ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn ʿUmar ibn Abī Bakr Jamāl al-Dīn al-Dimashqī, commonly known as al-Jawbarī ( ar, الجوبري; fl. 619/1222), was a medieval Syrian

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

author and

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...

known for his denunciation of

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

. Born in Jawbar, Syria, Al-Jawbari traveled extensively throughout the

Islamic Empire This article includes a list of successive Islamic states and Muslim dynasties beginning with the time of the Islamic prophet Muhammad (570–632 CE) and the early Muslim conquests that spread Islam outside of the Arabian Peninsula, and continuin ...

, including visits as far as India. Among other locations, the scholar lived in Harrân and Kôniya. Al-Jawbari wrote the "Book of Selected Disclosure of Secrets" (''Kitāb al-mukhtār fī kashf al-asrār''), exposing the fraudulence he had seen practiced by alchemists and

money changer A money changer is a person or organization whose business is the exchange of coins or currency of one country for that of another. This trade was a predecessor of modern banking. The advent of paper money in the mid-17th century and the develop ...

s. He wrote of "the people of ''al-Kimya'' (alchemists) who know three hundred ways of making dupes". The book also describes the preparation of

rose water Rose water ( fa, گلاب) is a flavoured water made by steeping rose petals in water. It is the hydrosol portion of the distillate of rose petals, a by-product of the production of rose oil for use in perfume. Rose water is also used to fla ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Al-Jawbari Alchemists of the medieval Islamic world Deception Alchemy and chemistry in the medieval Islamic world 13th-century deaths Syrian Muslim scholars of Islam Year of birth unknown Syrian writers 13th-century Arabs