whole historic course of European alchemy and chemistry.’ He is credited with having written one hundred chemical works, some of which are the most influential chemical treatises in both Europe and Asia and have been translated into several European languages including Latin. Several technical scientific terms used by Jabir have been adopted into modern chemistry. Jabir explained scientifically the two principal operations of chemistry, calcination and reduction, and registered a marked improvement in the methods of evaporation, sublimation, filtration, distillation and crystallization. Jabir also modified and corrected the Aristotelian theory of the constituents of metal, which remained unchanged until the beginning of modern chemistry in the 18th century. Shabina Bi-Baroo
Research has shown that Jabir knew how to obtain near pure vitrilos, alums, alkalis and how to produce ‘the so-called liver’ and milk of sulfur by heating sulfur with alkali. Jabir also advanced a theory on the geologic
formation of metals and dealt with many useful practical applications of chemistry such as refinement of metals, preparation of steel and dyeing of cloth and leather, varnishing of waterproof cloth and use of manganese dioxide to colour glass. Jabir was recognised as the master by the chemists of the 12th and 13th centuries who were unable to improve on his methods and so confined themselves to the quest of the legendary elixir which they never found. It seems chemistry as a science is unquestionably the invention of the Muslims. It is one of the sciences in which Muslims made the greatest contribution by developing it to such a high degree of perfection that they were considered authorities on the subject until the end of the 17th century. Jabir and Zakariya Razi are remembered as the greatest chemists the mediaeval period produced. Jabir Ibn Hayyan died in the year 815 and the original version of one of his most famous books, ‘The Big Book of Properties’ is on display at the British Museum.
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