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An Arabic Dictionary of Technical Alchemical

Terms: MS Sprenger 1908 of the Staatsbibliothek
zu Berlin (fols. 3r–6r)

Gabriele Ferrario

To cite this article: Gabriele Ferrario (2009) An Arabic Dictionary of Technical Alchemical
Terms: MS Sprenger 1908 of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (fols. 3r–6r), Ambix, 56:1, 36-48, DOI:
10.1179/174582309X405219

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/174582309X405219

Published online: 29 Nov 2013.

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 ambix, Vol. 56 No. 1, March, 2009, 36–48

An Arabic Dictionary of Technical

Alchemical Terms: MS Sprenger 1908
of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
(fols. 3r–6r)
Gabriele Ferrario
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The Arabic MS Sprenger 1908 (Staatsbibliothek, Berlin) is a handbook of

medieval alchemy. Among the works it preserves, we can find the only extant
witness to the Arabic original of the well-known Liber de aluminibus et salibus.
In this paper, I focus on a detailed alchemical dictionary preserved in this
manuscript (fols. 3r–6r) whose explicit aim is to clarify the meaning of the
secret language used by the alchemists to conceal the names of substances
and operations. Other versions of the same alchemical lexicon are found in
Syriac and karšūnī in MSS Oriental 1593 and Egerton 709, both preserved
in the British Library. After describing these manuscripts, I analyse the con-
tents of this dictionary, its structure, its different versions, and the features
of the alchemical language that it attests to, providing some examples to
show how this kind of dictionary is still a useful tool for the contemporary
researcher.

Every scholar who deals with alchemical manuscripts is confronted with problems
of authorship and the integrity of the text. Since the status of alchemy, its validity as
a science and its compatibility with a religious or Aristotelian worldview has been
questioned since ancient times,1 authors of alchemical treatises frequently tried to
legitimise their writings by falsely attributing them to universally recognised
authorities.2 Biblical characters (e.g. Adam, Moses, Enoch, David, Solomon, and
the prophets), philosophers of Greek antiquity (e.g. Democritus, Socrates, Aristotle,
and Pythagoras) and mythical forefathers of esoteric knowledge (e.g. Hermes,
Ostanes, and others) are found as the pseudepigraphic authors of a large number of

1
A good overview on the medieval debate over the validity of alchemy can be found in William Newman,
“Technology and Alchemical Debate in the Late Middle Ages,” Isis 80, no. 3 (1989): 423–45.
2
On the practice of false attribution of alchemical treatises and the reasons for it, see J. M. Stillman,
“Falsifications in the History of Early Chemistry,” Scientific Monthly 14, no. 6 (1922): 560–67.

© Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry 2009 DOI: 10.1179/174582309X405219
 AN ARABIC DICTIONARY OF TECHNICAL ALCHEMICAL TERMS 37

medieval alchemical treatises.3 It is thus difficult — and sometimes impossible — for

researchers in this area to identify the true author of a given treatise.
As far as the integrity of the text is concerned, many medieval alchemical manu-
scripts, especially those dealing with the technical and practical aspects of this art,
are miscellanies and, in cases like that of MS Sprenger 1908, to which I will shortly
turn, there is no clear indication of the sources from which the compiler extracted
his alchemical recipes. The evidence represented by the Sprenger manuscript, among
others, seems to show that the compositional approach of this kind of practical
alchemical anthology differed significantly from the methods of transmission applied
to fixed literary texts: compilers showed scant interest in preserving and transmitting
the original form of the texts from which they drew. Closer to what is observed in
the transmission of cookbooks than in the transmission of fixed literary works, it
seems that the authors of this kind of practical alchemical anthology were much
more interested in collecting large numbers of effective recipes than in preserving or
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transmitting complete treatises. Consequently, modern scholars approaching this

kind of treatise with the aim of preparing an edition face one basic methodological
question: what, if any, is the benefit of trying to reconstruct the original text? Would
it not be more useful to prepare an edition that would testify to a particular stage
of the history of the transmission of one alchemical work — the stage at which
the original text was taken up for practical use in the laboratory and where it was
transformed through additions, interpolations, and glosses?
A second set of problems arises when scholars attempt to read and decipher
alchemical treatises. Given the esoteric nature of this kind of knowledge, the contents
of such texts are never explained in a clear or explicit way. In the 1940s, Paul Kraus
— and, more recently, Pierre Lory — identified the strategies used by the authors of
the Arabic Jabirian corpus to conceal their doctrines while, at the same time, writing
about them.4 It is generally accepted that the following features outlined by Kraus
can be discerned in both theoretical and practical alchemical treatises:
(1) Tabdīd al-‘ilm (dispersion/scattering of knowledge): a process of exposition
by which the description of a procedure or doctrine does not follow an
operative and logical order, but descriptions of other subjects, and also the
intrusion of parts of other recipes into the instructions for performing the one
being described, further fragment the primary description.
(2) Problematic language: the abundant use of metaphors and codenames — the
so-called Decknamen, the naming of substances by the quality that prevails in
their composition, the designation of a procedure with the name of another

