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A frothy bubble: Spontaneous generation in the

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Article  in  Journal of Semitic Studies · September 1990

DOI: 10.1093/jss/XXXV.2.265

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journal of Semitic Studies XXXV/2 Autumn 1990

A FROTHY BUBBLE:
SPONTANEOUS GENERATION IN THE
MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC TRADITION

REMKE KRUK
UNIVERSITY OF LEIDEN, THE NETHERLANDS

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In medieval Arabic texts we come across a number of state-
ments concerning the generation of animals, plants, and even
man, which to the modern mind seem exceedingly curious. The
statements I mean deal with various forms of generation that
involve the creation of a living being from matter that is not
akin to the body of a parent animal, ranging from spontaneous
generation (implying that 'some living entities may arise
suddenly by chance from matter independently of any parent',
Farley, 1974, p. 1) to the wind-fertilization of animals. These
statements are often presented in an isolated form (also by
western scholarship), and this tends to give the medieval belief
in spontaneous generation and other unusual forms of procrea-
tion an anecdotal aspect which hardly does justice to medieval
Islamic thought. Sometimes such theories are even approached
from the very unsatisfactory angle of their validity in the light
of modern, wholly unrelated, theories, as in the case of
spontaneous generation (for instance Hawi, 1974, p. 115 ff.).
The aim of this paper is to place the belief in spontaneous
generation (and possibly also other ideas concerning unusual
ways of procreation) in its proper philosophical context, and to
show that it is perfectly plausible once the underlying concepts
are realized. My main aim is to point out several basic concepts
about nature which go back to Greek (and maybe even older)
tradition, and which are essential parts of the framework within
which the ideas (Greek as well as medieval Islamic) about
generation developed. Basic in this respect is one of the ideas
about the elements that were current in classical antiquity:
matter, in the most simple form extant, consisted of the four
elements; when something caused them to merge, a more

265
 A FROTHY BUBBLE

complicated form of being was created. These ideas not only

found their way into Aristotelian elemental theory but also into
the theories of other philosophers, for instance those whose
theories are laid down in Arabic in the texts of the Jabir ibn
Hayyan-corpus. Accordingly, they form a basic underlying
notion in the concepts we will briefly discuss: I) the Aristote-
lian theory of generation, II) Galenism, and its emphasis on
the importance of environment, III) the Neoplatonic notion of
gradual development in creation, and IV) Jabir, and the
alchemical approach.

That living beings could come into being directly from

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inanimate matter has been a common and widespread belief
from antiquity to quite recent times, be it that some of the
ancients — Empedocles, for instance — allowed for the
possibility that even human beings could be generated directly
from the earth, whereas in modern science the discussion
centres upon the way in which certain molecules, essential to
life, have come into existence (Farley, 1974, pp. 1-2 and
passim).
The belief in spontaneous generation {tawallud; or, more
often, circumscribed by terms such as takhalluq al-hayawdn min
ghayr al-hayawdn or kawn min tilqd' nafsihi min ghayr bi%f) was also
widespread in medieval Islamic science, and references to the
theory are found in almost every text dealing with natural
history: frogs are supposed to be generated spontaneously in
stagnant water, or by copious rain (al-Watwat, Mabdhij, MS
Leiden Or. 219 fols. 84b-85a; Ibn abl 1-Hawafir, MS Chester
Beatty 4352 fols. 943-94^; a number of dangerous and
obnoxious animals, including snakes as well as aJJ the crawling
and swarming creatures (hawamm wa-hashardf) are brought forth
from mouldering and corrupting matter (Ikhwan as-Safa',
1327/1928, vol. 2, p. 231); dung beetles sprout forth from
fermenting earth (Nuwayri 1342/1923, vol. x, p. 152); animals
(i.e. gnats and worms) are generated within the bodies of other
animals (Ibn Tufayl, 1966, p. 88); lobsters may (among other
possibilities) be generated spontaneously (Ibn Slna, 1970, p. 76);
green algae are generated by stones (Ikhwan as-Safa', quoted by
Diwald, 1975, p. 224); Blrunl (1879, P- 2I 4) t e ^ s t n a t o u t °f
the hair of the head that has been torn out together with its
white root which originally is fixed in the flesh, snakes grow,
in case the hair falls into water or some wet place in the midst
266
 A FROTHY BUBBLE

