Al-Kimiya: Notes on Arabic Alchemy

Detail from a miniature from Ibn Butlan's Risalat da`wat al-atibba. Courtesy of the L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art, Jerusalem.

By Gabriele Ferrario

Note: Arabic words in this article are given in a simplified transliteration system: no graphical distinction is made among long and short vowels and emphatic and non-emphatic consonants. The expression “Arabic alchemy” refers to the vast literature on alchemy written in the Arabic language. Among those defined as “Arabic alchemists” we therefore find scholars of different ethnic origins—many from Persia—who produced their works in the Arabic language.

According to the 10th-century scholar Ibn Al-Nadim, the philosopher Muhammad ibn Zakariya Al-Razi (9th century) claimed that “the study of philosophy could not be considered complete, and a learned man could not be called a philosopher, until he has succeeded in producing the alchemical transmutation.” For many years Western scholars ignored Al-Razi’s praise for alchemy, seeing alchemy instead as a pseudoscience, false in its purposes and fundamentally wrong in its methods, closer to magic and superstition than to the “enlightened” sciences. Only in recent years have pioneering studies conducted by historians of science, philologists, and historians of the book demonstrated the importance of alchemical practices and discoveries in creating the foundations of modern chemistry. A new generation of scholarship is revealing not only the extent to which early modern chemistry was based on alchemical practice but also the depth to which European alchemists relied on Arabic sources. Yet scholars are only beginning to scratch the surface of Arabic alchemy: a general history based on direct sources still has to be written, and an enormous number of Arabic alchemical manuscripts remain unread and unedited—sometimes not even cataloged—in Middle Eastern and European libraries. This brief survey is offered in hopes of giving Chemical Heritage’s readers a glimpse into this fascinating yet largely unexplored world.

The Origins of Arabic Alchemy

In the 7th century the Arabs started a process of territorial expansion that quickly brought them empire and influence ranging from India to Andalusia. Fruitful contacts with ancient cultural traditions were a natural consequence of this territorial expansion, and Arabic culture proved ready to absorb and reinterpret much of the technical and theoretical innovations of previous civilizations. This was certainly the case with respect to alchemy, which had been practiced and studied in ancient Greece and Hellenistic Egypt. The Arabs arrived in Egypt to find a substantial alchemical tradition; early written documents testify that Egyptian alchemists had developed advanced practical knowledge in the fields of pharmacology and metal, stone, and glass working. The first translations of alchemical treatises from Greek and Coptic sources into Arabic were reportedly commissioned by Khalid ibn Yazid, who died around the beginning of the 8th century. By the second part of that century Arabic knowledge of alchemy was already far enough advanced to produce the Corpus Jabirianum— an impressively large body of alchemical works attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan. The Corpus, together with the alchemical works of Al-Razi, marks the creative peak of Arabic alchemy.

As is typical in the chain of transmission of ancient knowledge, the origins of alchemy are steeped in legend, and the links of this chain are either mythical or real authorities in the fields of ancient science and philosophy. The doctrines on which Arabic alchemy relied derived from the multicultural milieu of Hellenistic Egypt and included a mixture of local, Hebrew, Christian, Gnostic, ancient Greek, Indian, and Mesopotamian influences.

The presence of the Arabic definite article al in alchemy is a clear indication of the Arabic roots of the word. Hypotheses about the etymology of the Arabic term al-kimiya hint at the possible sources for early alchemical knowledge in the Arab world. One of the most plausible hypotheses traces the origin of the word back to the Egyptian word kam-it or kem-it, which indicated the color black and, by extension, the land of Egypt, known as the Black Land. Another hypothesis links kimiya to a Syriac transliteration of the Greek word khumeia or khemeia, meaning the art of melting metals and of producing alloys.

A third interesting but far-fetched etymology suggests that the word al-kimiya derives from the Hebrew kim Yah, meaning “divine science.” The idea of a connection between the origins of alchemical knowledge and the Jews was widespread among medieval Arabic alchemists, who saw in this etymology a possible confirmation of their belief. These alchemists tended to attribute the mythical origins of alchemy alternately to the angels who rose against God, to the patriarch Enoch, to King Solomon, or to other biblical characters who taught humankind the secrets of minerals and metals. This interpretive strategy dignified the origins of alchemy and attributed alchemical books pseudepigraphically to authorities of the past, providing a safe mechanism for spreading alchemical knowledge, which could otherwise be persecuted for its proximity to magic.

