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By Syed Aslam
Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan, known in Europe as Geber was born in Tus,
Iran in 721 CE during the rule of Umayyad Khalifa. His father Hayyan
al Azdi was a pharmacist who supported the Abbasid revolt against
the Umayyad. The Abbasid sent him to Tus, Iran to gather support for
their cause. He was eventually caught by ruling Khalifa and was
executed, so his family moved from Tus to Yemen, where Jabir grew
up. He went back to Kufa, Iraq after the fall of the Umayyad
dynasty, where he lived and received his education. In Kufa he
became the student of Imam Jafer al Sadiq. After completing his
education he started his career as physician under the patronage of
Vizier of Khalifa Harun al Rashid. His connection to the Vizier
later on cost him dearly, when the Vizier fell from grace of the
Khalifa. In 803 CE he was arrested and spent rest of his life under
house arrest, till he died in year 815 CE.
Jabir’s interest in alchemy was probably inspired by his teacher
Jafar al-Sadiq. He was a deeply religious man, and repeatedly
emphasizes in his works that alchemy is possible only by subjugating
oneself completely to the will of Allah and becoming a literal
instrument of Allah on earth, since the manipulation of reality is
possible only for Allah. In the Book of Stones he prescribes long
and elaborate sequences of specific prayers that must be performed
without error alone in the desert before one can even consider
alchemical experimentations.
Jabir ibn Hayyan is widely considered as the father of Chemistry,
but he was also an astronomer, pharmacist, physician, philosopher
and engineer. His works in the science of chemistry are as important
as those of eighteenth century scientists like Priestly and
Lavoisier. He is credited for the discovery of nineteen different
substances which we call element in modern chemistry. He was the
first person to introduce the experimental method in chemistry.
Jabir perfected the use of various chemical processes used in the
modern chemistry laboratory, such as distillation, crystallization
and sublimation etc. Using some of those methods he produced
concentrated acetic acid from vinegar. He synthesized hydrochloric
acid by heating salt and sulfuric acid and nitric acid by heating
saltpeter with sulfuric acid. By mixing hydrochloric acid with
nitric acid he invented a supper acid called aqua regia which could
dissolve even gold. He also isolated citric acid from lemon and
tartaric acid from the residue left after wine making. The
discoveries of these acids especially aqua regia helped the chemists
to extract and purify gold and other metals for the next thousand
years. This can be considered as a land- mark achievement in the
field of chemistry more than thousand year ago.
Jabir divided the substance into three categories; first group he
called Spirits substance which vaporize on heating, like sulfur,
ammonium chloride, camphor and arsenic etc, second group he called
Metals like copper, silver, gold, iron and lead etc the third group
he called Non-malleable like rocks, charcoal . The categorizations
of substance finally lead to divide the elements into the modern
classification of elements into metals and non-metals.
According to “The Cultural Atlas of Islam” by Ismail al-Faruqi Jabir
invented a kind of paper that resisted fire, and an ink that could
be read at night. He invented an additive which, when applied to an
iron surface, inhabited rust and when applied to a textile, would
make it water repellent. He applied his knowledge of chemistry to
improve the manufacturing processes of steel and other metals.
Several instruments which he designed a thousand years ago are still
being used in modern chemical laboratory such as retort, pipette and
test tube. Jabir bin Hayyan defined chemical combination as union of
the elements together in small particles too small for the naked
eyes to see without loss of their characteristics. This idea was not
very far from idea of John Dalton (d 1844) about the atoms, the
English chemist and physicist who discovered it ten centuries later.
Jabir’s works seem to have been deliberately written in highly
esoteric code so that only those who had been initiated into his
alchemical school could understand them. It is therefore difficult
at best for the modern reader to discern which aspects of Jabir’s
work are to be read as symbols and what is to be taken literally.
Because of his writing, which sometime became incomprehensible, the
term gibberish is believed to have evolved in Europe.
To Aristotelian physics, Jabir added the four properties of hotness,
coldness, dryness, and moistness. Each Aristotelian element was
characterized by these qualities: Fire was both hot and dry, earth
cold and dry, water cold and moist, and air hot and moist. Jabir
also made important contributions to medicine, astronomy and other
sciences too numerous to mention here.
The writings of Jabir Ibn Hayyan can be divided into several
categories. The 112 books dedicated to vizier of Khalifa Harun
al-Rashid include the Arabic version of the Emerald Tablet, an
ancient work that is the foundation of the “spiritual” alchemy. In
the middle Ages it was translated into Latin and widely used among
European alchemists. The seventy books, most of which were
translated into Latin during the Middle Ages includes the Kitab al-Zuhra
(“Book of Venus”) and the Kitab al-Ahjar (“Book of Stones”). Ten
books deals on rectification, containing descriptions of
“alchemists” such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The books on
balance describes his famous theory of the balance in nature. One of
his books Chemical Composition remained the authoritative textbook
in the European universities until the eighteenth century. Several
technical terms introduced by Jabir, such as alkali has become part
of scientific vocabulary.
This man was one of the greatest geniuses ever born, but we Muslims
totally ignored him. On the other hand the Europeans translated his
work into their languages and five hundred books and essays can be
found in the national libraries of France, Germany and UK. There is
no doubt that his writing and inventions strongly stimulated the
development of modern chemistry in Europe. I completed my Master in
Chemistry in India but knew nothing about Jabir, the father of
chemistry.
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