52 | a MESSRS, H. JE. STAPLETON AND R. F. AZO 



omitted ] Ar-Ra'is Abu-1-Hasan 'All [ibn] 'Abdillah 1 — May God prolong his 



precious life and overthrow his enemies ! 



Be it known that the sages and learned writers such as : 



' Andria the Sage, 2 

 Musa ibn 'Imran al-Kahm (Moses), 3 

 Khalid ibn Yazld ibn Mu'awiyah, 4 

 Abu Zayd al- Balkhi, 5 

 Ma'mar al-Juzjani, 6 

 and the Oadhi Abu 'Umar al-Khwarazmi, ; 



who were believers in this science and to whom the interpretations of this Art are due, in 

 addition to many other experts of the first rank, have ceaselessly laboured at the elucidation 

 of obscure points, with the intent that men might derive benefit from their works and profit 

 from their writings — men who, had they been left alone to their own intelligence and 

 common-sense, would not have acquired even the rudiments of this noble science." 



After praising at some length these pioneers of Alchemy, Muhammad ibn 'Abdi-1- 

 Malik proceeds to state that although the materials of this Art are known in every coun- 

 try and sold by every druggist, they are referred to in the Art by enigmatical names. 8 

 His object, he says, is to explain the Art for the benefit of all men generally, and for the 

 Ra'is in particular, but at the same time he points out that such knowledge should only be . 

 taught to people who are worthy of it. 



I This patron of Muhammad ibn 'Abdi-1-Malik was probably one of the nobles at the court of the Buwayhid Prince Jalalu-d- 

 daulah, who was then overlord of 'Iraq and resident at Ba gh dad. 



3 Two alchemical works by an author, or authors, of this name are mentioned in the Fihrist (FliigePs ed., p. 354). In one 

 case, the author is said to have been an inhabitant of Ephesus, who dedicated hia book to Nicephorus. If this Nicephorus is the 

 first Emperor of that name, the ' Roman Dog ' of Hariinu-r-Rashid, the date would be c. 805 A.D. 



3 Moses is mentioned as an alchemist (a) by An-Nadim in the Fihrist, p. 351; (b) in the alchemical MS. of St. Mark's 

 Venice; cf. Berthelot, Collections des Anciens Alchimistes Crecs, I, Introd., pp. 11 1 and 175. 



* Abu Hashim Khalid ibn Yazld ibn Mu'awiyah ibn Abl Sufyan al-Umawi, "the first (among the Arabs) for whom books on 

 medicine, astrology, and alchemy were translated (from foreign languages into Arabic)," f 704 A.D.; cf. Fihrist, p. 354, also p. 224, 

 where he is said to have obtained his translations of alchemical books through the agency of Stephanos the Elder ; Ibn Khallikan 

 (De Slane's trans.), I, p. 481, who states the later tradition of his having learnt the Art from a Greek monk named Marianos. 



' The geographer and pupil of Al-Kindl, the famous Arab philosopher. Al-Kindl disbelieved in alchemy (Fihrist, p. 261), 

 and though, as has been noticed by De Boer (History of Philosophy in Islam, p. 105), As-Sarakhsl, another of his pupils, was 

 probably an alchemist, the statement of Muhammad ibn 'Abdi-1-Malik seems to be the first indication that Abu Zayd al-Balkhi 

 believed in the Art. He was, however, a contemporary, and (apparently) a friend of Ar-RazI, the well-known alchemical doctor 

 (Ibn Abl Usaibi'ah, A. Muller's ed., I, p. 319), and it is not impossible that the following books mentioned in Hajl Khalfa's 

 Kashfu.§h--Dhunun (Fliigel's trans.) may have contained some references to the subject. 



"4193. Jamlu Masalihi-1-Anfus wa-I-Abdan, summa rerum animis et corporibus convenientium, auctore Abu Zeid Ahmad Ben 

 Sahl Balkhi, anno 340 (inc. 9 Jun., 951) mortuo" (Vol. II, p. 623). The latter date is an error. 



" 10328. Kitabu-l-'Ilm wa-t-Ta'lim, liber scientiae et institutionis, auctore Imam Abu Zeid Ahmad Ben Sahl Balkhi, post 

 annum 322 (inc. 22nd Dec. 933) mortuo." (Vol. V, p. 119). 



'« Ibn Khaldun (' Prolegomena,' De Slane's trans., Ill, p. 71) mentions a Mamer es-Solemi, who was a denier of predestination. 

 According to De Boer, op. cit., he lived about 900 A.D. 



1 It is possible that this is the encyclopaedist, Abu 'Abdillah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Yusuf al-Khwarazml, who devoted 

 the last section of his Mafdtihu-l-'Ulum to alchemy (cf. Van Vloten's ed., Leyden, 1895, pp. 255-266). 



8 For lists of the enigmatical names of ordinary chemicals that were current in Syria in the nth Cent. A.D., cf. Berthelot, 

 La Chimie au Moyen Age, II, pp. 157-160. The following examples may be quoted : Silver, Leprous Gold ; Mercury, the Water 

 of Life; Sal-Ammoniac, the Bird of Khurasan ; Sulphur, the Scorpion. 



