View source for Jabir ibn Hayyan

{{Short description|Islamic alchemist and polymath (died c. 806–816)}}
{{For|other people known as Jabir|Jabir}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{pp-pc}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| death_date     = {{circa}} 806−816
| era            = [[Islamic Golden Age]]
| image          = Man Florence, Ashburnham 1166 fol 12r.jpg
| caption        = 15th-century depiction of Jabir
| name           = Jābir ibn Ḥayyān
| native_name    = {{lang|ar|جابِر بِن حَيّان}}
| language       = [[Arabic]]<!-- This is the language in which the works attributed to Jabir were written. -->
| region         = {{nowrap|[[Kufa]] (Iraq) / [[Tus, Iran|Tus]] (Iran) / unknown}}
| main_interests = [[Alchemy and chemistry in medieval Islam|Alchemy and chemistry]], [[Magic (supernatural)|magic]], [[Shi'ite]] religious philosophy
| notable_ideas  = Use of [[Organic Chemistry|organic]] substances in chemistry, [[#The sulfur-mercury theory of metals|sulfur-mercury theory of metals]], science of the balance, [[takwin|science of artificial generation]]
}}
'''Abū Mūsā Jābir ibn Ḥayyān''' ([[Arabic]]: {{lang|ar|أَبو موسى جابِر بِن حَيّان}}, variously called '''al-Ṣūfī''', '''al-Azdī''', '''al-Kūfī''', or '''al-Ṭūsī'''), died {{circa}} 806−816, is <!-- please do not fill in 'Persian', 'Arab', etc., here: Jabir's ethnic background is uncertain, this is covered in the biography section of the article -->the purported author of a large number of works in Arabic, often called the Jabirian corpus. The {{circa|215}} treatises that survive today mainly deal with [[alchemy]] and [[chemistry]], [[Magic (supernatural)|magic]], and [[Shi'ite]] religious philosophy. However, the original scope of the corpus was vast, covering a wide range of topics ranging from [[History of cosmology|cosmology]], [[Astronomy in medieval Islam|astronomy]] and [[Astrology in medieval Islam|astrology]], over [[Medicine in the medieval Islamic world|medicine]], [[History of pharmacy|pharmacology]], [[History of zoology through 1859|zoology]] and [[History of botany|botany]], to [[History of metaphysics|metaphysics]], [[Logic in Islamic philosophy|logic]], and [[Arabic grammar|grammar]].

The works attributed to Jabir, which are tentatively dated to {{circa|850|950}},<ref name=datingcorpus/> 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 compound|organic substances]] (such as plants, blood, and hair) by chemical means.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, pp. 41–42}} (referring to {{harvnb|Stapleton|1905}}; {{harvnb|Ruska|1923a}}; {{harvnb|Ruska|1928}}). See also {{harvnb|Stapleton|Azo|Hidayat Husain|1927|pp=338–340}}.</ref> His works also contain one of the earliest known versions of the sulfur-mercury theory of metals, a [[History of mineralogy|mineralogical]] theory that would remain dominant until the 18th century.<ref>{{harvnb|Norris|2006}}.</ref>

A significant part of Jabir's writings deal with a philosophical theory known as "the science of the balance" (Arabic: ''ʿilm al-mīzān''), which was aimed at reducing all phenomena (including material substances and their elements) to a system of measures and quantitative proportions. The Jabirian works also contain some of the earliest preserved Shi'ite [[Imamate in Shia doctrine|imamological]] doctrines, which Jabir presented as deriving from his purported master, the Shi'ite Imam [[Ja'far al-Sadiq|Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq]] (died 765).

As early as the 10th century, the identity and exact corpus of works of Jabir was in dispute in Islamic scholarly circles. The authorship of all these works by a single figure, and even the existence of a historical Jabir, are also doubted by modern scholars. Instead, Jabir ibn Hayyan is generally thought to have been a [[pseudonym]] used by an anonymous school of Shi'ite alchemists writing in the late 9th and early 10th centuries.

Some Arabic Jabirian works (e.g., ''The Great Book of Mercy'', and ''The Book of Seventy'') were translated into Latin under the [[Latinisation of names|Latinized]] name '''Geber''', and in 13th-century Europe an anonymous writer, usually referred to as [[pseudo-Geber]], started to produce alchemical and metallurgical writings under this name.<ref>{{harvnb|Newman|1985}}; {{harvnb|Newman|1991|pp=57–103}}. It has been argued by Ahmad Y. Al-Hassan that the pseudo-Geber works were actually translated into Latin from the Arabic (see Al-Hassan, Ahmad Y. "The Arabic Origin of the ''Summa'' and Geber Latin Works: A Refutation of Berthelot, Ruska, and Newman Based on Arabic Sources", in: {{harvnb|al-Hassan|2009|pp=53–104}}; also available [http://www.history-science-technology.com/geber/geber%2004.html online]).</ref>

== Biography ==
[[File:Liebig Company Trading Card Ad 01.12.002 front.tif|thumb|upright=1.2 |right|Artistic impression of Jabir and his master [[Ja'far al-Sadiq|Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq]].]]

=== Historicity ===
It is not clear whether Jabir ibn Hayyan ever existed as a historical person. He is purported to have lived in the 8th century, and to have been a disciple of the Shi'ite Imam [[Ja'far al-Sadiq|Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq]] (died 765).<ref>References to Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq occur throughout the Jabirian corpus (see {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. xxxvi–xxxvii}}). See also below.</ref> However, he is not mentioned in any historical source before c. 900, and the first known author to write about Jabir from a biographical point of view was the [[Baghdad]]i bibliographer [[Ibn al-Nadim|Ibn al-Nadīm]] (c. 932–995).<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. xvii, 189}}; {{harvnb|Delva|2017|loc=p. 38, note 15}}.</ref> In his [[Al-Fihrist|''Fihrist'']] ("The Book Catalogue", written in 987), Ibn al-Nadīm compiled a list of Jabir's works, adding a short notice on the various claims that were then circulating about Jabir.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. xvii, xix–xxi, xliii–xlv}}; {{harvnb|Fück|1951|p=124}}. An annotated English translation of this notice and the list of Jabir's works may be found in {{harvnb|Fück|1951|pp=95–104}}.</ref> Already in Ibn al-Nadīm's time, there were some people who explicitly asserted that Jabir had never existed, although Ibn al-Nadīm himself disagreed with this claim.<ref>{{harvnb|Fück|1951|pp=124–125}}.</ref> Jabir was often ignored by later medieval Islamic biographers and historians, but even early Shi'ite [[Biographical evaluation|biographers]] such as [[Ahmad al-Barqi|Aḥmad al-Barqī]] (died c. 893), [[Mohammad ibn Umar Kashshi|Abū ʿAmr al-Kashshī]] (first half of the 10th century), [[Ahmad ibn Ali al-Najashi|Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Najāshī]] (983–1058), and [[Shaykh Tusi|Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭūsī]] (995–1067), who wrote long volumes on the companions of the Shi'ite Imams (including the many companions of Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq), did not mention Jabir at all.<ref>{{harvnb|Delva|2017|p=39}}. However, as also noted by Delva 2017, pp. 39–40, note 19, Jabir does occur in two possibly early Shi'ite [[hadith]] collections, which are in need of further investigation.</ref>

=== Dating of the Jabirian corpus ===
Apart from outright denying his existence, there were also some who, already in Ibn al-Nadīm's time, questioned whether the writings attributed to Jabir were really written by him.<ref>{{harvnb|Fück|1951|p=124}}.</ref> The authenticity of these writings was expressly denied by the Baghdadi philosopher [[Abu Sulayman Sijistani|Abū Sulaymān al-Sijistānī]] (c. 912–985) and his pupil [[Abū Hayyān al-Tawhīdī|Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī]] (c. 932–1023), though this may have been related to the hostility of both these thinkers to [[alchemy]] in general.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. lxiii–lxv}}; {{harvnb|Delva|2017|loc=p. 39, note 17}}.</ref> Modern scholarly analysis has tended to confirm the inauthenticity of the writings attributed to Jabir. Much of the philosophical terminology used in the Jabirian treatises was only coined around the middle of the 9th century,<ref>See already {{harvnb|Kraus|1930}} and {{harvnb|Kraus|1931}}. This was denied by {{harvnb|Sezgin|1971}}.</ref> and some of the [[Ancient Greek philosophy|Greek philosophical texts]] cited in the Jabirian writings are known to have been [[Graeco-Arabic translation movement|translated into Arabic]] towards the end of the 9th century.<ref>{{harvnb|Nomanul Haq|1994|pp=230–242}} has argued that one of these translations of Greek philosophical texts cited by Jabir actually dates to the 8th century, but this was contradicted by {{harvnb|Gannagé|1998|pp=427–449}} (cf. {{harvnb|Delva|2017|loc=p. 38, note 14}}).</ref> Moreover, an important part of the corpus deals with early Shi'ite religious philosophy that is elsewhere only attested in late 9th-century and early 10th-century sources.<ref>Kraus regarded Jabirian Shi'ism as an early form of [[Isma'ilism]] (see {{harvnb|Kraus|1930}}, {{harvnb|Kraus|1942}}; see also {{harvnb|Corbin|1950}}), but it has since been shown that it significantly differs from Isma'ilism (see {{harvnb|Lory|1989|pp=47–125}}; {{harvnb|Lory|2000}}), and may have been an independent sectarian Shi'ite current related to the late 9th-century [[Ghulat|ghulāt]] (see {{harvnb|Capezzone|2020}}).</ref> As a result, the dating of the Jabirian corpus to c. 850–950 has been widely accepted in modern scholarship.<ref name=datingcorpus>This is the dating put forward by {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, p. lxv}}. For its acceptance by other scholars, see the references in {{harvnb|Delva|2017|loc=p. 38, note 14}}. Notable critics of Kraus' dating are {{harvnb|Sezgin|1971}} and {{harvnb|Nomanul Haq|1994|pp=3–47}} (cf. {{harvnb|Forster|2018}}).</ref> However, it has also been noted that many Jabirian treatises show clear signs of having been redacted multiple times, and the writings as we now have them may well have been based on an earlier 8th-century core.<ref>{{harvnb|Lory|1983|pp=62–79}}. For other observations of the existence of different editorial layers in Jabirian treatises, see {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. xxxxiii-xxxvi}}; {{harvnb|Gannagé|1998|pp=409–410}}.</ref> Despite the obscurity involved, it is not impossible that some of these writings, in their earliest form, were written by a real Jabir ibn Hayyan.<ref>{{harvnb|Delva|2017|loc=p. 53, note 87}}.</ref> In any case, it is clear that Jabir's name was used as a [[pseudonym]] by one or more anonymous Shi'ite alchemists writing in the late 9th and early 10th centuries, who also redacted the corpus as we now know it.<ref>{{harvnb|Capezzone|2020}}; cf. {{harvnb|Lory|2008b}}.</ref>

