Article ID: CBB396204226

Byzantine Engagement with Islamicate Alchemy (2022)

unapi

This essay analyzes the known evidence for Byzantine engagement with what are conventionally termed “alchemical” texts, theories, and practices of the Islamic world. Much of the evidence is difficult to date. Nevertheless, the aggregated direct, indirect, and circumstantial evidence suggests at least some engagement by Greek-speaking scholars throughout the Middle Ages. This engagement took various forms, from the use of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish terminology to the adaptation of whole Arabic treatises in Greek. Sometimes the Byzantine texts emphasize their Islamicate sources, and sometimes they do not mention these sources at all. The resulting picture is still fragmentary, but it indicates that medieval Greek-speaking scholars were active in the circulation of chemical knowledge and techniques in the Mediterranean and Middle East. Byzantium, therefore, should no longer be left out of research into long-term patterns in the history of science.

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB396204226/

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Authors & Contributors
Raggetti, Lucia
Zieme, Stefan
Shi Yunli Zhu Haohao
Jamie C. Fumo
Grégoire Lacaze
Ghionea, Angela Catalina
Concepts
Arab/Islamic world, civilization and culture
Transmission of ideas
Transmission of texts
Cross-cultural interaction; cultural influence
Translations
Western world, civilization and culture
Time Periods
Medieval
8th century
Early modern
Renaissance
Ancient
9th century
Places
Europe
Isfahan (Iran)
Hellenistic world
Baghdad (Iraq)
Byzantium
Greece
Institutions
Ikhwān al-Ṣafā'
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