Chemistry tools invented by Muslim scholars

In Arabic, due to the use of the definite article 'al' before words, the term 'chemistry' was expressed as 'al-kimiya,' where 'al' serves as the definite article. Westerners later adopted the term 'alchemy' by dropping the final '-ya' sound, pronouncing it as 'al-kimi' or in the form known in the West as alchemy. Muslims would remain influential in this science until the 17th century. However, there is a prevailing uncertainty about when people, regardless of whether they were Muslims or not, began using these tools in the field of chemistry. Unfortunately, none of these tools have survived to the present day. However, Arabic manuscripts related to chemistry and alchemy that have reached us do contain some illustrations of these instruments, albeit in limited quantities. Ez-Zehravi, the method of obtaining rose water is known by many, he says. El-Mizze apparatus consisted of multiple layers separated by the space between horned funnels arranged outwardly in a vectorial manner. These horned funnels were filled with the leaves to be distilled, and they were suspended in the rising smoke through a permeable chimney located in the center of an ash pit established at the bottom. Distillation vessels connected to the horned funnels through 'helmet' and 'beak' for the distilled essence were fixed to the outer wall of the apparatus and covered with a lid. The distilled essence of the leaves was collected in distillation vessels located on the outside. In the books 'Kitab el-Esrar' and 'Sırr el-Esrar' that he wrote, Abu Bakr al-Razi, a scholar from the 9th century, described an advanced alembic. According to his description, the apparatus worked as follows: A copper alembic with origins dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries is of Anatolian origin and comes from the collection of the pharmacologist Turhan Baytop. The tool referred to as 'usal,' described by the 9th-century scholar Abu Bakr al-Razi in his book 'Kitab el-Esrar ve Sırr el-Esrar,' facilitated the sublimation of dry substances. This tool was described by Al-Harizmi in the second half of the 10th century as a device made either of glass or clay. In the Latin version of the book by the 9th-century scholar Abu Bakr al-Razi, a funnel without a beak is depicted.

Chemistry tools invented by Muslim scholars

During the Golden Age of Islam, Muslim scholars laid the foundations of the science of chemistry and became the inventors of many laboratory tools and equipment.