of summer, growing within the time of three weeks or less';

and he also speaks {loc. cit.) about field-mice with half of their
bodies consisting of a lump of clay (cf. also Jahiz, 1945, V
p. 348 and III pp. 348-9); he also speaks about bees growing
out of the flesh of oxen, and wasps out of the meat of horses.
All these references of Biruni closely follow what is said in the
Kitdb at-Tajmi\ ascribed to Jabir ibn Hayyan (Kraus, 1935,
p. 367; id. 1943, vol. II p. 107—8). Other references are given
by Ullmann (1972, pp. 54-5). In all these cases, it may be
noted, some kind of humidity is involved; the importance of
this will become clear.
The Ikhwan as-Safa' (1327/1928, vol. II p. 164) even intro-

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duce spontaneous generation as a criterion for the classifica-
tion of animals: they can be either viviparous, oviparous, or
spontaneously generated. An additional remark: the belief in
spontaneous generation does not, in itself, run counter to the
theological viewpoints about God as the Creator, as is some-
times suggested; spontaneous creation has nothing to do with
creation ex nihilo. God created the universe and all the
processes which take place in it, including generation, be it
spontaneous or otherwise.
In the introduction to this paper I referred to various forms
of generation which are mentioned along with spontaneous
generation proper. These include such ways of reproduction as
(a) a form of parthenogenesis, mentioned for instance by Ibn
abi-1-Ash'ath, quoted by Nuwayri (1342/1923, vol. X p. 174:
ants drop 'something insignificant' on the earth, and this grows
until it becomes sperm (bay%an, possibly also baydan, 'egg'?),
and from that they come into being. A combination, thus, of
organic generative matter, produced by a parent, and inorganic
matter to create a new animal, not unlike the process in plants
which we nowadays call asexual reproduction: for instance the
forming of little potatoes as offshoots of the mother-potato, as
an alternative to the growing of potato plants from seeds.
(b) the generation of a plant from the organic matter of two
other, completely different plants, as an alternative to the usual
way of reproduction: a banana tree is said to grow from a date
kernel put into a colocasia tuber (Abd al-Latlf, 1965, pp. 55 fF.;
Ibn al-'Awwam, 1864, vol. I, p. 459).1

1
Ibn al-'Awwam (loc. cit.) describes this procedure as a kind of grafting.
 A FROTHY BUBBLE

(c) alchemical procedures of creating life (recipe given in the

Picatrix, see ref. Ullmann, 1972, p. 56; cf. also Jabir's K. at-
tajmt, Kraus, 1935, pp. 341-92, which deals with the artificial
production of animals (including man), plants and minerals;
discussed, with many references, Kraus, 1943, pp. 97-134).
(d) fertilization by wind (as is said to take place, for instance, in
partridges; see the ref. given by Ullmann, 1972, p. 5 s). 2
(e) animals (or human beings) growing from plants, as is
mentioned by Blrunl (1879, p. 214) about trees with leaves
turning into drones, and about figs and basil turning into
scorpions.3
1 will now try to analyse the concepts within which the idea

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of spontaneous generation could flourish, and then see whether
these concepts are also of any use in understanding the other
curious instances mentioned above.

