Names, Natures, and Things: The Alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan and His Kitab al-Ahjar (Book of Stones).

AuthorLangermann, Y. Tzvi

S. N. Haq has produced a detailed study of one of the Jabirian alchemical texts, the Kitab al-Ahjar. In the opening chapter of the first section of his book, Haq discusses the complex of problems associated with the Jabirian corpus, paying particularly close attention to the work of Paul Kraus on the subject. Two other chapters present clearly and concisely the doctrinal content of the Kitab al-Ahjar in the fields (to give them their modern names) of physics, chemistry, language, and metaphysics. Part two contains the text itself. After a short introduction, the Arabic text is displayed, finely printed and conveniently numbered, following which come the English translation, notes, extensive bibliography, and indices. The book is also provided with an illuminating introduction by David Pingree, which nicely summarizes the main points and already offers some preliminary criticisms.

It was the late Paul Kraus who first tackled the enormous body of arcane texts associated with the name of Jabir ibn Hayyan, which, although in the main alchemical, intertwine numerous and no less obscure disquisitions on physics, numerology, philosophy, semiotics, and other subjects. The massiveness of the texts, the mysterious historical circumstances under which they were purported to have been written, and the variety of pre-Islamic and Islamic traditions to which they bear some affinity, combine to make this a problematic corpus indeed for the historian. Kraus' conclusions may be debatable, but they are based on a thorough study of the entire corpus. Any serious attempt to displace or replace Kraus' conclusions will have to be based on no less ambitious an undertaking. Some of Haq's criticisms, in particular his evidence for the historicity of Jabir, may be apt; others, e.g., the self-contradictions which he finds in some of Kraus' writings, only reinforce Kraus' position as the authority, who is subjected to strictures such as those which the medievals aimed at Aristotle or Ibn Sina. Haq is to be complimented for concluding with a statement of the "methodological indifference" of his edition toward his own criticisms of Kraus.

The edition of the Arabic text is nicely done, with this qualification: Haq offers not the entire text, but only "a strict thematic selection" of "a considerable portion." Among the portions that have been omitted are "drastic digressions from the main theme of the work"; but given the thematic diversity of the Jabirian corpus...

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