Alchemy in the medieval Islamic world

Alchemy in the medieval Islamic world refers to both traditional alchemy and early practical chemistry (the early chemical investigation of nature in general) by Muslim scholars in the medieval Islamic world. The word alchemy was derived from the Arabic word الكيمياء (al-kīmyāʾ), which itself may derive either from the Egyptian word kemi ('black') or from the Greek word khumeia ('fusion').

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the Islamic conquest of Roman Egypt, the focus of alchemical development moved to the Caliphate and Islamic civilization.

Definition and relationship with medieval western sciences

In considering Islamic sciences as a distinct, local practice, it is important to define words such as "Arabic", "Islamic", "alchemy", and "chemistry" in order to gain an understanding of what these terms mean historically. This may also help to clear up any misconceptions regarding the possible differences between alchemy and early chemistry in the context of medieval times. As A. I. Sabra writes in his article entitled, "Situating Arabic Science: Location versus Essence", "the term Arabic (or Islamic) science denotes the scientific activities of individuals who lived in a region that roughly extended chronologically from the eighth century AD to the beginning of the modern era, and geographically from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa to the Indus valley and from southern Arabia to the Caspian Sea—that is, the region covered for most of that period by what we call Islamic civilization, and in which the results of the activities referred to were for the most part expressed in the Arabic language." This definition of Arabic science provides a sense that there are many distinguishing factors to contrast with science of the West regarding physical location, culture, and language, though there are also several similarities in the goals pursued by scientists of the Middle Ages, and in the origins of thinking from which both were derived.

Lawrence Principe describes the relationship between alchemy and chemistry in his article entitled, "Alchemy Restored", in which he states, "The search for metallic transmutation—what we call 'alchemy' but that is more accurately termed 'Chrysopoeia'—was ordinarily viewed in the late seventeenth century as synonymous with or as a subset of chemistry." He therefore proposes that the early spelling of chemistry as "chymistry" refers to a unified science including both alchemy and early chemistry. Principe goes on to argue that, "[a]ll their chymical activities were unified by a common focus on the analysis, synthesis, transformation, and production of material substances." Therefore, there is not a defined contrast between the two fields until the early 18th century. Though Principe's discussion is centered on the Western practice of alchemy and chemistry, this argument is supported in the context of Islamic science as well when considering the similarity in methodology and Aristotelian inspirations, as noted in other sections of this article. This distinction between alchemy and early chemistry is one that lies predominantly in semantics, though with an understanding of previous uses of the words, we can better understand the historical lack of distinct connotations regarding the terms despite their altered connotations in modern contexts.