Chemistry In Islam

Junaid — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:43:00 +0000

The very name alchemy as well as its derivative chemistry comes from the Arabic al-kimiya’. ‘The Muslims mastered Alexandrian and even certain elements of Chinese alchemy and very early in their history, produced their greatest alchemist, Jabir ibn Hayyan (the Latin Geber) who lived in the 8th century. Putting the cosmological and symbolic aspects of alchemy aside, one can assert that this art led to much experimentation with various materials and in the hands of Muhammad ibn Zakariyya’ al-Razi was converted into the science of chemistry. To this day certain chemical instruments such as the alembic (al-’anbiq) still bear the original Arabic names and the mercury-sulphur theory of Islamic alchemy remains as the foundation of the acid-base theory of chemistry. A1-Razi division of materials into animal, vegetable and mineral is still prevalent and a vast body of knowledge of materials accumulated by Islamic alch- mists and chemists has survived over the century’ in both East and West. For example the use of dyes in objects of Islamic art ranging from carpets to miniatures or the making of glass have much to do with this branch of learning which the West learn completely from Islamic sources since alchem was not studied and practiced in the West before the translation of Arabic texts into Latin in the 11th century.

Islam People » Chemistry In Islam

Chemistry In Islam