Islamic Civilization

Chemical Industries

 In this particular area, the works of Jabir and Al-Razi , their experimental work above all, set the foundations to many industrial applications we have today. Here, there is no need to go into the pharmaceutical aspect of the matter as this has been considered elsewhere (more can also be found in the works of Levey and Meyerhof .)[1]

 Jabir (late 8^th-early 9^th) describes the preparation of sulphide of mercury, oxides, arsenics, and many other substances, besides making applications with industrial implications, including the refining of metals, dyeing of clothes, the use of manganese in glass making, use of pyrites etc.[2] Al-Razi ’s  (d.923-924) Secret of Secrets describes processes which can be identified in their modern equivalent of distillation , calcination, crystallization etc. In al Al-Razi's Secret of Secrets[3] are methods for the smelting of metals, the sublimation of mercury, the preparation of caustic sauda, the use of Mercury Ammonium Chloride solution as a dissolving reagent, and the preparation of Glycerine from Olive Oil. From al Razi and Jabir’s corpus was derived the study of the corrosive properties of salts and the introduction of two new materials, sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride) and salpeter (potassium nitrate), ultimately to lead to the discovery of the mineral acids.[4] These acids were valuable agents for industrial applications.[5] Nitric acid became familiar in the West from the 14^th century; and was used for the separation of silver and baser metals, which it dissolved, from gold.[6]The separation could also be effected by aqua regia, a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid obtained by adding sal ammoniac to nitric acid, which dissolves gold.[7] The impact of such developments on modern industry can be gleaned in Multhauf origins of chemistry.[8] Singer also delivers a good study on the early association of chemistry and industry.[9]

 The Muslims legacy can be also found grouped in medieval written collections, one of them being Liber Sacerdotum, which contains over 200 recipes, some of them, certainly dating from pre-Islamic times, but the substance of the work comes from the translated Islamic lore. It includes recipes for gilding or silvering, such as how to give a golden texture to glass.[10]Hill  also notes that works by many Muslim chemists included recipes for products that had both industrial and military uses.[11] Hassan al-Rammah a Syrian (d. 1294) wrote a treatises on the art of war in general, which also includes pyrotechnic recipes, notably methods of preparing and purifying saltpeter.[12]

  The origins of the petrol industry go back to the Islamic times.[13]The Muslims extracted crude petroleum (naft) and distilled it for both military and domestic uses. There exists many descriptions of the distillation  process in al-Razi's Book of Secrets. From his experiments he obtained distillates (called white naft,) which he used to `soften or loosen' some solid substances, such as certain gems and minerals. Al-Razi  also used oil lamps (naffata) to heat chemicals gently in his chemical and medical works. Besides crude and distillates, the Muslims also produced asphaltes, particularly in Iraq, where Qir (pitch) and Zift (asphalt), were produced and exported.

The medieval Western Christian treatise of Mappae Claviculae, most certainly incorporated some later contributions by Adelard of Bath , which include interpolated information on methods of naval warfare used by the `Saracens,’ and other military instructions, and descriptions of Muslim methods of building with oil and pitch.[14]

It is needless here to go into all the uses and applications of oil, whether for domestic or industrial purposes that can be found in our day.

  The scale of the Islamic impact on the West is visible in the very chemical vocabulary, Singer pointing out how the early medieval Latin  language had no adequate technical vocabulary.[15]The translators therefore merely transliterated words from their Arabic or Hebrew form, thus Latin technical words full of Semitic expressions: antimony, cinnabar, marcassite, realgar (red sulphide of mercury), tutya or tutty (zinc oxide) and zircon.[16]  New substances such as sal ammoniacum (ammonium chloride,) and other words: bismuth, borax, calamine, natron, talc, and tartar; the names of many dyes: alizarin, alkanet, aniline, carthamine, carmine, crimson, fustic, henna, kermas, lac (modern lake), saffron, and sandal wood.[17]