Arabic Alchemy in Al-Andalus of Spain

 (The Way of La Toabey)

Arabic Alchemy in Al-Andalus of Spain

Victor. Arturo Cabello. Reyes.

It is very likely that modern Western esotericism began to visualize that since the tenth century alchemy registers in Hispania-'Spain'-known terms = Ophiusa, Tarshis, Hesperia, Iberia-..., an enormous activity of all kinds from the creation of perfumes, alcohols, soaps and a series of practices of a considerable alchemical nature.

This suggests that until recently it was believed that alchemy originated in the 'other Europe', distancing itself from its true historical origin.

As a consequence, Arabs, Syrians and Berbers invaded the peninsula, considerably influencing Moorish Spain.

The Mozarabs, even though they profess Christianity, will sometimes write in Arabic.

Let's remember the Maslama of Madrid.

From the scientific point of view, the Arabs were deeply knowledgeable about the science of Dioscórides, Galen and Hippocrates, writing in Latin-Mozarabic-, in Romance by the Spaniards and in Arabic.

(Treatise on the Astrolabe-Monastery of El Escorial)

In addition, it is thanks to the conquest of the independent kingdoms of 'Visigoth Spain' by the Arabs, and the phenomenon of fusion and historical sedimentation of cultural and social elements, that it is possible to make contact with rich traditions of the Muslims and Judaism in a knowledge -medicine, alchemy and philosophy-, which spreads and spreads throughout Europe. (1)

Crucially, European translators such as Robert of Chester (1144), an English alchemist, mathematician and astrologer, began translating and taking an interest in alchemical texts and manuscripts early in the twelfth century (12).

It is worth noting that for several centuries in Al-Andalus in Spain, alchemy was practiced by doctors, scribes, theologians and friars, respected thanks to the educated academic knowledge of Arab scholars.

It is a cultural and scientific tradition of Islam and the Sabaeans of Syria, which arrives in Al-Andalus enriched with texts in Latin, Greek, Persian and Syriac, and which faithfully follows the traditional and learned wisdom of the Conversation of King Calid and the Philosopher Morienus on the Magisterium of Hermes.

'... by Said al-Andalusi(1029-1070), qadi of Toledo, who wrote, and influential history of science organized by nation. According to his arrangement of the data, science passed over the centuries from the Eastern nations toward the Western nations culminating, not surprisingly, in the Andalusia of his day'. (2)

As we can see, it is thanks to the Arab tradition of Abu Bakr Muhammed b. Zakariya al-Razi=Abu Zacaria (825-923-9th and 10th centuries) and Ibn Sina, Avicenna = Abū 'Alī al-Husayn ibn 'Abd Allāh ibn Sĩnã (Arabic: أبو علي الحسین بن عبدالله بن سینا-Hamadan, 980-1037), that wisdom and its canon translated in the School of Toledo by Gerard of Cremona.

'Abd Allāh ibn Sĩnã Persian physician, philosopher, astronomer and scientist of Islam.

Ibn = is an indicator of lineage ibn = 'son of' to the paternal name.

It is known that it is Cordoba, Spain, where Yunus Ahmed al Harrani arrives at the Alcázar, to bring with him treatises and manuscripts of 'vegetable alchemy' and mineral.

To this is added that the Cordovan Ibn Habib = Mujtasar, wrote in Spain his: Fi L-Tibb or Compedio de La Medicina, which is already known and applied in Spain as medical alchemy, centuries before all of Europe. (3)

Evidently, the Picatrix is said to have been written by Maslama from Madrid (11th century).

And the Jarchas(10th century) = short lyrical ditties that Arab poets include at the end of their poems, are written in Mozarabic.

Interestingly, Jabir ibn Hayyan assigns a Sacred Letter to each abode of the moon in his long and systematic journey through the zodiacal belt.

Needless to say, solid and proven ancestral knowledge of medical astrology and the astrological balance between planetary correspondences and analogies with days, weeks, minerals, metals, body parts, and behavior are transmitted.