In contrast with the modern term alchemy, the word al-kimiya lacks abstract meaning. Rather than designating the complex of practical and theoretical knowledge we now refer to as alchemy, it was used to describe the substance through which base metals could be transmuted into noble ones. In Arabic alchemical books al-kimiya tended to be a synonym of al-iksir (elixir) and was frequently used with the more general meaning of a “medium for obtaining something.” Expressions like kimiya al-sa‘ada (the way of obtaining happiness), kimiya al-ghana (the way of obtaining richness), and kimiya alqulub (the way of touching hearts) testify to the broad meaning of this word. What we now call alchemy was called by other words: san‘at al-kimiya or san‘at al-iksir (the art or production of the elixir), ‘ilm al-sina‘a (the knowledge of the art or production), al-hikma (the wisdom), al-‘amal al-a‘zam (the great work), or simply al-sana‘a. Arabic alchemists called themselves kimawi, kimi, kimiya’i, san‘awi, or iksiri.

The contribution of Arabic alchemists to the history of alchemy is profound. They excelled in the field of practical laboratory experience and offered the first descriptions of some of the substances still used in modern chemistry. Muriatic (hydrochloric) acid, sulfuric acid, and nitric acid are discoveries of Arabic alchemists, as are soda (al-natrun) and potassium (al-qali). The words used in Arabic alchemical books have left a deep mark on the language of chemistry: besides the word alchemy itself, we see Arabic influence in alcohol (al-kohl), elixir (al-iksir), and alembic (al-inbiq). Moreover, Arabic alchemists perfected the process of distillation, equipping their distilling apparatuses with thermometers in order to better regulate the heating during alchemical operations. Finally, the discovery of the solvent later known as aqua regia—a mixture of nitric and muriatic acids—is reported to be one of their most important contributions to later alchemy and chemistry.

Arabic books on alchemy stimulated theoretical reflections on the power and the limits of humans to change matter. Moreover, we have the Arabic alchemical tradition to thank for transmitting the legacy of the ancient and Hellenistic worlds to the Latin West.

Theoretical Assumptions

The alchemical authorities most often quoted as sources in Arabic alchemical texts were Greek philosophers, such as Pythagoras, Archelaus, Socrates, and Plato. During the Middle Ages, Aristotle himself was considered the authentic author of the fourth book of Meteorologica, which deals extensively with the physical interactions of earthly phenomena, and of one letter on alchemy addressed to his pupil Alexander the Great. Arabic language sources also quoted Hermes, the supposed repository of the knowledge God gave to man before the Deluge and to whom legend attributes the famous Tabula smaragdina (Emerald Tablet); Agathodaimon; Ostanes, the Persian magician; Mary the Jewess (probably 3rd century), for whom the bain marie (akin to a double boiler) is named; and Zosimus of Panopolis (3rd–4th centuries), believed to be the author of an alchemical encyclopedia in 28 books. Indeed, Zosimus is said to have introduced religious and mystical elements into the alchemical discourse: his books meld Egyptian magic, Greek philosophy, Neoplatonism, Babylonian astrology, Christian theology, pagan mythology, and doctrines of Hebrew origin in a highly symbolic writing full of allusions to the interior transformations of the alchemist’s soul.

Arabic alchemists largely worked from an Aristotelian theory of the formation of matter in which the four elementary qualities (heat, coldness, dryness, and moisture) generate first-degree compounds (hot, cold, dry, and moist), which, in turn, combine in pairs, acquire matter, and generate the four elements: hot + dry + matter = fire; hot + moist + matter = air; cold + moist + matter = water; cold + dry + matter = earth. Everything on earth consists of varying proportions of these four elements. A particularly clear explanation of how alchemists made sense of Aristotelian theory can be found in the pseudo-Avicennian treatise De Anima in arte alchimiae (Basel, 1572), an alchemical work probably of Arabic origins that survives only in Latin translation. According to this treatise, every existing body is a compound of the four elements: if a body is defined as cold and dry, this means that the qualities of coldness and dryness predominate, while heat and moisture occur in minor proportions and thus remain concealed. An external cause—either natural or artificial—could generate a change in the structure of the body, rebalancing the natural proportion of its external and internal qualities, thereby changing its appearance. The alchemist in his laboratory seeks to artificially overturn the balance of qualities in the body he is trying to transmute by adding or removing heat, coldness, dryness, or moisture.