=== Biographical clues and legend ===
Jabir was generally known by the [[Kunya (Arabic)|''kunya'']] Abū Mūsā ("Father of Mūsā"), or sometimes Abū ʿAbd Allāh ("Father of ʿAbd Allāh"), and by the [[Nisba (onomastics)|''nisba''s]] (attributive names) al-[[Sufism|Ṣūfī]], al-Azdī, al-Kūfī, or al-Ṭūsī.<ref>{{harvnb|Nomanul Haq|1994|loc=p. 33, note 1}}. The ''kunya'' Abū ʿAbd Allāh only occurs in Ibn al-Nadīm (see {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, p. xliii, note 5}}). [[Ibn Khallikan|Ibn Khallikān]] (1211–1282) gives Jabir's ''nisba'' as al-[[Tarsus, Mersin|Ṭarsūsī]], or in some manuscripts as al-[[Tartus|Tarṭūsī]], but these are most likely scribal errors for al-Ṭūsī (see Kraus 1942–1943, vol. I, p. xli, note 3).</ref> His grandfather's name is mentioned by Ibn al-Nadim as ʿAbd Allāh.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, p. xli, note 9}}. Kraus adds that ʿAbd Allāh as the name of Jabir's grandfather is also mentioned in Jabir's ''Kitāb al-Najīb'' (Kr. no. 977).</ref> If the attribution of the name al-Azdī to Jabir is authentic,<ref>{{harvnb|Ruska|1923b|p=57}} still thought the attribution to Jabir of the name al-Azdī to be false. Later sources assume its authenticity.</ref> this would point to his affiliation with the [[South Arabia|Southern-Arabian]] (Yemenite) tribe of the [[Azd]]. However, it is not clear whether Jabir was an [[Arab]] belonging to the Azd tribe, or a non-Arab Muslim client (''[[mawla|mawlā]]'') of the Azd.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, p. xli, note 1}}; {{harvnb|Delva|2017|p=36}}. In the 8th century, it was still necessary for non-Arabs to secure an affiliation with an Arab tribe in order to be allowed to convert to Islam.</ref> If he was a non-Arab Muslim client of the Azd, he is most likely to have been [[Persians|Persian]], given his ties with eastern Iran (his ''nisba'' al-Ṭūsī also points to [[Tus, Iran|Tus]], a city in Khurasan).<ref>{{harvnb|Delva|2017|p=36}}. According to a copyist of one of the manuscripts containing Jabir's works, he also died in Tus (see Delva 2017, p. 36, note 6). Jabir was held to be an Arab by {{harvnb|Holmyard|1927|pp=29–32}}, a view still taken by {{harvnb|Forster|2018}}. He was regarded as Persian by {{harvnb|Ruska|1923b|p=57}} (cf. {{harvnb|Holmyard|1927|p=29}}), who was echoed by such scholars as {{harvnb|Sarton|1927–1948|loc=vol. II.2, p. 1044}} and {{harvnb|Newman|1996|p=178}}.</ref> According to [[Ibn al-Nadim|Ibn al-Nadīm]], Jabir hailed from [[Khurasan]] (eastern [[Iran]]), but spent most of his life in [[Kufa]] (Iraq),<ref>{{harvnb|Delva|2017|pp=36–37}}.</ref> both regions where the Azd tribe was well-settled.<ref>{{harvnb|Holmyard|1927|p=29}}; {{harvnb|Delva|2017|p=49}}.</ref> Various late reports put his date of death between 806 (190 [[Islamic calendar|AH]]) and 816 (200 AH).<ref>{{harvnb|Delva|2017|loc=pp. 36−37, note 6}}.</ref>

Given the lack of independent biographical sources, most of the biographical information about Jabir can be traced back to the Jabirian writings themselves.<ref>This even holds for most of what was written by Ibn al-Nadīm; see {{harvnb|Delva|2017|pp=38–39}}.</ref> There are references throughout the Jabirian corpus to the Shi'ite Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (died 765), whom Jabir generally calls "my master" (Arabic: ''sayyidī''), and whom he represents as the original source of all his knowledge.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. xxxvi-xxxvii}}. That the references are indeed to Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq is made clear by the Shi'ite context in which they occur, and by the fact that Jaʿfar's [[patronymic]] "ibn Muḥammad" is sometimes included (see {{harvnb|Holmyard|1927|pp=34–35}}; {{harvnb|Ruska|1927|p=42}}). Ibn al-Nadīm's isolated statement that some claimed "my master" to refer to Jaʿfar ibn Yaḥyā al-Barmakī was called "arbitrary" by Kraus 1942–1943, vol. I, p. xliv, note 2.</ref> In one work, Jabir is also represented as an associate of the [[Bactria]]n vizier family of the [[Barmakids]], whereas Ibn al-Nadīm reports that some claimed Jabir to have been especially devoted to [[Ja'far ibn Yahya|Jaʿfar ibn Yaḥyā al-Barmakī]] (767–803), the [[Abbasid]] vizier of ''[[One Thousand and One Nights]]'' fame.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1931|pp=28–29}}; cf. {{harvnb|Delva|2017|loc=p. 36, note 3}}. Kraus expressly compared the seemingly legendary tales about Jabir and the Barmakids with those of the ''One Thousand and One Nights''.</ref> Jabir's links with the Abbasids were stressed even more by later tradition, which turned him into a favorite of the Abbasid caliph [[Harun al-Rashid|Hārūn al-Rashīd]] (c. 763–809, also appearing in ''One Thousand and One Nights''), for whom Jabir would have composed a treatise on alchemy, and who is supposed to have commanded the translation of Greek works into Arabic on Jabir's instigation.<ref>This is first related by the 14th century alchemist [[Al-Jaldaki|al-Jildakī]] (see {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. xli–xliii}}; cf. {{harvnb|Delva|2017|loc=p. 36, note 4}}).</ref>

Given Jabir's purported ties with both the Shi'ite Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and the Barmakid family (who served the Abbasids as [[vizier]]s), or with the Abbasid caliphs themselves, it has sometimes been thought plausible that Ḥayyān al-ʿAṭṭār ("Hayyan the Druggist"), a proto-Shi'ite activist who was fighting for the [[Abbasid Revolution|Abbasid cause]] in the early 8th century, may have been Jabir's father (Jabir's name "Ibn Hayyan" literally means "The Son of Hayyan").<ref>{{harvnb|Holmyard|1927|pp=29–32, 35}}.</ref> Although there is no direct evidence supporting this hypothesis, it fits very well in the historical context, and it allows one to think of Jabir, however obscure, as a historical figure.<ref>{{harvnb|Delva|2017|pp=41–42, 52}}.</ref> Because Ḥayyān al-ʿAṭṭār was supposedly executed not long after 721, the hypothesis even made it possible to estimate Jabir's date of birth at {{circa|721}}.<ref>{{harvnb|Delva|2017|p=42}}; cf. {{harvnb|Holmyard|1927|p=32}}.</ref> However, it has recently been argued that Ḥayyān al-ʿAṭṭār probably lived at least until {{circa|744}},<ref>{{harvnb|Delva|2017|pp=46–47}}.</ref> and that as a client (''mawlā'') of the [[Nukha (tribe)|Nakhaʿ]] tribe he is highly unlikely to have been the father of Jabir (who is supposed to have been a client/member of the Azd).<ref>{{harvnb|Delva|2017|p=49, 52}}.</ref>

== The Jabirian corpus ==
There are about 600 Arabic works attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan that are known by name,<ref>These are listed in {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 203–210}}.</ref> approximately 215 of which are still extant today.<ref>{{harvnb|Lory|1983|p=51}}.</ref> Though some of these are full-length works (e.g., ''The Great Book on Specific Properties''),<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 148–152, 205}} (counted as one of the c. 600 works there).</ref> most of them are relatively short treatises and belong to larger collections (''The One Hundred and Twelve Books'', ''The Five Hundred Books'', etc.) in which they function rather more like chapters.<ref>{{harvnb|Lory|1983|pp=51–52}}; {{harvnb|Delva|2017|loc=p. 37, note n. 9}}.</ref> When the individual chapters of some full-length works are counted as separate treatises too,<ref>See, e.g., ''The Great Book on Specific Properties'', whose 71 chapters are counted by {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 148–152}} as nos. 1900–1970. Note, however, that this procedure is not always followed: e.g., even though ''The Book of the Rectifications of Plato'' consists of 90 chapters, it is still counted as only one treatise (Kr. no. 205, see {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 64–67}}).</ref> the total length of the corpus may be estimated at 3000 treatises/chapters.<ref>This is the number arrived at by {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I}}. Kraus' method of counting has been criticized by {{harvnb|Nomanul Haq|1994|pp=11–12}}, who warns that "we should view with a great deal of suspicion any arguments for a plurality of authors which is based on Kraus' inflated estimate of the volume of the Jabirian corpus".</ref>

The overwhelming majority of Jabirian treatises that are still extant today deal with [[alchemy]] or [[chemistry]] (though these may also contain religious speculations, and discuss a wide range of other topics ranging from [[History of cosmology|cosmology]] to [[Arabic grammar|grammar]]).<ref>See the section 'Alchemical writings' below. Religious speculations occur throughout the corpus (see, e.g., {{harvnb|Lory|2016a}}), but are especially prominent in ''The Five Hundred Books'' (see below). ''The Books of the Balances'' deal with alchemy from a philosophical and theoretical point of view, and contain treatises devoted to a wide range of topics (see below).</ref> Nevertheless, there are also a few extant treatises which deal with [[Magic (supernatural)|magic]], i.e., "the science of [[talisman]]s" (''ʿilm al-ṭilasmāt'', a form of [[theurgy]]) and "the science of specific properties" (''ʿilm al-khawāṣṣ'', the science dealing with the hidden powers of mineral, vegetable and animal substances, and with their practical applications in medical and various other pursuits).<ref>See the section 'Writings on magic (talismans, specific properties)' below. Kraus refers to ''ʿilm al-ṭilasmāt'' as "théurgie" ([[theurgy]]) throughout; see, e.g., {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 75, 143, ''et pass.''}} On "the science of specific properties" (''ʿilm al-khawāṣṣ''), see {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, pp. 61–95}}.</ref> Other writings dealing with a great variety of subjects were also attributed to Jabir (this includes such subjects as [[History of engineering|engineering]], [[Medicine in the medieval Islamic world|medicine]], [[History of pharmacy|pharmacology]], [[History of zoology through 1859|zoology]], [[History of botany|botany]], [[Logic in Islamic philosophy|logic]], [[History of metaphysics|metaphysics]], [[Mathematics in medieval Islam|mathematics]], [[Astronomy in medieval Islam|astronomy]] and [[Astrology in medieval Islam|astrology]]), but almost all of these are lost today.<ref>Only one full work (''The Book on Poisons and on the Repelling of their Harmful Effects'', ''Kitāb al-Sumūm wa-dafʿ maḍārrihā'', Kr. no. 2145, medical/pharmacological) and a long extract of another one (''The Book of Comprehensiveness'', ''Kitāb al-Ishtimāl'', Kr. no. 2715, philosophical) are still extant today; see the section 'Other writings' below, with {{harvnb|Sezgin|1971|pp=264–265}}. {{harvnb|Sezgin|1971|pp=268–269}} also lists 30 extant works which were not known to Kraus, and whose subject matter and place in the corpus has not yet been determined.</ref>