3
On the biblical figures quoted as alchemical authorities or as authors of alchemical treatises, see Raphael Patai,
The Jewish Alchemists. A History and Source Book (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994), 18–40.
For a list of the pretended ancient sources of medieval Arabic alchemy, which tend to be cited without change
also by Latin medieval alchemists, see G. C. Anawati, “L’alchimie arabe,” in Histoire des Sciences Arabes, ed.
Roshdi Rashed (Paris: Seuil, 1997), vol. 3, 111–41.
4
Paul Kraus, J×bir ibn ©ayy×n. Contribution à l’histoire des idées scientifiques dans l’Islam (Cairo: Imprimerie
de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, 1942–1943), vol. 1, XXVII–XXX; Jabīr ibn ©ayy×n, Dix traités
d’alchemie. Les dix premiers traités du Livre des soixante-dix, French translation and introduction by Pierre
Lory (Paris: Sindbad, 1983), 21–26.
 38 GABRIELE FERRARIO

operation that leads to similar results and the use (in general) of a highly
technical language all impede the layman’s comprehension of the true contents
concealed in the text.
The esoteric nature of alchemical knowledge is confirmed by the common exhorta-
tion to keep the doctrines secret and to avoid their transmission to anyone but the
initiated. For example, the recipes contained in the Arabic Liber de aluminibus et
salibus5 — and in its Hebrew version — often conclude with expressions such as:
“keep it a secret,” “this is a secret,” “this is a great secret” or “this is the secret of the
philosophers,” “conceal it and use it for yourself,” and so on.6 Strangely, the titles
of many alchemical books seem to promise a clear explanation of the doctrines of
the Art — something that is never really given. A quick look at the first volume
of the famous Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa reveals a number of examples of this
phenomenon.7
In this paper, I will focus on the problems related to the technical lexicon of
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practical alchemy; in particular, I will address issues relevant to the understanding

of the words used by the alchemists for describing the substances that are mentioned
in their operations. A large number of these technical words have been studied and
collected from different sources by Robert Siggel in his monograph Decknamen in der
arabischen alchemistischen Literatur, published in 1951.8 The contents of the Arabic
alchemical MS Sprenger 1908 of the Staatsbibliothek Berlin and the Syriac and karšýnī
(i.e. Arabic written in Syriac script) MSS Egerton 709 and Oriental 1593 of the British
Library can contribute to the study of this technical language. In fact, the three

5
On the Liber de aluminibus et salibus, see: Robert Steele, “Practical Chemistry in the 12th Century. Rasis de
aluminibus et salibus,” Isis 12 (1929): 10–46, in which the author presents an edition of the Latin version,
an English translation, and an introduction to the treatise, together with a Latin–English dictionary of the
technical lexicon used in the recipes; and Julius Ruska, Das Buch der Alaune und Salze: ein Grundwerk der
Spätlateinischer Alchemie (Berlin: Verlag Chemie, 1935), in which the author presents an edition of the Arabic
version extant in manuscript, a Latin edition different from that of Steele, German translations of both, and
an interesting and still fundamental introduction to the treatise. On a Hebrew version of this treatise, see Patai,
The Jewish Alchemists, 119–25. For my recent contributions on the subject, see: Gabriele Ferrario, “Origins
and Transmission of the Liber de aluminibus et salibus,” in Chymists and Chymistry. Studies in the History of
Alchemy and Early Modern Chymistry (papers presented at an International Conference on the History
of Alchemy and Chymistry held at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia, 19–23 July 2006), ed.
Lawrence Principe (Sagamore Beach, Mass.: Watson Publishing International, 2007), 137–48; and Gabriele
Ferrario, “Il Libro degli allumi e dei sali: status quaestionis e prospettive di studio,” Henoch 26, no. 3
(2004): 275–96. The most recent study of the Latin translations of the De aluminibus et salibus is Catherine J.
Arbuthnott, “Pseudo-Razi De aluminibus et salibus: a Critical Edition and Translation of the Latin Translation
with Notes on the Chemical Procedures” (London: unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, 2002). This new critical edition
of the Latin text is going to be published together with an English translation and an introduction to the
text.
6
For the Arabic version (MS Sprenger 1908, Staatsbibliothek Berlin), see fols. 19r, 19v, and 20r. For the only
extant Hebrew translation of the treatise (MS Oct. Orient. klein 514, Staatsbibliothek Berlin), see fols. 21v, 22r,
24r, 26r–v, 30v, and 36r.
7
For example: Jean Jacques Manget, Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa (Geneva: Chavet, 1702), vol. 1, 291: Petrus
Joannes Faber, Res alchymicorum obscuras extraordinaria perspicuitate explanans; 306: Joannes Joachim
Becher, Oedipus Chymicus, obscuriorum terminorum et principiorum chymicorum mysteria aperiens et
resolvens; 824: Raymundus Lullius, Liber dictus Lux Mercuriorum in quo explicatur quod in aliis Libris
occultatum est; and so on in the same volume.
8
Alfred Siggel, Decknamen in der arabischen alchemistischen Literatur (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1951). The
glossary discussed here is not used by Siggel.
 AN ARABIC DICTIONARY OF TECHNICAL ALCHEMICAL TERMS 39

manuscripts preserve — with slight variations — the same interesting alchemical

dictionary. On folio 3 recto and verso of MS Sprenger, we read a sentence that seems
to promise a violation of the principle of secrecy that is common to all the esoteric
doctrines:
You must know that the bodies are seven, the spirits are seven, the stones are seven and
the compounds are seven. All of them take part in the composition of the Work. Among
the bodies, the spirits and the stones that we have mentioned, those red in colour are used
for the preparation of gold and those white in colour for the preparation of silver. I will
explain this to you in order to clarify all your doubts regarding this subject. Moreover,
I am going to mention the bodies, the spirits and the stones using names that differ from
the ones usually known. Those are names that the Sages used for their allusive value.
They will be clarified in this treatise, so that nothing will be lost, everything will be in its
place and nothing related to the work will remain unknown to you, with the help of God
the Almighty.
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The Work mentioned in this sentence is, of course, the artificial production of gold
and silver, which is to be achieved by a combined use of bodies (metals), spirits (more
volatile substances such as arsenic, sal ammoniac and others that we will shortly deal
with) and stones. The author appears to be determined to explain to the reader
every single detail regarding the allusive alchemical lexicon used by “the Sages” — a
designation commonly used to refer to the alchemical authorities of the past.

