Muslim Polymaths

Abu Musa Jābir ibn Hayyān (721–815), known also by his Latinised name Geber, was a prominent Arab Muslim polymath: a chemist and alchemist, astronomer and astrologer, engineer, geologist, philosopher, physicist, and pharmacist and physician. He is "considered by many to be the father of chemistry", e

Jabir Ibn Hayyan is widely credited with the introduction of the experimental method in alchemy, and with the invention of numerous important processes still used in modern chemistry today, such as the syntheses of hydrochloric and nitric acids, distillation, and crystallisation. His original works are highly esoteric and probably coded, though nobody today knows what the code is

On the surface, his alchemical career revolved around an elaborate chemical numerology based on consonants in the Arabic names of substances and the concept of takwin, the artificial creation of life in the alchemical laboratory. Research has also established that oldest text of Jabiran corpus must have originated in the scientific culture of northeastern Persia. This thesis is supported by the Persian language and Middle Persian terms used in the technical vocabulary

In his thesis on alchemy, Jabir added the four properties of hotness, coldness, dryness, and moistness. Each Aristotelian element was characterized by these qualities: Fire was both hot and dry, earth cold and dry, water cold and moist, and air hot and moist. This came from the elementary qualities, which are theoretical in nature plus substance. In metals two of these qualities were interior and two were exterior

For example, lead was cold and dry and gold was hot and moist. Thus, Jabir theorised, by rearranging the qualities of one metal, based on their sulfur/mercury content, a different metal would result. This theory appears to have originated the search for al-iksir, the elusive elixir that would make this transformation possible — which in European alchemy became known as the philosopher's stone. Therein, the elemental system used in medieval alchemy was developed by Jabir

The writings of Jabir Ibn Hayyan can be divided into four categories

a) The 112 Books dedicated to the Barmakids, viziers of Caliph Harun al-Rashid. This group includes the Arabic version of the Emerald Tablet, an ancient work that proved a recurring foundation of and source for alchemical operations. In the Middle Ages it was translated into Latin (Tabula Smaragdina) and widely diffused among European alchemists

b) The Seventy Books, most of which were translated into Latin during the Middle Ages. This group includes the Kitab al-Zuhra ("Book of Venus") and the Kitab Al-Ahjar ("Book of Stones"), e

c) The Ten Books on Rectification, containing descriptions of "alchemists" such as Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle

d) The Books on Balance; this group includes his most famous 'Theory of the balance in Nature', e

Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni (973–1048) was a Persian polymath scholar of the 11th century: a scientist and physicist, an anthropologist and comparative sociologist, an astronomer and chemist, a critic of alchemy and astrology, an encyclopedist and historian, a geographer and traveler, a geodesist and geologist, a mathematician, a pharmacist and psychologist, an Islamic philosopher and theologian, and a scholar and teacher, and he contributed greatly to all of these fields

He was the first Muslim scholar to study India and the Brahminical tradition, and has been described as the father of Indology, the father of geodesy, and "the first anthropologist". He was also one of the earliest leading exponents of the experimental scientific method, and was responsible for introducing the experimental method into mechanics and mineralogy, a pioneer of comparative sociology and experimental psychology, and the first to conduct elaborate experiments related to astronomical phenomena

George Sarton, the father of the history of science, described Biruni as "one of the very greatest scientists of Islam, and, all considered, one of the greatest of all times. A. I. Sabra described Biruni as "one of the great scientific minds in all history. The Al-Biruni crater, on the Moon, is named after Biruni. Tashkent Technical University (formerly Tashkent Polytechnic Institute) is also named after Abu Rayhan al-Biruni
His extant works include
a) Critical study of what India says, whether accepted by reason or refused; a compendium of India's religion and philosophy

b) The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries; a comparative study of calendars of different cultures and civilizations, interlaced with mathematical, astronomical, and historical information

c) The Mas'udi Canon; an extensive encyclopedia on astronomy, geography, and engineering, named after Mas'ud, son of Mahmud of Ghazni, to whom he dedicated

d) Understanding Astrology; a question and answer style book about mathematics and astronomy, in Arabic and Persian

e) Pharmacy - about drugs and medicines

f) Gems; about geology, minerals, and gems, dedicated to Mawdud son of Mas'ud
Astrolabe

g) A historical summary book

h) History of Mahmud of Ghazni and his father

i) History of Khawarazm

Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Abd Allah ibn Sina (980-1037), commonly known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna, was a Persian polymath and the foremost physician and Islamic philosopher of his time. He was also an astronomer, chemist, geologist, Hafiz, logician, paleontologist, mathematician, physicist, poet, psychologist, scientist, Sheikh, soldier, statesman and Islamic theologian

Ibn Sīnā wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived. In particular, 150 of his surviving treatises concentrate on philosophy and 40 of them concentrate on medicine. His most famous works are The Book of Healing, a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopaedia, and The Canon of Medicine "The Law of Medicine", which was a standard medical text at many Islamic and European universities up until the early 19th century

