Brethren of Purity

Arabic alchemy was unknown in the west until the eleventh century when the first translations from Arabic into Latin were made. Two Arab alchemists were especially well known and widely read Jabir ibn Hayyan, known to Europeans as Geber, and Abu Bakr ibn Zakariyya al-Razi, known as Rhazes. Of more than 2,000 pieces of writing attributed to Jabir, most were compiled by a Muslim religious sect called the Faithful Brethren or Brethren of Purity after he died. The works are written in different styles, which would indicate that they were penned by different authors. The compilation was completed around the year 1000, more than a hundred years after Jabir died. However, it has been established that the work translated into Latin under the title Summa Perfectionis was based on translations of Jabir s writing. Thus, although little is known about his life, we know something about the role Jabir played in the evolution of alchemical theory. 

As an Arab alchemist Jabir believed in the value of experimentation, but he could not completely avoid the mystical influences prevalent in his day. The Jabir Corpus, originally credited to Jabir, is written in a heavily mystical style, but the standard methods of crystallization, calcination, solution, sublimation, and reduction are clearly discussed, as well as such diverse processes as the preparation of steel and hair dye. Although Jabir probably produced some of the writings, all the works ascribed to him could not have done by one person, and these were probably really the collected works of a secret society called the Faithful Brethren or Brethren of Purity. In addition the work appears to have been completed around 1000, while the person identified as Jabir died in the 800s different parts of the work are also written in different styles, as would occur with different authors. Some later Latin books were credited to Geber, a latinized form of Jabir, but they do not have an Arabic counterpart, and these were probably written after 1100. 

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