Potassium
Nitrate in Arabic and Latin Sources
This paper
discusses the various names that were given to potassium nitrate in
Arabic, and the equivalent words that were used in Latin. In
investigating this subject the following question was posed: what
were the names of potassium nitrate in Arabic before the word
barud became common? Because the term barud was applied
in Arabic to potassium nitrate in the thirteenth century, some
historians of science and technology assumed that familiarity with
potassium nitrate in Arabic chemistry and alchemy dates from the
thirteenth century only.
For a listing of some of the
major Arabic word in this article, click here.
Potassium
nitrate is a resource that was always available in natural
deposits. Its existence could not have passed unnoticed as in the
case of other materials found in nature. It should have been
utilized to meet the various needs of societies across history.
Hence, its applications as a viable substance, as a medicine, as a
raw material for industry or in warfare in some form or another,
were readily discernable.
The difficulty
arose in labelling this and other compounds long before the
establishment of the science of chemistry. For example, in the
Arabic language, minerals found in nature, including potassium
nitrate, were collectively designated under nebulous and all
encompassing categories such as salts, boraces, alums or stones,
among other misnomers. The difficulty is compounded when different
authors classify a certain material under different categories;
hence the same material shows up with different labels.
Furthermore, treatises that were derived from different sources used
to label identical materials differently in the same collated work.
The
insignificance of the names that are given to potassium nitrate was
explained expressively in The Natural History of Nitre of W.
Clark (1670) where he says: “ Nitrum, (nitron in Greek)
or Nitre, is also called Sal-nitri, or
salt-nitre, from its likeness to salt, and Sal-petrae, or
Salt-petre, from its shooting on walls, and is also called by other
various and aenigmatical names, It is no matter by what name it is
called, so we agree about the thing.“
The same author describes the confusion that
was still existing in his time (1670) in differentiating similar
materials: “The experienced Druggist shall not more accurately
discover a sophisticated Drug from a real, than our Nitrarian
may distinguish between Nitre and salt, Allum
or Vitriol, which are so like one to another, and may be
mistaken by a superficial observer.”
Boraces and Natrun in Arabic and Latin
Without getting confused in the maze of discussions that took place
about what the word nitrum indicated at the time of Pliny and
before,
we know from Arabic and Latin literature of the medieval period that
the word natrun or nitrun in Arabic and
nitrum, nitro or nitri in Latin used to be applied to a group
of salts, like potassium nitrates or sodium carbonates, that are
characterized by general similarities.
The development of the use of both the Arabic word natrun and
its Latin equivalents went in a parallel path throughout the
following centuries.
The word
natrun in Arabic has been applied down to the advent of the
twentieth century, to denote potassium nitrate more than sodium
carbonate as will be apparent from this article. It did not become
restricted to denote sodium carbonates until recently following the
later restrictive usage of the word natron in European languages, to
denote sodium carbonate. But as late as 1902 an article in
al-Mashriq about minerals in the Ottoman Empire gave the
following statement: “the salt of barud or natrun is
classified among the boraces, and it is mined extensively in Qunya”
In the early stages of Latin alchemy in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries when Arabic alchemy was being introduced into Europe, the
word nitrum or sal nitrum in Latin was used to denote the Arabic
word natrun when Arabic works were translated into Latin. And
as in Arabic, the word in Latin could then mean more than one kind
of nitrum. So both the Arabic natrun and the Latin nitrum
could refer to potassium nitrate, among other things.
A search for
the word natron as sodium carbonate in European alchemical
literature prior to the seventeenth century revealed the absence of
this word. The etymology of natron in the English language indicates
that it was introduced in 1684 only.
Edelard of Bath
(d 1150 AD), considered to be one of the most prominent scientific
individuals in the Latin west, was among the first translators of
Arabic manuscripts into Latin. He mastered the Arabic language
during his stay in Syria, and then travelled to Spain where he
edited or re-wrote Mappae Clavicula in which he utilized
recipes consisting of words having Arabic roots. Edelard states
that, Nitrum est sal qui nascitur in terra fiet in laminas in
tempore cavatur, which is a description that applies to
Potassium Nitrate
Michael Scot
(1180?-1236?) was translating from Arabic in Toledo in 1217, and
after 1227 was court astrologer and philosopher to Frederick II at
Palermo. In the Cambridge manuscript of De Alkimia,
attributed to Scot, three kinds of nitrum are given. “Sal nitrum de
puncta is said to come from India, and Alexandria. It is tested by
putting it on burning coals, and if it does not decrepitate or make
a noise it is good. There is also a foliated Sal nitrum somewhat
long and thick with a taste something like vinegar when touched with
the tongue and not salty, and it makes a flame over a fire. It is
mentioned in some books that it is the best for making mercury
malleable, and changes copper into the best gold. It is found in
Spain and is exported from Aleppo. A third kind is nitrum depilatum,
from Hungary and Barbary. It cleans dried pork.”
Partington says: “There is little doubt that
the salnitrum foliatum is saltpetre.”
The foliated
sal nitrum as described by Michael Scot has been described at
earlier dates by several Arabic authors. In the Canon (Al
Qanun) of Ibn Sina (d. 428/1036) we find under article natrun:
“It is the Armenian buraq and was discussed in the chapter of
the letter b.”
Then under article buraq we read: “It can be burnt on top of
live fire on a porcelain dish. The best kind is the Armenian, the
light, the foliated, the brittle, the spongy, the white, the rosy
and the farfiri”
Al Biruni
(973-1048) in Kitab al-saydana fi al-tibb in article buraq
says: “in Greek it is aphinatrun
and in Syriac it is
nitra”.
“The best quality is the Armenian that is light and foliated, having
leaves. It crumbles easily with a farfiri colour; it
resembles foam and has a burning taste.”[16]
In the same article al-Biruni says that the foam of natrun is
said to be the Armenian buraq.
Ibn al-Baytar
gives similar statements. When discussing buraq he says: “ as
to that which is called aphruntun
which means foam of natrun it is alleged by some
people to be the Armenian buraq, the best quality of which is
very light with leaves and crumbles easily; it resembles farfir
in colour; and is like foam and has a burning taste,”
In the
Lexicon of Alchemy of Martinus Rulandus that appeared in 1612
A.D., Armenian buraq was defined as saltpetre.
In the same Lexicon, aphronitrum is defined as froth
of saltpetre or wall-salt.
In Lemery’s Cours de Chymie,
it is stated that saltpetre was called aphronitrum by the ancients.
In
“De
Compositione Alchemiae”
or “De
Re Metallica”.
Which is the text of the dialogue between Morienus and Khalid ibn
Yazid (see below) the Latin text says:
“Sal annatron id est sal nitri.” The seventeenth century
English translation of this sentence says: “with salt Annatron,
that is with salt peter “, the translator substituted
sal nitri for salt peter. The use of the word
saltpetre instead of sal nitri was a later development
adopted by the moderns according to Biringuccio (d c. 1539).
Although not much in use,
the word
anatron
has entered the English language dictionaries where it can denote
either native carbonate of soda, i.e. natron, or saltpeter.
The following
definitions from the Lexicon of Alchemy of Rulandusillustrate the relationship between the Arabic words
natrun and buraq and their Latin equivalents:
Nataron or
Natron - i.e. Nitre.