In any case, it is a glorious cloud that the Andalusian Cordoba of Abderrahman III and Alkahem II, can boast of truly being a splendid intellectual form.

It is in the reign of Abderrahman II (821-852) when the High Art brings together great alchemists, and some, later recognized=Abbas Ibn Firnas, (810-887) born in Ronda, who was the first Andalusian to technically manufacture glass vessels and apparatus = flasks and pelicans.

It is worth noting that the conquest of Toledo in 1085 facilitated trade and cultural exchange that allowed a philosophical, theological and scientific revival first of Al-Andalus in Visigoth Spain and, later, of the entire Christian West.

On the other hand, it is thanks to Alfonso X of Castile, called "the Wise" (Toledo, 23 November 1221 – Seville, 4 April 1284), King of the Crown of Castile and other kingdoms between 1252 and 1284, that the School of Translators of Toledo, 12th century (12) translated philosophical and theological texts -classical Greco-Latin and Alexandrian texts-. translated from Arabic or Hebrew into Latin written in Arabic, translated into Spanish.

Originally, the famous school of Toledo and its translators was the idea of the Archbishop of Toledo, Don Raymond (1125-1152).

'... what the Christian world owed to it was the classical inheritance in philosophy and science rethought by Islam and formulated in Arabic, and available in Latin from the twelfth century. '... (4)

Book of the Twelve Sages (1237) and alchemical, astronomical, medical and scientific texts.

Unbroken golden chain of sages.

'Europe never denied that thanks to Al Andalus, an enormous wealth of wisdom from the ancient world was poured into the parchments of its monasteries, plus the addition of the fertile Andalusian harvest'. (5)

The term 'AL-ANDALUS' is associated with the territory controlled by the Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula, Al-Andalus is the Arabization of the area after the beginning of the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, in the year 711.

In Al-Andalus, doctors were true prescribers of hygienic and aesthetic care, as they managed to develop a refined alchemical-preventive medicine unique in the Islamic world.

This wisdom of practical and experimental alchemy of the Arabs is what achieves the knowledge and preparation of ammoniac salt, borax = Arabic buruq and ammonia (composed of hydrogen and nitrogen = 'volatile alkali') and mineral acids. (6)

Marcelin Berthelot collects and documents different collections of early Syriac texts and a number of Arab alchemists following the tradition of Byzantine alchemists, who were the ones who maintained and transmitted the practical alchemical art of glassmakers, metallurgists and jewelers.

Arabic treatises include The Book of Crates, Book of El-Habib-from Greek sources, and the corpus tradition of the Book of Ostanes.

Arthur Edward White argues: 'Now, we know after what manner the real and imputed science of Araby the Blessed passed into Europe, and we can understand the Spain-under Moslem domination- was destined to be a meeting-point for Alchemy, as for so much else that came from the East westward. (7)

They also made tremendous strides in the development of recipes and the properties of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid, alkali, zinc oxide and other compounds, dyes, varnishes and glasses.

In this way, we can say that one of the technological components with the greatest impact in Al-Andalus and the one that has left the greatest footprint has been the production of glazed ceramics, which has had enormous health benefits.

And also, the elaboration of talismans, teachings of astronomy-astrology and songs to the stars.

Therefore, practical wisdom in scientific knowledge and experiences of all kinds, in glass and glassware.

That is to say, it is the strong glazing of alchemical ceramics created by alchemists in their laboratories that prevents food contact and allows the preservation of food better and longer preserved.

At the same time, these foods are preserved in Andalusian glazed pottery thanks to the alchemical-Muslim legacy, since the Andalusians invented a way to preserve food on a scientific and practical basis.

The high Arab agronomy in Al-Andalus is truly astonishing in its scientific advances.

Ibn Bassal, an astronomer from Toledo, was of the opinion that if you want to preserve your place where you store cereals from pests and insects, you should place 'astrologically magnetized stones' around it.

