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ZUR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE AHMAD Y. AL-HASSAN and Critical Issues in Latin Arabic Alchemy and Chern istry Ahmad Y. al-Hassan Studies in al-Kimya' Texte und Studien Ahlnad Y. aI-Hassan zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte Studies in al-Kimya' Band 4 Critical Issues in Latin and Arabic Alchemy and Chemistry Ahmad Y. aI-Has san Studies in al-Kimya' A- 40 2009 2009 Georg Olms Verlag eorg 1111 erlag Hildesheim . Zurich · New York Hilde heim . Zurich ' ew ork o o • • ATALO Das Werk ist urheberrechtlich geschlitzt. Jede Verweltung auf3erhalb der engen Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist ohne Zustimmung des Veri ages unzulassig und strafbar. Das gilt insbesondere filr Vervielfaltigungen, Ubersetzungen, Mikroverfilmungen und die Einspeicherung und Verarbeitung in elektronischen Systemen. To Laila, my wife This work and all articles and pictures involved are protected by copyright. Application outside the strict limits of copyright law without consent having been obtained fTom the publishing firm is who supported me with devotion and endurance inadmissible and punishable. These regulations are meant especially for copies, translations and throughout our journey together micropublishings as well as for storing and editing in electronic systems. * Die Deutsche Bibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet liber http://dnb.ddb.de abrufbar. Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.ddb.de. JSO 9706 © Georg Olms Verlag AG, Hildesheim 2009 www.olms.de Alle RechLe vorbehalten Printed in Germany SaLz: Martin Noble Editorial / AESOP, Oxford, UK Umschlagentwurf: Inga Glinther, 311 71 Nordstemmen Gedruckt auf saurefTeiem und alterungsbesUindigem Papier HersLellung: SLrauss GmbH, 69509 Morlenbach ISBN 978-3-487-14273-9 Contents . Preface and Acknowledgements IX In trodu cti on 1 1 Arabic Alchemy: 'Ilm ai-San 'a (Science of the Art) 7 2 The Arabic Original of Liber de compositione alchimiae u-Wyy ~.il iY..ll~~)IJ ~\ ~\)\ 4J~.J The Epistle of Maryanus, the Hermit and Philosopher, to Prince Khalid ibn Yazid 29 3 The Arabic Origin of the Summa and Geber Latin Works: A Refutation of Berthelot, Ruska and Newman Based on Arabic Sources 53 4 Arabic Industrial Chemistry 105 5 Industrial Chemistry in Kitab al-Khawass aI-Kabir (The Great Book of Properties) of Jabir ibn Hayyan 145 6 An Eighth-Century Arabic Book of Recipes on the Colouring of Glass, the Manufacturing of Pearls and Other Industrial Products: Kitab AI-Durra AI-Maknuna (The Book of the Hidden Pearl) of Jabir ibn Hayyan (c. 721- c. 815) 191 7 Potassium Nitrate and Nitric Acid in Arabic and Latin Sources 235 8 Gunpowder Composition for Rockets and Cannon in Arabic Military Treatises in the 13th and 14th Centurie 257 9 Alcohol and the Distillation of Wine in Arabic Source 283 from the 8th Century 299 10 Danlascus Steel in Medieval Arabic Source 311 Index Preface and Acknowledgements I review in the Introduction the contents of this book and the conclusion attained in discussing each critical issue in the history of alchemy and industrial chem. istry. My interest in doing research into these critical issues was triggered by a question about the origin of Damascus steel. I was then a graduate student at University College London. I was visiting an exhibition and while contemp lating one of the exhibits, a stranger asked me, 'Do you know what this is? It is a sword made from Damascus steel. You young people should revive you're herit age.' He knew from where 1 came. 1 shall not tell a long story here, but that incident resulted in a series of concrete actions in Syria in response to the challenge posed by that stranger in London. One of the last actions was to create the Institute for the History of Arabic Science at the University of Aleppo. I have chosen to do my research on the critical issues in the history of science and technology in general. I call a 'critical issue' any case in the history of science and technology where the historical facts are written without concrete evidence, and are based mainly on conjecture and on nationalistic feelings. To correct these historical elTors it was mandatory that we should go back to the original sources. I decided to study the original Arabic manuscripts and to com pare the Arabic texts with the Latin works whether they are in Latin or in their vernacular h·anslations. For this purpose 1 amassed a great number of copies of manuscript from the international manuscript libraries, such as the B.N. de France in Pari , the BL of London, the Wellcome Institute of London, the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, the Leiden University, the Staatsbibliothek of Berlin, Gotha Manuscript Library, the various Turkish libraries such as the Silleymaniye Library in Istanbul, Dar aI-Kutub