ABSTRACT
No two figures are better known in the annals of Islamic alchemy than Jābir ibn Ḥayyān and Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā' Rāz', the Latin Geber and Rhazes. Both men were celebrated masters of alchemy. Both are believed to have belonged to the same school by later generations of alchemists in the Islamic and Western worlds 1 Yet a study made of the writings of both men clearly reveals that, although Rāzī employed the language of Jābirian alchemy, he was in reality dealing not with alchemy but with chemistry. One might even say that Rāzī transformed alchemy into chemistry, even though alchemy endured long after him and chemistry continued to be cultivated in the bosom of alchemy. Thus the chemistry of Rāzī was by no means independent of alchemy 2
