Episode 14 – Alchemy and Chemistry in Early Baghdad
Islamic Golden Age (2017)
By Eamon Gearon
Film Review
According to Gearon, the narrow definition of the term “alchemist” is someone who searches for the “philosopher’s stone” capable of converting base metals like lead, iron, copper etc into precious metals (silver, platinum and gold). A wider definition would include all the people conducting chemistry research before it became became a separate science in the 17th century.
Jabir Ibn Hayyan, also known as Geber, and Abu Bakr al-Razi), al-Kindi (see Baghdad House of Wisdom’s Lead Translators: Ibn Izhaq and Al-Kindi), and Ibn al-Haytham (see Cairo’s House of Wisdom and al-Haytham’s Book of Optics) fulfilled this wider definition of alchemist.
Born in the Persian city of Tuse, Ibn Hayyan worked for the Umayyad caliphate in Persia and Damascus before moving to Baghdad to work for Harun al Rashid. He was a philosopher, physician, engineer, pharmacist, astronomer and alchemist. He’s credited with 3,000 treatises, although some were were written by his students.
His book the Emerald Stone, translated into Latin in the 12th century, is a strange text about esoteric secrets of alchemy. It includes recipes for creating scorpions, snakes and human beings and led his second name to be linked with the English word gibberish.
Ibn Hayyan is remembered for transforming alchemy into an experimental science. He hypothesized the four elements Hippocrates identified (earth, air, fire and water) could be combined to form two types of metals spirits that became vapors when heated and solid metals like gold, silver, lead, iron and copper and non-maleable stones (which could be pounded into powder).
Ibn Hayyan first discovered sulfuric, nitric citric, acetic and tartaric acid, arsenic, antimony, sulfur and mercury. He also developed the modern process of distillation and crystallization and invented a type a type of paper that (when burned) could keep iron from rusting and glow-in-the-dark ink.
He also responsible for developing 20 pieces of lab equipment found in modern chemistry labs, including an alambic (a type of still) and a retort.
alambic
retort
Born in 854 AD, the physician Abu Bakr al-Razi was also an important Islamic alchemist. Translated into Latin, his Book of Secrets, translated into Latin, became a standard medieval alchemy text.
His research mainly focused on trying to find the philosopher’s stone and effective medical treatments.
He classified minerals into six groups:
- spirits (mercury, sulfur, arsenic)
- bodies – gold, silver copper, iron, lead
- stones – gypsum, asbestos, talcum, lapi lazuli
- vitriols
- borate
- salt – rock salt, sea alt, common salt, table salt and urine
Al-Kindi (see Baghdad House of Wisdom’s Lead Translators: Ibn Izhaq and Al-Kindi), a third Islamic alchemist, was openly skeptical of man’s ability to convert base metals into gold. He was the first to distill alcohol to make perfume, wine and and an early form of brandy.
Working for the Fatamid caliphate in Cairo, Al-Haytham was a fourth Islamic alchemist who introduced the concept of a control or constant in experimental research. Robert of Chester translated his Book of the Composition of Alchemy into Latin in 1144. Much of Al Haytham’s work remains untranslated.
https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5756987/5757015
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