of Cairo, the Alexandria Library, the ationaI Library of Medicine (NLM) in Bethesda, USA, and the Institute of Oriental Manu cript at St Petersburgh. I express my gratitude to the staff in the e librarie for the invaluable service that I have received. I should single out those who presented me with ome "aluable manuscripts and express my thanks to them. Profe or Fuat ezgin from Frankfurt, provided me with a CD copy of the two rabic manu cript about the dialogue between Prince Khalid ibn Yazid and the Hernlit Maryanu . Profe or A.T. Grigorian £i·om Moscow pre ented me with the Arabic military manu cript of St. Petersburgh. Or Yusuf Zaidan fTom lexandria pre ented m with a 0 copy of Kitab al-khawass al-kabir, and Mr Mahmud min al-' lim from alro sent me a copy of Kitab sunduq a-hikma. x Some of the chapters this book were published in learned journals. I ex Introduction press my thanks to Cambridge University Press the publisher of Arabic Sciences and Philosophy and to Professor Roshdi Rashed the editor of the journal for their consent to publish 'The Arabic Original of Libel' de compositione alchimiae' that was published in Volume 14(02): pp. 213-31, (2004); and the This volume is not a traditional history of alchemy, nor is it another book on article 'An Eighth Century Arabic Treatise on The Colouring of Glass', pub the history of industrial chemistry. Moreover, unlike usual histories, it is lished in Vol. 19(01): pp. 121-56 (2009). devoted to the discussion of some important critical issues in the history of My thanks also are due to Professor Mustafa Mawaldi, Dean of the Institute Arabic and Latin alchemy and industrial chemistry. for the History of Arabic Science and editor of the Journal for the History of History of science and technology is not an exact science; and it is Arabic Science for his permission to publish the atiic1e 'Iron and Steel Tech marred every so often by nationalistic feelings and by the political encounter nology in Medieval Arabic Sources', published in Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 31-43 between cultures. Western historians wrote this science largely and (1978), and also the article on 'The Arabic Origin of the Summa and other overwhelmingly, and due to the absence of research in developing countries, Geber Works', due to be published in Vol. 15 (2009). there was no role in the past for scholars of those countries. In addition, I thank also Professor Alexander Keller the editor if ICON, the journal of whenever a scholar from a developing country voices a valid criticism, ICOHTEC (International Committee for the History of Technology), for his Western scholars consider it as apologetic or defensive. permission to publish the article: "Gunpowder Composition for Rockets and The history of Arabic and Islamic science and technology was on the Cannon in Arabic Military Treatises in the 13th and 14th Centuries" that was whole lucky because there were some trustworthy Western historians who published in ICON, Vol. 9, pp. 1-30, (2003). rendered a great service in writing this history during the 19th and 20th Several scholars gave me valuable help while I was working on this re centuries. search, and I would I ike to thank two in particular. The fOlmder of the Alchemy In addition, in the last few decades scholars of Arabic or Islamic origin Website Adam McLean of Glasgow was of great help in explaining and gained prominence in Western universities and excelled in their research into elucidating some Latin texts. Professor Ana Maria Alfonso-Goldfarb of Brazil the history of Arabic-Islamic science. Recently also the study of the history and her team read and gave valuable advice on the essay about the Arabic Origin of Arabic and Islamic science in Arabic and Islamic univer ities had started of the Summa. and special institutes were established. Moreover, with the constant Special thanks are due to Georg Olms Verlag and to Dr Peter Guyot, discovery of new Arabic manuscripts and with editing and publi hing them, Lektorat, in particular. Dr Guyot gave a positive response when I first wrote to the history of Arabic and Islamic science i being corrected and rewritten him, and he conducted the initial contacts with promptness and with courtesy. I again; albeit at a slow pace. had always held Georg Olms in high esteem for the high quality of their Research into the Arabic-Islan1ic exact sciences, in particular, i academic publications, and I therefore chose to put this book in their hands. I currently quite active, and the results of research cannot u ually be cannot thank in this limited space all those who were of help to me, but I should contested. Numerous scholars, some of whom are imminent, are dev06ng thank Mr Martin Noble of Oxford, UK (www.copyedit.co.uk) who copy-edited their research activities to this branch of science more than to an other the manuscript