Nitrum - Nitre
Nitrum, Baurach, Rock Salt, Saltpetre, Nitre.
Nitre is manufactured in several ways – in stables, ancient
dormitories, in rocks, cellars, walls, and other such places, as
well as in old and disused sand-pits.
Sal Nitri
- Saltpetre, smelted out of earth which has
been drenched in urine – for example, such earth as forms the floors
of stables.
In Al-Madkhal al-ta`limi (Instructive Introduction) and in
Kitab al-Asrar (The Book of Secrets), Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn
Zakariyya al-Razi (Rhazes) (d. 925 AD) mentions that Goldsmiths’
Borax is white and is similar to al-sabkha (al-shiha)
which is found at the feet of walls.
The same description appears in the Karshuni manuscript (written in
Arabic with Syriac script), which belongs to the period ninth to
eleventh century according to Berthelot and Duval.
Duval translated al-shiha which is found at the feet of walls
as saltpeter.
The Karshuni
manuscript classifies natrun under the salts also. It says
that “Salt consists of seven varieties, namely, 1) salt for
food, 2) salt of goldsmiths , 3) Andarani salt,
4) naphtha and natrun salt, 5) Khurasani salt, 6)
Indian salt, and 7) natrun which is the nitra salt.
It is obvious
that the two kinds of natrun listed here, namely, in items
(4) and (7) denote two different kinds of salts, one of which, the
Syriac word nitra salt denotes potassium nitrate. Duval
translated
nitra salt
as sel de nitre.
Liber Lumen
Luminum (Light of Lights), of al-Razi that exists in Latin and
which is devoted mainly to salts and alums, was translated by Gerard
of Cremona.
Lacinius published extracts from this work. The salts mentioned in
this extract are: Salt armoniac; sal gemme; saltpetre, common salt
and salt alchali.
Use of Natrun as a flux in metallurgy
Potassium
nitrate was used since the early days of alchemy and until later
centuries as a fluxing material in the roasting of ores and the
melting of metals. This becomes evident from a study of the
sixteenth century books on metallurgy and alchemy. From De Re
Matallica of Agricola (d. 1555), from Pirotechnia of
Biringuccio (d c. 1539) and from the Treatise on Ores and
Assaying of Lazarus Ercker (d.1593), we learn that saltpetre was
an important fluxing material in the melting and smelting operations
of metals.
In assaying
copper ores Agricola writes: “ If, however, it is less rich, a stony
lump results, with which the copper is intermixed; this lump is
again roasted, crushed, and after adding stones which easily melt
and saltpetre, it is again melted in another crucible, and there
settles in the bottom of the crucible a button of pure copper”.
In assaying
iron ore, Agricola says that the ore is burned, crushed, washed and
dried. Then a magnet is laid over the concentrates and the iron
particles are colleted in a crucible. “These particles are heated in
the crucible with saltpetre until they melt, and an iron button is
melted out of them”.
In Ercker’s
book the use of saltpetre as a fluxing material is mentioned in
several places. In describing a flux for brittle silver we read:
“silver may also be made malleable by a flux that purifies metals
greatly. Take sal alkali, saltpetry salt
, crude argol
, and saltpetre, of each as much as the other,
calcine them, then dissolve the mixture in warm water, pass it
through a piece of felt, let it coagulate, and the flux will be
ready.”
The book
describes the flux for use in assaying copper ores. “Take two parts
of argol and one part of saltpetre, grind them separately, and then
mix them. Put the mixture in unglazed pot and then toss in a piece
of glowing charcoal. This will start a fire in the pot; let it burn
until it stops by itself. When the pot has cooled, the flux is
ready. Take it out of the pot, remove the charcoal, and, after
grinding it, store the flux in some warm spot; thus it will keep.”
The practice of
using potassium nitrate as a fluxing material continued in Latin
alchemy till later centuries. Newton (last quarter of seventeenth
century) in his alchemical treatises gave details of processes in
which he used nitre or saltpeter as a fluxing material. In his
treatise The Key (Clavis),
he describes the preparation of the antimony metal by heating
antimony sulphide with iron and with nitre as a flux:
- “Make the
regulus by casting in nitre bit by bit; cast in between three and
four ounces of nitre so that the matter may flow.”
- “Little nails
may be used and especially the ends of those broken from
horse-shoes. Let the fire be strong so that the matter may flow
[like water], which is easily done. When it flows, cast in a
spoonful of nitre, and when that nitre has been destroyed by the
fire, cast in another. Continue that process until you have cast in
three or four ounces.”
- “Beat the
regulus and add to it two, or at most 2½, ounces of nitre. Grind the
regulus and the nitre together completely and melt again.
Newton
recommends grinding the regulus a third and a fourth time adding
nitre each time. Then he says: “In the last three fusions the
regulus must be beaten, and ground and mixed with nitre. Some cast
the nitre into the crucible, but this is not recommended. You will
see that the regulus mixed with nitre in this way flows easily with
it.”
It is
interesting to know that Nicolas Lemery in his Cours de Chymie,
published in 1675, i.e. at the same time when Newton was writing his
treatises, gave a chapter in his book on “Regule d’Antimoine avec le
Mars”, in which he describes a procedure similar to that of Newton.
In the
seventeenth century the nomenclature was not the same as it is now.
The name antimony was applied by Newton to the stibnite ore (ithmid
in Arabic), while the term regulus or regulus of antimony
indicated the antimony metal.
Let us now give
citations from the earlier Arabic and Latin treatises on Alchemy.
As mentioned
above, one of the earliest treatises on alchemy to be translated
from Arabic into Latin was the dialogue that took place between
Morienus and Khalid ibn Yazid (d. c. 90 / 708). Robert of Chester
(Robertus Castrensis) finished translating it on February 11, 1144.
This work is entitled
De Compositione
Alchemiae
or De
Re Metallica.
In the English
translation translation we read
: “for ye wisemen have thus said of this: Now
we have taken away ye blackness, and have fixed ye whiteness with
salt
Anatron,
yt. is, with
salt peter,
and
almizader
whose Complexion is Could and drye.” Then we read: “first there is
blackness, then followeth whiteness with salt Anatron”
The use of
natrun together with salammoniac (nushadir) in the
preparation of metals, such as whitening as mentioned above, was a
common practice in Arabic alchemy.
In his work,
The Book of Seventy (Kitab al-Sab`in), and in the Book of
Twenty Articles (Kitab Al-Jumal al-`ishrin), Jabir ibn
Hayyan (d. c. 815) gave a number of chemical recipes in which he
uses al-natrun as a flux for melting. Here are examples:
In Kitab al
Naqd on iron (Mars) that is book thirty-four of the Book of
Seventy, we read about the istinzal of iron (purification by
melting in a descendary apparatus). Iron is first roasted with
yellow arsenic (zarnikh asfar) several times. Then “it is
crushed and mixed with one third of its weight of natrun and
kneaded with oil and melted, and it will descend as white as silver”
[51] (see
Appendix A below for the Arabic text).
Gerard of
Cremona (1114-1187) translated the Book of Seventy into Latin. The
corresponding Latin text to the Arabic one reads in part: “Deinde
tere ipsum cum triplo sui de nitro. Et sperge cum oleo et distilla
Argentum liquefactende.”
