← Explore on the interactive map

Jabir ibn Hayyan

Type Figure Region Iraq Time c. 721–815 Also known as Jabir

Jabir ibn Hayyan was the most influential alchemist and one of the earliest chemists of the 8th-century Islamic world, active in the Kufa and Baghdad…

Timeline

  1. c. 721–750Taif · HejazAccording to tradition he was born on the Arabian Peninsula and later went to the scholarly centers of Iraq to study, apprenticing under the sixth Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq and others, where he was exposed to alchemy, medicine, and philosophy.
  2. c. 750–780Kufa · IraqConducted numerous experiments in Kufa, developing techniques of distillation, sublimation, and filtration, investigating the properties of minerals, metals, and acids and alkalis, and forming a systematic body of alchemical theory.
  3. c. 780–815Baghdad · BaghdadContinued experimenting and writing in the Abbasid capital, leaving behind a large body of Arabic alchemical works circulated under the name of Jabir, covering experimental apparatus, chemical processes, and philosophical speculation, which reached Europe through Latin translations.

Sources