The manuscripts
The two Syriac-karšýnī manuscripts that contain this dictionary were edited, trans-
lated and studied by Rubens Duval and Marcellin Berthelot in the second volume
of their work on chemistry in the Middle Ages, published in 1893.9 The manuscripts
are now preserved in the British Library and, given the almost total correspondence
between their contents, they appear to be copied from the same lost archetype.
MS Egerton 709 is written on paper and is composed of one hundred folios. The
script is datable to the sixteenth century, but the contents — as we will see — are
much older. The first fifty-six folios preserve alchemical treatises in Syriac, while the
last forty-four folios are written in karšýnī. There are no indications concerning
the compilers or copyists, but on the last folio we can read an owner’s note: the
manuscript was owned by a certain Shemas Ibrahim (Ibrahim the Deacon). The
manuscript was later acquired by Dr Adam Clarke, as we can read on the flyleaf:
“number 309 of the collection of oriental manuscripts of Doctor Adam Clarke,
acquired on May 29th, 1831.” It entered the British Library as part of the Egerton
collection, and it is described in the Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts in the
British Library compiled by William Wright in 1872. The second manuscript, British
Library, MS Oriental 1593, is written on forty-nine folios in a script that can be
dated to between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The manuscript is missing

9
Marcellin Berthelot, La Chimie au Moyen Âge, vol. 2: L’alchimie syriaque, with Rubens Duval (Osnabrück:
Otto Zeller; Amsterdam: Philo Press, 1967; repr. of the 1893 edition). Berthelot and Duval, although providing
a complete translation of the passage, did not analyse the details of the alchemical dictionary that I am going
to deal with, and seemed to ignore the parallel Arabic version preserved in MS Sprenger 1908.
 40 GABRIELE FERRARIO

many folios at its beginning and at its end, and the internal order of the folios was
erroneously restored during rebinding: some of the folios are even upside down,
with the resulting inversion of their rectos and versos. Moreover, the pages of this
manuscript bear two different systems of numeration that do not correspond in any
way. Because of these problems — together with the material damage caused by the
ravages of time and the action of humidity and worms — this manuscript can be read
only with the help of the aforementioned Egerton manuscript.10
As far as the shared content of these two composite manuscripts is concerned, it
is possible to distinguish two main parts. The first, in Syriac, opens with a sort of
foreword in which we find a description of the aim of the alchemical art, the accidents
that can hamper its attainment, and the degree of purity required of the adept
who wants to achieve success in the alchemical work. What follows is a treatise called
the Doctrine of Democritus, which appears to be a collection of ancient alchemical
practical writings similar to those that constitute the Greek alchemical corpus
published by Berthelot in 1887.11 The second part — the one in karšūnī that preserves
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the alchemical dictionary that we are going to deal with — is an unsystematic

collection of alchemical material similar to that preserved in Latin, in more ordered
arrangements, in the pseudo-Avicennian De Anima in arte alchimiae and pseudo-
R×zī’s De aluminibus et salibus. According to Berthelot, these two manuscripts are
copies of an archetype produced between the ninth and the eleventh centuries, the
period in which the ‘Abb×sid caliphate was strongly promoting a movement of trans-
lation of the Greek scientific heritage into Syriac and Arabic.12 It has to be noted that
— at least for the first parts of the two manuscript (the ones that contain the so-called
Doctrine of Democritus) — Berthelot assumes that some of the material that they
preserve should be regarded as even more ancient and its origins should be sought in
the first period of translations of Greek treatises into Syriac. He defines these parts
of the collection as: “une compilation de procédés et recettes alchimiques, traduites
du grec vers le VIIe, le VIIIe ou le IXe siècle . . . Un certain nombre de ces recettes ont
passé d’ailleurs, à peu près sans changement, jusque chez les auteurs alchimistes latins
du XIIIe siècle . . .”13
The third manuscript to transmit a version of this alchemical dictionary is the
aforementioned MS Sprenger 1908. Besides the presence of the dictionary, one of the
most important features of this manuscript is the fact that it preserves the only extant
copy of the Arabic original of the De aluminibus et salibus, a “classical work of
practical chemistry,” according to the preface to Robert Steele’s edition of the Latin
translation of the treatise.14 MS Sprenger was described by Ahlwardt in his catalogue

10
The physical description of these manuscripts by Duval is found in the introduction of Berthelot, La Chimie
au Moyen Âge, vol. 2, XLIV–XLVIII.
11
Marcellin Berthelot, Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs (Paris: Georges Steinheil, 1887–1888).
12
Berthelot does not specify whether these MSS are to be considered direct copies or copies of copies. On trans-
lations of Greek scientific material into Syriac and Arabic, see Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture:
The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early ‘Abb×sid Society (second–fourth/eighth–tenth
centuries) (London: Routledge, 1998). An interesting perspective on the social factors that led to the making of
translations can be found in George Saliba, Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance
(Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2007).
13
Berthelot, La Chimie au Moyen Âge, vol. 2, XII.
14
Steele, “Practical Chemistry in the 12th Century,” 10.
 AN ARABIC DICTIONARY OF TECHNICAL ALCHEMICAL TERMS 41