Thus in the twelfth century’s translation of Jabir’s work the word
natrun was translated as nitro.
A similar
process is given in maqala thirteen of the Book of Twenty
Articles (Kitab Al-Jumal al-`ishrin)
: “As for iron, take one ratl from it
and throw on it one ratl of yellow zarnikh (arsenic).
Roast it in a hard fire after it was made into filings. Take it out
after one night and throw on it half a ratl of yellow
zarnikh then return it to roasting. Do this twice. Take it out
and throw on it one ratl of red zarnikh and roast for
the third time, Then take it out and purify its blackness by the
descendory process. The descendory process is done by grinding with
it one quarter of its weight of natrun, knead it with little
oil and place it in but-bar-but and cover it...You descend it
several times until it descends white and pure, better than silver
in whiteness.”
In Liber
Sacerdotum, which is a medieval Latin translation of an Arabic
work, we find a similar process: “De preparando ferro quoddam
secretum”. The text that follows resembles that of Jabir in the
Book of Seventy and in the Book of Twenty Articles.
Here also, the corresponding Latin word to natrun is given as
nitro .
We find a
similar description for the treatment of iron in Chapter XIV of
Jabir’s (Geber) Latin work De Inventione Veritatis.
Russell’s English translation of the Latin text runs thus: “Prepare
Mars thus: Grind one pound of the Filings thereof, with half
a pound of Arsnick sublimed. Imbibe the Mixture with the Water of
Salt-peter, and Salt-Alkali, reiterating this Imbibition thrice;
then make it flow with violent Fire, and you will have your iron
white.”
This
description of the treatment of iron in De Inventione Veritatis
is analogous to the text in the Book of Seventy and the
Book of Twenty Articles, and the corresponding Latin word for
natrun is salis petrae (salt-peter).
In Kitab
al-Layla on copper (Venus) which is book thirty-six of the
Seventy Books it is mentioned that in one treatment, burnt
copper or rusakhtaj (copper scale) is taken. It is heated and
quenched in good pure oil, then heated and quenched many times. Then
“it is crushed, placed in but-bar-but (descendary vessel) and
melted with natrun or other softening material and it will
descend like gold.”
In Kitab
al-Ghasl on lavation of bodies and souls and which is book sixty
one of the Seventy Books we read about the treatment of
copper. Take one hundred dirhams of copper, forty dirhams
of zarnikh (arsenic) and ten dirhams of sulphur and
grind, “then beat al-zuhra (venus) into thin discs like
dirhams, place it in a small pot and roast it and copper will
become easy to crush. Crush it in a golden mortar and pan it off
with water then throw on it salt and grind it and wash it. Then take
it and grind it with natrun and oil, melt it and it will
descend like silver in colour.”
In the Latin
translation of Kitab al-Ghasl of the Book of Seventy
by Gerard of Cremona the last sentence of the “Ablutio Veneris
“ says: “ Tere ipsum cum nitro et oleo et fac ipsum descendere in
botum barbotum. Et descendet colore Argenti.”
In De
Inventione Veritatis (Chapter XV) of Jabir (Geber), one
description of the treatment of copper (Venus) reads thus: “Venus
thus calcined, grind, 1 lib. of it with four Ounces
of Arsnick sublimed, and imbibe the Mixture three or
four times with the Water of Lithargiry,
and reduce the whole with Salt-Peter, and Oyl of Tartar;
and you will find the Body of Venus white and splendid, fit for
receiving the Medicine.”[62]
This
description of the treatment of copper (Venus) in De Inventione
Veritatis is analogous to the two descriptions quoted from the
Book of Seventy. Again, the corresponding Latin word for
natrun is nitro and salis petrae; (salt-peter
in the English translation).
Jabir’s
(Geber’s) Latin De Inventione Veritatis appeared in the
latter part of the thirteenth century. It was thought until now that
similar processes in which saltpetre was used, never appeared before
in Arabic. This gave rise to the doubtful conclusion by some
historians of science that Geber was not the Arabic Jabir, and that
saltpetre was known for the first time in the thirteenth century in
the Latin West when the Geber’s Latin works first appeared.
Al-Razi gave
another analogous description for the treatment of iron in
Al-Madkhal al-Ta`limi: “Take filings of iron, as much as you
want, and having thrown on them one quarter their weight of powdered
red zarnikh, stir (the mixture up). Then put it in a bag (surrah),
and after luting it with good clay, place it in a hot tannur
(oven). Afterwards take it out, and weigh it. Then throw upon it
one-sixth of its weight of natrun, and add olive oil to the
mixture”.
In al-Razi’s
other works Kitab al- Asrar and in Kitab sirr al-asrar
we find numerous other recipes describing the treatment and
preparation of iron and copper in which natrun is used.
We find the
same practice also in al-Razi’s Liber Lumen Luminum (Light of
Lights), where it is mentioned: “Take equal amounts of salt
armoniac, saltpetre, and borax; pound together,
dissolve in a little wine, and let it dry, This will render the
silver malleable”[65]
A similar
description for the treatment of iron occurs in the Arabic
Karshuni manuscript. It says that after treating the iron
filings with red and yellow arsenic take it out when it becomes
cold; wash it with water and salt. When it is dried, mix it with
one-sixth its weight of natrun kneaded with oil. Then it is
melted and subjected to the process of istinzal in the
but-bar-but
More similar
citations can be given illustrating the use of natrun as a
fluxing agent in early Arabic Alchemy.
This practice continued in
later centuries as well, and we find numerous similar recipes in the
works of Al-Jildaki and later alchemists.
While
discussing the use of potassium nitrate as a fluxing agent for
metals, it may be relevant to mention here the use of this material
in the refining of gold. Al-Hamdani (c.251/865-313/925) in his book
Kitab al-Jawharatayn al-`Atiqatayn describes a refining
cementation process for gold called ta`riq (sweating).
Ta`riq, he says, is a slight cooking which removes impurities
and makes gold more malleable under the hammer. The usual drugs
used are white vitriol or alum, salt, and yellow bricks, all
ground. He says:
“If the
ta`riq does not affect the gold, either because of its nature,
the inadequacy of fuel or because of the burning of the drug and the
fineness of raw gold, so that the gold bars become dry, then they
(i.e. gold refiners) will heat the bars and bury them either in the
salt of earth which is found at the feet of walls (milah
al turab alladhi yakun fi usul al hitan)
or in salt and vitriol.”
From the above
citations we conclude that both in Latin and Arabic alchemical
literature down to the seventeenth century, potassium nitrate was
used as a fluxing agent in the smelting, melting and the refining
operations of some metals. The Arabic words natrun and
al-milh alladhi yakun fi usul al-hitan (wall salt), and the
Latin words nitrum (nitre) and salis petrae
(saltpetre) indicated potassium nitrate in these operations.
Natrun in the preparation of nitric acid and aqua regia:
Having established that the Arabic natrun and the Latin
nitrum denoted frequently potassium nitrate in Arabic and Latin
alchemy, we can look into some recipes involving the production of
nitric acid and aqua regia before the thirteenth century.