=== Alchemical writings <!-- [[Book of Mercy (alchemical treatise)]], [[One Hundred and Twelve Books]], [[Seventy Books]], [[Books of the Balances]], and [[Five Hundred Books]] all redirect here; please edit the redirect (via 'what links here') when changing the name of the section heading --> ===
{{Hermeticism|expand=Historical figures}}
Note that [[Paul Kraus (Arabist)|Paul Kraus]], who first [[Cataloging|catalogued]] the Jabirian writings and whose numbering is followed here, conceived of his division of Jabir's alchemical writings (Kr. nos. 5–1149) as roughly chronological in order.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I}}. Kraus based this order on an extensive analysis of the many internal references to other treatises in the corpus. A slightly different chronological order is postulated by {{harvnb|Sezgin|1971|pp=231–258}} (who places ''The Books of the Balances'' after ''The Five Hundred Books'', see pp. 252–253).</ref>

* '''The Great Book of Mercy''' (''Kitāb al-Raḥma al-kabīr'', Kr. no. 5): This was considered by Kraus to be the oldest work in the corpus, from which it may have been relatively independent. Some 10th-century skeptics considered it to be the only authentic work written by Jabir himself.<ref>All of the preceding in {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 5–9}}.</ref> The Persian physician, alchemist and philosopher [[Abu Bakr al-Razi|Abū Bakr al-Rāzī]] (c. 865–925) appears to have written a (lost) commentary on it.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. lx–lxi}}.</ref> It was [[Latin translations of the 12th century|translated into Latin]] in the 13th century under the title ''Liber Misericordiae''.<ref>Edited by {{harvnb|Darmstaedter|1925}}.</ref>
* '''The One Hundred and Twelve Books''' (''al-Kutub al-miʾa wa-l-ithnā ʿashar'', Kr. nos. 6–122): This collection consists of relatively independent treatises dealing with different practical aspects of alchemy, often framed as an explanation of the symbolic allusions of the 'ancients'. An important role is played by [[Organic chemistry|organic]] alchemy. Its theoretical foundations are similar to those of ''The Seventy Books'' (i.e., the reduction of bodies to the elements fire, air, water and earth, and of the elements to the 'natures' hot, cold, moist, and dry), though their exposition is less systematic. Just like in ''The Seventy Books'', the quantitative directions in ''The One Hundred and Twelve Books'' are still of a practical and 'experimental' rather than of a theoretical and speculative nature, such as will be the case in ''The Books of the Balances''.<ref>All of the preceding in {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, p. 11}}.</ref> The first four treatises in this collection, i.e., the three-part ''Book of the Element of the Foundation'' (''Kitāb Usṭuqus al-uss'', Kr. nos. 6–8, the second part of which contains an early version of the famous ''[[Emerald Tablet]]'' attributed to [[Hermes Trismegistus]])<ref>{{harvnb|Zirnis|1979|loc=pp. 64–65, 90}}. Jabir explicitly notes that the version of the ''Emerald Tablet'' quoted by him is taken from "Balīnās the Sage" (i.e., [[Pseudepigrapha|pseudo]]-[[Apollonius of Tyana]]), although it differs slightly from the (probably even earlier) version preserved in pseudo-Apollonius of Tyana's [[Sirr al-khaliqa|''Sirr al-khalīqa'']] (''The Secret of Creation''): see {{harvnb|Weisser|1980|p=46}}.</ref> and a commentary on it (''Tafsīr kitāb al-usṭuqus'', Kr. no. 9), have been translated into English.<ref>{{harvnb|Zirnis|1979}}. On some [[Shia Islam|Shi'ite]] aspects of ''The Book of the Element of the Foundation'', see {{harvnb|Lory|2016a}}.</ref>
* '''The Seventy Books''' (''al-Kutub al-sabʿūn'', Kr. nos. 123–192) (also called ''The Book of Seventy'', ''Kitāb al-Sabʿīn''): This contains a systematic exposition of Jabirian alchemy, in which the several treatises form a much more unified whole as compared to ''The One Hundred and Twelve Books''.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 43–44}}.</ref> It is organized into seven parts, containing ten treatises each: three parts dealing with the preparation of the elixir from animal, vegetable, and mineral substances, respectively; two parts dealing with the four elements from a theoretical and practical point of view, respectively; one part focusing on the alchemical use of animal substances, and one part focusing on minerals and metals.<ref>{{harvnb|Forster|2018}}.</ref> It was translated into Latin by [[Gerard of Cremona]] (c. 1114–1187) under the title ''Liber de Septuaginta''.<ref>Edited by {{harvnb|Berthelot|1906|pp=310–363}}; the Latin translation of one of the seventy treatises (''The Book of the Thirty Words'', ''Kitāb al-Thalāthīn kalima'', Kr. no. 125, translated as ''Liber XXX verborum'') was separately edited by {{harvnb|Colinet|2000|pp=179–187}}. In the ms. used by Berthelot, the name of the translator appears as a certain ''Renaldus Cremonensis'' ({{harvnb|Berthelot|1906|p=310}}, cf. {{harvnb|Forster|2018}}). However, a medieval list of the works translated by Gerard of Cremona (Latin: ''Gerardus Cremonensis'') mentions the ''Liber de Septuaginta'' as one of the three alchemical works translated by the ''magister'' (see {{harvnb|Burnett|2001|p=280}}, cf. {{harvnb|Moureau|2020|pp=106, 111}}).</ref>
* '''Ten books added to the Seventy''' (''ʿasharat kutub muḍāfa ilā l-sabʿīn'', Kr. nos. 193–202): The sole surviving treatise from this small collection (''The Book of Clarification'', ''Kitāb al-Īḍāḥ'', Kr. no. 195) briefly discusses the different methods for preparing the elixir, criticizing the philosophers who have only expounded the method of preparing the elixir starting from mineral substances, to the exclusion of vegetable and animal substances.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, p. 63}}.</ref>
* '''The Ten Books of Rectifications''' (''al-Muṣaḥḥaḥāt al-ʿashara'', Kr. nos. 203–212): Relates the successive improvements (“rectifications”, ''muṣaḥḥaḥāt'') brought to the art by such 'alchemists' as '[[Pythagoras]]' (Kr. no. 203), '[[Socrates]]' (Kr. no. 204), '[[Plato]]' (Kr. no. 205), '[[Aristotle]]' (Kr. no. 206), '[[Archigenes]]' (Kr. nos. 207–208), '[[Homer]]' (Kr. no. 209), '[[Democritus]]' (Kr. no. 210), [[Harbi al-Himyari|Ḥarbī al-Ḥimyarī]] (Kr. no. 211),<ref>Ḥarbī al-Ḥimyarī occurs several times in the Jabirian writings as one of Jabir's teachers. He supposedly was 463 years old when Jabir met him (see {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, p. xxxvii}}). According to {{harvnb|Sezgin|1971|p=127}}, the fact that Jabir dedicated a book to Ḥarbī's contributions to alchemy points to the existence in Jabir's time of a written work attributed to him.</ref> and Jabir himself (Kr. no. 212). The only surviving treatise from this small collection (''The Book of the Rectifications of Plato'', ''Kitāb Muṣaḥḥaḥāt Iflāṭūn'', Kr. no. 205) is divided into 90 chapters:  20 chapters on processes using only mercury, 10 chapters on processes using mercury and one additional 'medicine' (''dawāʾ''), 30 chapters on processes using mercury and two additional 'medicines', and 30 chapters on processes using mercury and three additional 'medicines'. All of these are preceded by an introduction describing the laboratory equipment mentioned in the treatise.<ref>All of the preceding in {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 64–67}}. On the meaning here of ''muṣaḥḥaḥāt'', see esp. p. 64 n. 1 and the accompanying text. See also {{harvnb|Sezgin|1971|loc=pp. 160–162, 167–168, 246–247}}.</ref>
* '''The Twenty Books''' (''al-Kutub al-ʿishrūn'', Kr. nos. 213–232): Only one treatise (''The Book of the Crystal'', ''Kitāb al-Billawra'', Kr. no. 220) and a long extract from another one (''The Book of the Inner Consciousness'', ''Kitāb al-Ḍamīr'', Kr. no. 230) survive.<ref>{{harvnb|Sezgin|1971|p=248}}.</ref> ''The Book of the Inner Consciousness'' appears to deal with the subject of specific properties (''khawāṣṣ'') and with [[talisman]]s (''ṭilasmāt'').<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, p. 69}}. On "the science of specific properties" (''ʿilm al-khawāṣṣ'', i.e., the science dealing with the hidden powers of mineral, vegetable and animal substances, and with their practical applications in medical and various other pursuits), see {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, pp. 61–95}}.</ref>
* '''The Seventeen Books''' (Kr. nos. 233–249); '''three treatises added to the Seventeen Books''' (Kr. nos. 250–252); '''thirty unnamed books''' (Kr. nos. 253–282); '''The Four Treatises''' and some related treatises (Kr. nos. 283–286, 287–292); '''The Ten Books According to the Opinion of Balīnās, the Master of Talismans''' (Kr. nos. 293–302): Of these, only three treatises appear to be extant, i.e., the ''Kitāb al-Mawāzīn'' (Kr. no. 242), the ''Kitāb al-Istiqṣāʾ'' (Kr. no. 248), and the ''Kitāb al-Kāmil'' (Kr. no. 291).<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 70–74}}; {{harvnb|Sezgin|1971|p=248}}.</ref>
* '''The Books of the Balances''' (''Kutub al-Mawāzīn'', Kr. nos. 303–446): This collection appears to have consisted of 144 treatises of medium length, 79 of which are known by name and 44 of which are still extant. Though relatively independent from each other and devoted to a very wide range of topics ([[History of cosmology|cosmology]], [[Arabic grammar|grammar]], [[History of music theory|music theory]], [[Medicine in the medieval Islamic world|medicine]], [[Logic in Islamic philosophy|logic]], [[History of metaphysics|metaphysics]], [[Mathematics in medieval Islam|mathematics]], [[Astronomy in medieval Islam|astronomy]], [[Astrology in medieval Islam|astrology]], etc.), they all approach their subject matter from the perspective of "the science of the balance" (''ʿilm al-mīzān'', a theory which aims at reducing all phenomena to a system of measures and quantitative proportions).<ref>All of the preceding in {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 75–76}}. The theory of the balance is extensively discussed by {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, pp. 187–303}}; see also {{harvnb|Lory|1989|pp=130–150}}.</ref> ''The Books of the Balances'' are also an important source for Jabir's speculations regarding the apparition of the "two brothers" (''al-akhawān''),<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, p. 76}}; {{harvnb|Lory|1989|pp=103–105}}.</ref> a doctrine which was later to become of great significance to the Egyptian alchemist [[Muhammed ibn Umail al-Tamimi|Ibn Umayl]] (c. 900–960).<ref>{{harvnb|Starr|2009|pp=74–75}}.</ref>
* '''The Five Hundred Books''' (''al-Kutub al-Khamsumiʾa'', Kr. nos. 447–946): Only 29 treatises in this collection are known by name, 15 of which are extant. Its contents appear to have been mainly religious in nature, with moral exhortations and alchemical allegories occupying an important place.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 100–101}}.</ref> Among the extant treatises, ''The Book of the Glorious'' (''Kitāb al-Mājid'', Kr. no. 706) and ''The Book of Explication'' (''Kitāb al-Bayān'', Kr. no. 785) are notable for containing some of the earliest preserved [[Shia Islam|Shi'ite]] [[Eschatology|eschatological]], [[Soteriology|soteriological]] and [[Imamate in Shia doctrine|imamological]] doctrines.<ref>{{harvnb|Corbin|1950}}; {{harvnb|Lory|2000}}.</ref> Intermittent extracts from ''The Book of Kingship'' (''Kitāb al-Mulk'', Kr. no. 454) exist in a Latin translation under the title ''Liber regni''.<ref>Edited and translated by {{harvnb|Newman|1994|pp=288–293}}.</ref>
* '''The Books on the Seven Metals''' (Kr. nos. 947–956): Seven treatises which are closely related to ''The Books of the Balances'', each one dealing with one of Jabir's [[Metals of antiquity|seven metals]] (respectively gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, lead, and ''khārṣīnī'' or "chinese metal"). In one manuscript, these are followed by the related three-part ''Book of Concision'' (''Kitāb al-Ījāz'', Kr. nos. 954–956).<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 111–116}}. On ''khārṣīnī'', see {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, pp. 22–23}}. Excerpts from the first six ''Books on the Seven Metals'' (the ''Book of Gold'', the ''Book of Silver'', the ''Book of Copper'', the ''Book of Iron'', the ''Book of Tin'', and the ''Book of Lead'') and the full Arabic text of the seventh book (the ''Book of Khārṣīnī'') have been edited by {{harvnb|Watanabe|2023|pp=236–334}}.</ref>
* '''Diverse alchemical treatises''' (Kr. nos. 957–1149): In this category, Kraus placed a large number of named treatises which he could not with any confidence attribute to one of the alchemical collections of the corpus. According to Kraus, some of them may actually have been part of ''The Five Hundred Books''.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 117–140}}.</ref>

