Universal Encyclopedia
Who was Jabir ibn Hayyan?
Jabir ibn Hayyan (c. 721–c. 815), known in Latin Europe as Geber, was an 8th-century scholar of Kufa credited as the father of chemistry: the vast corpus under his name championed systematic experiment over mysticism and described distillation, crystallization and the preparation of mineral acids.
Last updated: October 2026
Working in the early Abbasid age, he insisted that chemistry must be done with the hands, not only the mind — 'he who performs not practical work nor conducts experiments will never attain the least degree of mastery.' His Latin translations shaped European alchemy and early chemistry for centuries.