Alchemy

Islamic alchemy evolved rapidly with the mingling of cultures and the Near East began absorbing Greek knowledge. Philosophers already in the region lacked sufficient knowledge to meet their needs. This assumption of knowledge was even more rapid during the fifth century BCE when the learned sect of Nestorian Christians were expelled from Constantinople and set up a school at Edessa in northern Syria. Then being expelled again by the Greek Emperor they fled into Mesopotamia finally around 500 established the famous Persian medical school at Jundai-Shapur. They had started translating Greeks works into Syriac and were followed in the nest century by the Monophysite Christians, also expelled, who continued translating Greek texts.

However, during the fifth and sixth centuries this rapid growth of knowledge was slowed when the Arab states and tribes came under Muslim influence. Islamic leaders imposed the religion on every region they conquered including Asia Minor, Syria, Persia, Egypt, Africa, and Spain. This hostility toward infidel learning continued till after 750 when under Abbasid culiphs of Baghdad the people developed a thirst for knowledge again. The Abbsaids also sought philosophies that would eliminate the need of imams thus Greek works of philosophy, mathematics, science could not be translated fast enough.

When trying to determine the author of ancient treaties on most subjects including alchemy a dubious phenomenon occurs, the author usually remains a mystery. This is because everyone signed a well-known name to their work to give it more authenticity. This would be like someone today signing their work as Roger Bacon, William Shakespeare, or William Faulkner. This was why work may be attributed to men that never wrote it.

One of the first named recognized in Islamic alchemy is Abu Musa Jabir, born Hayyan and supposedly a pupil of the sixth Imam-Islamic spiritual and secular leader-Ja’far b. Muhammad al-Sadiq, who is reported to have numerous treatises, mostly on alchemy but also on medicine, astronomy, astrology, mathematics, music, and philosophy, all subjects would constitute an encyclopedia. Although it is thought that Ja’far wrote many treatises accredited to him, it is doubtful, if not impossible, that he alone wrote on all of these subjects, mostly likely others did under his name; remember there were no copyright laws then. And, some of what was considered science then would currently be called magic because in that era there was little difference between science and magic.

What is known for certain from assaying the alchemical work attributed to Jabir is that he or who ever wrote it was familiar with Greek alchemy theory. He divided substances into three categories:

Spirits: volatile bodies such as camphor, sal ammoniac, mercury, arsenic, and sulphur.
Metallic bodies: the metals.
Bodies: non-volatile, pulverizable solids such as substances other than “spirits” or metallic bodies.

As can be seen, this resembles the Greek classification. The Greeks believed metals were comprised of a body, soul, and spirit. In fact, Jabir’s categories could have came straight from Aristotle whose “moist” and “dry” vapors now become vapors of mercury and sulphur.

Like the Greeks, Jabir spoke of different sulpurs, at the time sulphur was thought to be a fusible, volatile, combustible body, such as yellow sulphur, white sulphur, green sulphur, black sulphur, and so on. But the sulphur referred to in modern chemistry also was known. Jabir’s varieties of sulpurs might have been compounds containing sulphur, which some miners call iron pyrites. The notion that metals contained mercury and sulphur-the latter being an inflammable principle (before oxygen was discovered)-remained a part of alchemy and chemistry even into the 18th century. The idea that this inflammable principle-sulphur-was in metals, if not all bodies, was the progenitor of the notion of phlogiston.

Jabir shared Aristotle’s conception of the four elements, fire, air, water, earth, but developed it along different lines. He states the first essence or natures of the four elementary qualities were hotness, coldness, dryness, and moistness. When these natures unite with the substance they form a compound of the first degree namely hot, cold, dry, moist. The union of two compounds produces an element: fire (hot + dry + substance); air (hot + moist + substance); water (cold + moist + substance); and earth (cold + dry + substance). He said all metals had two external natures and two internal. The diagram below shows how he viewed gold and silver:

As shown, in order to change silver into gold its nature, quality composition, had to be reversed. This reversal of qualities, according to Jabir, was necessary for transmutation to occur. The idea of altering metallic qualities did not seem impossible at the time for the concept was widely accepted in medicine.

It can be seen the Islamic alchemists, like their Greek counterparts, were barrowing the ancient Greek physician Galen’s methods. For example, if a patient suffered a disease in which he had too much heat element, he would be given, as a remedy, medicine containing a cold element.