and who was patient in meeting my demands. domain. Mr Ayman Gabarin, who established the website www.history-science The story is different when we look at the hi tory of rabic a1chem technology.com and who maintains it and keeps it running, deserves my thanks and chemistry. There is at pre ent a carcity in scholar with a ma tery of and gratitude. I publish on this site the results of my research; and it is now one Arabic, who are qualified to do re earch in this field. MoreO\ er, for the la t of the main sources online for academic research into Arabic-Islamic science seven decades no serious work 011 Arabic a1chem and hemi try has and technology and the critical issues in Latin and Arabic alchemy and appeared, with the exception of a few edited lext . chemistry. On the other hand, in the la t decade of the 19th centur and the fir t r Ahmad Y. al-Hassan hal of the 20th, some historian, took a t:riou intere t in rabic alchemy Saint Laurent du Var and chemi try. ome of the c like Henr E. tapleton and Eric J. Holmyard June 2009 were largely tru tworthy and reliable; but other, like l\lar din Benldot and 2 Stt/dies in AI-Kimyd' Introduction 3 Julius Ruska, were generally biased. Berthelot and Ruska had own th~ir Thus, one main conjecture of Ruska was demolished and his honest motives, and they based their preconceived judgements on mere conjecture. scholarship became questionable. Unfortunately, those speculations were accepted uncritically in the West. The second critical issue is that of the Geber problem. Western alchemy First, these two historians were of immense authority, and they presented started with the translation of Arabic works in the 12th and 13th centuries. In their conjectures in the garb of scholarship. Their ideas were accepted since the 13th century, several treatises appeared in the West carrying the Latin they played on the Eurocentric sentiments of the educated. estern ~ name of Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber). The most important among them was the individual. In addition, and more importantly, there was no posslbIhty for Summa peliectionis. In 1893 Berthelot came out with the conjecture that the any academic to check the trustworthiness of those conjectures. It was not Geber works were not written by Jabir but by Latin authors. feasible for any scholar who usually lacked knowledge of Arabic, and even In 1935, Ruska came out with another conjecture when he claimed that Latin , to waste his time and efforts in an endeavour that lacked any kind of a treatise called De investigatione perfectionis of Geber was not written by incentive or support. Jabir, and a Latin who was also the author of the Summa wrote that part of it. The motive behind those conjectures was to divorce Latin alchemy from In 1986, William R. Newman adopted Ruska's conjecture and built his its Arabic roots, and since they remained unchallenged, the present history of whole work on it. Newman made up a complicated hypothetical assumption alchemy and chemistry in the West in the early period is built mostly on that an unknown Paul of Taranto was the author of the Summa; and further, feeble and defective foundations. he attributed to this unheard of character the conception of the corpuscular Our purpose in this work is to discuss some critical issues in this theory that was much publicised by Newman, and the mercury the0T?" alo~e history. We shall not disprove conjectures by counter conjectures; otherwise, However, these two so-called theories are in fact old concepts ArabIC 111 our work will be worthless and doomed. On the contrary, our presentation in alchemy as is conclusively shown in Chapter 3. this whole volume is based on our research into original sources, mainly Arabic manuscripts. These conjectures of Berthelot, Ruska and Newman are marring. the early history of Latin alchemy. We were able to refute these We present here the results of three decades of research into Arabic ~ll spe~ulatlOns by evidence based on extensive research into ArabIC manuscnpts. We manuscripts. And although some of the results of this research were proved that the entire Summa is based on Arabic alchemy, and that the presented at international conferences and were published in learned journals conjectures of Berthelot, Ruska and Newman about pseudo Latin authors for and on the internet, it has now become necessary to put them together and Geber works are unfounded. make them accessible to the academic community in a convenient form. The remaining six critical issues relate to Arabic. This book has ten chapters; one of these is a review of Arabic alchemy indu~trial chemi~~. Two of them are on books of recipes, one on potasslwn mtrate and mtrIc and another a review of Arabic industrial chemistry; the remaining chapters deal with eight important critical issues. acid, one on explosive gunpowder and cannon, one on