Zakaria Al-Razi better known as Rhazes in the West, is universally recognized as the most outstanding scientist of the medieval times, who influenced the course of thought in diverse branches of knowledge. He was an alchemist, chemist, physician, philosopher and scholar. He was recognized as a polymath (a person whose expertise spans a significant number of subject areas).
He is often reffered as probably the greatest and most original of all the Muslim physicians, and one of the most prolific as an author. He was undoubtedly the greatest physician of the Islamic World and one of the greatest physician of all times. He wrote several remarkable manuals of medicine which are characterized by striking originality and brilliance. A number of his works were translated into several European languages and according to Encyclopedia of Islam, "down to the seventeenth century A.D., the authority of Razi was undisputed ...... In the field of medical practice he surpasses the knowledge of the ancients."
Together with Ibn Sina (Avicena), Razi forms the two most brilliant luminaries on the fermament of Islamic Medicine. While Ibn Sina excelled on the theoraticle side of the medicine, Razi surpassed on the clinical side, and the influence of both on Western Thought was equally great.
He was born at Rayy near modern Tehran. He studies mathematics, philosophy, astronomy and alchemy at Baghdad under a disciple of Humayun ibn Ishaq who was well versed in Greek., Persian and Indian medicines.
In his early life he could have been a musician or singer who shifted his interest from music to alchemy. At the age of 30 he stopped his study of alchemy because his experimentation had caused an eye-disease, obliging him to search for physicians and medicine to cure it. Al-Biruni and others, say this was the reason why he began his medical studies.
We will discuss what happened after this change in profession in our coming posts
By freeing alchemy of superstition and magic potions Jabir set it on the path of scientific discipline.
He discovered as many as 19 elements such as aresenic, antimony and bismuth. He was also the first to classify sulphur and mercury as 'elements'. and the first to purify and isolate sulfur and mercury as pure elements.
He explained scientifically the two principal functions of chemistry; calcination and reduction, and registered marked improvement in the methods of evaporation, sublimation, distillation, melting and crystalization that have become the foundation of today's chemistry and chemical engineering.
Jabir modified and corrected the Aristotelian theory of constituents of the metals, which remained unchanged till the beginning of the modern chemistry in the 18th century A.D.
He explained in his works the preparation of many chemical substances including 'cinnabar' (Sulphide of Mercury) and arsenious oxide . It has been established that he was conversant with the preparation of nearly pure vitriol, alums, alkali and the production of the so-called liver and milk of sulphur by heating sulphur with alkali. He prepared mercury oxide and discovered sulphuric acid, and by distilling it together with various salts, Jabir discovered hydrochloric acid and nitric acid. By combining the two, he invented aqua regia, one of the few substances that can dissolve gold. He is also credited with the discovery of citric acid, acetic acid, and tartaric acid.
Jabir used his chemical adroitness to improve many manufacturing processes: making steel, preventing rust, engraving gold, tanning leather, dyeing and waterproofing cloth and the chemical analysis of pigments and other chemicals.
Jabir's solution for the greenish tinge left by iron in glass-making was to add manganese dioxide - exactly how it is done to this day.
He is credited with the invention of over twenty types of now-basic chemical laboratory equipment, such as the alembic and retort.
Several technical scientific terms coined by Jabir found their way in various European languages through Latin and were adopted in the modern chemistry. Among these terms are realigar, tutia, alkali, antimony, alembic for the upper an aludel for the lower part of distillation vessel.
Jabir has been recognized as the Master by the later both Muslim and Western chemical scientists and history of chemistry cannot be completed without his inclusion.
We will be back with another great scholar, Muslim World produced in its golden age
Widely translated into Latin during the 11th and 13th centuries, Jabir's work profoundly influenced Europen science. In them we can find remarkably sound views on method of chemical research. His Al Kimiya in particular reveals many fundamental techniques that led to the birth of modern chemistry and chemical enginerring.
The elemental system used in medieval alchemy was developed by Geber. His original system consisted of seven elements, which included the five classical elements found in the ancient Greek and Indian traditions (aether, air, earth, fire and water), in addition to two chemical elements representing the metals: sulphur, ‘the stone which burns’, which characterized the principle of combustibility, and mercury, which contained the idealized principle of
metallic properties. Shortly thereafter, this evolved into eight elements, with the Arabic concept of the three metallic principles: sulphur giving flammability or combustion, mercury giving volatility and stability, and salt giving solidity.
The seeds of the modern classification of elements into metals and non-metals could be seen in his chemical nomenclature. He proposed three categories:
* "Spirits" which vaporise on heating, like arsenic, 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.
The origins of the idea of chemical equivalents can also be traced back to Jabir, who was the first to recognize that "a certain quantity of acid is necessary in order to neutralize a given amount of base."
He also gave the theory on the geologic formation of metals; the so-called sulphur, mercury theory of metals where the six metals differ essentially because of different proportions of sulphur and aresenic and antimony for their sulphides, According to Jabir, the metals differ because of "different proportions of sulfur and mercury in them."
Again the post is getting lengthier and we have not even started touching his inventions, hopefully will do that in our next post.
