The Alchemy Of Al Razi

Over a thousand years ago, the Persian physician and chemist Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi presented his students with a book of alchemy instructions called the Kitab al-Asrar or Book of Secrets. For over seven hundred years this systematic text on managing chemicals, equipment, and procedures was copied and imitated throughout Europe. Using historian Julius Ruska's authoritative German translation, this book presents al-Razi's Book of Secrets in English for the first time and analyzes it from the perspective of a modern scientific laboratory. The Kitab al-Asrar offers a view into the understanding of chemistry and procedure organization in the tenth-century Islamic world. Yet a careful reading yields even more than that. As a laboratory manual, it gives intriguing clues into Persian culture under the Abbasid caliphate: the relationship of teacher and student; attitudes toward safety, labor, and quantification; tools and logical problem-solving; commerce and the availability of luxury goods; and the value of the written word. This is the Kitab al-Asrar.

Razi, the Persian scientist who died over 1000 years ago, has been described as the greatest medical genius of the Middle Ages. His fundamental writings, translated from Arabic into Latin, were studied for centuries in the universities of Europe, only being supplanted after the rise of modern research. This work shows Razi as a fine psychologist as well as a supreme physician. His masterly analysis of human character and his wise prescriptions for moral reformation make excellent and profitable reading.

Rhazes, a great clinician, ranks with Hippocrates, Aretaeus, and Sydenham as one of the original portrayers of disease. His description of small-pox and measles is the first authentic account in literature. This edition contains a list of all the editions and translations, the Greek translator's preface, Channing's Latin preface, Haller's preface, and an index in both Arabic and English. -- H.W. Orr.

"This book introduces readers to Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (known as Rhazes in Latin), one of the most innovative and divisive figures of the early philosophical tradition in the Islamic world. It attempts to reconstruct his notorious theory of "five eternals" which posited four principles alongside God for the creation of the world, which led Razi to be charged with heresy by other authors. Other topics discussed in depth include his medical works, his alchemical theories, his works on ethics, and his controversial views on religion and prophecy"--

Using hitherto unstudied sources, this monograph provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary study of the ethical theory of al-Rāzī, one of the most complex and influential medieval philosophers and theologians. It reveals remarkable and previously unidentified aspects of ethical thought in Islam.

Writings in learned subjects from the period eighth to thirteenth centuries, AD.

Alchemy, the Noble Art, conjures up scenes of mysterious, dimly lit laboratories populated with bearded old men stirring cauldrons. Though the history of alchemy is intricately linked to the history of chemistry, alchemy has nonetheless often been dismissed as the realm of myth and magic, or fraud and pseudoscience. And while its themes and ideas persist in some expected and unexpected places, from the Philosopher's (or Sorcerer's) Stone of Harry Potter to the self-help mantra of transformation, there has not been a serious, accessible, and up-to-date look at the complete history and influence of alchemy until now.

"Imagine it is the seventh century. As most of Europe continues its descent into a long period of intellectually dormancy, a quiet yet powerful academic revolution is erupting in another corner of the world. Over the next centuries, the geniuses of Muslim society will thrust the boundaries of knowledge forward to such a degree that their innovations still shape civilizations to this day. The staggering achievements of these men and women influenced the development of modern mathematics, science, engineering, and medicine. 1001 Inventions: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilization sheds new light on this golden era that was once lost to so many, and celebrates the heritage that we all share"--Page 4 of cover.