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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, |
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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.
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