of the Arabic manuscripts in Berlin, and by Siggel, who, in the middle of the last
century, listed the alchemical manuscripts of the Staatsbiblilothek Berlin.15 Although
devoid of any indication of date, the manuscript has been ascribed to the seventeenth
century on palaeographical grounds. It is quite small in size (14x10.5 cm), and it is
written in not particularly elegant but quite legible writing. The presence of the
alchemical dictionary on fols. 3r–6r and of the Arabic Liber de aluminibus et salibus
testify to the medieval origin of its contents. On the first folio of the manuscript
we find an interesting colophon: Kit×b al-§awhar al-naÅīr fī ½inבat al-iksīr li-Abī
‘Abdall×h al-Æuðr×’ī (The Precious Gem Concerning the Preparation of the Elixir by
Abý ‘Abdall×h al-Æuðr×’ī). A number of facts cast doubt on the authenticity of this
attribution. As Alfred Siggel has noted, the name of the assumed author is either
mistakenly written or a pure invention: the correct name of the famous alchemist
— sentenced to death in 1121 by al-Simīrýmī, vizier of the Seljuk sultan Ma¬mýd III
— is Mu’ayyid al-Dīn Abý Ismבīl al-©usayn ibn ‘Alī ibn Mu¬ammad al-Æuðr×’ī
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al-Munši‘ al-I½bah×nī. Moreover, in the traditional bio-bibliographical repertoires

such as the Kašf al-Þunýn of ©a§§ī åalīfa, there is no trace of any book bearing this
title among the list of works by the alchemist al-Æuðr×’ī.16 Finally, the attribution of
any text contained in the Sprenger manuscript is liable to the same criticisms directed
by Ruska against the attribution to al-R×zī of the De aluminibus et salibus, to which
I will shortly return. The margins of the Sprenger manuscript carry a large number
of notes written by the same hand as the main text, but in a smaller and more
hastily written script. This makes reading some of the marginalia difficult, not to
mention the fact that some parts of the longer — and thus more interesting — notes
have been cut away, probably in the process of trimming and binding the manu-
script.17 In some cases, the notes are written upside down in relation to the main text:
it is unclear whether this is due to lack of care or whether is a graphical device aimed
at distinguishing these additions from the main text, or even whether it is the result
of the writer’s haste in writing down his notes while carrying out his own alchemical
experiments.18 Other interesting and recurring features of the Arabic manuscript are:
the large number of words written using numerals to stand for letters according to
the ab§ad alphanumeric system;19 the use of the Syriac alphabet for writing names of
substances in the Arabic language;20 and the presence of planetary symbols standing

15
Wilhelm Ahlwardt, Verzeichniss der arabischen Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin
(Berlin: Asher, 1887–1889), no. 10361. Alfred Siggel, Katalog der arabischen alchemistichen Handschriften
Deutschlands, vol. I: Handschriften der öffentlichen wissenschaftlichen Bibliothek (früher Staatsbibliothek
Berlin) (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1949), 139–44.
16
©a§§ī åalīfa, Kašf al-Þunýn ‘an as×mī al-kutub wa-l-funýn — Lexicon bibliographicum et encyclopaedicum,
ed. Gustav Flügel (Leipzig: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland, 1835–1858; repr. New York:
Johnson Reprint Co., 1964).
17
The process of trimming and binding the manuscript appears to be contemporary with the numbering of the
folios and with the typewritten note on the recto of the first page: “On preparing the elixir by ‘Abd Allah
Toghrái,’” dated 1908.
18
Examples of this kind of upside-down marginalia can be found on fols. 13v, 14r, 15v, 16v, 17v, 18v and 22v of
MS Sprenger.
19
This feature is quite common in MS Sprenger; for instance, on fols. 11r, 13r, 14r, 16r, 30v, and 32r–v.
20
Examples of the use of Syriac script in MS Sprenger can be found on fols. 25r, 28r, 30r, and 32r–v.
 42 GABRIELE FERRARIO

in the text for the names of their corresponding metals.21 I am inclined to believe that
these devices are intended to preserve the secrecy of the alchemical discourse, which
should not fall prey to uninitiated laymen.
The Liber de aluminibus et salibus begins abruptly at fol. 19r — the second half
of line 5 — with the incipit: “Al-qaul fī ’l-mil¬” (The discourse on salt): the copyist
did not indicate the beginning of a new treatise in any way. The book ends at
fol. 30v with the words: “intahà qaulun× ‘alà ’l-a§s×d wa-l-arw׬” (Here ends our
discourse on the bodies and the spirits). The traditional attribution of the Arabic
De aluminibus et salibus to Abý Bakr Mu¬ammad ibn Zakarīy×’ al-R×zī is based on
a note, probably by Gerard of Cremona, found in a Latin manuscript of the book
preserved in Paris. The same attribution was maintained by the thirteenth-century
encyclopaedist Vincent of Beauvais and by the historians of chemistry Ferdinand
Hoefer and Hermann Kopp.22 More recently, Robert Steele upheld this attribution.23
A strong and yet to be refuted critique of this traditional attribution was proposed
by Ruska in his monograph on the book published in 1935:24 (1) none of the pro-R×zī
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positions is based on a real knowledge of al-R×zī’s work; (2) in the Sirr al-asr×r (Secret
of Secrets),25 an authentic work by al-R×zī, sal ammoniac is listed among spirits,
while here it is classified as a salt;26 (3) in the De aluminibus et salibus, there are many
references to al-Andalus (Islamic Spain) as a source of useful alchemical substances;27

