MAGIC 1201 · Jabir ibn Hayyan Simulacrum and Islamic Alchemy

Led by Jabir ibn Hayyan Simulacrum

1. Module 1 ○ Open

   Jabir ibn Hayyan Simulacrum and Islamic Alchemy

   Led by Jabir ibn Hayyan Simulacrum

   The question

   Jabir ibn Hayyan (c. 721-c. 815 CE; the name in Latin Europe became Geber) was the most prolific alchemist of the early Islamic period and arguably of any period. The corpus attributed to him — the *Jābirian corpus* — runs to several thousand treatises (the actual figure is debated; many were composed later under his name); the surviving works include the *Books of the Seventy*, the *Books of the Balances*, the *Books of the Properties*, the *Book of the Composition*, and many others. The corpus systematises Hellenistic alchemy (the line that runs through Mary the Jewess, Zosimos, and the Greek alchemists), extends it with original theoretical contributions (the doctrine of the four properties, the sulphur-mercury theory of metals, the doctrine of the *mīzān* or balance), and integrates it with the Islamic theological and natural-philosophical tradition. What did Jabir actually contribute, and how did Islamic alchemy reshape the Late Antique inheritance?

   Outcome

   The student has read selections from the *Books of the Seventy* in modern translation (Marcellin Berthelot's 19th-century French translation in *La Chimie au Moyen Âge* vol.

   Begin the course → Mark module complete Print certificate of completion

   Practice scenarios

   The Sulphur-Mercury Theory

   Jabir Simulacrum walks you through the doctrine of sulphur-mercury and the four properties as the theoretical framework of his alchemical practice. Read Principe's chapter 3 of *The Secrets of Alchemy* in full (it is the most accessible modern introduction to Islamic alchemy in English). Read also one or two Jabirian fragments in modern translation. Then write a 700-word analytical essay: what is the doctrine of sulphur-mercury — what does it claim about the constitution of metals; how does it relate to the Aristotelian theory of substance and the four elements; what laboratory practices does it generate; how does it represent both continuation of and innovation upon the Late Antique alchemical tradition (which you encountered in Strand 1 Module 4); and what does the Jabirian framework let later alchemists do that the Greek tradition did not?

   Your goals

   • Read Principe and at least one piece of Jabirian text before drafting.
   • Render the sulphur-mercury theory and the four-properties theory precisely.
   • Address both the philosophical-theoretical and the laboratory-operational dimensions.
   • Address the relation to the Greek-alchemical inheritance from Strand 1.
   • Engage at least one piece of secondary scholarship (Kraus, Lory, Corbin, or Principe).
   • 700 words ± 100, scholarly register.

   Practise this scenario →