The Canon of Medicine was used as a text-book in the universities of Montpellier and Louvain as late as 1650. Ibn Sīnā developed a medical system that combined his own personal experience with that of Islamic medicine, the medical system of the Greek physician Galen, Aristotelian metaphysics (Avicenna was one of the main interpreters of Aristotle), and ancient Persian, Mesopotamian and Indian medicine. He was also the founder of Avicennian logic and the philosophical school of Avicennism, which were influential among both Muslim and Scholastic thinkers

Ibn Sina is regarded as a father of early modern medicine, and clinica pharmacology particularly for his introduction of systematic experimentation and quantification into the study of physiology, his discovery of the contagious nature of infectious diseases, the introduction of quarantine to limit the spread of contagious diseases, the introduction of experimental medicine, evidence-based medicine, clinical trials, randomized controlled trials, efficacy tests, clinical pharmacology, neuropsychiatry, risk factor analysis, and the idea of a syndrome, and the importance of dietetics and the influence of climate and environment on health. He is also considered the father of the fundamental concept of momentum in physics, and regarded as a pioneer of aromatherapy. He also developed the concept of uniformitarianism and law of superposition in geology

Some of his works include

a) Sirat al-shaykh al-ra’is
b) Al-Isharat wa-‘l-tanbihat
c) Al-Qanun fi’l-tibb; an encyclopedia of medicine
d) Risalah fi sirr al-qadar
e) Danishnama-i ‘ala’i
f) Kitab al-Shifa

Abu 'l-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd, better known just as Ibn Rushd, and in European literature as Averroes(1126–1198), was a Muslim Andalusian philosopher, physician, and polymath: a master of philosophy, theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, astronomy, geography, mathematics, medicine, physics, psychology and science. He was born in Cordoba, modern day Spain, and died in Marrakech, modern day Morocco. His school of philosophy is known as Averroism. He has been described as the founding father of secular thought in Western Europe

Some of his works include

a) The Incoherence of the Incoherence; in which he defended Aristotelian philosophy against al-Ghazali's claims in The Incoherence of the Philosophers

b) Fasl al-Maqal, which argued for the legality of philosophical investigation under Islamic law, and the Kitab al-Kashf, which argued against the proofs of Islam advanced by the Ash'arite school and discussed what proofs, on the popular level, should be used instead

c) Fasl al-Maqal, which argued for the legality of philosophical investigation under Islamic law, and the Kitab al-Kashf, which argued against the proofs of Islam advanced by the Ash'arite school and discussed what proofs, on the popular level, should be used instead

d) Al-Bayan wa’l-Tahṣil, wa’l-Sharh wa’l-Tawjih wa’l-Ta`lil fi Masa’il al-Mustakhraja, a long and detailed commentary based on the Mustakhraja of Muhammad al-`Utbi al-Qurtubi

e) Kulliyat ("Generalities", i.e. general medicine), known in its Latin translation as Colliget

Ibn Tufail (1105– 1185), known in the west by his Latinized name Abubacer was an Andalusian-Arab Muslim polymath: an Arabic writer, novelist, Islamic philosopher, theologian, physician, vizier, and court official. As a philosopher and novelist, he is most famous for writing the first philosophical novel, Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, also known as Philosophus Autodidactus in the Western world. As a physician, he was an early supporter of dissection and autopsy, which was expressed in his novel

Abu Muhammad Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Said ibn Hazm (994–1064) was an Andalusian-Arab philosopher, litterateur, psychologist, historian, jurist and theologian born in Córdoba, present-day Spain. He was a leading proponent of the Zahiri school of Islamic thought and produced a reported 400 works of which only 40 still survive, covering a range of topics such as Islamic jurisprudence, logic, history, ethics, comparative religion, and theology, as well as the The Ring of the Dove, on the art of love

Some of his works include

a) Al-Akhlaq wa’l-Siyar
b) Al-fasl fil al-Milal wal-Nihal
c) Al Kitab al-Muhallā bi'l Athār
d) Ihkam Al Ahkam fi Usul al Ahkam, usul al fiqh
e) Tawq al-Hamamah

Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi, (865-925); known in the west with his latinized name Rhazes, was an Iranian alchemist, chemist, physician, philosopher and scholar. Razi made fundamental and enduring contributions to the fields of medicine, alchemy, and philosophy, recorded in over 184 books and articles in various fields of science. He was well-versed in Persian, Greek and Indian medical knowledge and made numerous advances in medicine through own observations and discoveries. He was an early proponent of experimental medicine and is considered the father of pediatrics. He was also a pioneer of neurosurgery and ophthalmology

Some of his works include

a) The Virtuous Life; knowledge gathered from other books as well as original observations on diseases and therapies, based on his own clinical experience

b) A medical adviser for the general public; Razi was possibly the first Persian doctor to deliberately write a home Medical Manual directed at the general public

c) Doubts About Galen

d) The Diseases of Children; this book made Al-Razi the father of pediatrics

e) The Secret (Al-Asrar); book on alchemy