The Legend of Jabir Ibn Hayyan, the Great Alchemist of the Islamic World

 Jabir bin Hayyan (721, 815 AD)

Exhortation

"He who does not base his knowledge on experience makes mistakes."

The period of development of present science starts from eighteenth century . From the 5th century AD to the 11th century , the deep darkness of ignorance covered Europe. The ancient scholars of Greece and Rome had left science in the state it was in six hundred years before the rise of Islam. This was the time when scholars and scientists like Jabir bin Hayyan and after him Bu Ali Sina, Ishq al-Razi, Ali bin Ishq Mahmud Masah and Masami were born. Who did research on new bases in sciences like medicine, chemistry, physics, mathematics, philosophy and logic. These Muslim scientists not only made full use of the knowledge of these ancient scholars but brought it to such an extent that from the eleventh century  to the eighteenth century , their books were the last letter and they are the dog of Europe. And it was taught as a curriculum in all medical schools and colleges in the Middle East.

Jabir was born in a time of political upheaval. Banuamiyyah was in power. But the people had turned against him. The movement to bring Banu Abbas to power instead of Banuamiyyah was in full swing and Banuamiyyah was killing their enemies. Iran's northern province of Khorasan was the main center of conspiracies against Banuamiya. At the same time, one Attar Hayan of Kufa, who was also an active member of this movement, took refuge in the city of Tus in Khorasan. Some time later, in 721 AD, his son was born in the city. Which was named "Jabir".

Shortly after Jaber's birth, his father was executed by the government. Little Jaber's mother came to Arabia with her child and started living in her tribe. When the orphan Jabir grew up, his mother entrusted him to a worthy teacher "Harbi" for education. This teacher taught Jabir the Holy Quran, mathematics and other sciences. Jaber's teacher was extremely appreciative of his intelligence. He realized that if the oppressor gets adequate opportunities for education, he will one day prove to be the only one in knowledge and wisdom. So Jabir continued his education on the advice and courage of the teacher. Not only achieved perfection in Islamic sciences, Arabic, wisdom, mathematics etc. but also learned Greek and transferred Greek sciences directly to Arabic. In 847 AD, when the movement against Banuamiyyah succeeded and Banubas came to power, Jabra left his tribe and came to Medina. Pledged allegiance to Hazrat Imam Jafar Sadiq and joined his circle. This was the result that Jabir was a scientist as well as a religious person and scholar.

When Harun al-Rashid sat on the throne of the kingdom, his

The minister invited Jahir to Baghdad and attached him to his government.

Meanwhile, he had the opportunity to attend the court of Caliph Harun al-Rashid several times, so he wrote the book on chemistry in the name of Caliph Harun al-Rashid. In 803 AD, when the minister who brought Jabir to Baghdad was killed. So Jabir left Baghdad and came to Kufa. and engaged in chemical research and composition. Jaber was the first to regularly use chemical processes such as sublimation, crystallization, etc. in his experiments and researched them and discovered their best methods.

Jabir was well aware of the process of Reduction and Oxidation and its utility. He wrote a book of his own on the process of Taklis or boat making and in it he has fully discussed the chemical process. In his Alchemy books, Jaber has written recipes for making steel from pig iron, forging, cleaning metals, making waterproof cloth and paper, making varnish, blackening hair and many other useful items. It can be estimated that in such a time when the knowledge of chemistry was very limited compared to the present time. To prepare in such a thing, the preparation of which is sometimes very difficult even today and requires technical skill and ability to make them, is the proof of his high knowledge and effortless technical skill.

Jabir bin Hayyan made many alchemical instruments. The present day car start (Reton) is actually the invention of Jaber Bin Hayan. Whom he named Qura Anbiq. This device consisted of two separate vessels. One of them was called Qura and the other Nabiq. A similar device can be seen with sages today.

The qaara was usually in the shape of a srahhi, on which the anbiq was fitted. Extracts of various medicines were distilled from Qara Anbiq. Jaber discovered ammonia case, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, ab sultani and numerous other compounds. Regarding ammonia, he writes in one of his books, Beta is a strong smelling gas that has the property of inducing tears. Jaber used alum, ferric sulphate and penumbra in the preparation of sand. In one of his books, he writes about pen noise:

"I put some alum, ferrous sulphate and pen-shor in Qara's mouth and closed his mouth with a tube.

I put it on the fire of coals and after a while I saw that due to the action of heat brown vapors were coming out of the bulb.

 These vapors condense in the outer vessel and turn into a liquid state. But the liquid was so strong that it made holes in the copper vessel.

 I tried to collect it in a silver bowl, but that too was punctured by the liquid, and the tube itself was damaged and discolored. When I put this liquid on my finger, my finger burned and I was in pain for several days. I named this liquid acid. And since pen noise is dominant in its acceleration, it would be appropriate to call it acid of pen noise. Among the common items, one is gold and the other is glass, these are the two items I have found which are not affected by this acid.

 Jabir bin Hayyan by this method of drawing. Another acid was prepared by heating Alum and hyraxis. And named it Herasis acid or Herasis oil. He wrote that it digests the liquid and later its color turns black. When water is added to it, a lot of heat is generated in the liquid. Nowadays, this acid is called sulfuric acid. But Jaber did not know at that time that it was related to sulphur. That is why he kept calling it the oil of Hyraxis. 

In the process of making acid, Jaber made three successful experiments with Qara Anbiq. From the first experiment he made nitric acid. From another experiment he prepared sulfuric acid. In his third experiment, he discovered an acid which was stronger than the above two acids by adding ammonium chloride. And this acid used to turn the gold into liquid. Since gold was the royal metal, this acid was named "royal water" or Ma'al-ul-Muluk, meaning king of water. In English it is called Aqua Regia. Today we know that this water is actually a mixture of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid, but at that time Jahir was not aware of this fact. In Jabir's time, the entire universe of chemistry was alchemy. This was the knowledge through which efforts were made to convert low value metals like mercury, copper etc. into gold. Although Jabir believed that base metals could be converted into gold, he did not limit his research and experiments to this endeavour.

Jabra was a great scientist and the founder of experimental chemistry, he gave the most importance to practice in his books and that is why he is considered as one of the prominent scientists of ancient times. In one of his books he describes

“Experience is very important in chemistry, those who do not base their knowledge on experience always make mistakes.

So if you want to get the correct knowledge of chemistry, then depend on the experiments and know the correct knowledge which is proved correct by the experiment. The greatness of a chemist is not in what he has studied? Rather, it is based on what he has proven through experiments”.

In the eleventh century, when the area of ​​Kufa, which was located inside the Dashki gate and had been turned into ruins, was excavated, traces of Jabir's laboratory were found and some of his chemical equipments were also found.

Jabir was not only an outstanding chemist, but also a physicist, mathematician and scholar. He wrote treatises on Euclid's "Geometry" and Ptolemy's "Majidi". Also wrote books on logic, poetry and reflection. Jabir lived a long life and died in Kufa in 815 during the reign of Mamun al-Rashid. He was 95 years old at the time of his death.