Jabir and follow Arabian alchemists viewed base metals similarly as Galen and his followers had viewed patients, imperfect. Base metals were considered imperfect, being defective in purity, and particularly in proportion, that is not being naturally balanced. This resulted in the formation of silver, lead, tin, or copper. But, it was reasoned, since the base metals were of the same composition as gold, though not as equally proportioned, they could be perfected by equally proportioning them. Jabir sought to do this by elixirs and hoped to develop the supreme elixir.

He invented his method of balance to proportionally balance the metallic qualities which contained a strange numbering system. The Greeks denoted the variation of qualities, hotness and coldness, moistness and dryness, by degrees though they lacked the means to measure them quantitatively. Jabir elaborated on the Greek system by assigning a “value” to each substance. For example, if gold was 1, then the elixir was 5. Each treatment was noted by a special fraction; a sublimation equaled 1/50, a fusion, 1/200, thus the formula read:

(Gold) 1 X (Fusion) 1/200 X 1000 = (Elixir) 5
(Computerized as [1 * .005 * 1000 = 5])

The conclusion was that after one thousand fusions gold should be converted into an elixir. The conclusion of this method of balance (mizan) proved to be very doubtful, to say the least, but it was a first step toward quantitative measurement which became so important in chemistry.

It might be added that some experiments attributed to Jabir seemed very dubious too. For example, in one, he wanted to remove moisture from water. After distilling and redistilling ordinary water 700 times he got white, brilliant solidifies like salt which he said was the pure element, but is simply the quality of coldness residing in first matter. Like processes applied to other distilled products supposedly rendered the warm, the moist, and the dry elements. Were these experiments ever verified? There is a great deal of uncertainty about their verification; on the other hand, there seems to be more certainty that they were not, who is going to redistill water, or any other product, 700 times again? Another explanation, perhaps a more plausible one, for the lack of validity is that during retesting some accident occurred; a cracked still, a furnace collapse or some other incident stopped the procedure.

Even through none of his alchemical works have been translated directly from Arabic, but summaries of them indicated Rhases, or Razi, was a practical scientist. Although he did not go along with Jabir’s elaborate calculated “balance” theory, Rhases believed basically that all substances were composed of the four elements and transmutation was possible. He also shared Jabir’s assumption that the proximate constituents of metals were mercury and sulphur (or an inflammable oil), but sometimes suggests a third constituent of a salty nature–an idea occurring most frequently in later alchemical literature.

In his Book of the Secret of Secrets he divides chemical substances into well-marked classes: “spirits,” metallic bodies, stones, vitriols, boraxes, and salts. He further describes necessary equipment needed, the various chemical preparation including various “poisonous” waters, the processes of calcination, sublimation, dissolution, and combustion; and finally in obscure terms the production of elixirs of gold and silver. Although his book is not always clearly understood, it is free of deliberate concealments, allegory and rhetoric as in many texts of the era.

A survey of Rhases’ work indicates that he was much more interested in practical chemistry than theoretical alchemy and probably this why his Book of the Secret of Secrets foreshadowed the chemistry laboratory manual. Although the procedures describe in it are frequently difficult to interpret they indicate experiments that he probably undertook himself. He in turn begun to revolutionize alchemical thinking in that he demonstrated that practice was better than just unsupported hypotheses; it was better to composed treatises with workable laboratory experiments than untried studies.

Rhases initially gave a systematic classification of alchemical substances. For the first time substances were divided into the categories of animal, vegetable, and mineral.

Another noted chemist is Abu’l-Qasim al’Iraqi, probably in the 13th century wrote a work called Knowledge Acquired Concerning the Cultivation of Gold, English translation by E. J. Holmyard. His alchemical theory is similar to Jabir’s. He accepted the Aristotelian theory for the origin of metals and believed the various metals were imperfection of gold, and their properties could be changed with red and white elixir in order to transform them into gold or silver.

As proof for this transformation he cited the then known fact that lead heat for a long time in a fire yields small amounts of silver. Unknown to the Arabians then was that small amounts of silver compounds are present in all lead ore. Once again this illustrates alchemists could only work with knowledge which they had at the time.

Al-Iraqi’s theory was excellent, but when it came to instructions as to actually performing experiments he reverted to dark sayings, allegories, and quotations of alchemical sages. This indicated al-Iraqi had little or no practical experience.

