Jaber bin Hayyan
Is it fact or fiction?!
Dr.. Abdul Rahman bin Hassan Qaid
Jabir ibn Hayyan is a mysterious figure, dear to the news, and his biographies are scarce. Although his existence is accepted historically and this is subject to great doubt, the thousands of papers attributed to him in the field of chemistry and what is related to it are something that cannot be proven using the tools of independent scientific research.
Ibn Nubatah says: “As for the aforementioned Jabir ibn Hayyan, I do not know of a correct translation of it in a book whose transmission is reliable, and this is evidence of what most people say: It is a fabricated name that was put by authors in this art, and they claim that it was in the time of Jaafar al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, and that if he said: My master said to me, and I heard from my master, by which he meant Ja’far al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, and yet God Almighty knows its truth” ( [1] ).
Ibn Taymiyyah says: “As for Jabir ibn Hayyan, the author of the famous works of chemistry, he is unknown and is not known, and he is not mentioned among the people of knowledge or among the people of religion” ( [2] ), “And Jabir ibn Hayyan, to whom her works are attributed, is unknown and has a lot of confusion and contradiction” ( [ 3] ).
And the books of the Sunnis and their advanced scientific and historical sources are not the only ones that are devoid of it, for “the ancient Shiite books did not mention the name of Jabir ibn Hayyan in any chain of transmission of any hadith attributed to Jaafar al-Sadiq” ( [4] ), and despite their joy in him and their defense of him, they did not find him. Mentioned in their blogs, as Al-Khawansari says: “I have not yet been able to find a translation of it, specifically in any of the catalogs of the two groups” ( [5] ).
Among the evidence of the fabrication and falsity of this character and its use as a cover for spreading lies and falsehood is its attribution of the craft of chemistry and its Gnostic philosophy to Ja’far al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, and its claim that Jabir only received it from him, in the manner of the Shiites in attributing lies to him, and how often they lied to him and his family ( [6] ).
Al-Safadi said: “And I excommunicate Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq, may God bless him and grant him peace, from talking about chemistry, but this Satan wanted temptation by attributing it to saying it like Ja’far al-Sadiq, so that souls would receive it with acceptance ... And I found some eminent people having written on some of his works, either Al-Firdawsi or someone else:
This is the one who with his article ** deceived the early and the last
You are nothing but a breaker ** The one who called you Jabir lied” ( [7] ) .
It is unfortunate that the German orientalist Ruska was more correct, and closer to achieving history and understanding the nature of Islamic society in the first era, and what the scholars of the House of Prophethood in Medina were like in that era, than Professor Sezgin, who defended the myth that Jaafar al-Sadiq was engaged in this craft.
Ruska says: “If it is possible to imagine that Khalid bin Yazid had contacted Greek scientists in Alexandria or even in Damascus who had some knowledge of artificial sources, and perhaps even secretly conducted chemical experiments, then all the basic conditions were not available in the city and in The environment in which Jaafar lived. It was not possible for these pious people to attain any knowledge of practical or theoretical chemistry, neither through a natural path through personal contact, nor through a supernatural path through hidden revelation. It is impossible for one to imagine a person like Jaafar who one day worked in some way with a chemical furnace, a crucible, a gourd, an alembic, an athlete, sulfur, and mercury, or to imagine that he taught the transformation of metals to a student like Jabir. With this initial decision, all previous efforts to write the history of chemistry in confirming the link between Jabir ibn Hayyan and Jaafar al-Sadiq collapse. Thus, we should look at all of Jabir’s books that use Jaafar al-Sadiq as a teacher and professor, as falsehoods of a late era.
Professor Sezgin quoted him, and he did not answer more than that this is an objective view, and that he does not see anything preventing him historically from the fact that Jafar, in his time and in his surroundings, acquired knowledge in the craft of chemistry ( [8] ) , thus without evidence and without proof.