I. Aristotelian theory: generation

To understand the belief in spontaneous generation we
have to go back to classical sources. The idea that living
organisms could arise from matter independently from a
parent, undoubtedly generally accepted in classical antiquity,
was given a theoretical foundation by Aristotle, who repeatedly
explains his belief in spontaneous generation (Historia Anima-
lium, 539315-25; De Generatione Animalium, 715320, b 2 5 ;
7i3bio; 732bio; 743a35J 757 a 3°, b2o; 758a}; 761815, b2of.;
76235—63830; De Anima II 4, 415326). His most extensive

2
The idea of conception by wind is extremely widespread. We find it,
for instance, in the Finnish Kalevala (first Rune), where the water-virgin is
made pregnant by the wind and so becomes the mother of creation —
however, the strange textual history of the Kalevala, which was put together
only in the 19th century, makes it difficult to base any conclusions upon
this material. Albertus Magnus (13 th century) mentions wind conception in
horses (Albertus Magnus, 1916-21, Ch. VI par. 118), although he denies the
possibility of such an occurrence in partridges (Ch. V par. 18). The associa-
tion of wind with life-giving pneuma is obvious, and has indeed been traced
from Greek to classical Indian tradition (Filliozat, 1949, pp. 51—67),
although no instance of conception by wind is given by him; neither is this
to be found in B. H. Strieker's (1963) exhaustive work on Middle and Near
Eastern ideas about conception.
3
Cf. the story of the island of Waqwaq (see Encyclopedia of Islam, first
edition, art. Waqwaq), where women are supposed to grow on trees; and
also certain notions current in medieval Europe, such as that flying fish
were bred from the seeds of a fruit tree, Howard, 1980, p. 31).

268
 A FROTHY BUBBLE

account is in the Generation of Animals (762318 ff), where he

says, for instance (Peck, translation, Aristotle 1963): 'Animals
and plants are formed in the earth and in the water because in
earth water is present, and in water pneuma is present, so that
in a way all things are full of Soul; and that is why they quickly
take shape once it has been enclosed. Now it gets enclosed as
the liquids containing corporeal matter become heated, and
there is formed as it were a frothy bubble' (Arabic translation,
Aristotle, 1971, p. 129: 'froth'). The object which thus takes
shape may be more valuable in kind or less valuable; and the
differences herein depend upon the envelope which encloses
the soul-principle (the Arabic version gives: 'upon the soul-

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principle that is first contained in it') and the causes which
determine this are the situations where the process takes place
and the physical substance which is enclosed' (Arabic transla-
tion: 'and the physical substance that encloses the principle').
The Aristotelian theory of spontaneous generation presents a
number of difficulties (see for example on the problems of its
philosophical implications Genequand, 1984, pp. 24—32), of
which one of the more obvious is the following: in 'normal'
generation the sperm of the male contains the formative
principle which shapes the matter provided by the female into a
being of the same species as the parents.4 Now the problem in
spontaneous generation is that the pneuma which sets the
generation process going is, so to speak, unspecified (see the
quotation above). Since this is the case, it is difficult to imagine
where the specific formative 'information' which decides
whether a certain quantity of matter shall turn into, say, a
cockroach or an eel comes from. The quotation given above
suggests that this depends on the surrounding matter.5
Aristotle's theory about spontaneous generation thus has its
4
This also presents a problem: if it is thus, how is it possible that a
child resembles its mother? This has indeed been the subject of much
discussion. See, for instance: Weisser, 1983, pp. 117fF. and 1985, pp. 317-
*4)-
5
This is indeed the view taken by Peck (Aristotle, De Gen. Animalium,
Peck (ed.), 1963, pp. 584-86). In other places, however, Aristotle seems,
according to certain interpretations (Preus, 1975, pp. 86-9), to take the
view that the pneuma itself— which acts, to use Preus' (1975, p. 87) term, as
an 'organizer' — ('Aristotle seems to suppose that pneuma functions as an
organiser, and that the surrounding material is that which is organized') can
be of different character (Aristotle, De Generatione Animalium 736b32, is the
place from which this may be inferred).
269
 A FROTHY BUBBLE

obscure aspects. He is, however, perfectly unambiguous about

the frequent occurrence of the phenomenon, even to the point
of arguing that the fact that some supposedly spontaneously
generated animals (snails, in this case) have been observed
copulating does not prove that their procreation necessarily is
the result of this copulation (De Generatione Animalium, -j6zai,4).
The central point in reproduction (either spontaneous or
sexual) is, anyway, that there has to be (a) a principle of life
(soul-heat, pneumd) which can be set into motion by heat (either
from the sun or from animal bodies; not fire, for the heat of
fire is not generative, Aristotle De Gen. An. 736b3o-737a8; cf.
Ibn Slna, 1970, p. 403; cf. also Preus, 1975, p. 88), and (b)

