Everything about Geber totally explained
» For the 12th century astronomer, see Jabir ibn Aflah. For the anonymous 14th century Spanish alchemist, see Pseudo-Geber. For the crater, see Geber (crater).
Abu Musa Jābir ibn Hayyān (
Arabic: جابر ابن حيان) (c.
721–c.
815), known also by his
Latinised name
Geber, was a prominent
Shi'a Muslim polymath: a
chemist and alchemist,
astronomer and
astrologer,
engineer,
philosopher, and
pharmacist and physician . He is "considered by many to be the
father of
chemistry". His ethnic background isn't clear; although most sources state that he was an
Arab,
other sources describe him as
Persian.
Jabir Ibn Hayyan is widely credited with the introduction of the
experimental method in alchemy, and with the invention of numerous important processes still used in modern
chemistry today, such as the syntheses of
hydrochloric and
nitric acids,
distillation, and
crystallisation. His original works are highly
esoteric and probably coded, though nobody today knows what the code is. On the surface, his alchemical career revolved around an elaborate chemical
numerology based on consonants in the
Arabic names of substances and the concept of
takwin, the artificial creation of life in the alchemical laboratory. Research has also established that oldest text of Jabiran corpus must have originated in the scientific culture of northeastern Persia. This thesis is supported by the
Persian language and
Middle Persian terms used in the technical vocabulary.
Biography
Jabir was born in
Tus,
Khorasan, in
Iran , then ruled by the
Umayyad Caliphate; the date of his birth is disputed, but most sources give 721 or
722. The information on his life and background is sketchy. In some sources, he's 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. where Jabir grew up and studied the Koran, mathematics and other subjects under a scholar named
Harbi al-Himyari.
- "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.
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 (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 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. Rumours of him being a Sufi is mostly fabricated for the main reason that no such school (for example, Sufism) existed during that era of Islamic history. 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/astrology, 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,(External Link
) 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)
Geber is mentioned in Paulo Coelho's 1993 bestseller, The Alchemist.
There is a villain in the manga Bio-Booster Armor Guyver by the name of Jearvill bun Hiyern (translated in various ways), who is most likely named for ibn Hayyan.
Quote
"My wealth let sons and brethren part. Some things they can't share: my work well done, my noble heart — these are mine own to wear."
What others have said about Jabir
Max Meyerhoff: "His influence may be traced throughout the whole historic course of European alchemy and chemistry."
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 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'.
Following the pioneering work of Paul Kraus, who demonstrated that the corpus of some several hundred works ascribed to Jabir were in fact a medley from different hands, mostly dating to the the late ninth and early tenth centuries, most scholars believe that most of these works consist of commentaries and additions by his followers, particularly of a Shiite persuasion.
Translations of 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), [BostonStudies 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.Further Information
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