The doubt about Jabir and the disagreement about him and what is attributed to him is ancient, and Al-Nadim summarized it by saying: “The people differed about him, and the Shiites said: He is one of their elders and one of the doors, and they claimed that he was the companion of Jaafar Al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, and he was from the people of Kufa. Some philosophers claimed that he was one of them, and he wrote books on logic and philosophy. The people of the gold and silver industry claimed that the presidency came to him during his time, and that his affairs were kept secret, and they claimed that he was moving around countries without settling in any country for fear of gaining power over himself. It was said: He was among the Baramiks and was cut off from it and traced back to Ja’far ibn Yahya. Whoever claimed this said: He meant by his master Ja’far, he is the Barmaki. The Shiites said: He only meant Ja’far al-Sadiq, until he said: “And a group of scholars and prominent scholars said: This man -meaning Jabir- has no basis or truth. Some of them said: He did not compile, even if it had any truth, except the Book of Mercy, and that these compilations were classified by people and they were attributed to him. And I say: A virtuous man sits and labors over a book containing two thousand pages, labors his mind and mind by producing it, and labors his hand and body by copying it, then assigns it to someone else, whether it is present or nonexistent, a form of ignorance, and this does not last for anyone and does not fall under it for anyone who has been able to adorn it for a single hour. With knowledge, what benefit is there in this and what is the return? The man has a reality, his matter is clearer and more famous, and his classifications are greater and more numerous. This man has books on Shiite doctrines that I will cite in their appropriate places” ( [9] ).
What Al-Nadim ruled out for someone to classify a book and attribute it to it is not excluded if he had a purpose behind that to spread an idea and attribute it to an unknown person that cannot be verified, or a goal to spread falsehood by adding it to something non-existent and inaccessible. In history, there are examples of books that were attributed to others other than their authors for purposes and objectives. There are many, and from the “Messages of the Brotherhood of Purity” there is a close witness that has some significance.
Among the ancient texts in the anthology of books attributed to Jabir is the saying of Abu Suleiman Al-Laggi (d. 380): “Abu Al-Hasan Ibn Al-Nakad Al-Mawsili was my friend, and he was the one who wrote books and attributed them to Jabir Ibn Hayyan, and he would carry them to those obsessed with the chemistry industry, and he would compile sentences from them.” Valid dirhams” ( [10] ) .
The controversy regarding Jabir and his craftsmanship still exists between some orientalists who like to ignore Arab science and their cognitive achievements, and some fanatical researchers to prove the leadership of their science with truth and falsehood, truth and falsehood, and those who are fair between these and those are few ( [11] ) .
This is a significant disagreement. “The issue of accepting or refuting the validity of Jabir’s collection is one of the most important dilemmas in the history of Arab natural sciences, the solution of which will have an impact on the rest of the fields of Arab science” ( [12] ).
We return to the context of those who say that chemistry is possible among scholars in the order of the dates of their deaths. We only mention their notables, pointing to them with brief indicative signs. If we were to go and investigate everyone who was reported to have corrected chemistry or worked with it, we would have extended our position and departed from what we are aiming for in terms of brevity ( [13] ) .
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( [1] ) “Sarh al-Uyoun” by Ibn Nubatah (225).
( [2] ) “Majmu’ al-Fatawa” (29/374).
( [3] ) “Shariah Policy” (230).
( [4] ) “The Link Between Sufism and Shiism” by Kamel Al-Shaibi (1/292).
( [5] ) “Rawdat Al-Jannat” by Al-Khawansari (2/218).
( [6] ) See what follows in Ibn al-Qayyim’s treatise (the thirteenth evidence) and the commentary on it.
( [7] ) “Al-Wafi bi al-Wafiyat” (11/34).
( [8] ) “History of Arab Heritage” (191-195 - Volume Four, Alchemy and Chemistry).
( [9] ) “Al-Fahrist” (2/1/451, 452).
( [10] ) “The Garden of Doctors” by Asaad Ibn Al-Mutran (53).