21
The use of planetary signs symbolising the corresponding metal can be found on fols. 11v, 13r, 17r–v, 18r, 22r,
23v, 25r, and 28v.
22
See Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science (New York: Columbia University Press,
1923–1958), vol. 2, 457–76. Quotations of the De aluminibus et salibus as an original work by al-R×zī are found
in Beauvais’ Speculum naturale and Speculum historiale, which — together with the Speculum doctrinale —
form the Speculum Maius, printed by John Mentelin, (Strassbourg, 1473–1476). This encyclopaedia saw many
later editions: Nuremberg, 1483–1486; Venice, 1484, 1493–1494, 1591. Ferdinand Hoefer, Histoire de la chimie
depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu’a notre époque (Paris: Hachette, 1842–1843), vol. 1, 323–25; writing
about the chemical works by “Rhasès,” he quotes the Liber Raxis [sic] qui dicitur lumen luminum magnum
(MS Paris. Lat. 6514, fol. 113r, XIV sec.), the Liber perfecti magisterii Rhasei (MS Paris. Lat. 6514, fol. 120v)
and the Liber Rasis de aluminibus et salibus, quae in hac arte sunt necessaria (MS Paris. Lat. 6514, fol. 125r–v),
and ends his description of these treatises with these words: “Rien n’indique que les trois écrits de Rhasès
soient apocryphes. Il n’y aurait aucune preuve solide à faire valoir contre leur authenticité.” Hermann Kopp,
Ansichten über die Aufgabe der Chemie und über die Grundbestandtheile der Körper bei den bedeutendern
Chemikern (Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1875), 54–55, n. 63.
23
Steele, “Practical Chemistry in the 12th Century,” 10: “it purports to be, and no doubt is in substance, the work
of one of the most celebrated of eastern physicians, Muhammad Abu Bakr Ibn Zakarya Al-Razi, many of
whose medical writings were published in the infancy of printing.”
24
Ruska, Das Buch der Alaune und Salze, 15–18, and also Ruska, “Pseudoepigraphe Rasis-Schriften,” Osiris 7
(1939): 39–40. See also Dorothy W. Singer, Catalogue of Latin and Vernacular Alchemical Manuscripts in Great
Britain and Ireland (Brussels: Lamertin, 1928), vol. 1, 107–8, where she assumes “it will be noticed that the
ascription of this work to Rhazes came late.”
25
Julius Ruska, “Übersetzung und Bearbeitung von al-Razi’s Buch Geheimnis der Geheimnisse,” in Quellen und
Studien zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, vol. 4 (Berlin: Springer, 1935), 153–238.
26
MS Sprenger 1908, fol. 20r (in the Hebrew translation — MS Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Orient. Oct. klein 514
— this passage is on fol. 22v): “You have to know that sal ammoniac is the best and noblest among the other
salts.” Ruska’s remark on the classification of sal ammoniac is valid only as far as the text of the Liber de
aluminibus et salibus is concerned: in the alchemical dictionary that we are going to analyse, sal ammoniac is
listed among the spirits, according to al-R×zī’s classification.
27
MS Sprenger 1908, fol. 19a; in the Latin and Hebrew translations — which preserve sections of the book that
are not found in the Arabic manuscript — there are further passages referring to Spain. See, for example, MS
Orient. Oct. 514, fols. 20r–v and 33r.
 AN ARABIC DICTIONARY OF TECHNICAL ALCHEMICAL TERMS 43

and (4) Egyptian sal ammoniac, which is described in a couple of passages in the
work, was produced only after 1100: thus, al-R×zī could not have known it.28 In
the present state of knowledge, Ruska’s assumption seems to be the most reliable,
even if it does not succeed in identifying the author of this treatise: it should be
attributed — Ruska assumed — to an anonymous alchemist who lived and worked
in eleventh- to twelfth-century al-Andalus.

The alchemical dictionary29

The substances listed in this Arabic dictionary are divided into bodies — i.e. metals,
spirits, stones, and compounds. The stones are, in their turn, divided into two groups:
those that contain spirits and those that do not.
The metals taken into account are gold, silver, iron, copper, white lead, black lead,
and mercury. For each of these metals, the dictionary gives between fifteen and fifty
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synonyms (Decknamen). For instance, gold can be referred to as: “the noble silver”
(al-fiÅÅa al-šarīf), “the sun” (al-šams), “the father of experience” (al-ab al-bayq×n),
“the jewel” (al-‘as§ad), “the tomb” (al-qabr), “the discarded” (al-rid×d), “the wise”
(al-‘×lim), “the rays [of the sun]” (al-šu‘×’), “the light” (al-nýr), “the day” (al-nah×r),
“the red wax” (al-šam‘a al-¬amr×’), “the permanent sulfur” (al-kibrīt al-q×’im), “the
cradle” (al-mihazz), “the balanced” (al-mu‘tadil), “the head” (al-ra’s), “the knot”
(al-‘uqda), “the integral” (al-salīm), “the complete” (al-tam×m), “that of the group
[of philosophers]” (al-qaumī), “the patient” (al-½×bir), “the king of the bodies” (malik
al-as§×d), and “the gum” (al-½amða). For some of these names, an easy explanation
can be found from alchemical theory: gold is called “the noble silver” because it
represents the last stage of purification and ennobling of the base matter obtained
through the alchemical process; in many alchemical recipes, silver is the last metal
that is obtained before gold appears. References to “the light,” “the day,” “the rays
[of the sun]” and so on can all be traced back to the traditional correspondence
between the names of the planets and those of the seven metals that seems to have
Babylonian origins and in which gold is always coupled with the sun.30 Names
such as “the balanced” and “the complete” refer to the fundamental alchemical–
mineralogical theory according to which all metals are made up of the same con-
stituents — earth, air, fire, and water. The differences among them are the effects of
differences in the proportions and degrees of pureness of these elements. As a conse-
quence, base metals can be turned into noble ones if the alchemist is able to recreate
the perfect composition that is typical of gold, which is considered to be the most

