Jabir ibn Hayyan (c. 721–c. 815), known in Latin Europe as Geber, was an 8th-century scholar of Kufa credited as the father of chemistry: the vast corpus under his name championed systematic experiment over mysticism and described distillation, crystallization and the preparation of mineral acids.
Working in the early Abbasid age, he insisted that chemistry must be done with the hands, not only the mind — 'he who performs not practical work nor conducts experiments will never attain the least degree of mastery.' His Latin translations shaped European alchemy and early chemistry for centuries.
