*Jabir ibn Hayyan*


*Name*: Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan  

*Born*: 721 CE, Tus, Umayyad Caliphate  

*Died*: 815 CE  

*Ethnicity*: Arab or Persian  

*Era*: Islamic Golden Age  

*Main Interests*: Alchemy and chemistry, astronomy, astrology, medicine and pharmacy, philosophy, physics, and philanthropy  

*Notable Works*: _Kitab al-Kimya_ [Book of Chemistry], _Kitab al-Sabeen_ [Book of Seventy], _Book of the Kingdom_, _Book of Jabir ibn Hayyan_ [Father of Chemistry]


His name is Abu Abdullah Jabir bin Abdullah al-Azdi. He is said to have been born in 101 AH / 721 CE. Another account gives 117 AH / 737 CE. Accounts of his birthplace vary among Arab historians. Some say he was born on the Euphrates island in eastern Syria, and others say he came from the city of Harran in Mesopotamia, Syria. 


Perhaps this association is consistent with the affinity of names attributed to Jabir from Andalusian Arabia, as in the example of Jabir ibn Aflah, who was from Seville and lived in the 12th century CE. Some argue that he was born in the city of Tus in Khorasan, Iran.


*Some achievements of Ibn Hayyan*  

Here is a simple and concise list of some of Jabir ibn Hayyan’s achievements in chemistry:


1. Discovered “caustic soda” or al-qatrun (NaOH).  

2. First to describe aqua regia [water of gold].  

3. First to introduce the method of separating gold from silver solutions using acid. This method is still used today.  

4. First person to discover nitric acid.  

5. First person to discover hydrochloric acid.  

6. Defined the field of metallurgy.  

7. He added to the four elements of the Greeks — sulfur and mercury — a third Arabic substance: salt.  

8. First to discover sulfuric acid, which he designated as “oil of vitriol.”  

9. Improved the methods of evaporation, filtration, fusion, crystallization, and distillation.  

10. Prepared mercury oxide and arsenic oxide [arsenious oxide] and was able to prepare many chemicals.  

11. First in the world to develop and invent the method of distillation using glass apparatus that had long been in use, which is still known in the West today as “alembic” from the Arabic “al-anbiq.” Jabir ibn Hayyan was able to improve the quality of this apparatus by adding manganese dioxide to glass.


*His writings*  

The works attributed to Jabir, known in Latin as Geber, are numerous, including the _Book of Seventy_, which was translated into Latin in 1187 by Gerard of Cremona. Many other books are associated with these works, covering additional classifications, as well as commentaries on the books of Aristotle and Plato in chemistry; and letters on philosophy, astrology, mathematics, medicine, and music. 


“Banners” — Jabir aligned many classifications among two hundred and thirty-two (232) treatises, with some sources citing five hundred (500) books, but most are now lost. Some books were translated into Latin under the name Geber as early as the 12th century, and some of them were later translated from Latin into English in 1678.


*Books*  

1. _Secrets of Chemistry_  

2. _Properties of Chemistry_  

3. _Book of Bodies_  

4. _Mercy_  

5. _Syndromes_  

6. _Small Yeast_  

7. _Principles of Chemistry_  

8. _On the Fundamentals_  

9. _Book of the King_  


*Other books*  

1. _Book of Properties_  

2. _Book of Poisons and Their Antidotes_  

3. _Collected Epistles_ and many others, several of which have been translated into Latin.

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