28
MS Sprenger 1908, fols. 25v and 29r; MS Orient. Oct. 514, fol. 33r. The Egyptian sal ammoniac was obtained
through the decantation of soot in a bath of camel’s manure. According to al-Bīrýnī, al-R×zī died in 925. See
Julius Ruska, “al-Bīrýnī als Quelle für das Leben und die Schriften Al-R×zī’s”, Isis 5 (1923): 26–50. According
to Lenn E. Goodman, the date of Al-R×zī’s death is to be placed between 925 and 935: Lenn E. Goodman,
“R×zī,” in Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. 8, ed. P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and
W. P. Heinrichs (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 474.
29
For reasons linked to the availability of the sources and to my personal expertise, I have relied primarily on
the version of the dictionary preserved in MS Sprenger 1908 and on Duval’s published edition.
30
See Berthelot, Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs, vol. 1, part 1, 74–85.
 44 GABRIELE FERRARIO

balanced and complete of all metals.31 The name “the discarded” raises some prob-
lems of interpretation, since the same designation can be found in the Liber de
aluminibus et salibus with reference to arsenic, which is said to be “the popular and
cheap stone, that is discarded and thrown away in markets, in mud and in toilets.”32
The synonyms given for silver are also many: “the moon” (al-qamar), “the mother”
(al-umm), “Hermes of the egg” (Hirmis al-bayÅa), “the white wax” (al-šam‘a
al-bayÅ×’), “the domestic black” (al-aswad al-ahlī), “the servant” (al-‘abd), “the
night” (al-layl), “the leprous gold” (al-²ahab al-abra½), “the ivory” (al-‘ק), “the path”
(al-fa§§), “the braggart” (al-½alīf), “the integral” (al-salīm), “the philanderer” (al-zīr),
and “the wanderer” (al-sayy×r). Names such as “the leprous gold” are easily
understandable: according to a widely attested alchemical theory, base metals are
considered to be noble metals affected by illnesses, and the alchemist’s goal was to
cure those illnesses and restore the metal to its healthiest form, namely gold. In this
case, this notion is extended to silver — a noble metal — that is designated as a form
of ill gold that has to be healed.
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A special place is occupied by mercury, since it is listed twice in the dictionary: as

one of the bodies and as one of the spirits. The compiler of this list provides us with
a clear explanation for this choice, when he writes on fol. 4v:
As far as mercury is concerned, we already mentioned its names in the description of the
bodies, and this was due to the fact that it is the first of the bodies and all the bodies
derive from mercury and are composed of it. As for its mention among the spirits, it is
due to the fact that it volatilizes when in contact with fire and it does not withstand fire:
for this reason, the Sages listed mercury among the spirits. Moreover, in the same way,
the bodies are those substances that melt in the fire and do not flee from it, while the
spirits are fine. The bodies tend to go back to their origin — that is the earth, while the
spirits tend to volatilize, heading towards their world. So, they bear these names because
there is a meaning to names: these are the states convenient to these substances, as a
matter of necessity.

Mercury is particularly rich in synonyms, and the dictionary lists almost fifty possible
names: “Hermes” (Hirmis), “the hemiplegic” (al-maflý§), “Mercury” (al-‘uÐ×rid), “the
life of the bodies” (¬ay×t al-a§s×d), “the reins” (al-‘in×n), “the horizon” (al-ufq),
“the water” (al-m×’), “the powerful” (al-§arr×r), “the water of the sun” (m×’ al-šams),
“the writer” (al-k×tib), “the water of the moon” (m×’ al-qamar), “the water of
copper” (m×’ al-nu¬×s), “the water of iron” (m×’ al-¬adīd), “the author” (al-mu’allif),
“virgin’s milk” (laban al-bint),33 “the turbid” (al-kadīr), “the support of the bodies”
(qiw×m al-a§s×d), “the one that gives life to lifeless things” (mu¬ayy al-amw×t), “the
light of lights” (nýr al-anw×r), “chick of the jinn” (faræ al-§inn), “the soul” (al-nafs),
“the oriental” (al-šarqī), “the Armenian” (al-armanī), “the fish” (al-samaka), “the
fleeting” (al-farr×r), “the fleeing servant” (al-‘abd al-×biq), “the lightning” (al-barq),

31
On the connections between the Aristotelian theory of the qualities and Arabic alchemy, see Paola Carusi,
“Meteorologica IV e alchimia islamica. Qualità ed elementi a confronto,” in Aristoteles Chemicus. Il IV Libro
dei Meteorologica nella tradizione antica e medievale, ed. Cristina Viano (Sankt Augustin: Academia, 2002),
81–97.
32
Cf. MS Sprenger 1908, fol. 21v; for the Hebrew version, MS Orient. Oct. 514, fol. 23v.
33
The Latin lac virginis.
 AN ARABIC DICTIONARY OF TECHNICAL ALCHEMICAL TERMS 45

