Jump to content

Talk:Jabir ibn Hayyan

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

al-Azdi means Yazdi

[edit]

There are sources in Farsi, which say al-Azdi (as nisba of Jabir) means Yazdi (belonging to Yazd city in Iran), so Jaber is directly a Persian. Other variants of the word Yazd are Ayzd and Izad. If any one could find a reliable source which denotes this, please add it to the article. Perscience (talk) 14:31, 2 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

For those who are interested, one (unreliable) source which makes this claim is here. ☿ Apaugasma (talk ) 14:54, 2 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Al-Azd is attributed to the Arab tribe only. The person is attributed to the origins, not to the country of birth, and Iran is not only Persian Muhsin97233 (talk) 21:32, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

He was persian not arab

[edit]

Jabir ibn Hayan was a Persian. 83.121.164.64 (talk) 09:23, 27 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Jaber Ibn Hayyan, all sources are attributed him to Arabs, not Persian Muhsin97233 (talk) 06:53, 1 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Could you please cite a few sources? James.aminian (talk) 16:52, 15 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
There is no source for that! He was Persian, and his father was also Persian, literally called Attar! During that period, everyone in Iran had to speak Arabic besides Persian, so it is not surprising that he has books in Arabic and Persian. Persiangreat (talk) 06:49, 30 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
His ethnicity is well covered in Jabir ibn Hayyan#Biography. Please review the sources cited there, especially Kraus 1942–1943 vol. I, pp. xvii–lxv (the most authoritative account of Jabir's biography to date) and Delva 2017 (a recent paper reviewing all the evidence on Jabir's biography, affirming Kraus' position that ethnicity is uncertain). ☿ Apaugasma (talk ) 13:41, 30 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Jābir ibn Hayyān’s Ethnicity

[edit]

According to Ibn al-Nadīm in his Kitāb al-Fihrist (Flügel ed., Leipzig 1871–72, p. 355:18), Jābir ibn Hayyān bears the nisba al-Azdī because he was a mawlā—that is, a non-Arab convert attached as a client to the Azd tribe. In early Islamic usage mawlā was a DEROGATORY label for non-Arab Muslims, marking them as second-class citizens rather than true tribal members, which confirms that Jābir was not ethnically Arab. Paul Kraus likewise observes that al-Azdī signifies clientage (mawlā) rather than blood descent (Essai sur l’histoire des idées scientifiques dans l’Islam, vol. I, p. xli n. 3), and Henry Corbin notes that in this milieu “mawālī” functioned pejoratively to denote non-Arab affiliation, underlining Jābir’s non-Arab origin (Le Livre du Glorieux de Jâbir ibn Hayyân, p. 50).

References

[edit]
  1. Ibn al-Nadīm, Kitāb al-Fihrist, ed. Gustav Flügel (Leipzig, 1871–72), p. 355:18.
  2. Paul Kraus, Essai sur l’histoire des idées scientifiques dans l’Islam, vol. I (Paris/Cairo, 1935), p. xli n. 3.
  3. Henry Corbin, “Le Livre du Glorieux de Jâbir ibn Hayyân,” Eranos-Jahrbuch 18 (1950): 48–114, p. 50.

James.aminian (talk) 03:44, 1 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]