Jabir ibn Hayyan, known in the West as Geber, is the reputed author of an extensive body of Arabic writings significant for their codification of alchemical knowledge and their transmission of Greek philosophy. The writings date from the late 8th and early 9th centuries; some may actually have been written by Jabir, but most others are the works of an Arabic school. The Latin alchemical writings under the name of Geber are of separate origin.
The works of the Jabir corpus cover all subjects--philosophy, linguistics, astrology, magic, cosmology, theology, metaphysics, the liberal arts, medicine, agriculture, and technology--but alchemy predominates. This alchemy is based on the assumption that there is a natural law working in nature, according to which everything has a specific property. Alchemy deals with the relationships between these properties, how substances are used as medicines, and combinations of substances.
Nicholas H. Clulee
Bibliography: Geber, Geber, the Arabian Prince and Philosopher: His Book of the Invention of Verity, trans. by R. Russell (1989).
Last modified on: Friday, October 17, 1997.