Alchemy, 1, 30 Alexandrian, 5, 6 Arabic

It is scarcely surprising that Hermes, whether or not qualified as Trismegistus, was considered as the founder of alchemy as early as Alexandrian times. Greek, which is to say Alexandrian, alchemy certainly disappeared towards the sixth century, but from the seventh and eighth centuries onwards the Arabs took up the thread. 

It is generally accepted that alchemy began in China around 140 BC. In 1144, it appeared in Europe hy way of translations made in Spain from Arabic works Partington asserts that the Arabic name alchemy is merely the Alexandrian-Greek chemeia with the Arabic definite article al prefixed. Both Roger Bacon and Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus) wrote about it in 1250. ... 

Though alchemy refers to an Alexandrian practice, the word actually has Arabic origins, so it is used rather prematurely here. Al is an article in Arabic, and alchemy is derived from alchymia, which means the chymia— a general word for the practice of chemistry. 

Muslim rulers also patronized Alexandrian refugee scholars, and they had the works of Plato, Aristotle, Galen, pseudo-Democritus, Zosimos, and others translated into Arabic. In this way Arabs came into contact with the practice of alchemy and quickly made it their own. The main contribution of the Arabs to alchemy was to tone down the mystical and to take an approach more akin to the practical approach of the early Alexandrian alchemists. Perhaps the Arabs felt less compelled to invoke magic to attain results because they were as interested in the process as in the goal. Whatever the reason, the alchemy eventually inherited by Europe used methods that had come back down to earth. 

It is well known that the Arabs had contacts with the Chinese via the Silk Road, the great trade route between China and the Mediterranean. It is notable that the concept of the elixir of lifey a medicine with the power to prolong life, is found in Islamic alchemy, but is entirely absent from its Alexandrian precursor. The transmission of this idea from China is highly likely. It is also possible that the word chemistry is derived from the Chinese word for gold. The best representation for the sound this word made in the early Chinese dialects is probably kimy from which the Arabs could have derived their word al-kimiyOy from which in turn the Europeans obtained the words alchemy and chemistry. An alternative theory is that the Arabs derived al-kimiya from Khemy which means Black Landy and is the ancient name for Egypt. 

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