User:Wayiran/Geber
The Geber Problem[edit]
The identity of the author of works attributed to Jabir has long been discussed.[1]
In 1942, Paul Kraus argued that anonymous members of the so-called Brethren of Purity of the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam were the true authors of the works in Arabic that were attributed to Jabir, and that they were writing in the ninth and tenth centuries[2].
Syed Haq offers evidence for possible 8th century origin of one text[3].
This was first independently suggested, on textual and other grounds, by the nineteenth-century historians Hermann Kopp and Marcellin Berthelot. Eric Holmyard argues for at least some Arabic origin but not 8th century. Newman showed a distant relationship to the Arabic work of Razi.[4] He argued that the true author of the most famous book by the Latin "Geber" was the little-known Paul of Taranto, writing shortly after the year 1300.[5]
Geber is, according to a famous controversy[6], the unknown author of several books in Alchemy.[7]
It is said that Geber, the Latinized form of "Jabir," was adopted presumably because of the great reputation of a supposed 8th-century alchemist by the name of Jabir ibn Hayyan. About this historical figure, however, there is considerable uncertainty.[8][9]
Geber's identity with Jabir is still on dispute.[10] Sometimes called as "Geber-Jabir problem"[11]
Jabir, the greatest chemist of Islam has long been familiar to western readers under the name of Geber, which is the medieval rendering of the Arabic Jabir, the alchemist Geberu of the Middle Ages[12].
It is possible that some of the facts mentioned in the Latin works, ascribed to Geber and dating from the twelfth century and later, must also be placed to Jabir's credit. It is impossible to reach definite conclusions until all the Arabic writings ascribed to Jabir have been properly edited and discussed. It is only then that we shall be able to measure the full extent of his contributions, but even on the slender basis of our present knowledge, Jabir appears already as a very great personality, one of the greatest in mediaeval science.[13]
the assumption that Jabir ebn hayyan is not the actual writer of an arabic version (now lost) of some Latin books (not lost)
since there is no original arabic version found, therefore the work was by someone called Geber.
Alchemical texts of Jāber (Geber) and Rāzi (Rhazes) which were in Arabic, were translated into Latin in the 12th century.[14]
- ↑ Glick, Thomas; Eds (2005), Medieval science, technology, and medicine : an encyclopedia, New York: Routledge, pp. 279, ISBN 0415969301
- ↑ Kraus, Paul (1942). Jabir ibn Hayyan: Contribution a l'histoire des idees scientifiques dans l'Islam. Institut Francais d'Archeologie Orientale.
- ↑ Haq, Syed Nomanul; Jabir ibn Hayyan (1994). Names, Natures and Things: Jabir ibn Hayyan and His Kitab Al-Ahjar (Book of Stones). Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 0792325877.
- ↑ Newman, William (1991). The Summa Prefectionis of Pseudo-Geber: A Critical Edition, Translation and Study. Brill. ISBN 9004094644.
- ↑ Newman, William (1985). "New Light on the Identity of Geber", Sudhoffs Archiv fuer die Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften.
- ↑ Arthur John Hopkins, Alchemy Child of Greek Philosophy, Published by Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2007, ISBN 0548135479, p. 140
- ↑ Template:Cite encyclopedia
- ↑ Template:Cite encyclopedia
- ↑ Openness, Secrecy, Authorship: Technical Arts and the Culture of Knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance By Pamela O. Long Published by JHU Press, 2001 ISBN 080186606
- ↑ P. Crosland, Maurice, Historical Studies in the Language of Chemistry, Courier Dover Publications, 2004, ISBN 0486438023, 9780486438023, p. 15
- ↑ Thomas F. Glick, Steven John Livesey, Faith Wallis, Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia, Routledge, 2005, ISBN 0415969301, 9780415969307, p. 279-300
- ↑ Alchemy on Islamic Times, Retrieved on 14 February, 2009.
- ↑ Alchemy on Islamic Times, Retrieved on 14 February, 2009.
- ↑ KIMIĀ (“Alchemy”), encyclopedia Iranica, Retrieved on 14 February, 2009.