Khalid ibn Yazid

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Khalid ibn Yazid
خالد بن يزيد
Bornc. 668 CE (48 AH)
Umayyad Caliphate
Died704 CE (85 AH) or 709 CE (90 AH)
WifeA'isha bint Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan
DynastyUmayyad
FatherYazid I
MotherFakhita bint Abi Hashim ibn Utba ibn Rabi'a
ReligionIslam
OccupationCaliphal adviser, military commander, poet, purported alchemist and patron of the sciences

Khālid ibn Yazīd (full name Abū Hāshim Khālid ibn Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān, Arabic: أبو هاشم خالد بن يزيد بن معاوية بن أبي سفيان‎), c. 668–704 or 709, was an Umayyad prince and purported alchemist.

As a son of the Umayyad caliph Yazid I, and as a younger brother of Yazid I's successor Mu'awiya II, Khalid was supposed to succeed Mu'awiya II after the latter's early death in 684. However, Marwan I, a senior Umayyad from another branch of the clan, was chosen over the much younger Khalid to take up the role of caliph. Despite this, Khalid forged close ties with Marwan's son and successor, the caliph Abd al-Malik, who appointed him to successive administrative and military roles. After a number of successful military campaigns in 691, Khalid lived out the rest of his life in his Homs estate.

A large number of alchemical writings were attributed to Khalid, including also many alchemical poems. However, Khalid's purported alchemical activity was probably part of a legend that evolved in 9th-century Arabic literary circles, which also falsely credited him with sponsoring the first translations of Greek philosophical and scientific works into Arabic. Some of the Arabic alchemical works attributed to Khalid were later translated into Latin. One of these works, The Book of the Composition of Alchemy (Latin: Liber de compositione alchemiae), ranks as the very first Arabic work on alchemy to be translated (in 1144). In the Latin works, Khalid was referred to by the Latinized name Calid.

Life[]

Genealogical tree of the Sufyanids, the ruling family of the Umayyad Caliphate to which Khalid belonged

Khalid was likely born around 668 as the son of the Umayyad caliph Yazid I (r. 680–683) and Fakhita bint Abi Hashim ibn Utba ibn Rabi'a.[1] When his older brother Mu'awiya ibn Yazid died after a very short reign as caliph in 684, Khalid was still a minor.[2] A struggle for succession broke out between the supporters of the young Khalid and those who favored Marwan ibn al-Hakam (623 or 626–685), who was not part of the ruling branch of the Umayyad family (the Sufyanids), but was much older and more experienced.[3] Eventually Marwan was elected by the Syrian Umayyad elites on the condition that Khalid would directly succeed him. Marwan also married Khalid's mother Fakhita to seal the bond between him and his would-be successor Khalid.[4]

However, seeing that Khalid was politically weak, Marwan removed both him and his younger brother Abd Allah ibn Yazid from the line of succession in favor of his own sons Abd al-Malik and Abd al-Aziz.[5] When Khalid reminded Marwan of the promise he made at his ascension, Marwan publicly insulted his Khalid's mother Fakhita. According to what is probably a later legend, Fakhita killed Marwan in revenge.[6] Despite this, close ties developed between Khalid and Marwan's son Abd al-Malik, and when the latter became caliph Khalid became his adviser and married his daughter A'isha.[7]

In the summer of 691, Khalid was made a commander in Abd al-Malik's siege of the Qaysi leader Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi in al-Qarqisiya in the Jazira.[8] After this victory, the caliph appointed Khalid commander of his army's left wing at the Battle of Maskin (691) against Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr, which resulted in the Umayyad conquest of Zubayrid Iraq.[9]

After this short spell as a military commander, Khalid appears to have spent the rest of his life in Homs,[10] which had been appointed to him as an emirate already by Marwan.[11] He may have engaged in some level of poetry and hadith scholarship.[12] He died in 704 or 709.[13]

Alchemical writings and legend[]

A number of Arabic treatises on alchemy and alchemical poems have been attributed to Khalid.[14] These writings are generally regarded as pseudepigraphs dating from the 8th or 9th centuries at the very earliest.[15] According to a theory advanced by the German scholar , the idea that Khalid was interested in alchemy originated in a quote by the 9th-century historian al-Baladhuri. The latter cited his teacher al-Mada'ini's description of Khalid as "pursuing that which is impossible, that is, alchemy". However, according to Ullmann's theory, al-Mada'ini's lost work would originally have read "pursuing that which is impossible" (referring to Khalid's failure to ascend to the caliphate), while the words "that is, alchemy" would have been added as an interpretative gloss, thus starting the legend of Khalid as an alchemist.[16] According to another theory proposed by the French scholar Pierre Lory, the writings attributed to Khalid were originally written in a much humbler environment than the courtly milieus in which most 8th- and 9th-century philosophers and scientists worked, and were purposefully attributed to an Umayyad prince to lend them an aura of nobility.[17]

