Jabir ibn Hayyan
(Arabic/Persian died c.
758 – 816), known by the Kunyas Abu Musa or Abu Abd Allah and the nisbad
al-sufi, al Azdi, al kufi or al-Tusi is the supposed author of an enormous
number and variety of works in Arabic often called the jabirian corpus. The
scope of the corpus is vast and divers covering a wide range of topics,
including alchemy, cosmology, numerology, astrology, medicine, magic, mysticism
and Popularly known as the father of chemistry, Jabir's works contain the
oldest known systematic classification of chemical substances, and the oldest
known instructions for deriving an inorganic compound (sal ammoniac or a
ammonium chloride) from organic substances (such as plants, blood, and hair) by
chemical means.
As early as the 10th
century, the identity and exact corpus of works of Jabir was in dispute in
Islamic circles. The authorship of all these works by a single figure, and even
the existence of a historical Jabir, are also doubted by modern scholars.
Instead, Jabir ibn Hayyan is see more like a pseudonym to whom underground writing
by various authors became ascribed.
Some Arabic Jabirian works
(e.g. the "Book of Mercy" and the "Book of Seventy" )
were translated into Latin under the Latinized
name "Geber" and in 13th century Europe an anonymous
writer, usually referred to as pseud-Geber, started to produce alchemical and
metallurgical writings under this name
The jabirian corpus
There are about 600 Arabic
work attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan that are known by bane approximately 215 of
which are still extant today. Though some of these are full length works most
of them are relatively short treatises and belong to larger collections (The
One Hundred and Twelve Books, The Five Hundred Books, etc.) in which they
function rather more like chapters. When the individual chapters of some full
length works are counted as separate treatises too, the total length of the
corpus may be estimated at about 3000 treatises/chapters.
The overwhelming majority
of Jabirian treatises that are still extant today deal with alchemy or
chemistry (though these may also contain religious speculations, and discuss a
wide range of other topics ranging from cosmology to grammar).