=== Writings on magic (talismans, specific properties) ===
Among the surviving Jabirian treatises, there are also a number of relatively independent treatises dealing with "the science of [[talisman]]s" (''ʿilm al-ṭilasmāt'', a form of [[theurgy]]) and with "the science of specific properties" (''ʿilm al-khawāṣṣ'', i.e., the science dealing with the hidden powers of mineral, vegetable and animal substances, and with their practical applications in medical and various other pursuits).<ref>A number of non-extant treatises (Kr. nos. 1750, 1778, 1795, 1981, 1987, 1992, 1994) are also discussed by {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 142–154}}. Kraus refers to ''ʿilm al-ṭilasmāt'' as "théurgie" (theurgy) throughout; see, e.g., {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 75, 143, ''et pass.''}} On "the science of specific properties" (''ʿilm al-khawāṣṣ''), see {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, pp. 61–95}}.</ref> These are:

* '''The Book of the Search''' (''Kitāb al-Baḥth'', also known as ''The Book of Extracts'', ''Kitāb al-Nukhab'', Kr. no. 1800): This long work deals with the philosophical foundations of [[theurgy]] or "the science of talismans" (''ʿilm al-ṭilasmāt''). It is also notable for citing a significant number of Greek authors: there are references to (the works of) [[Plato]], [[Aristotle]], [[Archimedes]], [[Galen]], [[Alexander of Aphrodisias]], [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]], [[Themistius]], ([[Pseudepigrapha|pseudo]]-)[[Apollonius of Tyana]], and others.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 142–143}}.</ref>
* '''The Book of Fifty''' (''Kitāb al-Khamsīn'', perhaps identical to ''The Great Book on Talismans'', ''Kitāb al-Ṭilasmāt al-kabīr'', Kr. nos. 1825–1874): This work, only extracts of which are extant, deals with subjects such as the theoretical basis of [[theurgy]], specific properties, [[astrology]], and [[demonology]].<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 146–147}}.</ref>
* '''The Great Book on Specific Properties''' (''Kitāb al-Khawāṣṣ al-kabīr'', Kr. nos. 1900–1970): This is Jabir's main work on "the science of specific properties" (''ʿilm al-khawāṣṣ''), i.e., the science dealing with the hidden powers of mineral, vegetable and animal substances, and with their practical applications in medical and various other pursuits.<ref>On "the science of specific properties" (''ʿilm al-khawāṣṣ''), see {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, pp. 61–95}}.</ref> However, it also contains a number of chapters on "the science of the balance" (''ʿilm al-mīzān'', a theory which aims at reducing all phenomena to a system of measures and quantitative proportions).<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 148–152}}. The theory of the balance, which is mainly expounded in ''The Books of the Balances'' (Kr. nos. 303–446, see above), is extensively discussed by {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, pp. 187–303}}; see also {{harvnb|Lory|1989|pp=130–150}}.</ref>
* '''The Book of the King''' (''Kitāb al-Malik'', kr. no. 1985): Short treatise on the effectiveness of [[talisman]]s.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, p. 153}}.</ref>
* '''The Book of Black Magic''' (''Kitāb al-Jafr al-aswad'', Kr. no. 1996): This treatise is not mentioned in any other Jabirian work.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, p. 154}}.</ref>

=== Other extant writings ===
Writings on a wide variety of other topics were also attributed to Jabir. Most of these are lost (see below), except for:

* '''The Book on Poisons and on the Repelling of their Harmful Effects''' (''Kitāb al-Sumūm wa-dafʿ maḍārrihā'', Kr. no. 2145): on [[History of pharmacy|pharmacology]].<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 156–159}}; [[facsimile]] in {{harvnb|Siggel|1958}}.</ref>
* '''The Book of Comprehensiveness''' (''Kitāb al-Ishtimāl'', Kr. no. 2715): a long extract of this philosophical treatise is preserved by the poet and alchemist [[Al-Tughrai|al-Ṭughrāʾī]] (1061–c. 1121).<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, p. 165}}.</ref>

=== Lost writings ===
Although a significant number of the Jabirian treatises on alchemy and magic do survive, many of them are also lost. Apart from two surviving treatises (see immediately above), Jabir's many writings on other topics are all lost:

* '''Catalogues''' (Kr. nos. 1–4): There are three [[Cataloging|catalogues]] which Jabir is said to have written of his own works (Kr. nos. 1–3), and one ''Book on the Order of Reading our Books'' (''Kitāb Tartīb qirāʾat kutubinā'', Kr. no. 4). They are all lost.<ref>All of the preceding in {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 3–4}}.</ref>
* '''The Books on Stratagems''' (''Kutub al-Ḥiyal'', Kr. nos. 1150–1449) and '''The Books on Military Stratagems and Tricks''' (''Kutub al-Ḥiyal al-ḥurūbiyya wa-l-makāyid'', Kr. nos. 1450–1749): Two large collections on 'mechanical tricks' (the Arabic word ''ḥiyal'' translates Greek μηχαναί, ''mēchanai'')<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, p. 141, note 1}}.</ref> and military [[History of engineering|engineering]], both lost.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 141–142}}.</ref>
* '''[[Medicine in the medieval Islamic world|Medical]] and [[History of pharmacy|pharmacological]] writings''' (Kr. nos. 2000–2499): Seven treatises are known by name, the only one extant being ''The Book on Poisons and on the Repelling of their Harmful Effects'' (''Kitāb al-Sumūm wa-dafʿ maḍārrihā'', Kr. no. 2145). Kraus also included into this category a lost treatise on [[History of zoology through 1859|zoology]] (''The Book of Animals'', ''Kitāb al-Ḥayawān'', Kr. no. 2458) and a lost treatise on [[History of botany|botany]] (''The Book of Plants'' or ''The Book of Herbs'', ''Kitāb al-Nabāt'' or ''Kitāb al-Ḥashāʾish'', Kr. no. 2459).<ref>All of the preceding in {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 155–160}}.</ref>
* '''Philosophical writings''' (''Kutub al-falsafa'', Kr. nos. 2500–2799): Under this heading, Kraus mentioned 23 works, most of which appear to deal with [[Aristotelianism|Aristotelian philosophy]] (titles include, e.g., ''The Books of [[Logic in Islamic philosophy|Logic]] According to the Opinion of Aristotle'', Kr. no. 2580; ''The Book of [[Category of being|Categories]]'', Kr. no. 2582; ''The Book on [[History of hermeneutics|Interpretation]]'', Kr. no. 2583; ''The Book of [[History of metaphysics|Metaphysics]]'', Kr. no. 2681; ''The Book of the Refutation of Aristotle in his Book [[On the Soul]]'', Kr. no. 2734). Of one treatise (''The Book of Comprehensiveness'', ''Kitāb al-Ishtimāl'', Kr. no. 2715) a long extract is preserved by the poet and alchemist [[Al-Tughrai|al-Ṭughrāʾī]] (1061–c. 1121), but all other treatises in this group are lost.<ref>All of the preceding in {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 161–166}}.</ref>
* '''[[Mathematics in medieval Islam|Mathematical]], [[Astronomy in medieval Islam|astronomical]] and [[Astrology in medieval Islam|astrological]] writings''' (Kr. nos. 2800–2899): Thirteen treatises in this category are known by name, all of which are lost. Notable titles include a ''Book of Commentary on [[Euclid]]'' (''Kitāb Sharḥ Uqlīdiyas'', Kr. no. 2813), a ''Commentary on the Book of the Weight of the Crown by [[Archimedes]]'' (''Sharḥ kitāb wazn al-tāj li-Arshamīdas'', Kr. no. 2821), a ''Book of Commentary on the [[Almagest]]'' (''Kitāb Sharḥ al-Majisṭī'', Kr. no. 2834), a ''Subtle Book on [[Ephemeris|Astronomical Tables]]'' (''Kitāb al-Zāj al-laṭīf'', Kr. no. 2839), a ''Compendium on the [[Astrolabe]] from a Theoretical and Practical Point of View'' (''Kitāb al-jāmiʿ fī l-asṭurlāb ʿilman wa-ʿamalan'', Kr. no. 2845), and a ''Book of the Explanation of the Figures of the [[Zodiac]] and Their Activities'' (''Kitāb Sharḥ ṣuwar al-burūj wa-afʿālihā'', Kr. no. 2856).<ref>All of the preceding in {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 167–169}}.</ref>
* '''Religious writings''' (Kr. nos. 2900–3000): Apart from those known to belong to ''The Five Hundred Books'' (see above), there are a number of religious treatises whose exact place in the corpus is uncertain, all of which are lost. Notable titles include ''Books on the [[Shia Islam|Shi'ite]] Schools of Thought'' (''Kutub fī [[madhhab|madhāhib]] al-shīʿa'', Kr. no. 2914), ''Our Books on the [[Metempsychosis|Transmigration of the Soul]]'' (''Kutubunā fī l-tanāsukh'', Kr. no. 2947), ''The Book of the [[Imamate]]'' (''Kitāb al-Imāma'', Kr. no. 2958), and ''The Book in Which I Explained the [[Torah]]'' (''Kitābī alladhī fassartu fīhi al-tawrāt'', Kr. no. 2982).<ref>All of the preceding in {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. I, pp. 170–171}}.</ref>