So respected was Jabir's work that his theory of metal transmutation (though false) spurred European alchemists on an epic quest for the search of Philosopher's Stone. He theorised that rearranging the defining values of one metals to match the properties of another should cause metal to transmutate.
Jabir's Mastery over ancient knowledge is evident in his tributes to to Egyptian and Greek alchemists, but it is his addition to their work that is truly fascinating. Taking Aristotelian physics to the next level, Jabir defined each element in term of its physical values.
Jabir is credited to have composed more than 100 works of which 22 chemical works are still extant. Despite his leanings towards mysticism, Jabir's alchemy is characterised by a focus on scientific technique, objectivity and precision. He clearly recognised the importance of experimentation, which he declared "The first essential in chemistry 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." which immensely added to its rapid development.
The fame of Jabir rests on his alchemical writings preserved in Arabic, Six of his works namely
1. Kitab al Rahmah (book of Mercy)
2. Kitab al Tajmi (Book of concentration)
3. Al Zilaq al Sharqi (Book of Eastern Mercury)
4. Al Kimiya
5. Book of The Kingdom, and
6. The little Book of the Balances and several others have been translated and published in several European languages including latin and had a deep influence over the entire course of the development of modern chemistry.
A complete overview on Jabir ibn Haiyan's contribution is difficult in a single post (unless you can call a 2 page essay a POST), as he is also credited with the invention and development of a number of chemical substances and instruments that are still used today, We will discuss about these in another post hopefully tomorrow.
Before continuing with works of Jabir ibn Hayyan it will be better to first look at the fields where Muslims have exceeded. It becomes necessary as in many cases there are several scholars with major contributions to a single field, which cannot be overlooked
We will start off with Chemistry. Chemistry is one of the sciences to which Muslims have made the greatest contribution. They developed it to such a high degree of perfection that they were considered authority in this specific brach of science. Till the end of 17th century Jabir ibn Hayyan and Zakariya al-Razi have the distinction of being the greatest chemists that medieval times have produced.
Phillip K. Hitti in his 'History of the Arabs' acknowledges the greatness of the Arabs in this branch of science. He says 'After Meteria Medica, astronomy and mathematics, the Arabs made their greatest scientific contribution to Chemistry.'
In the study of chemistry and other physical sciences , the Arabs introduced the objective experiment, a decisive improvement upon the hazy speculation of the Greeks, which led to the inventions of various chemical processes and instruments still in use today.
We will start looking at Jabir ibn Hayyan's work from our next post and then will move onto other great minds that ruled medieval sciences.
We will start off with a brief introduction of arguably the most famous scholar Muslim World has ever produced Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan, renowned throughout Europe as the alchemist Geber was a prominent polymath: a chemist and alchemist, astronomer and astrologer, engineer, geologist, philosopher, physicist, and pharmacist and physician. But his most notable contributions were in the field of Chemistry and he is widely regarded as the Father of Chemistry. The son of an acclaimed pharmacist, he began his career as a physician in Haroon Rashid's court.
According to tradition, Abu Musa Jabir ibn Haiyan al-Azdl (al-Tusl, al-artusl, al-Harram, al-Sufi, also al-Kufi or al-Tartusi) was a Natural Philosopher who lived mostly in the 8th century, born in Tus, Khorasan, in Iran, then ruled by the Umayyad Caliphate. He was 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. Hayyan had supported the Abbasid revolt against the Umayyads, and was sent by them to the province of Khorasan to gather support for their cause. He was eventually caught by the Ummayads and executed. His family fled to Yemen, where Jabir ibn Hayyan grew up and studied the Quran, mathematics and other subjects under a scholar named Harbi al-Himyari. Jabir ibn Hayyan's father's profession may have contributed greatly to his interest in alchemy.
After the Abbasids took power, Jabir ibn Hayyan went back to Kufa. He began his career practicing medicine, under the patronage of a Wazir(from the Persian noble family Barmakids) of Caliph Haroon Rashid.
Jabir ibn Hayyan may have been a student of the celebrated Islamic teacher and sixth Imam Jafar al-Sadiq (R.A). His connections to the Barmakid cost him dearly in the end. When that family fell from grace in 803, Jabir ibn Hayyan was placed under house arrest in Kufa, where he remained until his death.
In a time known as the Golden Age of Islam, when learning was intrinsic to society, scholars gathered in Baghdad to Debate, research and study at the House of wisdom.
Europe was still in Dark Ages when the Renaissance men of the Muslim world were redefining
boundaries of knowledge. They wrote books that changed the course of science and philosophy, their libraries were overflowed when paper was still rare. From philosophers to greengrocers they studies ancient sciences, they created disciplines unknown to the world.
We are starting off with twelve remarkable men, out of hundreds who shone during that time. Some enjoyed fame for centuries; others were consigned to obscurity. They healed kings and paupers, studied cultures and charted stars
And illuminated the Muslim world with six hundred years of uninterrupted genius.
We will try to look into the works of these great minds one field or one accomplishment at a time in order not just to have an overview but to have complete understanding of their work
