Chemistry, or alchemy, from the Arabic a!kimiya,
was first studied among Arabs in the seventh
century, A.D., by Khalid ibn Yazid ibn Muawiyya
who was familiar with the writings of the ancient
Greeks on that subject. Muawiyya was followed by
Jabir ibn Hayyan (known to the West as Geber).
Jabir was born in the year 721 A.D., and later
became the pupil of the celebrated Islamic teacher,
the Imam Jaffar. He spent most of his life in Kufa,
Iraq. In spite of Jabir's leanings toward mysticism
and superstition, he more clearly recognized and
proclaimed the importance of experimentation than
any other early chemist. "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." He
made noteworthy advances in both the theory and
practice of chemistry.
Jabir was acquainted with the usual chemical
reactions such as crystallization, calcination, solution,
sublimation, reduction and often described them.
Among Jabir's great contributions were his studies in
the transmutation of metals. Regarding practical
applications of chemistry, Jabir described pr~cesses
for the preparation of steel and the refinement of
other metals, for dying cloth and leather, for making
varnishes to waterproof cloth and to protect iron, and
for the preparation of hair dyes. He devised a recipe
for making an illuminating ink for manuscripts from
"golden" marcasite to replace the much more
expensive ones made from gold itself, and suggested
the use of manganese dioxide in glass-making.
Jabir is credited with the discovery of
red oxide,
bichloride of mercury, hydrochloric acid, nitrate of
silver, nitric acid, and sal ammonic, and ammonium
chloride. The preparation of nitric acid was perhaps
his most useful discovery. But to the alchemists and
chemists of the Middle Ages, the descriptions and
illustrations of furnaces in Jabir's books were
probably of even greater value.
After the death of Jabir, history records a few
alchemists in the interval, but it is only with the
chemist and physician, Muhammad ibn Zakariya
al-Razi (known to the West as Rhazes) that Jabir's
great example was successfully followed. Razi was
learned in almost every branch of science and
i,hilosophy, alchemy, mathematics, logic, ethics,
metaphysics and music. By profession a physician,
his medical writings were more famous than his
works in alchemy. His interest in alchemy seems to
have begun in his youth and he is reported to have
said that "no man deserves the name of 'philosopher'
unless he be a master of theoretical and applied
chemistry." He authored more than one hundred
medical books, thirty-three treatises on natural
science (exclusive of alchemy), eleven on
mathematics and astronomy and more than forty-five
on philosophy, logic and theology. On alchemy, he
wrote Compendium of Twelve Treatises and Book
Secrets.
Razi is a figure of exceptional importance in the
history of chemistry since in his works we find for
the first time a systematic classification of carefully
observed arid verified facts regarding chemical
substances, reactions and apparatuses described in a
language almost entirely free from mysticism and
ambiguity. Razi also gives a list of the apparatuses
used in chemistry. These consist of two classes: (I)
instruments used for melting metals, and (2) those
used for the manipulation of substances generally.
He completes the subject by describing how to make
composite pieces of apparatuses and, in general,
provides the same kind of information as is to be
found in laboratory manuals today.
Another famous scientist who followed Razi is Abu
Ah al-Hussain ibri Sina, the Avicenna of Europe,
who has been described as the "Aristotle of the
Arabs." During his lifetime, he accomplished an
amazing mass of literary, medical, philosophical and
scientific works. In his Book of Remedy, he wrote
about minerals, formation of rocks and stones and
properties of minerals and metals.
From the
fourth to the twelfth centuries, A.D, the
original chemical research and writing in Europe was
virtually non-existent. Instead, Arabic texts came to
be translated into Latin, these treatises functioning as
standard textbooks for students in Europe. The
translation of technical matters presented special
difficulties, so that scholars often had to content
themselves with literal renderings. It was safer not to
translate words the meaning of which was
imperfectly understood. Thus, in the translation from
Arabic to Latin, such words were often simply
transliterated, e.g. alembic, camphor, borax, elixir,
talc and saffron.