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matter from which the body of the new creature can be
formed. In this respect there is no essential difference between
sexual reproduction, were the male's semen provides the
principle of life and the female the matter (at least according to
Aristotle), and spontaneous generation, where the pneuma
which is present in every kind of moisture (and, accordingly, in
every kind of matter which contains moisture) is activated by
heat, and becomes the principle of life which acts upon
the available matter. The hatching of eggs, a phenomenon
thoroughly studied by Aristotle, very much supports this
theory: the embryo in the egg only starts to develop when the
egg is heated.
It will be noted that Aristotle does not discuss the possibility
that higher beings also could come into being independently of
parents. Some of the medieval Islamic philosophers, however,
do consider this possible.6 This will be discussed later on.

II. Galenism: the role of environment

There is another aspect of medieval Islamic thinking about
nature, also with classical roots, which can be supposed to
have had its relevance to the popularity of the concept of
spontaneous generation. This is the strong emphasis laid on the
importance of environmental circumstances with respect to the
formation of living beings.
The concept shows itself most clearly in relation to the
theory of humours, generally associated with the name of

6
One of those philosophers is Ibn Sina, who is attacked by Ibn Rushd
on this subject. See the ref. given by Gauthier (1936, p. XI, note).
270
 A FROTHY BUBBLE

Galen, although its roots are much older. Aristotle, following

more ancient writers, held that there were four primary quali-
ties, hot, cold, dry, and moist, and that binary combinations of
these produced the four elements water, earth, air, and fire.
Later scholars combined this theory with the Hippocratic
theory that the body was composed of four humours, phlegm,
black bile, blood, and yellow bile, corresponding to the four
elements. It was Galen who applied these principles to medical
theory, and thus contributed to their general acceptance.
The theory that the body of living beings consists basically
of four humours, phlegm, black bile, blood, and yellow bile,
the combination of which is decisive for the constitution of

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living beings, has another implication. Great importance is
attached to the influence of natural circumstances (such as
climate) and environment (humidity, for instance) on the shape
of living beings, also with respect to characteristics which we
consider strictly hereditarily defined. There exists a vast quan-
tity of medieval Arabic literature on this subject; a few
examples will suffice here to illustrate the point. Ibn Khaldun
(1967, I, pp. 167-84) discusses the influence which such factors
had upon the colour and character of human beings, even to
the point where he argues (p. 171) that Negroes start to
produce white offspring when they settle in temperate or cold
areas, and white people living in hot countries produce black
offspring. Ibn abl 1-Ash'ath, a physician who lived in tenth-
century Iraq, devotes his Kitdb al-Hayawan (MS Oxford, Bodl. I
456, 6) to the description of various human races and animal
species, explaining their specific characteristics almost exclu-
sively from the environmental circumstances on which their
constitutions depended. Ullmann (1972, p. 57) refers to Maimo-
nides for the statement that it depends on the place where a
young lizard-like reptile grows up whether it will grow into a
crocodile (this happens when it is put into the water) or a varan
(which happens when it grows up in the desert); it is the same
with sea-turtles and land-turtles. It also applies to plants: Ibn
SIna says in his Kitdb al-Hayawdn (1970, p. 404) that certain
vegetables, such as cabbages and water-melons, change their
shape into that of the form current in other regions if they are
moved there {ghalabat-al-madda 'ald-s-siira, 'the matter gained
supremacy over the form' is Ibn Slna's explanation); and
Qazwlni (1849, P- 2(>7) t e ^ s u s t ^ iat ^ P eo pl e of the Hijaz are
convinced that the coconut palm, and the muql, the / l
271
 A FROTHY BUBBLE

are essentially the same tree, but that they bear different fruits
as a result of the difference in soil and climate of the region
where they grow.
The relevance of such a strong belief in the decisive
influence of environment is obvious in respect to the theory of
generation. These views fit in very well with Aristotle's theory,
as it was expressed in the passage mentioned above {Generation
of Animals 762818): the situation in which the process of
spontaneous generation takes place is one of the factors respon-
sible for the shape of the resulting living beings, i.e. the
(condition of) the matter decides the form.