We have already
mentioned the Liber Luminis luminum,
that is usually attributed to al-Razi, and which was published in a
book on the life and legend of Michael Scot (d. 1235), on the
assumption that it was one of Scot’s works. The text gives a recipe
for the preparation of nitric acid or aqua regia, by distilling a
mixture of sal nitrum, sal ammoniac and vitriol. The Latin
text runs thus:
M. cum sossile
et nitro salso ana in aqua resolutis ac coagulatis es ad naturam
lune reduxi. R. vitrioli romani Libra 1. salis nitri libra 1 .
salis armoniaci 3 . 3 . hec omnia comisce in unum terendo et pone in
curcubita cum alembico et quod distillaverit serva et pone cum m.
crudo ita quod in 3 aque fundatur super mediam libram m. in una
ampulla et pone in cineribus bene clausam et da lentum ignem per
unam diem et postea invenies m. in aquam purissmam.
Adam McLean
contributed the following translation:
“This
text indicates that 'M' (usually a contraction for mercury in
alchemical texts) must first be purified by being placed with
'sossile' and spirit of Nitre. ['Sossile' I do not recognise].
When
you perform a recipe, grinding together 1 pound of vitriol with 1
pound of nitre and 3 pounds of sal ammoniac, which you then heat in
a flask and distill off a water.
Then you are to place the purified 'M' (mercury) from your first
stage and place this in a flask with three more parts of this acid
distillate. The flask should be well sealed and heated gently for a
day. After this you should find mercury in this most pure water. “
On this recipe
McLean comments that “this will produce a rather potent acid, indeed
a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids - that is aqua regia -
possibly with some sulphuric acid also as an impurity”. Partington
also says that this recipe gives apparently nitric acid or aqua
regia.
There are
Arabic texts using the word natrun in the preparation of
nitric acid and aqua regia which date from before the thirteenth
century.
One of these
recipes describe the solution of sulphur with acids, and is given in
kitab al-mumarasa (the book of practice) that forms book
sixty-five of the Book of Seventy by Jabir ibn Hayyan
(d.c. 815). The ingredients in the recipe are: rice vinegar, yellow
arsenic (zarnikh asfar), natrun, alkali salt, live
nura (unslaked lime), eggshells, and purified salammoniac. The
process, which involves distillation, produces aqua regia that is
strong enough to put the sulphur into solution.
Holmyard in
commenting about the recipe for nitric acid in Geber’s De
inventione veritatis (Invention of Verity), says: “The
preparation of nitric acid, which is given in chapter xxiii, I have
recently come across in a Cairo manuscript (the Royal Library) of a
work ascribed to Jabir.”
Holmyard says that the manuscript in
question is The Chest of Wisdom (Sunduq al-Hikma) in
Cairo.
The writer of this article was able to obtain a copy of this
manuscript.
It is a collection of treatises that carry the title of Sunduq
al-Hikma. The first treatise is Sunduq al-Hikma proper
and is ascribed to Jabir. The style of writing raises some doubt
about this. One of the treatises in the collection carry the tile
Kitab al-iqtisad al-hadi ila al-rashad which gives recipes
attributed to Muhammad ibn Zakariyya al-Razi The recipes start at
folio 56b and end on folio 69a. Between these we read on folio 62a
the following recipe:
“Take the water
of eggs, [of] one hundred eggs, and one quarter of one
ratl
from salammoniac (nushadir),
and two
natrun,
and
Yamani
alum (shabb)
two qaflas. Bury this [mixture] in dung for seven days then take it
out and distil it twice using the
qar`
(cucurbit) and
ambiq.
This distilled water is suitable for
zarnikh,
sulphur and mercury” (See
Appendix A below for the Arabic text).
In an Arabic
treatise, Ta`widh al-Hakim, published in part by Ruska,
we read a description of the preparation of aqua regia which is
called al-ma’ al-ilahi (the divine water) or ma’ al-hayat
(the water of life). This treatise gives the recipes that were
allegedly practiced by al-Hakim (d. 411/1021) following the
recipes that were used by Al Mu`izz (d. 365/975).
The recipes are traced back to Ja`far al-Sadiq (d.148/765) in the
works ascribed to him.
Ruska raised doubts about the date of authorship. He gave two dates
between which he thinks that the Ta`widh was written; these
are 1021 A.D and the date of copying the manuscript in Shawwal
682 (early 1283). This last date is improbable as it is extremely
unlikely that the scribe who copied several alchemical treatises in
one collection should be considered as their author.
The ingredients
are natrun, alum, the viriol of Cyprus, and sal ammoniac.
The recipe
starts with a description of the preparation of natrun water
by solution.
“Dissolve one
hundred mithqals of natrun by any solution method you
choose; but the solution in wetness is the quickest.
Pound the natrun and put it in a porcelain pot (kuz)
having holes in its bottom. Place the perforated pot over a China
cup. Stretch on the top of the China cup a wet linen cloth. You
should have wetted the natrun with a little fresh water so
that it will adhere to the perforated pot. Place the cup and the pot
in the wetness well. The natrun that will be dissolved by the
wetness of the well will trickle into the cup through the holes of
the pot.
Description of
the wetness well: Dig in the ground a well two dhira` (ells)
in depth, wide at the bottom and narrow at the top. Put sand at the
bottom. Fill the well with water and leave it until the water
saturates the sand and the soil of the well so that the sand becomes
like mud. The well should be in a location immune from winds and not
exposed to direct sun. Immerse the cup and the pot in the sand.
Place at the top of the well a porcelain plate or closure and on top
of that spread plenty of sand. The natrun will dissolve in
two weeks or it may dissolve in ten days and it will descend in
solution to the lower cup.
Weigh from this
[natrun water] one hundred dirhams, and throw in it
ten dirhams of alum, ten of salammoniac (nushadir) and
five dirhams of qalqatar which is zaj (vitriol)
available in Damascus, yellow in colour which has veins if broken.
It is used by dyers in Syria and is imported from the island of
Cyprus. After you throw the mixture in the natrun water leave
the whole for two days and two nights and distil in a cucurbit (qar`)
and alembic (inbiq). Take what is distilled and it will be
clear and white as tears” (see
Appendix A below for the Arabic text).
The above
recipes for the preparation of nitric acid and aqua regia are
similar to the Latin ones in De inventione veritatis (Invention
of Verity) of Jabir (Geber). In Chap XXIII on solutive waters we
read the following:
“First R of
Vitriol of Cyprus, lib. 1. of Salt-peter, lib. ff. and of Jamenous
Allum one fourth part; extract the Water with Redness of the
Alembeck (for it is very solutive) and use it before alleadged
Chapters. This is also made much more acute, if in it you shall
dissolve a fourth part of Salammoniac, because that dissolves Gold,
Sulphur, and Silver.”
Further we
read:
“Our other
Philosophical Cerative Water, is this: R Oil distilled from the
Whites of Eggs, grind it with half so much of Salt-peter, and of
Salammoniac, equal parts, and it will be very good.”
The Latin
recipe of Liber Luminis luminum, and the various Arabic
recipes that were cited, all of them antedate the appearance of
Jabir’s (Geber’s) De inventione veritatis in Latin at the end
of the thirteenth century in which the recipe for nitric acid was
given. And contrary to the common belief that was prevalent until
now, it is evident that Geber’s Latin recipes of the thirteenth
century were not the first ones to describe the preparation of
nitric acid.
