Anonymous fragment of a treatise on practical chemistry
Scope & Content:
Instructions for the production of a distilled ‘hot water’ (ماء حار ; f. 159r, line 23, transcribed below) that can split and dissolve stone. The text begins abruptly and appears to have been copied by Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Mawṣilī (محمد بن سليمان الموصلي) (see colophon, f. 158v, line 21). B...
Lines 1-9 give instructions for producing false ambergris (عنبر); lines 9-15 give instructions for a distillation process for oil of cloves and roses; and lines 16-17 give brief instructions for the washing of ṭaḥīnah. Begins (f. 159v, lines 1-4): خذ من الشب ٣٠ درهم ومن البارود ٣٠ درهم وقطرهم ...
Risālah nāfi‘ah fī ghāyat al-naf‘ wa-al-nafāsah lam yu‘raf muṣannifuhā رسالة نافعة في غاية النفع والنفاسة لم يعرف مصنّفها
Scope & Content:
A treatise on the elixir containing many extracts from poetical and prose sources. The text was copied in late Rajab 919 (Sept-Oct 1513) at al-Madrasah al-Maulawiyyah al-ʿAlawiyyah in Fez by Qudrat Allāh al-Marandī al-Ādharī (see colophon, fol. 11a). Although the title states that the author is ...
Risālah li-Abī Hishām al-Amīr Khālid رسالة لأبي هشام الأمير خالد Khālid ibn Yazīd al-Umawī خالد بن يزيد الأموي
Scope & Content:
A treatise on alchemy attributed to Abū Hāshim Khālid ibn Yāzīd al-Umawī (ca 48 AH/AD 668 - 85 AH/AD 704), the Umayyad prince credited (probably spuriously) with sponsoring the first translations in Islam, and notably the first translations of alchemical texts into Arabic (Ibn Nadīm, Fihrist, 30...
Kitāb Tarākīb al-anwār كتاب تراكيب الأنوار Ṭughrāʾī, al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī طغرائي، الحسين بن علي
Scope & Content:
An influential alchemical treatise by Muʾayyad al-Dīn abū Ismāʿīl al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Ṭughrāʾī (d. 515 AH/AD 1121), a high-ranking Seljuq vizier and the most important alchemist of his time. The text was copied in early Raǧab 925 (June/July 1519) at Damascus by Qudrat Allāh al-Marandī al-Ād...
An introduction to the principles of alchemy spuriously ascribed to Democritus. This Democritus is not the atomist philosopher of Abdera, but the Greek alchemical authority of the same name, sometimes equated with Bolos of Mendes. The text’s style and content suggest that it is not, in fact, a G...
Selections from Kitāb al-Mulakhkhaṣ (كتاب الملخص) concerning physics Rāzī, Fakhr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar رازي، فخر الدين محمد بن عمر
Scope & Content:
A collection of fifteen or more extracts taken from Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s (AD 1149/50-1210) Kitāb al-Mulakhkhaṣ fī al-falsafah. The extracts all deal with physics, and cover such subjects as ‘that movement is either caused by fleeing what is unnatural or seeking what is natural’ (f. 67v, line 1...
Selections from al-Rāzī’s al-Kutub al-Ithná ‘asharah (الكتب الإثنى عشرة) Rāzī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā رازي، أبو بكر محمد بن زكريا
Scope & Content:
A summary of Books Two, Three, Six, Seven, and Nine of the Twelve Books (الكتب الإثنى عشرة) of the physician and philosopher Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā al-Rāzī (أبو بكر محمد بن زكريا الرأزي; d. ca 925), his most complete exposition of the art of chemistry. In this copy, the summary of Book S...
Extracts from Kitāb fī Maʿrifat al-ḥajar (كتاب في معرفة الحجر) Ibn Waḥshīyah, Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn أحمد بن الحسين، ابن وحشية
Scope & Content:
Extracts from Kitāb fī Maʿrifat al-ḥajar (كتاب في معرفة الحجر) attributed to Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ‘Alī ibn Qays al-Kasdānī (أبو بكر أحمد بن علي بن قيس الكسداني), known as Ibn Waḥshiyah (ابن وحشية; fl. first half of the 10th century). The passages extracted relate the opinions on alchemical matters...
Excerpts from a commentary on the poem of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Tammām al-ʿIrāqī (عبد العزيز ابن تمام العراقي) Anonymous
Scope & Content:
An anonymous and untitled commentary on the alchemical didactic poem al-Qaṣīdah al-nūnīyah by Abū al-Iṣbaʿ ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Tammām al-ʿIrāqī (fl. late 4th AH/AD 10th century). Sezgin lists manuscripts of five commentaries on this poem (GAS 4, p. 290; see also Ullmann, 1972, p. 220). Begins (ff...