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III. Neoplatonism: the importance of gradual development
Aristotle, as we have seen, did not suggest the possibility that
higher animals, and even human beings, could also come into
being by spontaneous generation. In the Islamic world,
however, this idea crops up occasionally.7 That such is the case
may well be related to a third aspect of medieval Islamic
thinking about Nature, namely, the concept that the principles
underlying the creation of the cosmos imply the existence of a
strict hierarchy in the created world, and that there is a
constant tendency in creation to try and reach a higher level on
the scale.
When this is taken into account, the point to be considered
is how far the question of the belief in spontaneous generation
ought to be understood against the background of the (essen-
tially Platonic, see Lovejoy, i960, ch. II, especially p. 5off.)
concept of the 'chain of being',8 or 'scala naturae', the concept
that created beings can be seen as arranged in a scale-like
7
Cf. for instance the ref. given by Kraus (1943, II, p. 98, n. 1) to Fakhr
ad-Din ar-RazI (d.1209), Kitab al-Mabahith al-mashriqiyya, II, 219 and Ibn abl
l-Hadld (d.1257), Sharh Nabj al-balagha, I, 34. The latter writes: 'Then the
elements mixed and the composed bodies came into being, among them the
human species, just as maggots come into being in fruit and meat, and lice
in water-melons and putrid places.'
8
The 'chain of being' is the necessary consequence of what Lovejoy
(i960, p. 52) calls 'the principle of plenitude', i.e. that which follows from
the premise that Plato's Absolute, the 'Best Soul', can begrudge existence to
nothing that could conceivably possess it (Lovejoy, p. 50). This Platonic
concept fused with Aristotle's notion of continuity into the idea that all
organisms can be arranged in one ascending sequence of forms (id., p. 56),
and found its culmination point in Neoplatonic philosophy and its theory
of emanation.

272
 A FROTHY BUBBLE

hierarchical model ranging, with infinitesimal gradations, from

the lowest level (inorganic matter, or even the elements) to
supernatural beings, with intermediate forms occurring on all
levels of the scale: between human beings and animals,
between animals and plants, and between plants and stones.9
As Lovejoy (i960, p. 63) says, it is in Neoplatonism that the
generation of the lower (i.e. sublunary) grades of being, or all
of them that are 'possible', directly by the Soul of Nature, and
ultimately by the Absolute, is regarded as a logical necessity. If
this is taken to imply that there is a constant urge in creation to
realize all forms of being, it is of some importance in relation
to the fact, mentioned earlier, that some of the medieval

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Islamic philosophers (all of Neoplatonic stamp) did not
exclude the possibility that higher beings could be generated
spontaneously: for they, too, are among the 'possible' beings,
and once the conditions (material and otherwise) for the
coming-to-be of such beings are fulfilled they must necessarily
come into being; and it only depends on accidental circumstances
whether this happens by sexual or by spontaneous generation.
That the nature of the matter concerned is decisive for the
nature of the creature that comes into being by spontaneous
generation was already implied by Aristotle (see above under
I); the question which remains therefore is whether there
actually can exist matter which is in the right condition to
generate a higher animal or a human being. Such is indeed
the case according to those medieval Arab philosophers
who follow the theory that heavenly influences are constantly
working upon matter to bring it into a more perfect condition.
The idea is summed up, for instance, by Ibn Slna (13 31/1912,
p. 257, transl. Rahman, 1952, p. 24): 'When the elements are