Al-Shiha
that is found at the feet of Walls or milh al-ha’it (wall
salt)
We have
mentioned above, in discussing the classifications of al-Razi and
the Karshuni MS, that Al-Shiha that is found at the feet
of walls denoted potassium nitrate.
When discussing
the refining of gold, we mentioned also that al-Hamdani who was
contemporary with al-Razi used a similar expression: milah al
turab alladhi yakun fi usul al-hitan (earth salt that is found
at the feet of walls) to denote potassium nitrate.
According to
al-Kutubi (about 1311 A.D.) in his work ma la ysa`u al-tabiba
jahluhu (what a physician cannot afford to ignore), barud
or potassium nitrate was called milh al-ha’it (salt of wall)
by the common people of Iraq. “It is the salt that creeps on old
walls, and they collect it.”
The term
milh al hayt (salt of the wall) was listed in the Karshuni
manuscript among the artificial or prepared salts (manufactured),
since it was to be collected and treated. The seven artificial salts
are:
“1-The
al-qali (alkaline) salt; 2- The nura (lime) salt; 3- The
bawl (urine) salt; 4- al-sha`r (hair) salt; 5- The
wood ashes salt, which is sabarzaj; 6- milh al hayt
(wall salt); 7- al-tinkar salt. All these salts are used for
whitening; they clean the dirt and remove blackness, and are
utilized in dissolving bodies and spirits. These are their actions.”
The practice
used in Iraq in the ninth and tenth centuries for scraping milh
al-ha’it (wall-salt or saltpetre) from walls was described in
numerous works in Europe in much later centuries. These works
describe the construction and operation of nitre beds and the
scraping of saltpetre from walls built especially for the purpose of
growing saltpetre.
The flowers of
Asyus Stone, the Salt of Asyus Stone and the Salt of
Stone
Ibn al-Baytar
(d. 1248) defines asyus thus: “Ancient physicians of Egypt
call it China snow (thalj al-Sin), and it is known as
barud by the common people and the physicians of al-Maghrib.”
[89]
And then he
defines barud thus: “It is the flowers of asyus
stone.”
[90]
Further,
thalj sini (Chinese snow) is defined as: “It is al-barud
that is known as the flowers of asyus stone”
Also hajar asyus (stone of asyus) is defined
as: “It is al-barud... and the people of Egypt know it as the
snow of China.”
As mentioned
above, Al-Kutubi described potassium nitrate as the salt that creeps
on old walls. In his definition of barud he says: “barud
is the name that denotes the flower of asyus.“
The extent to
which the term asyus was prevalent in the Islamic lands is
not clear. However, it seems that this terminology was used in
certain regions. For instance, Dawud Al-Antaki (d.1599), who was
born in Antioch and lived part of his life in Anatolia, Damascus and
Cairo, reported in his book al- Tadhkira under item barud,
the following: “it is called in our country (`indana),
ashush and milh sini (Chinese salt)”
. It is apparent that ashush is a
distortion of the term asyus. When he says “in our country”
he means in the region of Antioch in north-west Syria, where Al-
Antaki had lived most of his life.
The expression
milh hajar
asyus
(salt of asyus stone) becomes milh al-hajar (salt of
stone) when dropping the word
asyus.
We actually find in some treatises that potassium nitrate or
barud was described as milh al-hijara (salt of stones).
This is a synonym for the word saltpetre
(salt of stone or salt of rock) in its different forms in Latin and
Western languages.
Konrad Kyeser
(d. c. 1405) used the word assio (assionis) for
saltpetre in his book Bellifortis, which is a manuscript on
warfare. In a recipe for nitric acid or aqua regia, he specifies
distilling Roman Vitriol with permisce Assionis or
with sal armoniacum (sal ammoniac) mixed with permisce
Assionis.
The important aspect in Bellifortis is that the term “Permisce
Assionis” is used in lieu of saltpetre or sal nitrum. Partington
says that Keyeser gave illustrations of incendiary arrows and a
rocket, apparently from an Arabic manuscript since the man in the
illustration has Arabic dress.
But the use of
the term asyus in Arabic or Assio or Asius in Latin, to
denote potassium nitrate did not receive wide acceptance, neither in
Arabic nor in Latin. A vague connection between nitrum and
“Asian rock or Lapis Asius” is expressed in the Lexicon
of Rolandus when discussing nitrum: “There is also that Nitre
which is called Spumous, and is Aphronitrum, Saltpetre, the spume of
Nitre, and a true species of Nitre. It has affinities with the
flower of the Asian rock or stone, referred to by Dioscorides.”
Barud
The results
that were given above and which proved that potassium nitrates were
known and were used in Arabic and Latin alchemy before the terms
saltpetre and barud became common, diminish the importance of
the dates that were considered by historians of science as land
marks in the history of chemistry. The date 1240 A.D. when Ibn
al-Baytar mentioned the word Barud, and the date of the first
appearance of Jabir’s (Geber’s) Latin work De inventione
veritatis at the end of the thirteenth century, with a recipe
for nitric acid, are no longer critical dates in the history of
science as we were traditionally taught.
Although the
date when the word barud first appeared is not so critical
now, yet it is still of interest to study the history of the word.
Until recently, Ibn al-Baytar was considered to be the first to
mention the word barud in 1240. But there are indications in
the literature that the word was mentioned earlier.
Al-Jawbari,
Abdul Rahim ibn `Umar al-Dimashqi, wrote al-mukhtar fi kashf
al-asrar wa hatk al-astar in which he
warned the
general public against trickery in all forms. He says in his book
that he met
in Egypt in
617/1219-20 Shaykh Abdul Samad
the skilled manjaniq maker.
This indicates that Al-Jawbari probably wrote his book between 1220
and 1222 since he presented it to the last
Artuqid ruler
of Amid, al-Sultan
Al-Mas`ud Rukn
al-Din Mawdud (ruled 1222-1231), who was deposed by al-Malik
al-Kamil (ruled 1218-1238), the Ayyubid Sultan. In al-mukhtar
the word barud occurred at least four times as barud
thalji (snow like barud) and milh al barud (salt
of barud).
We have already
mentioned the Karshuni Arabic manuscript that was compiled between
the ninth and eleventh centuries according to Berthelot and Duval.
If we accept these date limits then it antedates the work of Ibn
al-Baytar. And even if we consider von Lippmann’s doubts about the
dates, the Karshuni manuscript was based on material that was long
established in the area before the thirteenth century as we can
infer also from Al-Jawbari’s work. There are several recipes in the
Karshuni manuscript that use the word barud. Here are two:
“ Item 174 -
For a violent fusion – two parts pure alum; 2 burnt copper, two
barud
; one black [vitriol];
two tutiya
; one honey; let the work be done in an
enamelled glass ware (zujaja khazafiyya), [one adds] raisins
and one [olive] oil; and begin work.
Item 175 –
Alkali from wild rue (harmal); borax (buraq) from
alkali, sal ammoniac (nushadir) from sawad
; pure alum from its stony minerals; barud
is taken from its sources; mercury is extracted from its red ores;
the two stones of arsenic from metal ores; [the two stones extracted
from pyrites with a colour of fire are also employed]
.”