( [11] ) See: “Science among the Arabs and its impact on the development of global science” by Aldomili (100), “An Introduction to the History of Science” by Sarton (80-83, 69), and “The History of the Arabs” by Philip Hitti (2/325, 464 ), “The Civilization of Islam and its Impact on Global Progress” by Jalal Mazhar (272-284), and “The History of Arab Thought” by Ismail Mazhar (67-83), the origins of which are two articles in Al-Muqtataf (May and June 1926), and “ The Complete History of Science among the Arabs.” » by Muhammad Abd al-Rahman Marhaba (314 - 321), “Arab Alchemy” by George Kanawati (1105 - History of Arab Sciences), “History of Science among the Arabs” by Omar Farroukh (243), and “In Our Arab and Islamic Heritage” by Tawfiq al-Tawil (59 – 60, 146, 208), “Arabs and Science” by Tawfiq Al-Tawil (40), “From the History of Atheism in Islam” by Abdul Rahman Badawi (189, 191, 192), and “Chemistry and Chemists in the Arab Scientific Heritage” by Farhat Al-Darisi ( 221), “The Cognitive Dimensions of the Chemistry of Jabir ibn Hayyan” by Yumna Al-Khouli in her book “Researches in the History of Science among the Arabs” (49), and “Jabir ibn Hayyan” by Zaki Najib Mahmoud (11-12, 19, 21-26), and “Imam al-Sadiq, the Inspirer of Chemistry” by Muhammad Yahya al-Hashemi (38-170), “The emergence of natural sciences among Muslims in the Umayyad era” by Lutfullah Qari (104-110, 183-188), and “Jabir bin Hayyan and his influence on chemistry” by Abdul Hamid. Ahmed is included in the book “The First Arab Scientific Conference in Alexandria in 1953” (106-108), “Jaber Ibn Hayyan” by Ahmed Fouad Al-Ahwani, Al-Majalla Magazine (Issue 37, January 1, 1960), and “Jaber Ibn Hayyan The Myth and Scientific Truth” by Abdel Qader Mahmoud, Cairo University Journal in Khartoum (Issue 2, 1971), and others.
( [12] ) “History of the Arab Heritage” (15 – Volume Four, Alchemy and Chemistry).
( [13] ) Among those whom I did not mention here briefly (in no order or editing): Asaad bin Othman bin Asaad bin Al-Manja , Muhammad bin Ishaq Abu Al-Anbas Al-Saymari, Ali bin Abi Al-Qasim Muhammad Abu Al-Hassan Al-Tamimi Al-Maghribi Al-Qasantini, Yahya bin Tamim, Emir of Mahdia, and Abdullah. Ibn Ahmad Al-Malqi Al-Nabati, Ali Ibn Al-Hasan Al-Khatib Ibn Al-Jabi, Qudamah Ibn Jaafar Al-Katib, Ghassan Ibn Ubaid Al-Mawsili, Abu Al-Qasim Al-Katib Ghulam Abi Al-Hasan Al-Amiri, Abu Al-Tayyib Al-Kheima’i Al-Razi, Abu Ali Al-Maghribi Al-Zahid, Abdullah Ibn Abdullah Al-Andalusi, known as Al-Barqi, and Ibn Al-Dhahabi Abu Muhammad Abdullah bin Muhammad Al-Azdi, Balmuzaffar Nasr bin Mahmoud bin Al-Ma’rif, Abu Al-Fadl Abdul-Moneim bin Omar bin Abdullah bin Hassan Al-Ghassani, Al-Kamal bin Yunus Al-Mawsili, Muhammad bin Ali bin Abi Al-Azaqir, Jamal Al-Din bin Sheith, the author of the composition, and Omar bin Maudud bin Omar Abu Al-Barakat Al-Farsi, Kamal Al-Din Abdul Rahman bin Masoud Al-Baghdadi, Abu Al-Atiq Abu Bakr bin Al-Faqih Muhammad bin Al-Qadi Omar Al-Hazzaz, Ali bin Musa bin Ali Al-Ansari Al-Salmi Al-Jiani, and Abdul-Rahman bin Omar bin Ahmed bin Hebatullah bin Muhammad bin Abi Jarada And Ali bin Ahmad bin Abi Al-Fadl Al-Hashemi Al-Wasiti Al-Muqri, Ibrahim bin Khalaf bin Mansour Abu Ishaq Al-Ghassani, Abdul-Hafiz bin Badran bin Shibl bin Tarkhan, Ibn Abi Al-Dharr Al-Ruba’i Al-Baghdadi, Ibrahim bin Abdullah Al-Khalati, Al-Hussein Al-Khalati Al-Lazurdi, and Bilal Al-Habashi Al-Imadi Al-Halabi, Ibn al-Habashi, Muhammad bin Ibrahim bin Badr, and Muhammad bin al-Sharaf al-Qudsi al-Katib, and among the princes and ministers: Al-Duwidar Mujahid al-Din Aybak, the Baktut of Prince Badr al-Din al-Qarmani, and the minister Jamal al-Din Abu Jaafar, known as al-Jawad.
One of the last contemporaries I saw who still insists on the possibility and realization of chemistry is Abdel Wahab Al-Qanawati. See his lecture “Working Gold by the Industrial Method” in the “Journal of the Scientific Academy in Damascus” (Volume 6, Part 9, 1926, pp. 395-396, 398, 402, 405).
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