In any case, Khalid was widely associated with alchemy from the 9th century on by such authors as al-Jahiz (776–868/869), al-Baladhuri (820–892), al-Tabari (839–923), and Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani (897–967).[18] He was also credited by al-Jahiz and later by Ibn al-Nadim (c. 932–995) with having been the first to order the translation of Greek philosophical and scientific works into Arabic.[19] However, these translations are widely held to have only started in the late 9th century under Abbasid rule, and their attribution to Khalid is generally held to be part of the legend surrounding him.[20]

There also exist a number of Latin alchemical writings attributed to Khalid, whose name was Latinized in these works as Calid filius Jazidi.[21] It is doubtful whether most of these are actual translations from the Arabic,[22] but of at least one of them an Arabic original has been found. This is the Book of the Composition of Alchemy (Latin: Liber de compositione alchemiae), which contains a dialogue between Khalid and the semi-legendary Byzantine monk Morienus (Arabic: مريانس‎, Maryānus, perhaps from Greek Μαριανός, Marianos).[23] It was the first full-length Arabic alchemical work to be translated into Latin, a task which was completed on 11 February 1144 by the English Arabist Robert of Chester.[24]

The great majority of alchemical works attributed to Khalid have not yet been studied.[25]

Extant Arabic works[]

  • Dīwān al-nujūm wa-firdaws al-ḥikma ("The Diwan of the Stars and the Paradise of Wisdom", a collection of alchemical poems and treatises compiled at a relatively late date)[26]
  • Kitāb al-Usṭuqus ("The Book of the Element")[27]
  • Kitāb Waṣiyyatihi ilā ibnihi fī al-ṣanʿa ("The Book of his Testament to his Son on the Art")[28]
  • al-Qawl al-mufīd fī al-ṣanʿa al-ilāhiyya ("The Instructive Word on the Divine Art")[29]
  • Risālat Maryānus al-rāhib al-ḥakīm li-l-amīr Khālid ibn Yazīd ("The Epistle of the Wise Monk Maryanos to the Prince Khalid ibn Yazid")[30]
  • Risāla fī al-ṣanʿa al-sharīfa wa-khawāṣṣihā (Epistle on the Noble Art and its Properties")[31]
  • Various unnamed alchemical treatises, poems and epistles.[32]

Lost Arabic works[]

A number of Arabic works listed by Ibn al-Nadim in his Fihrist (written 987 CE) are now presumably lost:[33]

  • Kitāb al-Ḥarārāt
  • Kitāb al-Ṣaḥīfa al-kabīr
  • Kitāb al-Ṣaḥīfa al-ṣaghīr

Latin works[]

  • Liber de compositione alchemiae ("The Book of the Composition of Alchemy", for the most part based on a translation of Risālat Maryānus al-rāhib al-ḥakīm li-l-amīr Khālid ibn Yazīd, "The Epistle of the Wise Monk Maryanos to the Prince Khalid ibn Yazid")[34]
  • Liber secretorum alchemiae ("The Book of the Secrets of Alchemy")[35]
  • Liber trium verborum ("The Book of the Three Words")[36]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Ullmann 1960–2007.
  2. ^ Ullmann 1960–2007.
  3. ^ Ullmann 1960–2007.
  4. ^ Forster 2021.
  5. ^ Ullmann 1960–2007; Forster 2021.
  6. ^ Ullmann 1960–2007; Forster 2021.
  7. ^ Ullmann 1960–2007.
  8. ^ Ullmann 1960–2007.
  9. ^ Ahmed 2010, p. 118.
  10. ^ Ullmann 1960–2007.
  11. ^ Forster 2021.
  12. ^ Ullmann 1960–2007.
  13. ^ Ullmann 1960–2007. 704 is the more likely date (cf. Forster 2021). In the early 10th century, a third-generation descendant of Khalid, Sa'id ibn Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, was recorded as living in Syria (see Ahmed 2010, p. 112).
  14. ^ Dapsens 2016, p. 134.
  15. ^ See Dapsens 2016, pp. 134–136, who refers to Ruska 1924 and Ullmann 1978 for the late 9th century as the earliest date, and to Lory 1989, pp. 16–23 for a possible 8th-century dating. An early dating is also regarded as likely for some works by Bacchi & Martelli 2009, p. 115 (as cited by Forster 2021).
  16. ^ Ullmann 1978, pp. 215–216; cf. Dapsens 2016, p. 135. The Arabic words of the quote are wa-li-ṭalab mā lā yuqdar ʿalayhi yaʿnī al-kīmiyāʾ.
  17. ^ Lory 1989, p. 20; cf. Dapsens 2016, p. 136.
  18. ^ Sezgin 1971, p. 121; Ullmann 1978, p. 213; cf. Forster 2021.
  19. ^ Ullmann 1978, p. 213; Dapsens 2016, pp. 134–135.
  20. ^ Gutas 1998, p. 24, referring to Ullmann 1978.
  21. ^ Ullmann 1960–2007.
  22. ^ Ruska 1924, pp. 33–50.
  23. ^ Dapsens 2016, p. 121; cf. Moureau 2020, p. 116.
  24. ^ Halleux 1996, pp. 889–890. There is some doubt about whether the attribution of the preface of the work to Robert of Chester is authentic, but the dating of the translation does not depend on this (see Dapsens 2016, p. 133; cf. Moureau 2020, p. 116).
  25. ^ Sezgin 1971, p. 125; cf. Forster 2021.
  26. ^ Sezgin 1971, p. 125, no. 1.
  27. ^ Sezgin 1971, p. 126, no. 10.
  28. ^ Sezgin 1971, p. 126, no. 7; Arabic title as given by Forster 2021.
  29. ^ Sezgin 1971, p. 126, no. 8.
  30. ^ Sezgin 1971, p. 126, no. 14. Partial edition and translation in Al-Hassan 2004. Additional manuscripts have been signaled by Dapsens 2016, pp. 124–126.
  31. ^ Sezgin 1971, p. 126, no. 3.
  32. ^ Sezgin 1971, p. 126, nos. 2 ("a treatise"), 4 ("the poems on alchemy"), 5 ("an alchemical poem"), 6 ("a versified treatise on alchemy"), 9 ("an alchemical poem"), 11 ("five poems"), 12 ("the alchemical poem"), 13 ("Persian translation of an epistle"), 15 ("five different treatises").
  33. ^ Sezgin 1971, p. 122. Instead of Kitāb al-Ḥarārāt, Anawati 1996, p. 864 reports Kitāb al-Kharazāt.
  34. ^ Moureau 2020, p. 116. For the Arabic text, see above. Edition and translation of the Latin text in Stavenhagen 1974.
  35. ^ According to Halleux 1996, p. 900, note 61, this work is based on a lost Arabic original dating at the earliest to the 11th century.
  36. ^ Halleux 1996, p. 893 classifies this work as a translation from the Arabic.