== Historical background ==

=== Greco-Egyptian, Byzantine and Persian alchemy ===
[[File:Jabir ibn Hayyan Geber, Arabian alchemist Wellcome L0005558.jpg|thumb|upright=.85|Artistic impression of Jabir.]]

The Jabirian writings contain a number of references to Greco-Egyptian alchemists such as [[Pseudepigrapha|pseudo]]-[[Pseudo-Democritus|Democritus]] (fl. c. 60), [[Mary the Jewess]] (fl. c. 0–300), [[Agathodaemon (alchemist)|Agathodaemon]] (fl. c. 300), and [[Zosimos of Panopolis]] (fl. c. 300), as well as to legendary figures such as [[Hermes Trismegistus]] and [[Ostanes]], and to scriptural figures such as [[Moses of Alexandria|Moses]] and Jesus (to whom a number of alchemical writings were also ascribed).<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, pp. 42–45}}.</ref> However, these references may have been meant as an appeal to ancient authority rather than as an acknowledgement of any intellectual borrowing,<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, p. 35}}.</ref> and in any case Jabirian alchemy was very different from what is found in the extant Greek alchemical treatises: it was much more systematic and coherent,<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, pp. 31–32}}.</ref> it made much less use of allegory and symbols,<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, pp. 32–33}}.</ref> and a much more important place was occupied by philosophical speculations and their application to laboratory experiments.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, p. 40}}.</ref> Furthermore, whereas Greek alchemical texts had been almost exclusively focused on the use of mineral substances (i.e., on '[[inorganic chemistry]]'), Jabirian alchemy pioneered the use of vegetable and animal substances, and so represented an innovative shift towards '[[organic chemistry]]'.<ref name="auto">{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, p. 41}}.</ref>

Nevertheless, there are some important theoretical similarities between Jabirian alchemy and contemporary [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] alchemy,<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, pp. 35–40}}.</ref> and even though the Jabirian authors do not seem to have known Byzantine works that are extant today such as the alchemical works attributed to the [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonic]] philosophers [[Olympiodorus the Younger|Olympiodorus]] (c. 495–570) and [[Stephanus of Alexandria]] (fl. c. 580–640),<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, p. 40}}. Kraus also notes that this is rather remarkable given the existence of works attributed to Stephanus of Alexandria in the Arabic tradition.</ref> it seems that they were at least partly drawing on a parallel tradition of [[Theory|theoretical]] and [[Ancient Greek philosophy|philosophical]] alchemy.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, pp. 40–41}}.</ref> In any case, the writings actually used by the Jabirian authors appear to have mainly consisted of alchemical works falsely attributed to ancient philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Apollonius of Tyana,<ref name="auto"/> only some of which are still extant today, and whose philosophical content still needs to be determined.<ref>Manuscripts of extant works are listed by {{harvnb|Sezgin|1971}} and {{harvnb|Ullmann|1972}}.</ref>

One of the innovations in Jabirian alchemy was the addition of [[sal ammoniac]] ([[ammonium chloride]]) to the category of chemical substances known as '[[List of alchemical substances#Waters, oils and spirits|spirits]]' (i.e., strongly volatile substances). This included both naturally occurring sal ammoniac and synthetic ammonium chloride as produced from [[Organic compound|organic substances]], and so the addition of sal ammoniac to the list of 'spirits' is likely a product of the new focus on [[organic chemistry]]. Since the word for sal ammoniac used in the Jabirian corpus (''nošāder'') is [[Iranian languages|Iranian]] in origin, it has been suggested that the direct precursors of Jabirian alchemy may have been active in the [[Hellenization|Hellenizing]] and [[Syriac language|Syriacizing]] schools of the [[Sasanian Empire|Sassanid Empire]].<ref>All of the preceding in {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, pp. 41–42}}; cf. {{harvnb|Lory|2008b}}. On the etymology of the word ''nošāder'', see {{harvnb|Laufer|1919|pp=504–506}} (arguing that it is a [[Persian language|Persian]] word derived from [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]]); {{harvnb|Ruska|1923a|p=7}} (arguing for a Persian origin).</ref>

== Chemical philosophy ==

=== Elements and natures ===
According to [[Aristotelian physics]], each [[Classical element|element]] is composed of two qualities: [[fire (classical element)|fire]] is hot and dry, [[earth (classical element)|earth]] is cold and dry, [[water (classical element)|water]] is cold and moist, and [[air (classical element)|air]] is hot and moist. In the Jabirian corpus, these qualities came to be called "natures" (Arabic: ''ṭabāʾiʿ''), and elements are said to be composed of these 'natures', plus an underlying "substance" (''jawhar'').<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, p. 6}}; {{harvnb|Nomanul Haq|1994|pp=57–59}}.</ref> In metals two of these 'natures' were interior and two were exterior. For example, lead was cold and dry on the outside, but hot and moist on the inside, while gold was hot and moist on the outside, but cold and dry on the inside. Thus, Jabir theorized, by rearranging the natures of one metal, a different metal would result.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, pp. 1–2}}; {{harvnb|Nomanul Haq|1994|p=96}}.</ref> Much like doctors used medicines to cure an imbalance of the [[Humorism|four humors]], Jabir believed metals could be 'cured' by a medicine, the elusive [[elixir]] (Arabic: {{transliteration|ar|al-iksīr}}) that would make this transformation possible. <ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, pp. 2–3}}. On Jabirian views of the elixir, see further {{harvnb|Nomanul Haq|1994|pp=225–226}}.</ref>

=== The sulfur–mercury theory of metals<!-- [[Sulfur-mercury theory of metals]] redirects here; please edit the redirect (via 'what links here') when changing the name of the section heading --> ===

The sulfur–mercury theory of metals, though first attested in [[Pseudepigrapha|pseudo]]-[[Apollonius of Tyana]]'s ''The Secret of Creation'' ([[Sirr al-khaliqa|''Sirr al-khalīqa'']], late 8th or early 9th century, but largely based on older sources),<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, p. 1, note 1}}; {{harvnb|Weisser|1980|p=199}}. On the dating and historical background of the ''Sirr al-khalīqa'', see {{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, pp. 270–303}}; {{harvnb|Weisser|1980|pp=39–72}}.</ref> was also adopted by the Jabirian authors. According to the Jabirian version of this theory, [[metal]]s form in the earth through the mixing of [[sulfur]] and [[Mercury (element)|mercury]]. Depending on the quality of the sulfur, different metals are formed, with [[gold]] being formed by the most subtle and well-balanced sulfur.<ref>{{harvnb|Kraus|1942–1943|loc=vol. II, p. 1}}.</ref> This theory, which is ultimately based on ancient [[History of meteorology|meteorological]] speculations such as those found in [[Aristotle]]'s [[Meteorology (Aristotle)|''Meteorology'']], formed the basis of all theories of metallic composition until the 18th century.<ref>{{harvnb|Norris|2006}}.</ref>

== See also ==
* [[History of chemistry]]
** [[Timeline of chemistry]]
* [[Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi|Abū Bakr al-Rāzī]] (c. 865–925, famous contemporary chemist)
* [[Pseudo-Geber]] (13th–14th century Latin authors writing under Jabir's name)
* [[Science in medieval Islam]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==

=== Tertiary sources ===

* {{cite encyclopedia|last1=De Smet|first1=Daniel|year=2008–2012|title=Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq iv. Esoteric Sciences|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Iranica|url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/jafar-al-sadeq-iv-and-esoteric-sciences}}
* {{cite encyclopedia|last1=Forster|first1=Regula|year=2018|title=Jābir b. Ḥayyān|editor1-last=Fleet|editor1-first=Kate|editor2-last=Krämer|editor2-first=Gudrun|editor2-link=Gudrun Krämer|editor3-last=Matringe|editor3-first=Denis|editor4-last=Nawas|editor4-first=John|editor5-last=Rowson|editor5-first=Everett|editor5-link=Everett K. Rowson|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three|doi=10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_32665}}
* {{cite encyclopedia|last1=Kraus|first1=Paul|author1-link=Paul Kraus (Arabist)|last2=Plessner|first2=Martin|year=1960–2007|title=Djābir B. Ḥayyān|editor1-last=Bearman|editor1-first=P.|editor1-link=Peri Bearman|editor2-last=Bianquis|editor2-first=Th.|editor2-link=Thierry Bianquis|editor3-last=Bosworth|editor3-first=C.E.|editor3-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth|editor4-last=van Donzel|editor4-first=E.|editor4-link=Emeri Johannes van Donzel|editor5-last=Heinrichs|editor5-first=W.P.|editor5-link=Wolfhart Heinrichs|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition|doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_1898}}
* {{cite book|last1=Lory|first1=Pierre|author-link=Pierre Lory|year=2008a|chapter=Jābir Ibn Hayyān|editor1-last=Koertge|editor1-first=Noretta|title=New Dictionary of Scientific Biography|location=Detroit|publisher=Thomson Gale|volume=4|pages=19–20|isbn=978-0-684-31320-7}}
* {{cite encyclopedia|last1=Lory|first1=Pierre|author-link=Pierre Lory|year=2008b|title=Kimiā|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Iranica|url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/kimia}}
* {{cite book|last1=Plessner|first1=Martin|year=1981|chapter=Jābir Ibn Hayyān|editor1-last=Gillispie|editor1-first=Charles C.|title=Dictionary of Scientific Biography|location=New York|publisher=Charles Scribners’s Sons|volume=7|pages=39–43|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/chemistry-biographies/jabir}}