Abu Ali ibn Sina, known in Europe as Avicenna, was an Islamic genius referred to as the “Prince of Physicians.” he was a boy prodigy: he needed advanced tuition after being taught the Koran and Arabian poetry; then he mastered arithmetic, Euclid and logic, and medicine was among the other subjects he privately applied himself to and by the age of sixteen he was teaching physicians new forms of treatments.

He advanced to hold high medical and government positions, on one occasion being grand vizier and prime minister. He wrote over one hundred books, some being quite short, one medicine, philosophy, and science; his famous “Canon of Medicine” contained over a million words; in the pharmacological section he mentioned no fewer than 760 drugs. For several hundred years he shared with Rhases the distinction of being an authority in medicine, a subject for which there was no appeal.

Another interest which he shared with Rhases was music. One might wonder how an acute such as Avicenna’s could be interested in alchemy. A plausible answer is that his contemporaries believed it was possible to transmute metals, and many held it had successfully been accomplished while a few believing it to be theoretically possible were skeptical. Avicenna’s views on the constitution of metals closely resemble Jabir’s. However, Avicenna was no skeptic for he clearly stated that the concept of transmutation was impossible. He saw no way to split up one metallic combination to make another. His negative opinions did not go unanswered. Vizier Al-Tughra’i, a better poet than alchemist, answered his criticism after carefully studying it and pointed out Avicenna’s views were inconsistent with those he had expressed elsewhere in the same work. Avicenna’s negative views, however, did little to detour those interested in alchemy, they just continued their work.

The Islamic alchemists took what the knowledge inherited from the Greeks, added to it, and passed it onto their Western counterparts. But not all of this knowledge strictly concerned alchemy. A bit of knowledge of this type is The Emerald Tablet or the Tabula Smaragdina, which is ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, or the Egyptian god Thoth, god of mathematics and science. Early versions were dogmatic to Arabic alchemy since they claim to express the summary of the principle changes in Nature and therefore serve as the basis of the alchemical doctrine.

Another notable Islamic alchemist was Geber, famous Prince and Philosopher, or at least a number of treatises attributed to him, the most important Summa Perfectionis. This work was the most important source of medieval chemistry. A survey of these treatises, especially this one, shows the author, or authors, were true believers that transmutation of metals was possible. The most important points in these works are the advocacy of the sulphur-mercury of metals, the initial descriptions of chemical methods, and the initial descriptions of analysis, the stating of numerous of ways of testing metals to tell whether they were genuine gold. The work also gave the vital knowledge of mineral acids to the Western world. The descriptions and recipes were clearly stated free of allegories as were the diagrams also provided. But, this textbook material did not enable the reader to make gold.

Beginning with the 12th through the 16th centuries the Arabs were clearly adding there own knowledge to that which they adopted from the Greeks and were far in advance of the Western counterparts. They knew the preparation of sal ammoniac, ammonia, the mineral acids, and borax. They were familiar with the method of distillation and other chemical operations. They were making certain chemical preparations while the idea of transmutation by a medicine or stone and the lore of the four elements still awaited their Western neighbors. A.G.H.

Sources:

Holmyard, E.J. “Islamic Alchemy” Alchemy. New York. Dower Publications. 1990. pp. 80-104
Taylor, F. Sherwood. “Alchemists of Islam” Alchemists, Founders of Modern Chemistry. Kessinger Publishing. pp. 76-94

Both the origin and source of Chinese alchemy are uncertain, if not unknown. Perhaps two or three centuries before the Greek writings on alchemy there appeared Chinese literature describing beliefs and processes which might be called alchemical. Even with the previous statement, there remains a question whether such knowledge migrated from East to West, or vice versa.

Unlike its Western counterpart, Chinese alchemy had one pursuit which was longevity and gradually immortality. The mentioning of a drug that could function as an elixir to promote immortality is found in Indian literature as early as 1000 BCE, as well as indications of alchemy in the Atharva-veda. But it is impossible to say whether these are sources of Chinese alchemy.

Evidence indicates that alchemy was practiced in China in the fourth century BCE by Dzou Yen. This evidence seems conclusive by the existence of a law enacted against counterfeiting gold by alchemical methods in 175 BCE; thus alchemy existed some time before then and became scandalous. From thenceforth no alchemical practice could be performed except to obtain longevity. It was even thought gold made from cinnabar that composed vessels for eating and drinking would help prolong life.