From Ibn
al-Baytar, we learn that in North Africa the term barud was
widespread among both the general public and the physicians before
he published his book in 1240. Since it requires a considerable
length of time for a term to be adopted by the public, it may be
concluded that the word barud was prevalent before 1240 by
several decades; and one can safely assume that the word was used in
al-Maghrib at least in the second half of the twelfth century.
The same
argument can be made from reading the front page of Al-furusiyyah
wa al-manasib al-harbiyya (The Book of Horsemanship and
Weapons of War) of Najm al-Din Hasan al-Rammah
(d.695/1295). This book was written between 1270 and 1280 and it was
the first book in any language to discuss potassium nitrate and the
use of barud in gunpowder and in military applications. The
front page states that the book was written as:
“Instructions
by the eminent master (ustadh) Najm al-Din Hasan Al-Rammah,
as handed down to him by his father and his forefathers, the masters
(al-ustadhin) in this art, and by those learned elders and
masters from among their circles, may God be pleased with them all”
It is
unmistakable from this statement that Al-Rammah was not the inventor
of all the recipes on barud and gunpowder but that he had
inherited this knowledge from his father and forefathers, the
masters in this art, and from the masters who befriended them. The
detailed information and the elaborate designs recorded in his book
support the statement in the front page that this knowledge was
handed down to him from generations past. If we go back only to the
generation of his grandfather, as the first of his forefathers, then
we end up at the end of the twelfth century or the beginning of the
thirteenth as the date when barud, as an ingredient for
gunpowder, became prevalent in Syria where Al-Rammah was practicing
his military art.
Other terms for potassium nitrate
Shura
In the Persian
dictionary, Burhan Qati`, compiled in 1651 by Muhammad
Al-Tabrizi the term shura in Persian is barud.
In modern Persian dictionaries
shura is potassium nitrate. We find the word in Arabic
alchemical treatises. In Sunduq al-Hikma, attributed to Jabir
ibn Hayyan, shura is listed among the pseudonyms that are
given to the Stone (al-Hajar).
In distilling the Stone (al-Hajar),
the distillates are called also by various pseudonyms
ma’ shuri (water of shura)
Shuraj
Shuraj
is the older word for shura.
Dozy defined it as nitre.
In 869 A.D., the rebellion of the Zanj slaves took place in Basra
against the Abbasid Caliph. These slaves were employed in the
Shuraj industry on the lower Euphrates. Some modern historians
interpreted Shuraj as saltpetre.
The word for saltpetre in the late Sanskrit is shoraka which
is taken from Shuraj.
Suraj
Ibn al-Baytar
gave a definition for Suraj and based his description of it
on Dioscorides and Galen. It is a kind of foamy salt or flowers
formed on rocks near the sea.
Milh al-Dabbaghin (tanners salt)
Milh
al-dabbaghinn
(tanners salt) according to Ibn al-Baytar, is suraj.
Dozy also defined milh al-dabbaghin as nitre.
Shabb Yamani
- misnomer for potassium nitrate
Some physicians were not able to differentiate potassium nitrates
from other chemicals. We have a case here where Ibn Bakhtawayh, the
physician, in his book Al-Muqaddimat (composed in 420/1029),
described the freezing of water at any season by using potassium
nitrate, confusing it with Shabb Yamani (Yamani Alum). Ibn
Abi Usaybi`a (1203-1270), gave this information in his book `Uyun
al anba’. He says:
“ He (i.e. Ibn
Bakhtawayh) claimed that one takes one ratl of choice
Yamani Alum, place it inside a new earthenware pot and grind it well
into a fine powder; add to it six ratls of pure water; place
the pot inside a tannur (oven) that is sealed with clay,
until two thirds of the mixture evaporates. The remaining one third
of the mixture will become thick. Place it inside a bottle and seal
its aperture securely. If you desire to use it [to make ice], then
get a new thaljiyya (vessel for making ice) in which you put
pure water, Add to the pure water ten mithqals (ounces) of
the already prepared alum water. Let it set for one hour; it will
turn into ice.”[115]
Von Kremer, and Fisher, confirmed independently that the Shabb
Yamani in this case is in reality potassium nitrate, which has
the property of lowering the temperature of water.
In the period during which Ibn-Bakhtawayh had lived, namely the
tenth/eleventh century of our era, an author identified potassium
nitrate by one of several labels, depending on what he thinks. It is
of importance to note that as early as the tenth/eleventh century
Ibn Bakhtawayh had described a process of purifying potassium
nitrates by dissolving its basic components in water, and
evaporating the excess water. A small amount was then taken from
this concentrated substance and dissolved in the water that is to be
cooled.
Partington, J. R., A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder,
W. Heffer & Sons, Cambridge, 1960, reprinted by John Hopkins
University, 1999. In various places Partington gives in his book
sweeping questionable statements. These are some examples: on
page 22 he says, “The first definite mention of saltpetre in an
Arabic work is that in Ibn al-Baytar (d. 1248)”; on the same
page he translates the Latin sentence “sal anatron id est sal
nitri” by assuming that the word sal anatron is soda,
reversing thus the real meaning of the sentence; on page 304 he
says, “buraq meaning soda”, which is incorrect also.
The general
notion that saltpetre was not known till the thirteenth century
in Arabic alchemy and chemistry is reflected in other works on
the history of chemistry. Thus R. Multhauf in The Origins of
Chemistry, London, 1966, says on p. 27, “ Saltpetre, which
does not appear to have been known either to Arabic or European
chemists prior to the thirteenth century A.D., is found by Levey
in the Nippur medical tablet of about 1100 B.C.“ This is
curious, since the use of saltpetre is acknowledged to have
taken place in ancient Babylon while in Arabic and Latin
chemistry it is claimed to have been known only in the
thirteenth century A.D.
Such as in the Karshuni manuscript. See below.
Clark, W., Natural History of Nitre, London, 1670, pp.
1-2.
This discussion was taking place in the 17th century
and it continued until recently. Clark op.cit, pp. 12-15
discusses this question and concludes that potassium nitrate was
known under the word nitrum since the time of Pliny and
before. See also p 36 of the same work.
Singer, C. et al., A History of Technology, vol. II,
Oxford, 1957, pp 370-371
Yasu’i, Louis Sheikho, article on mineral mines in the Ottoman
Empire (in Arabic), Al-Mashriq, vol. v, issue number 17,
1902, p. 775.
See The Oxford Shorter English Dictionary, and the Merriam –
Webster Collegiate Dictionary, under natron.
Partington, op. cit., p. 303.
Partington, p. 88. For the Latin text see Wood Brown, An
Enquiry into the Life and Legend of Michael Scot, Edinburgh,
1897, p. 247. See also S. H. Thomson, The Texts of Michael
Scot’s Ars Alchemie, Osiris, 1935, vol. 5, pp.
523-559, the three kinds of nitre are given on page 535.
Partington, op. cit., p. 88
Ibn Sina, Al-Qanun fi al-tibb, vol. I, Bulaq edition,
1877, offset printings in Baghdad and Beirut, p. 376
Obviously this is aphronitrum
Duval translated
nitra
into saltpetre, see Berthelot and Duval below.
Al -Biruni, Kitab al-saydana fi al-tibb, ed. Abbas
Zaryab, Tehran, 1371, pp 606-607
Obviously this is aphronitrum
Ibn al-Baytar, `Abdullah b. Ahmad al-Andalusi, Al-Jami` li
Mufradat al-Adwiya wa al-Aghdhiya, vol I, Beirut, p. 125.
