Medieval alchemy, Kabbalah and Islamic esotericism
The Jabirian corpus
Laboratory procedures, elemental and qualitative theories, numerical correspondences and the transformation of substances, traditionally attributed to Jābir ibn Ḥayyān.
- Dates
- roughly 8th–10th centuries
- Dating
- tradition or corpus
The life
Arabic-to-Latin translation carried the tradition deeply into European alchemy.
Place in the tradition
European alchemy is downstream of this corpus, not of any Greek original it imagines itself descended from.
a note on the record
History and later legend
Jābir's historical identity and his relationship to the enormous corpus under his name remain disputed, so the writings cannot be made to fit one secure lifespan.