=== Secondary sources ===

* {{cite book|last1=al-Hassan|first1=Ahmad Y.|author-link=Ahmad Y. al-Hassan|year=2009|title=Studies in al-Kimya': Critical Issues in Latin and Arabic Alchemy and Chemistry|location=Hildesheim|publisher=Georg Olms Verlag|isbn=978-3-487-14273-9}} (the same content and more is also available [http://www.history-science-technology.com/ online]) (argues against the great majority of scholars that the Latin Geber works were translated from the Arabic and that [[ethanol]] and [[mineral acids]] were known in early Arabic alchemy)
* {{cite journal|last1=Burnett|first1=Charles|year=2001|title=The Coherence of the Arabic-Latin Translation Program in Toledo in the Twelfth Century|journal=Science in Context|volume=14|issue=1–2|pages=249–288|doi=10.1017/S0269889701000096|s2cid=143006568}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Capezzone|first1=Leonardo|year=1997|title=Jābir ibn Ḥayyān nella città cortese. Materiali eterodossi per una storia del pensiero della scienza nell'Islam medievale|journal=Rivista degli Studi Orientali|volume=LXXI|issue=1/4 |pages=97–144|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41880991|jstor=41880991}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Capezzone|first1=Leonardo|year=2020|title=The Solitude of the Orphan: Ǧābir b. Ḥayyān and the Shiite Heterodox Milieu of the Third/Ninth–Fourth/Tenth Centuries|journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies|volume=83|issue=1|pages=51–73|doi=10.1017/S0041977X20000014|s2cid=214044897|doi-access=free}} (recent study of Jabirian [[Shia Islam|Shi'ism]], arguing that it was not of a form of [[Isma'ilism]], but an independent sectarian current related to the late 9th-century Shi'ites known as [[ghulat|ghulāt]])
* {{cite journal|last1=Corbin|first1=Henry|author-link=Henry Corbin|year=1950|title=Le livre du Glorieux de Jâbir ibn Hayyân|journal=Eranos-Jahrbuch|volume=18|issue=|pages=48–114}}
* {{cite book|last1=Corbin|first1=Henry|author-link=Henry Corbin|year=1986|title=Alchimie comme art hiératique|location=Paris|publisher=L’Herne|isbn=9782851971029}}
* {{cite book|last1=Coulon|first1=Jean-Charles|year=2017|title=La Magie en terre d'Islam au Moyen Âge|location=Paris|publisher=CTHS|isbn=9782735508525}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Delva |first1=Thijs |year=2017 |title=The Abbasid Activist Ḥayyān al-ʿAṭṭār as the Father of Jābir b. Ḥayyān: An Influential Hypothesis Revisited |journal=Journal of Abbasid Studies |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=35–61 |doi=10.1163/22142371-12340030}} (rejects Holmyard 1927's hypothesis that Jabir was the son of a proto-[[Shia Islam|Shi'ite]] pharmacist called Ḥayyān al-ʿAṭṭār on the basis of newly available evidence; contains the most recent [[status quaestionis]] on Jabir's biography, listing a number of [[primary source]]s on this subject that were still unknown to Kraus 1942–1943)
* {{cite journal|last1=El-Eswed|first1=Bassam I.|year=2006|title=Spirits: The Reactive Substances in Jābir's Alchemy|journal=Arabic Sciences and Philosophy|volume=16|issue=1|pages=71–90|doi=10.1017/S0957423906000270|s2cid=170880312}} (the first study since the days of [[Marcellin Berthelot|Berthelot]], [[Henry Ernest Stapleton|Stapleton]], and [[Julius Ruska|Ruska]] to approach the Jabirian texts from a modern chemical point of view)
* {{cite journal|last1=Fück|first1=Johann W.|author-link=Johann Fück|year=1951|title=The Arabic Literature on Alchemy According to An-Nadīm (A.D. 987)|journal=Ambix|volume=4|issue=3–4|pages=81–144|doi=10.1179/amb.1951.4.3-4.81}}
* {{cite thesis|last1=Gannagé|first1=Emma|year=1998|title=Le commentaire d'Alexandre d'Aphrodise In de generatione et corruptione perdu en grec, retrouvé en arabe dans Ǧābir ibn Ḥayyān, Kitāb al-Taṣrīf|type=Unpublished PhD diss.|publisher=Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Holmyard|first1=Eric J.|author-link=Eric John Holmyard|year=1923|title=Jābir ibn Ḥayyān|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine|volume=16|issue=|pages=46–57|doi=10.1177/003591572301601606|doi-access=free|pmid=19983239 }} (pioneering paper first showing that a great deal of Jabir's non-religious alchemical treatises are still extant, that some of these treatises contain a sophisticated system of natural philosophy, and that Jabir knew the sulfur-mercury theory of metals)
* {{cite book|last1=Holmyard|first1=Eric J.|author-link=Eric John Holmyard|year=1927|chapter=An Essay on Jābir ibn Ḥayyān|editor1-last=Ruska|editor1-first=Julius|editor1-link=Julius Ruska|title=Studien zur Geschichte der Chemie: Festgabe [[Edmund Oscar von Lippmann|Edmund O. v. Lippmann]]|location=Berlin|publisher=Springer|pages=28–37|doi=10.1007/978-3-642-51355-8_5|isbn=978-3-642-51236-0 }} (seminal paper first presenting the hypothesis that Jabir was the son of a proto-[[Shia Islam|Shi'ite]] pharmacist called Ḥayyān al-ʿAṭṭār)
* {{cite book|last1=Kraus|first1=Paul|author-link=Paul Kraus (Arabist)|year=1930|chapter=Dschābir ibn Ḥajjān und die Ismāʿīlijja|editor1-last=Ruska|editor1-first=Julius|editor1-link=Julius Ruska|title=Dritter Jahresbericht des Forschungsinstituts für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften. Mit einer Wissenschaftlichen Beilage: Der Zusammenbruch der Dschābir-Legende|location=Berlin|publisher=Springer|pages=23–42|oclc=913815541}} (seminal paper arguing that the Jabirian writings should be dated to ca. 850–950; the first to point out the similarities between Jabirian [[Shia Islam|Shi'ism]] and early [[Isma'ilism]])
* {{cite journal|last1=Kraus|first1=Paul|author-link=Paul Kraus (Arabist)|year=1931|title=Studien zu Jābir ibn Hayyān|journal=Isis|volume=15|issue=1|pages=7–30|doi=10.1086/346536|jstor=224568|s2cid=143876602|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/224568.pdf}} (contains further arguments for the late dating of the Jabirian writings; analyses Jabir's accounts of his relations with the [[Barmakids]], rejecting their historicity)
* {{cite journal|last1=Kraus|first1=Paul|author-link=Paul Kraus (Arabist)|year=1942|title=Les dignitaires de la hiérarchie religieuse selon Ǧābir ibn Ḥayyān|journal=Bulletin de l'institut français d'archéologie orientale|volume=41|issue=|pages=83–97|doi=10.3406/bifao.1942.2022 |url=https://www.ifao.egnet.net/bifao/41/8/}} (pioneering paper on Jabirian proto-[[Shia Islam|Shi'ism]])
* {{Cite book|last=Kraus|first=Paul|author-link=Paul Kraus (Arabist)|year=1942–1943|title=Jâbir ibn Hayyân: Contribution à l'histoire des idées scientifiques dans l'Islam. I. Le corpus des écrits jâbiriens. II. Jâbir et la science grecque|publisher=Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale|location=Cairo|oclc=468740510|isbn=978-3-487-09115-0}} (vol. 1 contains a pioneering analysis of the sources for Jabir's biography, and a catalogue of all known Jabirian treatises and the larger collections they belong to; vol. 2 contains a seminal analysis of the Jabirian philosophical system and its relation to Greek philosophy;  remains the standard reference work on Jabir even today)
* {{cite book|last1=Laufer|first1=Berthold|author1-link=Berthold Laufer|date=1919|title=Sino-Iranica: Chinese Contributions to the History of Civilization in Ancient Iran|series=Fieldiana, Anthropological series|volume=15|issue=3|location=Chicago|publisher=Field Museum of Natural History|oclc=1084859541|url=https://archive.org/details/sinoiranicachine153lauf/page/504/mode/2up}}
* {{cite book|last1=Lory|first1=Pierre|author-link=Pierre Lory|year=1983|title=Jâbir ibn Hayyân: Dix traités d'alchimie. Les dix premiers Traités du Livre des Soixante-dix|location=Paris|publisher=Sindbad|isbn=9782742710614}} (elaborates Kraus's suggestion that the Jabirian writings may have developed from an earlier core, arguing that some of them, even though receiving their final redaction only in ca. 850–950, may date back to the late 8th century)
* {{cite book|last1=Lory|first1=Pierre|author-link=Pierre Lory|year=1989|title=Alchimie et mystique en terre d'Islam|location=Lagrasse|publisher=Verdier|isbn=9782864320913}} (focuses on Jabir's religious philosophy; contains an analysis of Jabirian [[Shia Islam|Shi'ism]], arguing that it is in some respects different from [[Isma'ilism]] and may have been relatively independent)
* {{cite book|last1=Lory|first1=Pierre|author-link=Pierre Lory|date=1994|chapter=Mots d'alchimie, alchimie des mots|editor1-last=Jacquart|editor1-first=D.|title=La formation du vocabulaire scientifique et intellectuel dans le monde arabe|series=Civicima |volume=7 |location=Turnhout|publisher=Brepols|pages=91–106|doi=10.1484/M.CIVI-EB.4.00077|isbn=978-2-503-37007-1}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Lory|first1=Pierre|author-link=Pierre Lory|year=2000|title=Eschatologie alchimique chez jâbir ibn Hayyân|journal=Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée|volume=91–94|issue=91–94|pages=73–92|doi=10.4000/remmm.249|doi-access=free}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Lory|first1=Pierre|author-link=Pierre Lory|year=2016a|title=Aspects de l'ésotérisme chiite dans le Corpus Ǧābirien: Les trois Livres de l'Elément de fondation|journal=Al-Qantara|volume=37|issue=2|pages=279–298|doi=10.3989/alqantara.2016.009|doi-access=free}}
* {{cite book|last1=Lory|first1=Pierre|author-link=Pierre Lory|date=2016b|chapter=Esotérisme shi’ite et alchimie. Quelques remarques sur la doctrine de l’initiation dans le Corpus Jābirien|editor1-last=Amir-Moezzi|editor1-first=Mohammad Ali|editor1-link=Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi|editor2-last=De Cillis|editor2-first=Maria|editor3-last=De Smet|editor3-first=Daniel|editor4-last=Mir-Kasimov|editor4-first=Orkhan|title=L'Ésotérisme shi'ite, ses racines et ses prolongements – Shi'i Esotericism: Its Roots and Developments|series=Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Sciences Religieuses|volume=177|location=Turnhout|publisher=Brepols|pages=411–422|doi=10.1484/M.BEHE-EB.4.01179|isbn=978-2-503-56874-4}}
* {{cite book|last1=Marquet|first1=Yves|year=1988|title=La philosophie des alchimistes et l'alchimie des philosophes — Jâbir ibn Hayyân et les « Frères de la Pureté »|location=Paris|publisher=Maisonneuve et Larose|isbn=9782706809545}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Moureau|first1=Sébastien|year=2020|title=Min al-kīmiyāʾ ad alchimiam. The Transmission of Alchemy from the Arab-Muslim World to the Latin West in the Middle Ages|journal=Micrologus|volume=28|issue=|pages=87–141|hdl=2078.1/211340|url=http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/211340}} (a survey of all Latin alchemical texts known to have been translated from the Arabic)
* {{cite journal|last1=Newman|first1=William R.|author-link=William R. Newman|year=1985|title=New Light on the Identity of Geber|journal=Sudhoffs Archiv|volume=69|issue=1|pages=76–90|jstor=20776956|pmid=2932819|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20776956}}
* {{cite book|last1=Newman|first1=William R.|author-link=William R. Newman|year=1991|title=The Summa perfectionis of Pseudo-Geber: A Critical Edition, Translation and Study|location=Leiden|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-09464-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tZ-WXuo84ioC}}
* {{cite book|last1=Newman|first1=William R.|author-link=William R. Newman|year=1996|chapter=The Occult and the Manifest among the Alchemists|editor1-last=Ragep|editor1-first= F. Jamil|editor2-last=Ragep|editor2-first=Sally P.|editor3-last=Livesey|editor3-first=Steven|title=Tradition, Transmission, Transformation: Proceedings of Two Conferences on Pre-Modern Science held at the University of Oklahoma|location=Leiden|publisher=Brill|pages=173–198|isbn=978-90-04-10119-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kl1COWj9ubAC&q=Tradition,+Transmission,+Transformation:+Proceedings+of+Two+Conferences+on+Pre-Modern+Science+held+at+the+University}}
* {{cite book|last1=Nomanul Haq|first1=Syed|author-link=Syed Nomanul Haq|year=1994|title=Names, Natures and Things: The Alchemist Jābir ibn Ḥayyān and his Kitāb al-Aḥjār (Book of Stones)|location=Dordrecht|publisher=Kluwer|isbn=9789401118989|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rydrCQAAQBAJ}} (signalled some new sources on Jabir's biography; followed Sezgin 1971 in arguing for an early date for the Jabirian writings)
* {{Cite journal|last=Norris|first=John|year=2006|title=The Mineral Exhalation Theory of Metallogenesis in Pre-Modern Mineral Science|journal=Ambix|volume=53|issue=1|pages=43–65|doi=10.1179/174582306X93183|s2cid=97109455}} (important overview of the sulfur-mercury theory of metals from its conceptual origins in ancient Greek philosophy to the 18th century; discussion of the Arabic texts is brief and dependent on secondary sources)
* {{cite journal|last1=Ruska|first1=Julius|author1-link=Julius Ruska|year=1923a|title=Sal ammoniacus, Nušādir und Salmiak|journal=Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse|volume=14|issue=5|doi=10.11588/diglit.38046}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Ruska|first1=Julius|author1-link=Julius Ruska|year=1923b|title=Über das Schriftenverzeichnis des Ǧābir ibn Ḥajjān und die Unechtheit einiger ihm zugeschriebenen Abhandlungen|journal=Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin|volume=15|pages=53–67|jstor=20773292|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20773292}}
* {{cite book|last1=Ruska|first1=Julius|author1-link=Julius Ruska|year=1927|chapter=Die siebzig Bücher des Ǵābir ibn Ḥajjān|editor1-last=Ruska|editor1-first=Julius|editor1-link=Julius Ruska|title=Studien zur Geschichte der Chemie: Festgabe [[Edmund Oscar von Lippmann|Edmund O. v. Lippmann]]|location=Berlin|publisher=Springer|pages=38–47|doi=10.1007/978-3-642-51355-8_6|isbn=978-3-642-51236-0 }}
* {{cite journal|last1=Ruska|first1=Julius|author1-link=Julius Ruska|year=1928|title=Der Salmiak in der Geschichte der Alchemie|journal=Zeitschrift für angewandte Chemie|volume=41|issue=50|pages=1321–1324|doi=10.1002/ange.19280415006|bibcode=1928AngCh..41.1321R }}
* {{cite journal|last1=Ruska|first1=Julius|author1-link=Julius Ruska|last2=Garbers|first2=Karl|year=1939|title=Vorschriften zur Herstellung von scharfen Wässern bei Gabir und Razi|journal=Der Islam|volume=25|issue=|pages=1–34|doi=10.1515/islm.1938.25.1.1|s2cid=161055255}} (contains a comparison of Jabir's and [[Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi|Abū Bakr al-Rāzī]]'s knowledge of chemical apparatus, processes and substances)
* {{cite book|last1=Sarton|first1=George|author-link=George Sarton|year=1927–1948|title=Introduction to the History of Science|volume=I–III|location=Baltimore|publisher=Williams & Wilkins|oclc=476555889}}
* {{cite book|last1=Sezgin|first1=Fuat|author-link=Fuat Sezgin|year=1971|title=Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, Band IV: Alchimie, Chemie, Botanik, Agrikultur bis ca. 430 H.|location=Leiden|publisher=Brill|pages=132–269|isbn=9789004020092}} (contains a penetrating critique of Kraus’ thesis on the late dating of the Jabirian works)
* {{cite journal|last1=Stapleton|first1=Henry E.|author1-link=Henry Ernest Stapleton|year=1905|title=Sal Ammoniac: A Study in Primitive Chemistry|journal=Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|volume=I|issue=2|pages=25–40|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.228305/page/n35/mode/2up}}
* {{cite journal <!-- Citation bot bypass-->|last1=Stapleton|first1=Henry E.|author1-link=Henry Ernest Stapleton|last2=Azo|first2=R.F.|last3=Hidayat Husain|first3=M.|year=1927|title=Chemistry in Iraq and Persia in the Tenth Century A.D.|journal=Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|volume=VIII|issue=6|pages=317–418|oclc=706947607|url=http://www.southasiaarchive.com/Content/sarf.100203/231270}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Starr|first1=Peter|year=2009|title=Towards a Context for Ibn Umayl, Known to Chaucer as the Alchemist Senior|journal=Journal of Arts and Sciences|volume=11|issue=|pages=61–77|url=http://jas.cankaya.edu.tr/gecmisYayinlar/yayinlar/jas11/05%20Peter%20STARR.pdf|access-date=28 November 2020|archive-date=25 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925055537/http://jas.cankaya.edu.tr/gecmisYayinlar/yayinlar/jas11/05%20Peter%20STARR.pdf|url-status=dead}}
* {{cite book|last1=Ullmann|first1=Manfred|year=1972|title=Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam|location=Leiden|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-03423-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FosEtQEACAAJ}}
* {{cite thesis|last1=Watanabe|first1=Masayo|date=2023|title=Nature in the Books of Seven Metals – Ǧābirian Corpus in Dialogue with Ancient Greek Philosophy and Byzantine Alchemy|type=PhD thesis|publisher=University of Bologna|url=http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/10571}}
* {{Cite book|last=Weisser|first=Ursula|editor1-first=<!-- Deny Citebot -->|editor1-last=<!-- Deny Citebot -->|title=Das "Buch über das Geheimnis der Schöpfung" von Pseudo-Apollonios von Tyana|publisher=[[De Gruyter]]|year=1980|isbn=978-3-11-086693-3|location=Berlin|doi=10.1515/9783110866933|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DZFZzxgiUqAC}}