alcohol and one on Damascus steel. The first critical issue is that of the dialogue between Prince Khalid ibn Yazid and Maryanus the hermit. This dialogue was the first Arabic There appeared in the West before the introduction of Arabic. alche~y in the 12th century, four books of practical recipe related to mdu tnal alchemical treatise to be translated into Latin by Robert of Chester in 1144 under the title of Libel' de compositione alchimiae. Lt heralded the start of chemistry. The earliest two go back to the 9th cel~tury and h 0 are from. the Arabic alchemy in the West. Yet Julius Ruska had the unabashed spirit to eleventh. One is the Mappae Clavicula and one I th book of TheophI~u . Western historians considered them to be the onl ource on the chemIcal cast doubts on Khalid, Maryanus, and Robert of Chester. He conjectured that technology of medieval Europe and without parallel in rabic literature. . this whole dialogue is an imaginative story and that a Latin monk had O! written the Latin treatise in the 13th to 14th century. Ruska wrote for this These judgments are cau ed by lack of knowledge the rabl.c purpose his book Arabische Alchemisten, of which volume one is devoted to treatises on alchemy and chemi tr and by the erroneou notIOn that Jablr his conjecture about Khalid and Maryanus. This work is considered by many ibn Hayyan was an allegoric alchemi t. .. to be one of Rusk a's masterpieces. contrary to the e a umption, there are numerou .Iabman 1-1 owever, . . K' b I We have discovered the Arabic original of the dialogue and have found treatises on practical alchemy and chemi tr . One book f recIpe' I, 1:~.0 that the Arabic text corresponds to an amazing degree with the Latin treatise. durra al-l71aknul1o on the colouring of gla and Ih making t artltIcIaI 4 Studies in A I-Kimyti' Introduction 5 pearls, and it contains a large number of recipes. There is also Kitab al the second half of the 14th century, and the first cannon were used in the khawass aL-kabir which contains dozens of recipes on industrial chemistry. battle of Crecy in 1346. In comparing the contents of Kitab al-durra and Kitab al-khawass with The discovery of alcohol is another disputed area. It is assumed in the four Latin books of recipes, we found that none of them matches Jabir's Western literature that the earliest reference to the distillation of wine recipes in their novelty and detail. These two works of Jabir, which are occurred in a text from Salerno around 1100 CE, although the technology of discussed in this volume, confinn that Arabic literature has more mature distillation was transferred to Salerno with the translation of Arabic works. books of recipes than the four early Latin treatises and they dissipate the Islamic chemists knew the distillation of wine and the properties of false notion that was painted by Berthelot and reinforced by his followers, alcohol from the 8th century. The prohibition of wine in Islam did not about Jabir as a vague allegoric alchemist. mean that wine was not produced and consumed. Another critical issue is that of the first knowledge of saltpetre and The flammable property of alcohol from wine bottles was known from nitric acid. Berthelot, followed by others, assumed that Arabic works did not Jabir's time, and Al-Kindi, al-Zahrawi and al-Farabi mentioned the know these two chemicals, and that they were first known in Europe at the disti llation of wine. end of the 13th century. Alcohol was called khamr musa 'ad (distilled wine), and the current word for distilled wine is 'araq which means sweat, an indication of a This wrong assumption is also caused by ignorance of Arabic works. distilled liquid. In early Arabic poetry of the early Abbasid Caliphate, Potassium nitrate was known in Arabic alchemy since its earliest stages, and distilled wine or strong alcoholic drinks were served. They were not denoted was identified under different names. Indeed, saltpetre was even recognised by a special name and were just another variety of wines. since the ancient civilisations of Mesopotamia. Wine was distilled in Sharish (Jerez) in al-Andalus. It is believed that Recipes for nitric acid and aqua regia before the 13th century are also distilled spirits were produced there and that sherry (from Sharish) was given in different works of Jabir, al-Razi and in Ta'widh al-Hakim. known since the Arab days. Another critical historical issue is that of the first formulation of The final critical issue in this work is that of Damascus steel, which was explosive gunpowder. It is known that the first recipes of gunpowder were renowned in the West for its superior qualities, and European steel-makers formulated in China. However, the powder was weak and non-explosive, sought to find its secret. Britain in the 19th century imported 'wootz' steel suitable only for fireworks. from India. Therefore, historians