“the heavy water” (al-m×’ al-£aqīl), “the moist spirit” (al-rý¬ al-raÐb), “the moist
body” (al-§asad al-raÐb), “the water of the snake” (m×’ al-¬ayya), “the faint-hearted”
(al-harr×b), “the living water” (al-m×’ al-¬ayy), “the water of the lightnings of sulfur”
(m×’ burýq al-kibrīt), “the uncovered” (al-makšýf), “the water of glass” (m×’
al-zu§×§), “aphroselēnon” (farýsalinun),34 “the foam of the sea” (ðarq al-ba¬r), “the
water of Saturn” (m×’ al-æīwan), “the veiled dog” (al-kalb al-ma¬§ýb), “the honey”
(al-‘asal), “the heat of all animals” (¬ar×rat kull ¬ayaw×n), “comfort” (da‘a), “the
milk of all bodies” (¬alīb kull a§s×d), “medicine” (‘aq×qīr), “ferment” (æamīra),
“urine of the lunatics” (baul al-ma§×nīn), and “the sulfur of the aludel” (kibrīt
al-u£×l).
Besides mercury, which is a sort of bridge between bodies and spirits, the other
spirits listed are: sal ammoniac (nuš×dir), arsenic (zirnīq), sandarac (al-zirnīq
al-a¬mar),35 orpiment (al-zirnīq al-a½far),36 yellow sulfur (al-kibrīt al-a½far), red
sulfur (al-kibrīt al-a¬mar), and white sulfur (al-kibrīt al-abyaÅ). Although the kinds
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of sulfur are listed separately, when it comes to listing their synonyms the author of
this alchemical dictionary avoids any distinction, and the difference between the two
has to be understood by the reader. The names listed are: “the king” (al-malik), “the
two that cover” (al-¬×§ibayn), “the yellow bride” (al-‘arýs al-½afr×’), “the red bride”
(al-‘arýs al-¬amr×’), “the white bride” (al-‘arýs al-bayÅ×’), “the yellow wax” (al-šam‘a
al-½afr×’), “the white wax” (al-šam‘a al-bayÅ×’), “the master of the mine” (½×¬ib
al-ma‘din), “the sun” (al-šams),37 “the ferment of gold” (æamīr al-²ahab), “the soul”
(al-nafs), “the air” (al-haw×’), “the tinctorial spirit” (al-rý¬ al-½×bið), “the scorpion”
(al-‘aqrab), “the lion of the earth” (asad al-arÅ), “the honoured stone” (al-¬a§ar
al-mukarram), “the suffocation” (al-æun×q), “the bird of Socrates” (Ðayr Suqr×Ð), and
“the fugitive’s fetter” (qayd al-×biq). Different names are then used for defining the
dye extracted from sulfur and the body that remains after the extraction of the
dye from it. For the first, we find “the fire” (al-n×r), “the wine” (al-æamr), “the dye”
(al-½abð), “the crying one” (al-nײib), “the barrier” (al-sadda), “the heart” (al-qalb),
and “the liver” (al-kabid). The body devoid of the tincture is called “the air”
(al-haw×’), “the soul” (al-nafs), “the soap” (al-½×býn), and “Jupiter” (al-muštarī).
After completing the list of the spirits, the dictionary moves on to the names of the
stones. First, the compiler takes into consideration the seven stones that are believed
to contain spirit — marcasite (marqaši£×’), magnesia (maðnisīy×’), tutty (týtiy×’),
hematite (š×dana), magnetite (maðn×Ðīs), vitriol (zק), and salt (mil¬) — and then the
seven stones that do not contain spirit — talc (talq), antimony (ku¬l), mother-of-pearl
(½adaf), crystal (ballýr), malachite (dahna§), lapis lazuli (l×zwarad), and agate
(kum×han). It is then explained that, after being alchemically processed, the latter
class of stones can become cadmia [qadmīy× (MS iqlīmīy×’)], litharge (martak), red

34
This Greek term meaning “froth of the moon” was already used as a Deckname by the Hellenistic alchemists
[e.g. CAAG, vol. 2, 18,8, 185,17, 301,14; see also Benjamin Hallum, “Zosimus Arabus. The Reception of
Zosimos of Panopolis in the Arabic/Islamic World” (unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, London, 2008), 231].
35
The name sandarac normally describes red arsenic.
36
The name orpiment normally describes yellow arsenic.
37
This synonym is clearly a source of confusion between gold and sulfur, since gold is very frequently called “the
sun” in alchemical literature, while this synonym does not apply as often to sulfur.
 46 GABRIELE FERRARIO

lead (usrun§), ceruse (isfīdק), alkali salt (mil¬ al-qalī), the lime of eggs (kils al-bayÅ),
and other kinds of lime.
As these examples show, the synonyms for the names of the alchemical substances
are given in a random order that comprises names taken from different fields. Among
them, we can find the well-known names of the planets, names of common objects
(e.g. “the jewel,” “the tomb,” “the cradle,” “the plug,” “the rock,” “the bud,” “the
brook,” “the foam,” and “the gum”), names defining intellectual or physical features
(e.g. “the wise”, “the well-balanced”, “the discarded”, “that of the group [of philoso-
phers]”, “the indulgent,” “the lifeless,” “the immortal,” “the beggar,” and “the
fleeting”), names designating familial relationships (e.g. “the father of . . . ,” “the
mother of . . . ,” “the brother of . . . ,” and “the son of . . .”), names defining status
(e.g. “the king” and “the servant”), names of colours (e.g. “the yellow,” “the green,”
“the fair,” “the white,” and “the black”), names of animals (e.g. “the eagle,” “the
vulture,” “the lion,” “the bird,” “the wasp,” “the chick,” “the scorpion,” and “the
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fish”), and names describing a provenance (e.g. “the Indian” and “the Armenian”).
The usefulness of this alchemical dictionary is partially compromised by the repeti-
tion of some names as synonyms for different substances. “The sun,” according to
the compiler, can mean gold, but also sulfur; the name “light” can refer both to gold
and to mercury; “wax” can refer to gold and sulfur (both often called “red wax”), to
sulfur alone (normally called “yellow wax”), and to silver and sulfur again (both
referred to as “white wax”). Moreover, gold can be called the “permanent sulfur,”
adding to the possibility of confusion; both gold and silver can be called “the
complete”; “Hermes” is the name commonly used for defining mercury, but in this
dictionary we find that it can also be used to designate silver; the name “lion” can
indicate silver, arsenic, and sal ammoniac. When the alchemists speak about a “bird,”
they may be referring to sal ammoniac, to arsenic and even to sulfur. Sal ammoniac
can itself be called “the oil,” which is a name also used to indicate one of the sub-
stances derived during the manufacture of graphite. Finally, both sulfur and arsenic
are said to be called “the king.”
This confusion in the list of synonyms can, of course, be misleading, and the
reader of alchemical recipes has to rely on the context for understanding whether
one or the other ingredient is to be used in each case. However, it is not possible to
identify the ingredients of medieval alchemical recipes by interpreting the practical
operations as if they were modern chemical procedures.38 Thus, the context alone will
fail to give the modern reader sure indications about the nature of the substances
involved in alchemical operations.
To illustrate this point, I will now present a translation of a recipe for the
preparation of lead, which is found in the Arabic De aluminibus et salibus:39