=== Primary sources ===
====Editions of Arabic Jabirian texts====
* {{cite journal|last1=Abū Rīda|first1=Muḥammad A.|date=1984|title=Thalāth rasāʾil falsafiyya li-Jābir b. Ḥayyān|journal=Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften|volume=1|pages=50–67}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Abū Rīda|first1=Muḥammad A.|date=1985|title=Risālatān falsafiyyatān li-Jābir b. Ḥayyān|journal=Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften|volume=2|pages=75–84}}
* {{cite book|last1=Berthelot|first1=Marcellin|author1-link=Marcellin Berthelot|last2=Houdas|first2=Octave V.|date=1893|title=La Chimie au Moyen Âge|volume=III|location=Paris|publisher=Imprimerie nationale}}
** {{cite book|last1=al-Mazyadī|first1=Aḥmad Farīd|year=2006|title=Rasāʾil Jābir ibn Ḥayyān|location=Beirut|publisher=Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya}} (pirated edition of {{harvnb|Berthelot|Houdas|1893}}, {{harvnb|Holmyard|1928}} and {{harvnb|Kraus|1935}})
* {{cite thesis|last1=Gannagé|first1=Emma|year=1998|title=Le commentaire d'Alexandre d'Aphrodise In de generatione et corruptione perdu en grec, retrouvé en arabe dans Ǧābir ibn Ḥayyān, Kitāb al-Taṣrīf|type=Unpublished PhD diss.|publisher=Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne|ref=none}} (edition of the {{transliteration|ar|Kitāb al-Taṣrīf}})
* {{cite book|last1=Holmyard|first1=E. John|author1-link=Eric John Holmyard|year=1928|title=The Arabic Works of Jâbir ibn Hayyân|location=Paris|publisher=Paul Geuthner}}
* {{cite book|last1=Kraus|first1=Paul|author1-link=Paul Kraus (Arabist)|year=1935|title=Essai sur l'histoire des idées scientifiques dans l'Islam / Mukhtār Rasāʾil Jābir b. Ḥayyān|location=Paris/Cairo|publisher=G.P. Maisonneuve/Maktabat al-Khānjī}}
* {{cite book|last1=Nomanul Haq|first1=Syed|author-link=Syed Nomanul Haq|year=1994|title=Names, Natures and Things: The Alchemist Jābir ibn Ḥayyān and his Kitāb al-Aḥjār (Book of Stones)|location=Dordrecht|publisher=Kluwer|isbn=9789401118989|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rydrCQAAQBAJ|ref=none}} (contains a new edition of parts of the ''Kitāb al-Aḥjār'' with English translation)
* {{cite book|last1=Lory|first1=Pierre|author-link=Pierre Lory|year=1988|title=Tadbīr al-iksīr al-aʿẓam. Arbaʿ ʿashara risāla fī ṣanʿat al-kīmiyāʾ / L'élaboration de l'élixir suprême. Quatorze traités de Gâbir ibn Ḥayyân sur le grand oeuvre alchimique|location=Damascus|publisher=Institut français de Damas}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Ruska|first1=Julius|author1-link=Julius Ruska|last2=Garbers|first2=Karl|year=1939|title=Vorschriften zur Herstellung von scharfen Wässern bei Gabir und Razi|journal=Der Islam|volume=25|issue=|pages=1–34|doi=10.1515/islm.1938.25.1.1|s2cid=161055255|ref=none}}
* {{cite book|last1=Sezgin|first1=Fuat|author-link=Fuat Sezgin|date=1986|title=The Book of Seventy|location=Frankfurt am Main|publisher=Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science}} ([[facsimile]] of the {{transliteration|ar|Kitāb al-Sabʿīn}})
* {{cite book|last1=Siggel|first1=Alfred|date=1958|title=Das Buch der Gifte des Ǧābir ibn Ḥayyān|location=Wiesbaden|publisher=Steiner}} ([[facsimile]] of the {{transliteration|ar|Kitāb al-Sumūm wa-dafʿ maḍārrihā}})
* {{cite thesis|last=Zirnis|first=Peter|year=1979|title=The Kitāb Usṭuqus al-uss of Jābir ibn Ḥayyān|type=Unpublished PhD diss.|location=New York University|ref=none}} (contains an annotated copy of the ''Kitāb Usṭuqus al-uss'' with English translation)
* {{cite thesis|last1=Watanabe|first1=Masayo|date=2023|title=Nature in the Books of Seven Metals – Ǧābirian Corpus in Dialogue with Ancient Greek Philosophy and Byzantine Alchemy|type=PhD thesis|publisher=University of Bologna|url=http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/10571|ref=no}} (edition of excerpts from the first six ''Books on the Seven Metals'' ({{transliteration|ar|Kitāb al-Dhahab}}, Kr. no. 947; {{transliteration|ar|Kitāb al-Fiḍḍa}}, Kr. no. 948; {{transliteration|ar|Kitāb al-Nuḥās}}, Kr. no. 949; {{transliteration|ar|Kitāb al-Ḥadīd}}, Kr. no. 950; {{transliteration|ar|Kitāb al-Raṣāṣ al-qalaʿī}}, Kr. no. 951; {{transliteration|ar|Kitāb al-Usrub}}, Kr. no. 952), the full text of the {{transliteration|ar|Kitāb al-Khārṣīnī}}, Kr. no. 953, and an excerpt from the {{transliteration|ar|Kitāb al-Ṭabīʿa al-khāmisa}}, Kr. no. 396)

