ON ALCHEMICAL EQUIPMENT IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY, A.D. 57 



Maghnisiya . ■ • Male and Female, the latter variety being black, soft, and 



of a yielding texture. It is a great colouring agent. 1 



Alum .... A desiccating and cleansing agent. The ' alum of 



redness,' which is commonly called the 'alum of Yemen,' 

 is clear and white. The * alum of blackness ' is grey. 



Martak .... Very soluble in vinegar. 2 



1 Maghnatis ' . . Attracts iron on account of its excessive heat. 



Chapter III. 



"On the Proportions and Minimum Amounts of Substances that are 



used in the Art." 



" Muhammad ibn 'Abdil-Malik al-Kafchi s saith : 



The minimum quantities of these substances that are required for experiments in 

 the processes that I shall describe for the two Major Operations are as follows 4 :—-" 



Pure Gold ... ... 3a niifehqals = 5 dirhams 



Pure Silver ... ... ... = 4 ,, 



Red Copper of Khurasan ... 5 ounces = 531 „ 



Copper of Mosul ... ... ... = 1 ,, 



' Rusakhtaj ' 5 [of Basrah ... 1 ounce] = iof „ 



' Zinjar' 6 of Hims (Emessa) ... 3 ounces = 32 ,, 



Cadmia into Qallmia was probably due to a copyist having mistaken the a (dal) of the transliterated word for a J (lam). The 

 fact that Pyrites contain sulphur is also mentioned in the alchemical treatise of the ' Brethren of Purity ' (c. 970 A.D.). 



1 Cf. the following extract from the alchemical treatise of the ' Brethren of Purity.' " Maghnisiya is a noble stone, which 

 the Sages held in high esteem and ancient philosophers have praised. By it they were accustomed to perform many works, 

 and dissolve by means of it every kind of 'nature' {tain' ah) in mineral bodies. It softens iron and glass. One kind of it is 

 male, and another — which they call dhdltbis — female. The male is dry, while the female is soft and black. They marry it 

 with the sulphur called Hvvpov (unburnt), and the mixture is then projected on to tin, which is thus converted into silver " (MS. in 

 the Library of the Asiatic Society of Bengal). 



8 I.e., to form ' sugar of lead.' 



8 Kath. was a large town of Khwarazm, situated on the East bank of the Oxus, 20 farsakh (60 miles) from Kurkanj (Khiva), 

 the capital of Khwarazm : cf. Yaqut, Wustenfeld's ed., IV, p. 222. The geographer Muqaddasi (985 A.D.) declares that it was 

 one of the filthiest towns he had ever seen, and his description of the intellectual attainments of its inhabitants is the reverse of 

 flattering. 



* The table of weights used is as follows ? — 







2 qlrats = 



1 



danaq 



6 danaqs «= 



1 



dirhams 



7 mithqals = 



10 



dirhams 



iof dirhams •= 



1 



ounce (uqiyyak) 



12 ounces = 



1 



rati 



6 According to the Makhzanu-l-Adwiyah of Mir Muhammad Husain, this is a corruption of *!£»>*• isj) Ruy-i-Sukhta, < Burnt' 

 Brass,' i.e., Copper Oxide. See also Ibnu-l-Baitar, trans, cit., Ill, p. 366. Another form of the name is «£*»-*• fj Rasakht. The 

 Saktah mentioned on p. 262 of the Mafdtihu.l-'Ulum seems to be the same substance. 



* Verdigris, made by the following process : " Plates of copper are put into the dregs of vinegar and are thus turned green. 

 Then they are scraped, and the process repeated until all the copper has been converted into Zinjar." (Mafatlh., ed. cit., p. 263). 

 The method is identical with that described by Dioscorides, V, 91, and is probably copied from Hunayn's translation of the 

 Materia Medica, 



