Jabir ibn Hayyan, Father of Arabic alchemy: Scholar in Islamic History

Scholar

ScholarFather of Arabic alchemy

Jabir ibn Hayyanجابر بن حيان

c. 721-815 CE (traditional)Traditional date, disputedKufa

The name behind a huge body of early Arabic chemistry, much of it written by later hands.

Tradition places him in Kufa in the 8th century as a student of Ja'far al-Sadiq. Works under his name describe distillation, crystallisation and new substances, and their Latin translations shaped European chemistry.

What grew out of it?

Words such as alkali and alembic reached Europe through this tradition.

Who else is linked?

Kufa Ja'far al-Sadiq Abbasid Caliphate

Who lived at the same time?

Al-Mansur Abd al-Rahman I Al-Mahdi Al-Saffah Al-Hadi Marwan ibn Muhammad Idris I Charlemagne

Source: history · Wikipedia

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