However, such practices were at least discussed in the Imperial Court from about 130-120 BCE. In 60 BCE the Emperor Susan who had became interested in the immortals and appointed a famous scholar, Lu Hsiang, as Master of Recipes to make gold and silver to prolong life. Susan believed like his former successor Emperor Wu, that the goddess Stove must be worshipped in order to gain spirituality within himself. The goddess Stove, a beautiful old lady dressed in red garments with her hair done in s knot atop of her head, was the patroness of cooking and brewing medicine, so naturally she would oversee alchemy too. So he had the prescribed sacrifices made to the five sacred mountains and four great rivers, which the “possessors of recipes” or magicians said that was required; they personally had seized upon this plan to get him to officially establish worship of other divinities. Lu Hsiang was to make the gold from the recipes of Dzou Yen and others contained in two ancient books entitled The Great Treasure and The Secrets of the Park. With the Emperor’s approval he spent a vast amount of the treasury before admitting failure. He was convicted of trying to make gold, imprisoned and sentenced to death. But the Emperor valued his ability and was easily persuaded to commute the sentence after Lu Hsiang’s brother offered a handsome ransom.

There are many other legends showing this attitude of Chinese alchemical masters toward their art. One, possibly in the first century CE, concerns anther gentleman of the Imperial Court. He loved alchemy, and having married and acquiring a servant, he attempted making gold from recipes in The Great Treasure. His wife watched as he fanned the ashes to heat the retort containing quicksilver. His desired result did not appear. His wife the said, “I want to show you something,” and took some drug from a bag and threw a very little into the retort. It was absorbed and soon there was silver. Her husband was astonished and asked why she had not told him she possessed this secret sooner. She answered, “In order to get it, it is necessary for one to have the proper fate.” This was the foretelling of favorable astrological conditions which later alchemists would deem necessary. The drug also foreshadowed the indispensable philosopher’s stone of the future.

In the Document Concerning the Three Similars” possibly written in the second or third century CE, there is mentioned, possibly, star-shaped or hexagon alchemy based on Taoism. The story concerned the preparation of the “pill of immortality,” which is made of gold and required a tiny bit to be effective. Another story in Complete Biographies of the Immortals is how Bo-yang tested the faith of his disciples in himself and his gold medicine.

Bo-yang (and his white dog) entered the mountains to make efficacious medicines. With him were three disciples, two of whom he thought were lacking in complete faith. When the medicine was made, he tested them. He said, “The gold medicine is made, but it ought first to be tested on the dog. If no harm comes to the dog, we may take it ourselves; but if the dog dies of it, we ought not to take it. Bo-yang fed the medicine to the dog, and the dog died an instantaneous death. Whereupon he said, “The medicine is not yet done. The dog has died of it. Doesn’t this show the divine light has not been attained? If we take it ourselves, I am afraid we shall go the same way as the dog. What is to be done?” The disciples asked, “Would you take it yourself, Sir?” To this Bo-yang replied, “I have abandoned the worldly route and forsaken my home to come here. I should be ashamed to return if I could not attain immortality. So to live without trying the medicine would be just the same as to die of the medicine. I must take it.” With these final words he put the medicine in his mouth and died instantly.

On seeing this, one of the disciples said, “Our teacher was no common person. He took the medicine and died of it. He must have done that with special intention.” The disciple also took the medicine and died. The other two disciples said to one another, “The purpose of making this medicine is to attempt at attaining longevity. Now the taking of medicine has caused deaths. It would be better not to take the medicine and to be able to live a few decades longer.” They left the mountain together without taking the medicine, intending to get burial supplies for their teacher and their fellow disciple.

After the departure of the two disciples, Bo-yang revived. He placed some of the well-concocted medicine in the mouth of the disciple and in the mouth of the dog. In a few minutes they both revived. He took the disciple, whose name was Yu, and the dog, and went the way of the immortals. By a wood-cutter whom they met, he sent a letter of thanks to the two disciples. The two disciples were filled with regret when they read the letter.