9
For instance Ikhwan, 1327, vol. Ill p. 221-6: a certain parasitic vine
{kuthutti) is intermediate between plants and animals; Qazwini, 1849
pp. 202-3, where the whole scale is described, transl. Clement-Mullet, 1840;
cf. also, for instance, the opinion that pearls {marjan) were the berries of a
certain sea-plant (BIrunI, 1355 p. 137-9), which bears testimony to the fact
that no clear borderline between the organic and the inorganic was
supposed; cf. also Al-BIrunI, 1355, p. 87, where he describes his surprise in
finding a lump of clay which has berries growing on it (Strohmaier,
(BIrunI, 1988, p. 303) gives the very likely suggestion of a kind of
mushroom being involved here); Diwald, 1975 p. 228: salt is a vegetable
mineral, a mushroom a mineral plant); see further Pseudo-Apollonios of
Tyana (Weisser, 1980, p. 120-1).

273
 A FROTHY BUBBLE

mixed together in a more harmonious way, i.e. in a more

balanced proportion than in the cases previously mentioned,
other beings also come into existence out of them due to the
powers of the heavenly bodies. The first of these are plants.
Now some plants are grown from seed and set aside a part of
the body bearing the reproductive faculty, while others grow
from spontaneous generation {ka'in min tilqd' nafsihi) without
seeds.'
Here we have the notion of a gradually more perfect and
harmonious condition of the mixture of the elements, which is
closely connected to the hierarchy of living beings. Applied to
the theory of spontaneous generation, this leads to the conclu-
sion mentioned above: matter in different stages of perfection

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generates beings of equally different levels of perfection. Put to
its logical consequence, this implies that matter in its most
harmonious and well-balanced condition is capable of creating
the most perfect being of the sublunary region, i.e. man —
provided of course that a 'principle of life' sets the process of
generation in motion.
This consequence seems indeed to be drawn by, for instance,
the Ikhwan as-Safa, where they say (Ikhwan, 1347/1928, II,
155) 'Know, O brother, that the complete [tdmma al-khalqa)
animals originally all came from earth {tin), male and female.
They mated and brought forth and dispersed over plains and
mountains, land and sea, from under the equator where night
and day are of equal length, and where the climate is always
temperate, between hot and cold, and where there is always
matter {mawddd) available that is ready to receive the ever-
present form. There also came into being our father Adam,
father of mankind, and his wife. They mated and brought forth
their children, and the earth was filled with them.'
The passage just mentioned in the Ikhwan is too vague to
decide upon its implications for the theory of spontaneous
generation; but a passage written two centuries later, of an
equally Neoplatonic character, and strongly reminiscent of this
passage in the Kasd'il both in style and contents, shows us how
it was interpreted by another medieval philosopher.
The passage which I refer to is of course the famous passage
in Ibn Tufayl's Hqyj ibn Yaq%an, where the author describes in
detail how a human being could supposedly come into being

274
 A FROTHY BUBBLE

by spontaneous generation ('without father of mother').10 This,

in Ibn Tufayl's account, takes place on (Goodman, 1972,
p. 103) 'a certain equatorial island, lying off the coast of India,
where human beings come into being without father or
mother. This is possible, they say, because, of all places on
earth, that island has the most tempered climate. And because a
supernal light streams down on it, it is the most perfectly
adapted to accept the human form.'
Spontaneous generation is here given as an alternative expla-
nation of Hayy ibn Yaqzan's existence on the uninhabited
island. The account of Hayy's coming-to-be by spontaneous
generation is placed in a Neoplatonic framework: it speaks of

