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Iraq: Abu Musa Jabir Ibn Hayyan, better known in Medieval Europe as Geber, chemist, alchemist, astronomer and polymath (722 - c. 804 CE)

Iraq: Abu Musa Jabir Ibn Hayyan, better known in Medieval Europe as Geber, chemist, alchemist, astronomer and polymath (722 - c. 804 CE)

Abu Mūsā Jābir ibn Hayyān (al-Azdi / al-Kufi / al-Tusi / al-Sufi), often known simply as Geber, (Persian/Arabic: جابر بن حیان) (born c. 721 in Tus, Persia; died c. 815 in Kufa, Iraq) was a prominent polymath: a chemist and alchemist, astronomer and astrologer, engineer, geologist, philosopher, physicist, and pharmacist and physician. Born and educated in Tus, he later traveled to Kufa. Jābir is held to be the first practical alchemist.

As early as the 10th century, the identity and exact corpus of works of Jābir was in dispute in Islamic circles. His name was Latinized as 'Geber' in the Christian West and in 13th century Europe an anonymous writer, usually referred to as Pseudo-Geber, produced alchemical and metallurgical writings under the pen-name Geber.

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