Alchemy

The English word ‘alchemy’ derives from the Arabic al-kīmiyāʾ, itself a loan-word from Syriac kīmīyā which in turn was taken from the Greek χημεια, meaning ‘the art of casting metals’. The earliest surviving alchemical texts in the West, which are written in Greek, hardly ever use the word χημεια and refer to their practice as ‘The Work’, ‘the divine and sacred…

The name of Ibn Sab’in is an enigma. The unusual meaning of Ibn Sab’in (Son of Seventy) and that of his pseudonym, Ibn al-Dāra (Son of the Circle), suggest a connection with esoterism. Both Ibn Sab’in and Ibn al-Dara refer to the number seventy, which was written as a circle in the numerical system reserved for court documents in Muslim Spain and…

Ibn Khaldun (d. 808/1406) described Ibn Sab’in as a radical monist whose ideas constituted ‘overt heresy and unwarranted innovations, and to justify them, the most extravagant and detestable interpretations of the literal meaning of orthodox doctrine’. However, he has also been described as the author of works ‘the likes of which no one has ever…

According to Lisan Al-Din Ibn Al-Khatib (d. 776/1375) Hermeticism was widespread in medieval Spain. The Ricote Valley where Ibn Sab’in was born and grew up in was known for its many followers of Hermeticism. According to Ibn Khaldun, Ricote (Arabic: Riqut), a town on the Segura River north-west of the city of Murcia in the Spanish…

His full name was Abu Muhammad ‘Abd Al-Haqq b. Ibrahim b. Muhammad b. Nasr Al-‘Akki Al-Mursi Al-Riquti Al-Ishbili Al-Qastallani Al-Sufi Qutb Al-Din. He used the name Ibn O (Son of the Circle), hence the name Ibn Sab‘in with which he is known in the history of Islamic thought. The earthly life of Abu Muhammad ‘Abd…