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the 'spirit that is from God', which constantly emanates from
the Divine Being, of astrological influences in the shape of the
'light streaming down' (see also the passages of Ibn Sina and
Ikhwan mentioned above),- and the well-known image of the
sun and mirrors is also used to explain the relation between the
Divine Principle and the beings it creates. But the whole
account of the process of spontaneous generation itself is
solidly founded in Aristotelian theory, even to the point of
verbal resemblance; for Ibn Tufayl's account runs as follows
(Goodman, 1972, p. 106): 'But first I should say that those who
claim Hayy came into being spontaneously say that in a pocket
of earth on that island, over the years, a mass of clay worked
until hot and cold, damp and dry were blended in just the
proper way, their strengths perfectly balanced. This fermented
mass of clay was quite large, and parts of it were in better
equilibrium than others, more suited than the rest for
becoming human gametes. The midmost part was the best
proportioned and bore the most perfect equivalence to the
make-up of a man. The clay laboured and churned, and in the
viscous mass there formed what looked like bubbles in boiling
water. In the very middle formed a tiny bubble divided in half
by a delicate membrane and filled by a gaseous body, optimally
proportioned for what it was to be. With it at that moment
joined "the spirit which is God's" (Qur. XV 28-29), in a bond
virtually indissoluble.'
Bubbles in boiling water, recalling Aristotle's 'frothy
bubble'. That Ibn Tufayl, at least, had no doubts as to whether
10
It is not the only description of its kind in Arabic literature, see the
ref. given by Kraus, 1943, vol. II p. 121 n. 3.

275
 A FROTHY BUBBLE

the actual spontaneous generation of higher beings took place

in the same way as that of lower beings, is clear. It is also
obvious that the state of perfection of matter, and the environ-
mental conditions, are of vital importance. Hence the insistence
upon the conditions under which the process takes place, and
the sort of matter that is available: an even climate and a
sufficient quantity of a matter which is in perfect equilibrium
— thus creating optimal harmony in the mixture of the
elements, and, accordingly, the conditions necessary for genera-
ting an optimal living being; and once the pneuma which is
present in the water that forms part of the mixture has become
heated by the light streaming down on it and starts to form

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bubbles, the generation process is set into movement.
In this context it is of no importance that Ibn Tufayl
describes the process of spontaneous generation not so much in
order to advocate the possibility of the spontaneous generation
of human beings as in order to introduce, for the sake of his
story, a human being free of any social background (cf.
Gauthier, 1936, p. XI, footnote). The importance here lies, in
his view, in the way in which the process may be supposed to
take place.
Thus we see that the concept of a hierarchical 'chain of
being' has contributed to the belief in spontaneous generation,
first by emphasizing the idea that the borderlines between the
different realms of nature were not clearly defined, thus making
it acceptable to believe that unspecific matter could turn into
plants or animals fairly easily; and second by its introduction of
the idea that gradually more perfect types of matter come into
being and are connected to the hierarchy of living beings, thus
allowing for the possibility of spontaneously generated higher
(but still sublunary) beings. Whether this kind of spontaneous
generation still in fact takes place is, in this context, immaterial.

IV. Alchemy: the potential of matter

A recent study (Marquet, 1988) has pointed out the numerous
parallels between the ideas of the Ikhwan as-Safa' and those of
the philosophers whose ideas have come down to us in the
works of the so-called Jabirian corpus. Of those works the
Kitdb at-tajmV deals explicitly with the creation of living beings
by artificial processes, in the same way as precious metals may
be created artificially — another aim of the medieval alchemist.

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The text also suggests the possibility of bringing the dead to

life again.
Some of Jabir's (by whose name modern scholarship refers
to the whole cluster of works transmitted under his name)
ideas are related to those of Aristotle. Aristotle's theories about
generation form part of his philosophical concepts concerning
coming-to-be and passing-away (laid down in his De Generatione
and Corruptione). In this, his theory of elements plays a pre-
dominant part; it is the theory which explains how generation
takes place by the fusion of two or more of the four elements.
The difference between the Jabirian and the Aristotelian theory
of elements has been discussed by Kraus (1943, vol. II pp. 162-