The famous Lapidarium of Alfonso X the Wise is a worthy example of sacred lapidary tradition.

While the rest of Europe is plunged into absolute darkness, in the Spanish peninsula a refined and cultured culture flourishes that made the alchemical science of elixirs and 'internal hygiene' its first barrier to strengthen the body and preserve health and longevity.

The gaps in the tradition force us to say that a big problem is that some treatises and historians of alchemy do not consider Spain to be part of 'Western Europe', and the alchemical tradition loses its authentic 'historical trace and traces of origin', its true resurgence in Europe.

Which in the present case was in Spain.

How can we forget the immense work of Alfonso X the Wise, Bishop of Tarragona or the Archbishop of Toledo?

'Alchemy thus came into Europe as a new and intriguing branch of knowledge apparently under the patronage and guidance of the Church, and it came, by and large, from Spain'(#8)

Arabic Alchemy in Al-Andalus of Spain

Victor. Arturo. Cabello. Reyes.

Bibliography:

8. P.G. Maxwell Stuart, The Chemical Choir, A History of Alchemy, p.55.

9. E.J. Holmyard, Alchemy, (Islamic Alchemy) p.p.60-104.

10. P.G. Maxwell-Stuart, The Chemical Choir, pp.55-56

11. Luis E. Iñigo Fernández, Brief History of Alchemy, pp. 113-132.

12. F. Sherwood Taylor, The Alchemists, pp. 69-82.

13. Liber appelatus thesaurus thesaurorum, rosarius philosophorum (Book called the treasury of treasures, rosary of philosophers), Book entitled TESTAMENT, (Codex Parisiense, Bibliothèque nationale de Paris, no. 208, Fond espagnol, folio I. Alchemy in Spain Volume II, pp. 103-119.

14. Antoine Faivre, The Eternal Hermes, p.19.

15. Conversation of King Calid and the Philosopher Morienus on the Magisterium of Hermes. Morieni Romani, Quondam Eremitae Hierosolymitani, de transfiguratione metallorum... (Paris, 1559).

16. José Ramón De Luanco, La Alquimia en España: Tomos I y II, p. 49.

17. Dr. Frederik Koning, History of the Occult, p.59

18. Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola, Count of La Concordia, Prayer about the Dignity of Man, University of Puerto Rico, p.1.

19. Emile Dantinne, De L'origine Islamique des Rose-Croix in: Revista INCONNUES p.8., Fama Fraternitatis-Cassell (1614), translate from German by Christopher McIntosh, pp.20-21. Chemical Wedding by Christian Rosenkreutz (1616).

20. Tobias Churton, The Invisible History of the Rosicrucians, p.103.

Reference Bibliography:

Mob Philosophorum = Assembly of the Philosophers c.ad 900 and the Emerald Tablet—known thanks to Arabic translation.

Jordan Stratford, A Dictionary of Western Alchemy

Luis E. Iñigo Fernández, Brief History of Alchemy p.p.109-131.

Gilette Ziegler, Nicolas Flamel, The Gold Maker

Antoine Faivre, The Eternal Hermes, p.19.

Dr. Frederik Koning, History of the Occult, p.59

Geber, Book of Balance, p.147.

Robert of Chester: Conversation of King Calid and the Philosopher Morienus on the Magisterium of Hermes. Liber de compositione alchimiae=A book about the Structure of Alchemy),

Arthur Edward White, Arabian and Syriac Alchemy, p.89.

G. E. Von Grunebaum, Classical Islam, pp. 64, 122, 123.

General References:

Robert Payne, The History of Islam, p.169,211-217

Dozy, Reinhart, Spanish Islam: A History of the Muslems in Spain.

Stanley, Lane-Pool, The Story of The Moors in Spain

{Note} Tradition attributes to the Arab Geber the number of more than 500 alchemical treatises, similar to Ramon Llull, hundreds of works of alchemy of dubious date and origin are attributed to him.