Alchemy, Arabic

The word alcohol, like alchemy, has its origins in the Middle East. The Arabs are said to have made cosmetic paints by heating and vaporizing a mixture of compounds. The residue was used to paint eyeUds and called "kohl." When they later heated wines, they gave the product the same name as the cosmetic "kohl" or "al kohl." The word whiskey is said to be derived from the Celtic "uisge baugh" or "water of life."... 

Coming." At this time eschatological discourse was co-opted into the service of the esoteric sciences, most especially into alchemical theory in the twelfth century Latin translation of the Turba philosophorum (Arabic original ca. 900 AD). Christian interpolations were added to this text referring to the death and resurrection of the chemicals in apocalyptic terms." The process of distillation in Christian alchemy symbolised death and resurrection, as well as the union of Macrocosm and Microcosm. To the alchemists the death and resurrection of the stone in the manner of a human being was the clearest indication that alchemy was a divine, not a human science. 

Ibn Bishrun. "Treatise on alchemy." In The Muqaddimah an introduction to history, translatedfrom the Arabic by Franz Rosenthal, ed. Ibn-Khaldun. Routledge Kegan Paul Pantheon, 1958Thttp // www.levitv.com/alchemv/a-archive apr99,html1. 

Sezgin, Fuat.Chemistry and alchemy texts and studies. Frankfurt am Main Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, 2002-. 

An-Nadim. [Kitab al-Fihrist]. The Arabic literature on alchemy according to An-Nadim (A.D. 987) a translation of the tenth discourse of The book of the catalogue (Al-Fihrist) with introduction and commentary by J.W.Fiick. Ambix 4, no. 3-4 (Feb 1951) 81-144. 

Umail, Muhammad ibn. Three Arabic treatises on alchemy by Muhammad ibn Umail (10th century M. Turab All, H.E. Stapleton M. Hidayat Husain. Mem AsiatSoc Bengal 12 (1933) 1-213. 

Debus, Allen George. The Geber tradition in Western alchemy and chemistry. J Hist Arabic Sci 8 (1984) 3-29. 

While no book on the subject could be exhaustive, The Bathhouse at Midnight does describe and assess all the literary sources of magic, witchcraft, astrology, alchemy, and divination from Kiev Rus and Imperial Russia, and to some extent Ukraine and Belorussia. Where possible, Ryan identifies the sources of the texts (usually Greek, Arabic, or West European) and makes parallels to other cultures, ranging from classical antiquity to Finnic. He finds that Russia shares most of its magic and divination with the rest of Europe... 

Anawati, Georges C. "Arabic alchemy." In Encyclopedia of the history of Arabic science, eds. Rushdi Rashid and Regis Morelon. London, New York Routledge, 1996. 

Burnett, Charles. The astrologers assay of the alchemist early references to alchemy in Arabic and Latin texts. Ambix 39, no. 3 (Nov 1992) 103-109. 

I would like to introduce some references to the term alchemy in Arabic and Latin texts which historians of alchemy seem to have overlooked up to now, but which would seem to have a bearing on the introduction of alchemy both into the Islamic and into the Christian world. ... 

Hamarneh, Sami K. Arabic-Islamic alchemy three intertwined stages. Ambix 29, no. 2 (Jul 1982) 74-87. 

Haschimi, Mohammed Yahia. The beginning of Arab alchemy. Ambix 9, no. 3 (Oct 1961) 155-161. 

Haschimi, Mohammed Yahia. "Ion exchange in Arabic alchemy." In CIHS10,1, 541-544.. ... 

Mahdihassan, S. The beginning of alchemy, its first preparation and the earliest designation of the alchemist in Arabic as Sufi. Aligarh J Or Stud 4, no. 2 (1987) 123-DO. 

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Islamic alchemy and the birth of chemistry. J Hist Arabic Sci 3 (1979) 40-45. 

Needham, Joseph. "Contributions of China, India, and the Hellenistic-Syrian world to Arabic alchemy." In Prismata... Festschrift fur Willy Hartner, eds. Y. Maeyama and W.G. Saltzer, 247-267. Wiesbaden Steiner, 1977. 

Needham, Joseph. Theoretical influences of China on Arabic alchemy. Revista da Universidade de Coimbra 28 (1980) 1-28. 

Ryding, Karin Christina. "The heritage of Arabic alchemy The multicultural matrix." In Perspectives arabes et medie ales sur la tradition scientifique et philosophique grecque, ed. Ahmad Hasnawi, 235-248. Leuven Peeters, 1997. 

Temkin, Owsei. Medicine and Graeco-Arabic alchemy. Bull Hist Med 29, no. 2 (Mar-Apr 1955) 134-153. 

Maria the Jewess Pt. 3 The Early Arab World Abufalah s Alchemy A Hebrew Version of the Book of Alums and Salts Pseudo-Khalid ibn Yazid Pt. 4 The Eleventh to Thirteenth Centuries Artephius The Great Jewish Philosophers Kabbalah and Alchemy A Reconsideration Pt. 5 The Fourteenth Century Raymund de Tarrega Marrano,... 

Mahdihassan, S. Alchemy and its fundamental terms in Greek, Arabic, Sanskit and Chinese. Indian J Hist Sci 16, no. 1 (1981) 64-76. 

Mahdihassan, S. Alchemy in the light of its names in Arabic, Sanskrit and Greek. Janus 49 (1960) 79-100. 

This has a substantial section on alchemy and amongst other matters discusses various links between Chinese, Arabic and Western alchemy" (AM)... 

Glick, Thomas F. From the Sarton papers Paul Kraus and arabic alchemy. 

It Led to the Institutionalisation of Arabic Studies At Oxford and Cambridge Universities Where Arabic Chairs Were Set Up and Immense Manuscript Collections Were Established and Utilised. Fourteen Historians Examine the Extent and Sources of This Arabic Interest in Areas Ranging From Religion, Astronomy, Mathematics, Medicine, Philosophy and From Alchemy to Botany"... 

This paper discusses the various names that were given to potassium nitrate in Arabic, and the equivalent words that were used in Latin. In investigating this subject the following question was posed what were the names of potassium nitrate in Arabic before the word barud became common Because the term barud was applied in Arabic to potassium nitrate in the thirteenth century, some historians of science and technology assumed that familiarity with potassium nitrate in Arabic chemistry and alchemy dates from the thirteenth century only"... 

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