Martinus Rulandus, A Lexicon of Alchemy, translated by A.
E. Waite, reprinted by Kessinger Publishing Company, original
Latin edition appeared in 1612, p. 70, item, Baurac.
Cours de chymie
contenant la manière de faire les opérations qui sont en usage
dans la médecine par une méthode facile, avec des raisonnements
sur chaque opérations... par Nicolas Lemery, Paris, Ed.
Baron,
Théodore,.. d'Houry, fils, Paris, 1757, pp. 168-169.
Holmyard, “A Romance of Chemistry”, a series of articles that
appeared in Chemistry and Industry, Part I, Jan. 23,
1925, pp.75-77; Part II, Jan. 30, pp.106-108; part III, March
13, 1925, pp.272-276; Part IV, March 20, 1925, pp. 300-301; Part
V (printed IV by error), March 27, 1925, pp.327-328. In this
series of articles Holmyard published the full text of the
seventeenth century English translation of Ye Booke of
Allchimye, (Sloane MS. 3697), see also Lynn Thorndike, A
History of Magic and Experimental Science, vol.II, Columbia
University Press, Fourth Printing, 1947, p. 215. I found that
the translation of Lee Stavenhagen, A Testament of Alchemy,
The University Press of New England, 1974, to be inferior to the
one published by Holmyard. Recently (2002), Adam McLean
published the English translation of Sloane MS. 3697 after
modernising its English, see below.
Morienus, in Manget, Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa, Geneva,
1702, I, p.514
Biringuccio, Vannoccio, Pirotechnia, translated by Cyril
S. Smith and Martha T. Gnudi, New York, 1959, p. 111.
The Book of the Composition of Alchemy, edited by Adam
McLean, Glasgow, 2002, p.22.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Version published 1913.
This word occurred as al-sabkha and as al-shiha in
the various texts.
Al-Razi, Abu Bakr Muhammad b. Zakariyya b. Yahya, Kitab
al-Asrar wa Sirr al Asrar, ed.
Muhammad Taqi
Danishpazhuh, Tehran, 1343(1964), p. 6
Berthelot, M.and R. Duval, La Chimie au Moyen Age, vol.
II,
Paris, 1893. p. XII. The Karshuni MS was published in Syriac
script, with a translation into French by Duval. The Karshuni
Arabic text was converted into Arabic script in Aleppo by the
Rev. Father Bar§um on the request of the author of the present
paper. The Arabic text in Arabic script is still in MS form.
Berthelot and Duval, 1893, p. 145
Berthelot and Duval p. 163. See also the text above, where it
was mentioned that al-Biruni correlated between the words
buraq, aphronitrum with the Syriac word
nitra.
McVaugh, Michael, A List of Translations Made From Arabic into
Latin in the Twelfth Century – Gerard of Cremona (1114-1187),
Chapter 7 in A Source Book in Medieval Science, edited
by Edward Grant, Harvard University Press, 1974, p. 35-38.
Thorndike (vol.1, p. 670) thought that it might have been
translated by Michael Scot.
Peter Bonus of Ferrara, The New
Pearl of
Great Price,
Kessinger, Montana, USA. The “Extracts Made by Laciniius from
the Lights of Lights by Rhasis” is given on pages 363-388; for
salts see pp. 367-370.
De Re Metallica, by Georgius Agricola, Translated by
Herbert Hoover and Lou Hoover, Dover, New York, 1950;
Pirotechnia, by Vannoccio Biringuccio, op. cit...(for
references to saltpetre as a fluxing material in Pirotechnia
see pages 136, 194, 296, 213); The Treatise on Ores and
Assaying by Lazarus Ercker was translated from the German
Edition of 1580 by Anneliese Grunhaldt and Cyril Stanley Smith,
The University of Chicago Press, 1951.
Agricola, p. 245. It must be noted that Agricola used the word
halnitrum i.e. sal nitrum and not saltpetre. The
translators (Hoover and Hoover), substituted the word saltpetre
for halnitrum. The words nitrum or sal nitrum or sal nitri, etc.
were replaced by saltpetre by several translators and publishers
starting with the appearance of book printing in the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries. This was unfortunate because this
substitution had made it extremely difficult to know the exact
terms used by the original authors. It made it also difficult to
know the history of the development in the use of the different
terms.
Agricola, op. cit., p. 247
Ercker defines this as an incrustation on saltpetre vats capable
of being refined to give a table salt. P. 34, pp. 307-308
Erckert, op. cit., p. 207
Keynes MS18. The Latin text and English translation were given
in The Foundations of
Newton’s
Alchemy, by B. J. T. Dobbs, CUP, 1975, pp.251-255.
Lemery, Nicolas, Cours de Chymie, Paris, 1675, pp.182-184
For Holmyard’s articles giving text of seventeenth century
English translation see note above. McLean published this same
translation, see above note.
Al-mizader = Al-nushadir (ammonium chloride) according to
Holmyard.
Jabir ibn Hayyan, Kitab al-sab`in, a facsimile edition
produced by the Institute for the History of Arabic -Islamic
Science, Frankfurt, edited by Fuat Sezgin,1986, from MS Huseyin
Chelebi 743, Bursa, Turkey, p. 205. The text can be read as
three times..
The Latin translation of the Book of Seventy by Gerard of
Cremona was published by M. Berthelot on the basis of BN
manuscript number 7156; in Archeologie et histoire des
sciences, Paris, 1906, reprint 1968. p.347. Sections of the
Latin text from Berthelot’s book were quoted by Stapleton, H.
E., Azo, R. F. & Husain, M. H. “Chemistry in `Iraq and Persia in
the tenth century A.D.”, Asiatic Society of Bengal Mem.,
Vol 8, 1927, pp. 315-418
Kitab Al Jumal al-`ishrin, MS Huseyin Chelebi 743, Bursa,
Turkey, p. 489, Maqala 13.
Stpleton et al.p.355. The Latin text "De
preparando quoddam ferro secretum.”
is reproduced from Berthelot: La Chimie, I. p. 198,
quoting from Biblio. Nat. Ms. lat. No. 6514.
The Alchemical Works of Geber, translated into English by
Richard Russell in 1678, Introduction by E.J. Holmyard,
re-printed by Samuel Weiser, 1994. p. 215
Russell’s translation, op cit.
Stapleton et al. cited the Latin text of the Preparation of Mars
where the word salt petrae occurs. And since Stapleton noticed
the proximity of the Latin text to the Arabic texts of Jabir and
Al-Razi he thought that the Latin translation of the Arabic word
natrun into salt petrae was incorrect. Stapleton,
among some others, held the fixed idea that the Arabic word
natrun is not salt petrae. In the same footnote he
says that an unknown mediaeval Latin writer published De
Inventione Veritatis under the name of Geber. We notice here
a clear contradiction: Stapleton says on the one hand that the
word natrun was translated [from Arabic] into salt
petrae wrongly, and at the same time he ascribes De
Inventione Veritatis to an unknown Latin writer.
Jabir, Kitab al-sab`in, op. cit. p.196.
Jabir, Kitab al-sab`in, op. cit. p. 329
Berthelot, M. Archeologie et histoire des sciences, op.
cit p. 359
Lithargiry = litharge, lead monoxide.
