al-Dschildaki
Al-Dschildaki , often also al-Jaldakī , with the full name Izz al-Din Aydamir al-Jaldaki (English transcription Al-Jaldaki , often also al-Jildakī ; died 1342 in Cairo ), was a Persian alchemist . He is considered one of the most important and also the last of the alchemists of the Islamic Middle Ages.
Life
It is named after the addition of its origin in the area Dschaldak in Mashhad in Khorasan .
As he himself states, he had traveled widely for 17 years in North Africa, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Asia Minor and Yemen. Many of his treatises have been preserved in which there are also detailed citations by older authors and which are thus also an important source of information for the history of chemistry in the medieval Islamic world. A comparison with extant works to which he refers shows that he was a careful copyist. He wrote many of his works in Cairo, where he eventually settled and also died.
According to his writings, he himself had experimental knowledge of alchemy and defended the alchemical transformation of elements against Avicenna . In addition to alchemy, he deals, for example, with the classification of animals, plants and minerals (whereby he assigns metals and other objects to the seven planets), with magic, pharmacy, medicine and astrology. According to Hill, he was not an author of great originality and commented mainly on older authors.
Fonts
- Kitab al-Burhan fi asrar 'ilm al-mizan (Proof of the Secret of the Science of Balance); It deals with the equilibrium theory of the school of Jabir ibn Hayyan , but also deals with a whole range of other areas of knowledge, such as theology, letter magic, cosmology, philosophy, physics, astrology, in an encyclopedic manner.
- Nihayat al-talab (The End of the Search)
- al-Misbah fi Ilm al-Miftah (Key to the Science of Light)
literature
- G. Strohmaier: Djildaki. In: H. Gibbs et al. a .: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2nd edition, Suppl., Brill
- G. Brockelmann: History of Arabic literature. Brill 1889-1936, Volume 2, pp. 138/139
- Donald Hill: Alchemical Literature. In: MJL Young, JD Latham, RB Serjeant (Eds.): Religion, learning and science in the Abbasid period. Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. 339/340
- George C. Anawati: Arabic alchemy. In: Roshdi Rashed (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science. Routledge, 1996, Volume 3, p. 874.
Web links
- Biography at the United States Library of Medicine
- Salah Zaimeche, Introduction to the Islamic Tradition of Chemistry, illustrations of his writings
Individual evidence
- ^ Hill, see Literature, p. 340.
- ↑ Donald Hill, see literature. Hill, p. 339, refers to him as an Egyptian and the date of death 1392 or after.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | al-Dschildaki |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | al-Jildaki; al-Jaldaki; al-Jaldaki |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | persian alchemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 13th century or 14th century |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Khorasan |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1342 |
| Place of death | Cairo |