38
For a discussion on the identification of sal ammoniac, see: Paola Carusi, “Alchimia ermetica e arte del vetro:
il Tadbīr Harmis al-Har×misa (D×r al-Kutub al-Mi½rīya Ðabī‘y×t 150),” Quaderni di Studi Arabi, 10 (1992): 192,
n. 47; and Paola Carusi and Alberto Bartola, “Un tentativo di non decodificazione del termine ‘sale ammonia-
co,’” in Atti del II Convegno Nazionale di Storia e Fondamenti della Chimica (Rome: Accademia dei XL, 1989),
53–61.
39
MS Sprenger 1908, fol. 27r.
 AN ARABIC DICTIONARY OF TECHNICAL ALCHEMICAL TERMS 47

Description of the preparation of lead. Take a part of lead and melt it in an iron spoon.
Throw it on the same weight of mercury and leave what you have obtained in the mortar.
Take the equivalent in weight of one of the previous ingredients of roasted salt, melt it
in an equal quantity of sour vinegar, drain it and slowly pulverize the aforementioned
lead with it. You have to pulverize it and make it dry until its colour has turned black.
Then burn it in the fire until it becomes white and wash the salt away from it. You will
use it as one of your ingredients, if God wills. If you put some “eagle” with the vinegar
you are using for watering the salt, you will obtain the best results and prosperity.

The procedure described is relatively clear: it is aimed at obtaining a particular kind

of lead that can be used in other alchemical operations. It is not a recipe for the
preparation of gold or silver from base metals, but it is rather the description of
a preliminary operation to be conducted on lead in order to make it ready for
the transmutation, the description of which occupies the following chapters in the
De aluminibus et salibus. What is interesting here is the reference to the “eagle.” How
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should the sentence “put some ‘eagle’ with the vinegar” be interpreted? In this case,
the alchemical dictionary gives us a valuable aid: among the alternative names of
the sal ammoniac, we find the eagle: what has to be added to vinegar is, in this case,
sal ammoniac.
Another example can be taken from the recipe for the production of silver found
on fol. 23r:
Take the weight of one dirham of filings of “moon,” and amalgamate it with ten dirhams
of “the servant,” mixing them with new vinegar using an iron stick. Move the preparation
with a cane onto hot fire, reintegrating all the vinegar that evaporates until the prepara-
tion does not coagulate and remains united. Take some of that “servant” and make it
beautiful: it will become noteworthy.

According to the correspondences of the names listed, the expression “filings of

‘moon” is to be understood as filings of silver, while “servant” is to be understood as
a synonym for mercury.
As these examples show, the alchemical dictionary found at the beginning of the
Arabic MS Sprenger 1908 and in the two Syriac-karšýnī manuscripts Egerton 709
and Oriental 1593 of the British Library is a precious tool for the study of medieval
practical alchemical texts. A possible useful application of modern information
technologies to this kind of material would be the creation of a digital database of
alchemical names of substances that could provide researchers with an immediate
answer to the possible multiple meanings of the terms used by the alchemists to
conceal — while revealing — their doctrines.40 The creation of an electronic database
of the alchemical lexicon in which the existing lists of technical alchemical words
found in previously edited texts would be compared, unified and harmonised is to be
considered as a major desideratum for the further development of our knowledge in
the field of medieval and early modern alchemy.

40
Among the texts exploited for such an alchemical database would be Siggel’s work on the Decknamen and the
appendices of many editions of alchemical treatises — like the editions of the pseudo-R×zī treatise by Steele
and Ruska and, for Hebrew alchemical texts, at the end of Patai’s work — which contain lists of alchemical
terms, with their Latin and English translations.
 48 GABRIELE FERRARIO

Acknowledgements
The contents of this paper were originally presented at the First Lawrence J.
Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age, held in
Philadelphia (24–26 October 2008). A different version of this paper, together with
the Power Point presented on that occasion, will appear in an electronic publication
on the website of the University of Pennsylvania.

Notes on Contributor
Gabriele Ferrario obtained a PhD in Oriental Studies at the University of Venice
“Ca’ Foscari” in 2007 with a dissertation on the Arabic and Hebrew traditions of
the alchemical treatise Liber de aluminibus et salibus. He was a short term fellow
at the Warburg Institute, University of London (2007), and at the Chemical
Heritage Foundation in Phildelphia (2008). He is currently working in Milan as a
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field researcher for the Schoenberg Database of Medieval Manuscripts (University

of Pennsylvania) and he is collaborating with some Italian publishers. His main
research interests are in the Philology and History of Arabic and Hebrew
sciences in the Middle Ages. Address: Via P. Paoli, 2, 20143 Milano, Italy; E-mail:
gabriele.ferrario@gmail.com.