy, Published by Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2007, ISBN 0-548-13547-9, p. 140
- ^ "Geber". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 9 December 2008.
- ^ Openness, Secrecy, Authorship: Technical Arts and the Culture of Knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance By Pamela O. Long Edition: illustrated Published by JHU Press, 2001 ISBN 0-8018-6606-5, ISBN 978-0-8018-6606-7
- ^ a b Alchemy on Islamic Times, Retrieved on 14 February 2009.
- ^ Ihde, Aaron John (1 April 1984). The development of modern chemistry. Courier Dover Publications. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-486-64235-2. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
- ^ P. Crosland, Maurice, Historical Studies in the Language of Chemistry, Courier Dover Publications, 2004 1962, ISBN 0-486-43802-3, ISBN 978-0-486-43802-3, p. 15
- ^ Long, Pamela O. (2001). Openness, secrecy, authorship: technical arts and the culture of knowledge from antiquity to the Renaissance. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-6606-5.
- ^ Hugh Chisholm, ed. (1910). "Geber". Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (11th ed.). pp. 545–546.
- ^ Thomas F. Glick, Steven John Livesey, Faith Wallis, Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia, Routledge, 2005, ISBN 0-415-96930-1, ISBN 978-0-415-96930-7, p. 279-300
- ^ William R. Newman, The Summa Perfectionis of Pseudo-Geber. A Critical Edition, Translation and Study, Leyde: E. J. Brill, 1991 (Collection de travaux de l'Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences, 35).
- ^ Quote from Marcellin Berthelot at 1911encyclopedia.org.
- ^ Coelho, Paulo. The Alchemist. ISBN 006112416, p. 82.
Satu ayat lagi tentang penciptaan langit adalah sebagaimana berikut:
Asal mula alam semesta digambarkan dalam Al Qur'an pada ayat berikut:
Tatkala merujuk kepada matahari dan bulan di dalam Al Qur'an, ditegaskan bahwa masing-masing bergerak dalam orbit atau garis edar tertentu.
Alam Al Qur'an, yang diturunkan 14 abad silam di saat ilmu astronomi masih terbelakang, mengembangnya alam semesta digambarkan sebagaimana berikut ini:
