Geber
Geber (721?-815?) was a great Arab scholar. Very little is known about his life, but he is renowned for his writings on alchemy and chemistry.
Geber's Arabic name was Jabir ibn Hayyan. According to some sources, his father, an apothecary (pharmacist), was beheaded shortly after Geber's birth for his role in a failed attempt to depose the caliph. Geber was then supposedly sent to Arabia. There he studied most branches of knowledge, including medicine, and eventually became physician in the court of Caliph Harounal-Rashid. He was said to have been a Sufi, a member of an Islamic mystic sect.
Geber is generally credited with writing significant works on alchemy and chemistry. Alchemy, a blend of magic, mystical philosophy, and the scientific knowledge of its time, was popular from the days of early Christianity until about 1700. Alchemists tried to change less costly metals into silver and gold. They also tried to find the elixir of life, a substance that would cure disease and lengthen life. They failed in their attempts, but their work in preparing and studying chemical substances helped develop the science of chemistry.
Geber is thought to have developed methods of distillation, evaporation, crystallization, filtration, and sublimation, some of the key processes used in chemistry. However, it is doubtful that he wrote all the books attributed to him. Some scholars of Geber's writings now believe that works attributed solely to him were actually written by a school, or group, of scientists living at about the same time and pursuing the same research. Scholars also point out that some works, could not have been written by Geber because they contain references to information that was not yet known or translated during his lifetime.