Muslim Scholars

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.