ARABIC CHEMISTRY 



By E. J. HOLMYARD, B.A., M.R.A.S. 

 Head of the Science Department, Clifton College 



It is astonishing to find how very Httle definite knowledge we 

 possess of the development of chemistry in the period of Islamic 

 pre-eminence, a period which may roughly be taken as extend- 

 ing over seven centuries from the date of the Flight of the 

 Prophet Muhammad to Medina in a.d. 622. Up to the last 

 decade of the nineteenth century, the early Arabs (or rather 

 Arabic-writing authors) enjoyed an extravagant reputation as 

 chemists, largely on the basis of certain thirteenth and four- 

 teenth century Latin works which were considered to be 

 translations from the Arabic. When, however, in ^ 1893, 

 Berthelot published his book. La Chimie au Moyen Age, in 

 which he cast doubt upon the supposed Arabic origin of many 

 of these mediaeval Latin alchemical works, the pendulum 

 immediately swung to the other extreme and appears to have 

 been fixed there ever since. 



To those of us who believe that a knowledge of the history 

 of chemistry is not only fascinating in itself, but also an 

 essential factor in the successful development of the science, 

 the lack of information on one of the most fruitful periods of 

 its growth is very disappointing. It is nevertheless true that 

 less than 4 per cent, of the extant Arabic chemical treatises 

 have been published, and that even this small number includes 

 only one work of prime importance. This neglect of Arabic 

 chemistry may be explained by the fact that none of the leading 

 European Arabists has been a chemist, and also in part by the 

 disrepute into which alchemy has fallen. The rich literary 

 treasures of the language of the Qur'an have left scholars no 

 time for the scientific works, and the chemists seem to have 

 imagined that Arabic chemistry is " alchemy " and therefore 

 more or less unworthy of serious consideration. 



Contempt for alchemy is no new thing. It merely repre- 

 sents the confidence felt by the adherents of a particular theory 

 in the superiority of that theory over every other which has 

 preceded it. Thus Lenglet Dufresnoy says, in his Histoire de 

 la Philosophie Hermetique (Paris, 1742), " If faut remarquer 

 qu'il y a deux sortes de Chimie ; Tune sage, raisonnable, 



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