It must be noted in passing that it is probable by devoted and
concerted research to relate parts of the contents of Geber’s
(or Jabir’s) Latin texts to analogous texts in Jabir’s Arabic
works. There is still the possibility also of finding some of
the lost Arabic originals of the Latin texts. .
al-Razi K. al-asrar wa sirr al-asrar, op. cit, p. 135
and several other pages.
Peter Bonus, op. cit., p. 368. As mentioned above, the Liber
luminis luminum attributed to al-Razi was translated from
Arabic by Gerard of Cremona. (See McVaugh, op.cit. p.38). A
treatise of a similar title is attributed to Michael Scot (See
Thorndike, op. cit. vol II, p.308). It was printed by Brown in
1897 as part of a work on Michael Scot. But Thorndike presumed
that it is the same as the Lumen luminum ascribed to
Rasis in BN 6517. In MS Riccardian 118, folios 35v-37v the
following text appears: “Incipit liber luminis luminum
translatus a magistro michaele scoot philosopho.” implying that
Michael Scot was not the author. (Thorndike vol II p. 308).
The Karshuni MS item 33, see Berthelot and Duval, op. cit..
As in the treatise of Salim al-Harrani Kitab al-Shawahid li
al-hajar al-wahid British Library ADD 23418, fol.124b.
Salim was a contemporary of al-Ma’mun and was in charge of Bayt
al-Hikma. About Salim, see Sezgin, F. Geschichte des Arabischen
Schrifttums, vol. IV , Brill, 1971, p. 272.
See for example British Library MS ADD 22756, folio 114b, where
we find a description of the use of natrun in the melting
of iron filings.
Al-Hamdani, al-Hasan ibn Ahmad, Kitab al-Jawharatayn
al-`atiqatayn min al-safra’ wa al-bayda’, Arabic text edited
and translated into German by Christopher Toll, Uppsala, 1968;
San`a’ Arabic edition,1985. p. 132.
See the footnote above on Liber Luminis luminum.
Brown, G. Wood, op. cit. p. 268.
Adam McLean comments on the action of the resulting acid on
mercury as follows: We should expect some of the mercury to have
dissolved in the acid. Although mercury is not attacked by
hydrochloric acid it will readily dissolve in Nitric acid. I am
not quite sure if aqua regia, which is not merely a mixture of
the two acids but has a special chemical structure, will readily
dissolve Mercury.
Partington, op. cit., p. 87.
Jabir ibn Hayyan, Kitab al-Sab`in, op. cit. pp. 341-343.
Holmyard , in Science Progress, vol. 19, Jan. 1925,
pp.425-426
Holmyard , Alchemy, Dover edition, p. 8; Sunduq al-Hikma
is MS. 303, at Dar al Kutub, Cairo, folios 1b-24b, (See
Sezgin GAS, vol.iv, p.265.)
Courtesy of Mr. Mahmud Amin al-`Alim, Cairo.
Qafla is a measure of weight. In the Arabic dictionaries
we read: dirham qafla. It seems that qafla is
dirham.
Julius Ruska, Arabische Alchimisten, reprint in 1967 of the
original work of 1924, pp. 115-116
Al-Hakim (386-411/996-1021), sixth Fatimid caliph;
Al-Mu`izz
(341-65/953-75), the fourth Fatimid caliph.
Sezgin op. cit., Vol IV, p.293-294
Solution in wetness is a standard method that was described by
al-Razi in K. al-asrar, op. cit. p.80. Solution of salts
was a step preceding distillation for producing acids p.77
Russell, The Alchemical Works of Geber, op. cit., pp. 223-224
Al-Kutubi, Yusuf ibn Isma`il, ma la ysa`u al tabiba jahluhu,
MS Ahmadiyya 1262, folios 17b and 36b
Berthelot and Duval, op. cit., the Karsh´ni manuscript, article
74 , p. 163-164
Partington, op. cit., p. 315 and p. 319.
Ibn al-Baytar, op. cit, vol. I, p.41
Ibn al-Baytar, op. cit.vol. I, p. 114
Ibn al-Baytar, op. cit. vol. I, p. 206
Ibn al-Baytar, op. cit., vol. I, p. 264
Al-Antaki Dawud ibn `Umar, Tadhkirat uli al-albab, vol.
1, Cairo, 1356 H/1937 A.D., p. 62.
Anonymous, an Arabic military treatise containing, among other
things, numerous formulations of gunpowder. MS Bashir Agha 411.
Partington, op. cit., p. 150. Partington quotes Romocki in this
case. Von Romocki, Geschichte der Explosivstoffe, 1895,
I, pp. 133-78
Rolandus, Lexicon, p. 239.
Al-Jawbari, Abdul Rahim ibn `Umar al-Dimashqi, al-mukhtar fi
kashf al-asrar wa hatk al-astar, Damascus, 1302/1884, pp.
22; 26; 118.
The word barud came in the Arabic text, but Duval
translated barud into natron, [Berthelot and Duval, op.
cit.,p. 187], which means sodium carbonate in modern European
languages. This is a gross error with no explanation.
The word vitriol was added in Duval’s translation, p. 187. Words
between square brackets are added by Duval to the French
translation.
translated as antimony by Duval.
Translated as soot (suie) by Duval.
Berthelot and Duval, op. cit., articles 174 and 175, p. 197.
This is Duval’s translation of an obscure Arabic text. The
Arabic of these two items are rather poor.
Al-Rammah, Najm al-Din Hasan, Al-Furusiyya wa al-manasib
al-harbiyya edited with analytical introductory chapters by
Ahmad Y. al-Hassan, Aleppo, 1998, p.63
Tabrizi, Burhan qati`, edited by Muhammad Mu`in, Tehran,
1951, p. 216 and p. 1308.
Sunduq al-hikma, MS. Dar al-Kutub, Cairo 311, fol. 26b.
Colin, G. S. in EI, item Barud.
Dozy, R. Supplement aux dictionnaires arabes, vol.
I.
Re-printed by Libraire du Liban, 1968, p. 801.
Hitti, Philip, History of the Arabs, Macmillan, 1970,
p.468; also R. A. Nicholson, Literary History of the Arabs,
London, 1907, p. 273. Forbes in Studies in Ancient Technology,
(Brill, 1965, volume III, p. 188), says that saltpetre was known
and was used in ancient Mesopotamia. It was obtained as an
efflorescence of the soil in certain places where organic matter
decayed. It was collected and treated to obtain the crystals of
saltpetre. See also Martin Levey. It seems that this ancient
practice in these lands continued into Islamic times.
Partington, op. cit., p. 215
Ibn al-Baytar, op. cit., vol II, p.56.
Ibn al-Baytar. Vol II, p. 458.
Dozy op.cit. vol.. II, p. 618 and vol. I, p. 801.
Ibn Abi Usaybi`a ,`Uyun al-anba’ fi tabaqat al- atibba’,
ed. Nizar Rida, Beirut, 1965, p. 124.
Partington, pp. 311-312, and note 191, p. 335.
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Y. al-Hassan unless where indicated otherwise.
All published material are the copyright of the
author (unless
stated otherwise) and may not be published or reproduced in part
or in whole without the express written permission of the
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Appendix