Jabir

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

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

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

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

• Alchemy
• Chemistry
• History of chemistry
• Islamic Golden Age
• Islamic science and technology

External links

• Britannica Online Encyclopedia

Jabir Resources
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