thought that Damascus wa only a trading Claims were made that Berthold Schwartz, a legendary German monk, centre and steel was not produced there. or Friar Roger Bacon, the famous medieval English scientist, were the Research into Arabic literature has revealed that Dama cu teel was inventors of explosive gunpowder. A century ago Colonel H.W.L. Hirne made from local iron ores near Damascus. There were al other Islamic 0 published his own assumptions about this matter, and later in 1956, David areas producing iron and steel from local ores. Ayalon published his assumptions about Firearms in the Mamluk Kingdom. Jabir, al-Kindi and al-Biruni wrote about steel in detail. According to These are only two of the many authors of various nationalities and of them Damascus steel is composed of narmahan which is oft iron, and of different motives who delved into this subject. Our research here proves that daus which is cast iron, and this is the reason behind the firind (pattern) in the legends and conjectures about this question are without foundation. swords. This composition as reported by Arab cienti t i in confonnity In Arab lands, recipes for explosive gunpowder suitable for cannon are with modern interpretation. Al-Jildaki, in commenting on Jabir' Book of given in al-Rammah's treatise of the 13th century, and in other Iron , describes how cast iron and steel were produced on an indu trial cale. contemporary military and alchemical treatises. We find in these military The question of Dama cu steel a the tarting point in m intere t in T treatises also the description of the first cannon in history. This was a the critical issues, and it wa an impetu for me to e tabli h the In titute for portable one, which was used against the Mongols in the battle of ' Ayn Jalut the History of Arabic Science at the Uni\'er ity of leppo in 1976. and th in 1260 for frightening the horses of Mongol cavalry. Journal for the HisfOf)' ofA rabic Science at the ame time. . The ideal gunpowder composition contains 75 per cent saltpetre, In conclusion, this work i a manife t proof that hi tOf) of cience and beSIdes sulphur and charcoal. Arabic recipes gave the same ideal technology in the Middle ge cannot be \\ rit1en in i olation from a composition. In Europe and China, the explosive mixture started to appear in thorough search into Arabic ource . To ba e thi hi tor on Latin 'ource 6 Introduction only will result in gross errors as we can see from reviewing the critical issues in this work. 1 Arabic Alchemy: cIlm aI-San ca (Science of the Art) The best reception for this work is to be reviewed by qualified and fair scholars who can help in pointing out where I have erred; and if I have sometimes used candid language in discussing some of the critical issues, I hope that I may be excused. INTRODUCTION The Art of alchemy (Jlm ai-San a), as we shall discuss here, is a theoretical and a practical science which is aimed at the transmutation of metallic bodies such as iron, copper and lead into silver and gold by using chemical preparations and with the help of the elixir. On the other hand, practical industrial chemistry is concerned with the production of industrial products by using chemical processes and this will be the subject of Chapter 4. Our discussion here does not deal with the occult, mystical or spiritual aspects of alchemy. THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD ALCHEMY The Arabic word al-kimya' is composed of the article al (the) and kimya ' (chemistry). This word reached the West with the translation movement, which took place in the 12th century. The Arabic fonn al-kimya ' is the origin of the word alchemy, which is used to denote the science of alchemy, which preceded modern chemistry. Kimya ' without the article al is the origin of the word chemistry. In Arabic the word al-kimya ' means both alchemy and chemistry, Some contemporary Arab writers try to differentiate between alchemy and chemistry by using the word al-khimya ' "I Jay' IIto denote alchemy. The word khemeia occurred for the first time in a decree issued by the Roman Emperor Diocletian (c. 245- c. 312), to burn all Egyptian books of khemeia that deal with alchemy and the manufacture of gold and sil er. This word is most probably derived from the name of Egypt. Plutarch (c. 46- 127) mentions in a treatise written about 100 CE that Egypt is called Khemia because of the colour of its black soil. Some think that the word i of Greek origin, and others think that it is of Chinese. 1 Although this branch of science \ as called al-kimya' in Arabic, et it was also called also the Science of the Art 'ilm al- an'a ;j. '" oil ~ and the practitioner of this Art was called sahib ai-san 'a, and alchemi t were called hukama ' or philosophers. I. For the origin of the word alchem) ee Leicester, 1956, p. 45.

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