Al-Jawbari

ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn ʿUmar ibn Abī Bakr Jamāl al-Dīn al-Dimashqī, commonly known as al-Jawbarī (Arabic: الجوبري; fl. 619/1222), was a medieval Syrian Arab author and scholar known for his denunciation of alchemy.

Life and work

Born in Jawbar, Syria, Al-Jawbari traveled extensively throughout the Islamic Empire, including visits as far as India. Among other locations, the scholar lived in Harrân and Kôniya.

Al-Jawbari wrote his Kitāb al-mukhtār fī kashf al-asrār (Book of Selected Disclosure of Secrets), exposing the fraudulence he had seen practiced by alchemists and money changers. Among others, he wrote of "the people of al-Kimya (alchemists) who know three hundred ways of making dupes". The book also describes the preparation of rose water.

In November 2020, a bilingual Arabic-English edition was published as The Book of Charlatans by New York University Press This edition was edited by Manuela Dengler and translated by Humphrey Davis.

References

1. Rukn al-Din Mawdud
2. Qutb ad-Dīn Haydar
3. Timeline of science and engineering in the Muslim world
4. List of pre-modern Arab scientists and scholars