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4), who pointed out the Stoic influences on Jabir. The main
difference, in Kraus' view, lies in- the status of the qualities of
the elements (such as, for instance, the wetness and coldness of
water): in Aristotle's system these are mere accidents of the
elements, which differentiate the elements from the Prime
Matter by giving them their actual form; in the Jabirian
system, the qualities stand above the elements in the hierarchi-
cal order of being, and have real constitutive power. I take it
that Kraus refers here to the Stoic concept of the logos
spermatikos which holds that indeterminate matter has in itself
the principles of all future manifestation and development
(Demaitre and Travill, 1980, p. 407).
Ideas such as these fit in very well with the concepts about
generation discussed above. At the present state of research,
however, it is difficult to appreciate the specific influence of
this line of thought. A number of the instances of spontaneous
generation mentioned by al-BIrunl (see above) are also found in
the Kitdb at-Tajmf, as I pointed out earlier in this paper.
This suggests that the influence of those thinkers was indeed
widespread. In this context, one of Jahiz' passages about
spontaneous generation is also interesting, namely, Kitdb al-
Hayawdn, V, pp. 348-49. Jahiz discusses here the possibility of
the generation of field-mice from clay, a phenomenon which is
reported to have been especially common near the river Qatul
in the region of Samarra (although NuwayrI, vol. X, p. 44, also
reports it from Egypt, on the authority of al-Watwat); many
people report that they have witnessed the transformation
process. The remarkable point here, however, is that Jahiz
refers explicitly to 'people' who not only deny the possibility of
this particular occurrence but of all kinds of spontaneous

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 A FROTHY BUBBLE

generation, and especially of spontaneous generation induced

by artificial processes; and Jahiz continues: 'from this point
of view they also deny that copper may be turned into gold'.
One rarely encounters people who deny the possibility of
spontaneous generation even of lower beings (if there is a
discussion, it generally centres on the possibility of the
spontaneous generation of man), and it seems plausible that the
people quoted here by Jahiz were in fact reacting against the
extreme (and even blasphemous) opinions of the alchemists.

Conclusion
The belief in spontaneous generation was, as has been argued

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above, likely to flourish in a system of thought where the
Aristotelian theory on the subject was supported by other
concepts, such as Greek elemental theory in its different forms,
the allowance for environmental circumstances as a formative
influence in the shaping of living beings, the idea of the 'chain
of being' with its hierarchy of closely connected classes of
beings, and the concept of matter reaching a gradually more
perfect condition. Within this context, we can also try to make
some tentative remarks as to the other unorthodox ways of
generation mentioned at the beginning of this paper. I do
realize that this is a hazardous venture, since some of these
beliefs probably had their origin in older Middle Eastern
systems of thought or formed part of largely orally transmitted
popular beliefs, and thus are not always easy to trace. Still, one
might look for an explanation of the fact that all these curious
ideas could retain a foothold within Islamic science. In this
respect it is essential to realize that the ideas about generation
which were current in the medieval Islamic world basically
came down to the notion that there necessarily had to be (a) a
principle of life which acted as 'mover' or 'organizer' of the
generative process, and (b) a sufficient quantity of matter from
which the new creature could be formed. If the formative
power was not introduced together with the principle of life,
the available matter had to be in the condition which was
specific for a certain organism in order to grow into such an
organism; this specific condition of matter might be brought
about by external circumstances.11 Thus, the life principle
1
' The whole argument is beautifully and concisely summed up by Qusta
ibn Luqa in his account of the generation of the dracunculus medinensis, a
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 A FROTHY BUBBLE

present in the date kernel might start its generation process

when put into the moist substance of a colocasia tuber, and the
substance of the tuber might have so much basic likeness to
that of the banana that the incipient date seedling was
modified into a banana tree,12 not unlike Ibn Slna's cabbages
which were moved to another region, or Ibn Khaldun's
Negroes who became white in the northern hemisphere.
Strange discontinuities in the generation process might also
take place, as when trees suddenly produced animals instead of
fruit, or leaves curled up and flew away as drones. No need to
look for little eggs laid on those leaves — a sudden change of
external circumstances had obviously essentially modified the

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constitution of the available substance, and a new kind of being
started to develop, either as a modification of the already
started process or as a new beginning.
The obvious question arises: if it is thus, then is it not
surprising that there is any continuity at all in the reproduction
of living beings? Indeed it is, in our view. The ancient
philosophers, however, seem not to have been worried by this
aspect of the matter — which only goes to show how defective
our understanding remains of their way of thinking, however
much we try.

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