• DOI:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1987.tb37200.x
• Corpus ID: 84287076

Chemical Technology in Arabic Military Treatises

@article{alHassan1987ChemicalTI,
  title={Chemical Technology in Arabic Military Treatises},
  author={Ahmad Y. al-Hassan},
  journal={Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences},
  year={1987},
  volume={500}
}

• A. al-Hassan
• Published 1 June 1987
• History
• Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

ORE ATTENTION has been paid in the past to the study of the history of M Islamic alchemy than to chemical technology. But even in alchemy our knowledge has not advanced much beyond the results of such eminent scholars as Ruska, Wiedemann, and Holmyard. Researchers who may be attracted to these subjects in the future will find at their disposal abundant medieval Arabic sources, with the biobibliographic studies of F. Sezgin and M. Ullmann as their guides. In a recent attempt to write a short account on Islamic chemical technology, the subject was found to be extensive in its scope (al-Hassan and Hill). It included such topics as chemical equipment; basic chemical processes; distillation; alcohol; perfumes, rose-water and essential oils; petroleum and petroleum refining; extraction and distillation of industrial oils and fats; acids; alkalis; soaps; glass; ceramics; inks, pigments and paints; dyes; sugar refining; incendiary materials and gunpowder; and mining and metallurgy. Sources of information on Islamic chemical technology include the alchemical and chemical works of the Islamic alchemists such as Jiibir ibn Hayysn, al-Rizi, al-'Irsqi, and al-Jildaki as well as many others (see the APPENDIX for full names and dates). Some of these treatises are technological in character. There is also a series of specialized technical treatises on industrial subjects such as those of al-Kindi on perfumes; Ibn Bsdis on paper, inks and bookbinding; and Abu '1-Qssim on ceramics. Useful information on various chemical technological subjects is found in works on cosmography such as those of al-Dimashqi and al-Qazwini. The books of the Islamic geographers such as al-Muqaddasi, al-Istakhri, Ibn Hawqal and others contain important information. The sources include also books on pharmacology such as the Tadhkira of al-AntHki, and on mineralogy such as the JamHhir of al-Biriini, and the works of Ibn al-Akfsni and al-Efashi. Books on agriculture, such