Father of Chemistry

His real name is "Abu Musa Jabir bin Hayyan" but he is known in the Western world as "Jabir" or "Geber". Jabir bin Hayyan was born in Tus city of Iran's Khorasan province in 721 AD. His father, Hayyan Al-Azdi, was a medicine maker from the Azd tribe in Yemen. Al-Azdi supported the Abbasid rebellion against the Umayyads, and then they went to Iran, where Jabir was born. When his father was captured and executed by the Umayyads, the family moved to Yemen. Jabir bin Hayyan was educated in Yemen under the tutelage of the scholar Harbi al-Himyari. Returning to Küfe when the Abbasid Dynasty came to power, Cabir bin Hayyan improved himself in chemistry, alchemy, pharmacy, philosophy, astronomy, and medicine there.

The contribution of Muslims to Islam is important in several respects. Firstly, as seen for the first time in the works of Jabir bin Hayyan, Muslims thought that elements were formed by the combination of several basic properties in certain proportions and that these fundamental properties could be separated and recombined in certain proportions, contrary to the ideas of the ancient Greeks, and thus to form new compounds.

Many studies by Jabir bin Hayyan, no doubt, had a profound effect on chemistry studies in the West. The use of the experimental method has opened a new era in science. The importance of experimenting is better understood with the following statement.

“Experience is essential in science. A good and real experimenter becomes an expert and a master. If he doesn't, he can't. This is true for all sciences. A scholar who does not experiment cannot conclude…”

We can list the contributions and works of Cabir bin Hayyan to science as follows:

Jabir is the first scientist to synthesize nitric acid (HNO3) and sulfuric acid (H2SO4), these two acids are such important compounds that today the development level of a country is proportional to the annual sulfuric acid consumption because there is almost no area where sulfuric acid is not used. , obtaining pure gold and mercury, classification of chemical salts, naming the compounds that neutralize acids as “alkaline”, that is, base, production of “king water” that dissolves gold, purification of alum by crystallization, silver nitrate (AgNO3), mercury oxide (HgO), arsenic oxide (H3AsO3), citric acid (C6H8O7), also known as citric acid among the people, tartaric acid (C4H6O6) and potassium nitrate (KNO3) (Potassium nitrate), which are commonly found in plants, are mainly used in fertilizers, rocket propellant fuels and in the production of fireworks. He discovered many techniques such as the production of black powder when mixed with sulfur and charcoal in a certain amount. He found that acids react with bases at specific rates. He made this discovery a thousand years before the "Law of Multiple Proportions" and J. Dalton's Atomic Theory. He developed fabric and leather dyeing techniques. He developed a mixture that makes the fabrics fire-resistant and a substance that prevents the iron from rusting, giving Razi a clue on how to find ethanol. Some Western scientists attribute the law of optics and lenses to Jabir bin Hayyan.

The process of distillation of chemicals, crystallization, and sublimation made purification techniques perfect.

First Scientist to Talk About Nuclear Energy

?Jabir bin Hayyan was the first scientist to talk about nuclear energy, that is, 1000 years before the production of the atomic bomb, the atom could be split and a great power would emerge as a result. Hayyan's words on this subject are as follows: "There is an intense energy in "juz-ü la yetecezza" (atom), which is the smallest part of the matter. It cannot be said with certainty that this small piece cannot be divided. It can also break. When it is disintegrated, such a power (energy) is created that it can turn Baghdad upside down. This is God's sign of power."

?Jabir explains this theory in his book Kitabü'l-mükteseb fi sanaati'z Zehep. It is thought that he wrote this work around 820.

However, Dalton, which is one of the atomic theories written in 1840 and shown in most of the sources read now, mentions that according to the atomic theory, the atom is the smallest building block that cannot be split, it began to be defined as the "fragmentation of the atom" after the discovery of Rutherford, the Nobel Prize winner in 1917 and the first person to perform an artificial nuclear reaction in laboratories at the University in 1920.

Cabir bin Hayyan led to a great development in the science of chemistry, both in the analytical and experimental fields. He went down in history as the scientist who established the first chemistry laboratory in the world.

Most of Jabir's works (about 400 works) have been lost. Of the more than a hundred books that have survived, 22 were about chemistry. 70 of his books were translated into Latin in the Middle Ages. “Kitap ül Kimya” was translated into Latin by R. Chester in 1144. “Kitap ül Zühre” and “Kitap ül Ahcar” are among his books translated into Latin. His 27 books were published in Latin and German in Nuremberg, Frankfurt, and Strasbourg between 1473-1710.

The French historian of science Berthelot says about him:

"Jabir bin Hayyan's place in the science of chemistry is the same as Aristotle's in the science of logic. Just as Aristotle is accepted as the founder and master of logic, Cabir bin Hayyan is the founder and master of chemistry.

References

H. Nasr, Islamic Science, ?nsan Yay?nlar?, ?stanbul 1989. ?. D??en, Müslüman ?lim ?ncüleri Ansiklopedisi I-II, ?stanbul

Wikipedia, “Jabir ibn Hayyan”

M. Leicester, The Historical Background of Chemistry, Dover, New York 1971, p.66

Askimya websitesi potasyum nitrat ve kullan?m alanlar?

?Müsbet ?limde Müslüman ?limler, Mahmut Karaka?, Kültür Bakanl??? Yay?nlar? No:1289.

Müslüman ?lim ?ncüieri Ansiklopedisi, s. 65

Rutherford’s Legacy – the birth of nuclear physics in Manchester