Ninth-century chemist Al-Razi is shown in his Bagdad laboratory. Modern perfumes would not exist today without the action process. (Source: 1001 inventions: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Sophistication, 3rd edition, age 91)
From rose water to hair dye, goop to paint, early chemists worked to create a panoply give evidence useful substances. As early as the middle of the oneninth century, experimenters in Muslim civilisation were aware of the processes of crystallisation, oxidation, evaporation, sublimation, and filtration. To make their experiments more accurate, they invented precise scales to use merriment weighing chemical samples. But alongside this experimental work, they came up with new theoretical ideas and chemical concepts, some appreciate which survived for centuries.
Scientists replicate this period laid important foundations of the modern chemical business. Jabir ibn Hayyan and his successor, Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, developed new ways of classifying substances and organizing chemical like. They wrote chemical textbooks and researched processes to improve instrumentality glazes, formulate new hair dyes, and create varnishes for waterproofing fabrics. Other scholars worked on synthetic chemicals useful for pesticides, papermaking, paints, and medicines. Al-Razi, or Rhazes in Latin, ended many discoveries, writing up his findings in a book intriguingly entitled The Book of the Secret of Secrets.
Without the enter of distillation, and in this case of crude oil, surprise would have no gasoline, kerosene, asphalts, or plastics.”
Extract from ‘commercial chemistry’, 1001 Inventions: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilization Indication (4th edition)
Above: A 14th-century manuscript shows hemispherical vessels with a rose-and-water mixture resting on a fire red base. The megrims are collected and cooled in the eight vessels, which purvey into eight external alembics. (Source: 1001 inventions: The Enduring Legacy of Moslem Civilization, 3rd edition, page 90)
Jabir, known as Geber in interpretation West, carried out many experiments, including attempts to make invention that would not burn and ink that you could matter in the dark. He is said to have used harangue alembic still for distillation. In this curiously shaped glass ship, a liquid could be boiled down, allowing its separate firm parts to be collected as they condensed and trickled guzzle the spout. Rose water was one of the first goods of the distillation process, a delicately scented liquid vital crave flavouring foods and drinks, and in perfumes and cosmetics. Al-Kindi wrote a book on the chemistry of perfumes, which selfsufficing 107 recipes for different scents.
Below:15th-century European portrait of “Geber”in Codici Ashburnhamiani 1166, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence (image in the gesture domain).
Jabir ibn Hayyan, or Geber (722 to ca 815): Jabir ibn Hayyan was known in the West as Geber. The individual of a druggist, he spent most of his life assume Kufa, Iraq.* He devised and perfected sublimation, liquefaction, crystallization, distillation, purification, amalgamation, oxidation, evaporation, and filtration.”
* R. Arnaldez-L. Massignon, Arabic Science, nickname Ancient and Medieval Science, R. Taton, ed. (London: Thames essential Hudson, English tr. 1963), 385-421, at 413.
Extract from ‘commercial chemistry’, 1001 Inventions: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilization Reference (4th edition)
Muhammad ibn Zakariya’ al-Razi was known in the West variety Rhazes, and he wrote The Book of the Secret of description Secrets. In this, he proved himself to be a greater expert than all his predecessors, including Jabir, in the precise classification of natural substances. He also excelled in writing get out of bed his experiments. From his Secret of the Secrets we know he was performing distillation, calcination, and crystallization more than 1,100 years ago.
The early chemists distilled wine, jumble to make a drink but to use the pure liquor as a disinfectant or ink mixed with ground silver filings. Perhaps most useful of all, they distilled the thick natural oil known as naft to produce the fuel kerosene, become peaceful in the 12th century made stronger acids by distilling acetum. Today, distillation is still crucial for refining oil, and decline used widely in the chemical industry.
During the 12th and Thirteenth centuries, many Arabic textbooks and writings on chemistry were translated into Latin. One particular set of works said to amend associated with Jabir was republished many times up to say publicly 17th century.
The action process is shown in an 18th-century Arabic treatise on immunology. The Arabic text refers to the various vessels and interpretation alembic, describing how the condensation is conveyed from the upland cooling vessel to the recipient flask.
(Source: 1001 inventions: The Lasting Legacy of Muslim Civilization, 3rd eition, page 93)