==== Modern translations of Arabic Jabirian texts ====

* {{cite book|last1=Berthelot|first1=Marcellin|author1-link=Marcellin Berthelot|last2=Houdas|first2=Octave V.|date=1893|title=La Chimie au Moyen Âge|volume=III|location=Paris|publisher=Imprimerie nationale|ref=none}} (French translations of the edited Arabic texts)
* {{cite journal|last1=Corbin|first1=Henry|author-link=Henry Corbin|year=1950|title=Le livre du Glorieux de Jâbir ibn Hayyân|journal=Eranos-Jahrbuch|volume=18|issue=|pages=48–114|ref=none}} (French translation of the {{transliteration|ar|Kitāb al-Mājid}})
* {{cite thesis|last1=Gannagé|first1=Emma|year=1998|title=Le commentaire d'Alexandre d'Aphrodise In de generatione et corruptione perdu en grec, retrouvé en arabe dans Ǧābir ibn Ḥayyān, Kitāb al-Taṣrīf|type=Unpublished PhD diss.|publisher=Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne|ref=none}} (French translation of the {{transliteration|ar|Kitāb al-Taṣrīf}})
* {{cite book|last1=Lory|first1=Pierre|author-link=Pierre Lory|year=1983|title=Jâbir ibn Hayyân: Dix traités d'alchimie. Les dix premiers Traités du Livre des Soixante-dix|location=Paris|publisher=Sindbad|isbn=9782742710614|ref=none}} (French translations of the first ten books of the {{transliteration|ar|Kitāb al-Sabʿīn}})
* {{cite journal|last1=Lory|first1=Pierre|author-link=Pierre Lory|year=2000|title=Eschatologie alchimique chez jâbir ibn Hayyân|journal=Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée|volume=91–94|issue=91–94|pages=73–92|doi=10.4000/remmm.249|doi-access=free|ref=none}} (French translation of the {{transliteration|ar|Kitāb al-Bayān}})
* {{cite book|last1=Nomanul Haq|first1=Syed|author-link=Syed Nomanul Haq|year=1994|title=Names, Natures and Things: The Alchemist Jābir ibn Ḥayyān and his Kitāb al-Aḥjār (Book of Stones)|location=Dordrecht|publisher=Kluwer|isbn=9789401118989|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rydrCQAAQBAJ|ref=none}} (contains a new edition of parts of the ''Kitāb al-Aḥjār'' with English translation)
* {{cite thesis|last1=O’Connor|first1=Kathleen M.|year=1994|title=The Alchemical Creation of Life (Takwīn) and Other Concepts of Genesis in Medieval Islam|type=PhD diss.|publisher=University of Pennsylvania|url=http://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI9503804}} (contains translations of extensive passages from various Jabirian works, with discussion)
* {{cite book|last1=Rex|first1=Friedemann|date=1975|title=Zur Theorie der Naturprozesse in der früharabischen Wissenschaft|location=Wiesbaden|publisher=Steiner}} (German translation of the {{transliteration|ar|Kitāb Ikhrāj mā fī al-quwwa ilā al-fiʿl}})
* {{cite journal|last1=Ruska|first1=Julius|author1-link=Julius Ruska|last2=Garbers|first2=Karl|year=1939|title=Vorschriften zur Herstellung von scharfen Wässern bei Gabir und Razi|journal=Der Islam|volume=25|issue=|pages=1–34|doi=10.1515/islm.1938.25.1.1|s2cid=161055255|ref=none}} (German translations of edited Arabic fragments)
* {{cite book|last1=Siggel|first1=Alfred|date=1958|title=Das Buch der Gifte des Ǧābir ibn Ḥayyān|location=Wiesbaden|publisher=Steiner|ref=none}} (German translation of the [[facsimile]] of {{transliteration|ar|Kitāb al-Sumūm wa-dafʿ maḍārrihā}})
* {{cite thesis|last=Zirnis|first=Peter|year=1979|title=The Kitāb Usṭuqus al-uss of Jābir ibn Ḥayyān|type=Unpublished PhD diss.|location=New York University}} (contains an annotated copy of the ''Kitāb Usṭuqus al-uss'' with English translation)

==== Medieval translations of Arabic Jabirian texts (Latin) ====

* {{cite journal|last1=Berthelot|first1=Marcellin|author-link=Marcellin Berthelot|year=1906|title=Archéologie et Histoire des sciences|journal=Mémoires de l'Académie des sciences de l'Institut de France|volume=49}} (pp.&nbsp;310–363 contain an edition of the Latin translation of  Jabir's ''Seventy Books'' under the title ''Liber de Septuaginta'')
* {{cite book|last1=Colinet|first1=Andrée|year=2000|chapter=Le Travail des quatre éléments ou lorsqu’un alchimiste byzantin s’inspire de Jabir|editor1-last=Draelants|editor1-first=Isabelle|editor2-last=Tihon|editor2-first=Anne|editor3-last=Van den Abeele|editor3-first=Baudouin|title=Occident et Proche-Orient: Contacts scientifiques au temps des Croisades. Actes du colloque de Louvain-la-Neuve, 24 et 25 mars 1997|series=Reminisciences|volume=5|location=Turnhout|publisher=Brepols|pages=165–190|doi=10.1484/M.REM-EB.6.09070802050003050101010600|isbn=978-2-503-51116-0}} (pp.&nbsp;179–187 contain an edition of the Latin translation of a separate treatise belonging to Jabir's ''Seventy Books'', i.e., ''The Book of the Thirty Words'', ''Kitāb al-Thalāthīn kalima'', Kr. no. 125, translated as ''Liber XXX verborum'')
* {{cite journal|last1=Darmstaedter|first1=Ernst|year=1925|title=Liber Misericordiae Geber: Eine lateinische Übersetzung des gröβeren Kitâb l-raḥma|journal=Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin|volume=17|issue=4|pages=181–197}} (edition of the Latin translation of Jabir's ''The Great Book of Mercy'', ''Kitāb al-Raḥma al-kabīr'', Kr. no. 5, under the title ''Liber Misericordiae'')
* {{cite book|last1=Newman|first1=William R.|author-link=William R. Newman|year=1994|chapter=Arabo-Latin Forgeries: The Case of the Summa Perfectionis (with the text of Jābir ibn Ḥayyān's Liber Regni)|editor1-last=Russell|editor1-first=G. A.|title=The 'Arabick' Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England|location=Leiden|publisher=Brill|pages=278–296|isbn=978-90-04-09888-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4H2fESItCVIC}} (pp.&nbsp;288–291 contain a Latin translation of intermittent extracts of Jabir's ''Book of Kingship'', ''Kitāb al-Mulk'', Kr. no. 454, under the title ''Liber regni'', with an English translation on pp.&nbsp;291–293)

<small>Note that some other Latin works attributed to Jabir/Geber (''Summa perfectionis'', ''De inventione veritatis'', ''De investigatione perfectionis'', ''Liber fornacum'', ''Testamentum Geberi'', and ''Alchemia Geberi'') are widely considered to be [[Pseudepigrapha|pseudepigraphs]] which, though largely drawing on Arabic sources, were originally written by Latin authors in the 13th–14th centuries (see [[pseudo-Geber]]); see {{harvnb|Moureau|2020|p=112}}; cf. {{harvnb|Forster|2018}}.</small>

{{Islamic alchemy and chemistry|state=expanded}}
{{Alchemy|state=expanded}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayyan, Jabir ibn}}
[[Category:8th-century scientists]]
[[Category:9th-century scientists]]
[[Category:Alchemists of the medieval Islamic world]]
[[Category:Hermeticists]]
[[Category:8th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate]]
[[Category:9th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate]]
[[Category:Shia Muslims]]
[[Category:8th-century philosophers]]
[[Category:9th-century philosophers]]
[[Category:Medieval occultists]]
[[Category:People from Tus, Iran]]
[[Category:Asian people whose existence is disputed]]