Jabir bin Hayyan was born in 721 A.D. in the Persian city of Tus. He gained excellence in the fields of Alchemy, Astronomy, Physics, Pharmacy, Philosophy, Astrology, and Geography. He has been found to acknowledge the early works of Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, and Pythagoras, as well as, the prominent Muslim jurist Imam Jafar as-Sadiq’s knowledge on alchemy, chemistry, philosophy, and astronomy.
Achievements:
Jabir bin Hayyan
prepared chemicals, discovered many acids, and prepared, as well as, improved
many chemical processes. He stressed the significance of experimenting one’s
theory, and this is why we see a lot of inventions and discoveries made by him.
In fact, he was the one who introduced experimental techniques in the field of
chemistry.
He gave a detailed
description of acetic acid, tartaric acid, and citric acid. Discovery of
hydrochloric acid, sulphuric acid, and nitric acid are few of the greatest contributions
made by Jabir bin Hayyan. He combined nitric acid with the hydrochloric acid
and invented another acid termed today as “Aqua Regia”. The latter is strong
enough to dissolve gold.
He discovered
chemical procedures as significant as crystallization, melting, distillation,
calcination, reduction, liquidation, and sublimation. Dyeing of cloth and
leather, as well as, preparation of steel are also associated with this great
Islamic scientist. His division of substance into three different classes worked
as the basis for modern day classification of metals and non metals.
He worked hard for
devising methods to refine and purify metals. We get to know from his works
that he was dedicated towards finding out the individual properties of
elements. Preparation of antimony, basic lead carbonate, and arsenic from their
respective sulphides also connects back to Jabir bin Hayyan.
According to
historians, Jabir respected his mentor Imam Jafar As-Sadiq a lot. To fulfil his
teacher’s desire, Jabir bin Hayyan made revolutionary inventions including;
- A Substance that
could rust proof iron surfaces, while waterproof cloth.
- A paper that
couldn’t catch fire.
- An ink which could
be seen and read in the dark (at night time).
Books
and Treatises:
Around
3000 books and treatises are attributed to the name of Jabir bin Hayyan. The
topics are diverse in nature; ranging from music, magic, philosophy, logic and
metaphysics to chemistry, alchemy, physics, medicine, astrology, geography, and
astronomy.
The “Book of Seventy”
is a collection of his various works like “Book of Venus”. Other noteworthy
works of Jabir bin Hayyan include Book of Stones, Book of 112, Composition of
Alchemy, Kitaab-ur-Rahmah, and Kitab-ut-Tajmee.
His
research has been translated to many European languages, and has been used in
western educational institutions for centuries. This is why he is called the
‘Father of Modern Chemistry’.
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