Jabir

From WikiMD's Wellness Encyclopedia

Jabir (also known as Jabir ibn Hayyan) was a prominent polymath: a chemist and alchemist, astronomer and astrologer, engineer, geographer, philosopher, physicist, and pharmacist and physician. He is often considered to be the "father of chemistry", and he introduced a scientific and experimental approach to alchemy.

Life[edit | edit source]

Jabir was born in Tus, Khorasan, in Persia, (now Iran), then ruled by the Umayyad Caliphate. Jabir in the classical sources has been entitled differently as al-Azdi al-Barigi or al-Kufi or al-Tusi or al-Sufi. There is a difference of opinion as to whether he was a Persian from Khorasan who later went to Kufa or whether he was, as some have suggested, of Syrian origin and later lived in Persia and Iraq.

Works[edit | edit source]

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 ammonium chloride) from organic substances (such as plants, blood, and hair) by chemical means.

Legacy[edit | edit source]

Jabir's alchemical investigations were theoretically grounded in an elaborate numerology related to Pythagorean and Neoplatonic systems. The nature and properties of elements was defined through numeric values assigned the Arabic consonants present in their name, ultimately culminating in the number 17.

See also[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]


External links[edit | edit source]

Jabir Resources
Wikipedia
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