Al-Tughrai
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Mu'ayyad al-Din Abu Isma‘il al-Husayn ibn Ali al-Tughra'i was an 11th-12th century Persian physician.
Mu'ayyad al-Din al-Tughra'i, was born in Isfahan in 1061CE, and was an important alchemist, poet, and administrative secretary (therefore the name Tughra'i'). He ultimately became the second most senior official (after the vizier) in the civil administration of the Seljuki empire.
He was, however, executed in 1121CE having been accused (unjustifiably, according to most historians) of being an apostate.
He was a well-known and prolific writer on astrology and alchemy, and many of his poems (diwan) are preserved today as well. In the field of alchemy, al-Tughra'i is best known for his large compendium titled Mafatih al-rahmah wa-masabih al-hikmah, which incorporated extensive extracts from earlier Arabic alchemical writings, as well as Arabic translations from Zosimos of Panopolis old alchemy treatises written in Greek, which were until 1995 erroneously attributed to unknown alchemists by mistakes and inconsistencies in the transliteration and transcription of his name into Arabic[1]
In 1112CE, he also composed Kitab Haqa'iq al-istishhad, a rebuttal of a refutation of alchemy written by Avicenna.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Prof. Dr. Hassan S. El Khadem. 1996. A Translation of a Zosimos' Text in an Arabic Alchemy Book. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences. Volume 84. Number 3, Pages 168-178. September 1996
For his life, see:
- F.C. de Blois, 'al-Tughra'i' in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, ed. by H.A.R. Gibbs, B. Lewis, Ch. Pellat, C. Bosworth et al., 11 vols. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1960-2002), vol. 10, pp 599-600.
For a list of his alchemical writings, see:
- Manfred Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam, Handbuch der Orientalistik, Abteilung I, Erg?nzungsband VI, Abschnitt 2 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1972), pp 229-231 and 252-3.
- For details about Zosimos of Panopolis translations, see: Prof. Dr. Hassan S. El Khadem. 1996. A Translation of a Zosimos' Text in an Arabic Alchemy Book. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences. Volume 84. Number 3, pp 168-178. September 1996
