Born: c.721 Iran
Died: c.815 Kūfah Iraq
Foundations of modern chemistry.
Jabir ibn Hayyan (c. Eighth century and early ninth century) was a Muslim thinker from the Middle Ages given the ownership of a large number of alchemical, practical, and philosophical works. Many of these works were translated and distributed throughout the European educational institutions under Jabir's name, Gerer. Whether he was the author of all the works given to him or not, his contributions were great, laying the foundations of modern chemistry.
The first two historical sources for Jabir date to the tenth century. The first, Notes of Abu Suaiman al-Mantiqi al-Sijistani, disputes the writing of several works given to him, and raises doubts about his own existence. Another work, Ibn al-Nadim's Katib al-Fihrist, part of a biography and part of a book, written about 987, gives a long list of works to Jabir and emphasizes that he was a real person. Ibn al-Nadim connects Jabir with his teacher, the sixth Shi'ite mother, Jafar ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq, who lived between 700 and 765. death in 803, by emperor Harun al-Rashid. Any of these speculations lead to the conclusion that Jabir's life spanned the eighth and ninth centuries.
There is no doubt that the works given to Jabir, especially under the latinized moniker, Gerer, have had a significant impact on the development of Western chemical knowledge, including as they developed advanced chemical processes such as nitric and sulfuric acid production and the introduction of experimental methods. Many of Jabir's works, however, are written in an esoteric prose that is not easily explained in the scientific context. The writing of other works, especially Latin ones with no Arabic origin, has been challenged by modern scholars, many of whom claim that their chemical knowledge is far superior to that of ninth-century physicians. However, there are a few who blame Jabir for naming all the jobs he has been given.
Twentieth-century scholar E.J. Holmyard tries to compile Jabir's life from various early sources and information on the history of the times. According to Holmyard, Jabir Ibn Hayyan was born in 721 or 722, in the city of Tus, Khorasan, near Meshed, in present-day Iran. His father, Hayyan, belonged to the Al-Azd tribe, originally from southern Arabia, and some of its members settled in Death. Hayyan focused on the political level of his time, and was assassinated shortly after Jabir's birth.
Jabir's family
Jabir's family fled to Arabia, where Jabir studied under the scholar Harbi al-Himyari. In the years that followed, he became a disciple of Jafar al-Sadiq, a Shi'ite man affiliated with the Abbasids, who, under the leadership of Harun al-Rashid, later took power in the region. Because his father had died in support of the Abbasids, Jabir was able to form close ties with the Barmecides, who were the caliph's minister. So he was able to make medicine under the protection of his ancestors.
In one of his works, Jabir relates that he cured a slave girl in the house of Jahya ibn Khalid, of Barmecide, by inserting a specially prepared potion. In the caliph itself, Jabir wrote an alchemical work, The Book of the Blossom, which included details about experimental techniques. He is also said to have made available copies of Greek and Latin texts to translators into Arabic.
Jabir retained a functional laboratory in Death, the ruins of which were discovered two hundred years after his death.
In 803, Jafar ibn Yahya was assassinated and the Barmecides were expelled after the disapproval of Calphate. Jabir fled to Death, where he is said to have lived long enough to persuade his successor Caliph, Al-Ma'mun, to appoint a successor to Jabir. According to this tradition, Jabir would die only after the naming of his successor, Ali al-Rida, in 917.
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