Bibliography[]

  • Ahmed, Asad Q. (2010). The Religious Elite of the Early Islamic Ḥijāz: Five Prosopographical Case Studies. Oxford: University of Oxford Linacre College Unit for Prosopographical Research. ISBN 978-1-900934-13-8.
  • Al-Hassan, Ahmad Y. (2004). "The Arabic Original of the Liber de compositione alchemiae: The Epistle of Maryānus, the Hermit and Philosopher, to Prince Khālid ibn Yazīd". Arabic Sciences and Philosophy. 14 (2): 213–231.
  • Anawati, Georges C. (1996). "Arabic Alchemy". In Rashed, Roshdi (ed.). Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science. 3. London: Routledge. pp. 853–885. ISBN 9780415020633.
  • Bacchi, Eleonora; Martelli, Matteo (2009). "Il Principe Halid b. Yazid e le origini dell'alchimia araba". In Cevenini, Daniele; D'Onofrio, Svevo (eds.). Conflitti e Dissensi Nell'Islam. Bologna: Il Ponte Editrice. pp. 85���119. ISBN 9788889465332.
  • Dapsens, Marion (2016). "De la Risālat Maryānus au De Compositione alchemiae: Quelques réflexions sur la tradition d'un traité d'alchimie" (PDF). Studia graeco-arabica. 6: 121–140.
  • Forster, Regula (2021). "Khālid b. Yazīd". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_35436.
  • Gutas, Dimitri (1998). Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early 'Abbāsid Society (2nd-4th/8th-10th Centuries). London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415061339.
  • Halleux, Robert (1996). "The Reception of Arabic Alchemy in the West". In Rashed, Roshdi (ed.). Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science. 3. London: Routledge. pp. 886–902. ISBN 9780415020633.
  • Lory, Pierre (1989). Alchimie et mystique en terre d'Islam. Lagrasse: Verdier. ISBN 9782864320913.
  • Moureau, Sébastien (2020). "Min al-kīmiyāʾ ad alchimiam. The Transmission of Alchemy from the Arab-Muslim World to the Latin West in the Middle Ages". Micrologus. 28: 87–141. hdl:2078.1/211340.
  • Ruska, Julius (1924). Arabische Alchemisten I. Chālid ibn Jazīd ibn Muʿāwija. Heidelberg: Carl Winter. OCLC 928821937.
  • Sezgin, Fuat (1971). Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, Band IV: Alchimie, Chemie, Botanik, Agrikultur bis ca. 430 H. Leiden: Brill. pp. 120–126. ISBN 9789004020092.
  • Stavenhagen, Lee (1974). A Testament of Alchemy. Being the Revelations of Morienus to Khālid ibn Yazīd. Hanover: Brandeis University Press. ISBN 9780874510959.
  • Ullmann, Manfred (1978). "Ḫālid Ibn Yazīd und die Alchemie: Eine Legende". Der Islam. 55 (2): 181–218. doi:10.1515/islm.1978.55.2.181.
  • Ullmann, Manfred (1960–2007). "Khālid b. Yazīd b. Muʿāwiya". In Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C.E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W.P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_4151.
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