A few lessons of this story later appeared as beliefs in Western alchemy. There is the faith or belief in the art itself. Like Bo-yang, the European alchemists had faith in what they did. Also like Bo-yang they considered it a worthy cause which was noble and held in high esteem. Later alchemy came to symbolize death and rebirth just as in the story; Bo-yang, his dog, and his disciple died, and were revived by the medicine, made new to go the way of the immortals. The medicine foreshadowed the philosopher’s stone.

Since most Chinese alchemy was concerned with the attainment of longevity and immortality, it was primarily based on the Tao philosophy. This philosophy, or Taoism, is concerned with being in harmony with the universe, which is perfectly reasonable because anyone seeking a long life should want to live it harmoniously. This harmony could only be achieved by men with great spiritual gifts. It might be supposed one such gift was feeling superiority over women who were incapable of such gifts. Men not possessing such gifts probably took short cuts trying to get longevity.

Longevity or immortality was obtained though the use of a drug, made on the Chinese theory of matter based on the yang (male element) and yin (female element) principle. Substances rich with yang supposedly imparted life and longevity. The most highly prized of these was cinnabar (native red mercuric sulphide), next in potency was gold. Most probably the favoring of the color of red for life and longevity was an association with red blood of health, and that its power to for liquid mercury (“living” metal or “quick” silver) also entered into it. From deduction, it must have gradually appeared that cinnabar was not going to yield longevity and then, in typical alchemical fashion, the goal was transferred to manufacturing a drug or elixir, which underwent the same changes in color, from white to red, as the philosopher’s stone of the West.

The Chinese idea of transmuting cinnabar into gold appeared around the second century BCE. They, like all men in the pre-scientific age supposed all minerals matured in rocks gradually becoming more precious. The enrichment of cinnabar was thought to follow this progression: cinnabar to lead, lead to silver, and silver to gold. It never seemed unreasonable that this process could not be achieved in a laboratory. The Chinese method of transmutation differed from that of the West. They chiefly used boilings and fusions; they certainly knew about sublimation with which they made vermilion. They also developed some sort of distillation process.

As can be seen from preserved accounts it is difficult to exactly describe all of their processes. For example, the Chinese alchemist, Go-Hung, said a man may prolong his life by taking medicine made from plants, but can become immortal only by the use of a Divine Elixir made from metals and minerals. The substances composing this elixir are difficult to identify. Though there is evidence of the use of red and yellow arsenic sulphides, sulphur, cinnabar, alum, salt, white arsenic, oyster shells, mica, chalk, and the resin of the pine tree. This resulting elixir when thrown on onto mercury or a mixture of lead and tin, converted the metal into gold or silver-gold from mercury, and silver from lead-tin alloy. As a medicine, if taken one hundred days man would become immortal. This is probably the earliest description of mosaic gold (stannic sulphide, yellow sulphide of tin).

Another intriguing fact about Chinese alchemy is the attached importance to the number 5. There were five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, five zones of space; five directions: north, south, east, west, and centre; five colors: yellow, blue, red, white, and black; and the five stones from which man was first taught to extract copper. In the Chinese alchemical theory the five elements, directions, and colors were associated with one another and to the five metals gold, silver, lead, copper, and iron; thus earth was connected to the color yellow, the direction centre, and the metal gold. The other linked groupings were wood, blue, east, and lead; fire, red, south, and copper; metal, white, west, and silver; and water, black, north, and iron. A further connection was between these groupings and the five planets: water corresponding to Mercury, fire to Mars, wood to Jupiter, metal to Venus, earth to Saturn. These equations foreshadow future supposed correspondences.

By the 11th CE Chinese alchemy had almost been abandoned; the realization that immortality obtained from metals and minerals was impossible had settled in. Alchemical vocabulary and terminology had turned toward spiritual and mystical pursuits as it would eventually do in the West. The pursuit of immortality was raised to a higher plane without abandoning alchemical thinking which still proved useful. A.G.H.

See also what does alchemy mean

Sources:

Cinnabar. http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/sulfides/cinnabar/cinnabar.htm
Holmyard, E.J. “Chinese Alchemy” Alchemy. New York. Dower Publications. 1990. pp. 33-42
Taylor, F. Sherwood. “Chinese Alchemy” Alchemists, Founders of Modern Chemistry. Kessinger Publishing. pp. 68-75
Vermilion. http://webexhibits.org/pigments/indiv/overview/vermilion.htmlss