Izz al-Din Aydamir al-Jaldaki (عز الدين علي بن محمد أيدمر بن علي الجلدكي), also written al-Jildaki (d. 1342/743 H). Persian Alchemist from Khorasan

Greater Khorasan

Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...

, he fled his native country due to the Mongol invasion.

Al-Jaldaki was one of the last and one of the greatest of medieval Islamic alchemists, he was the author of scientific works such as the al-Misbah fi Ilm al-Miftah (Key of the Sciences of Lights) and alchemical treatise The Proof Regarding Secrets of the Science of the Balance (Kitab al-Burhan fi asrar 'ilm al-mizan).

He was born in Jaldak, a district of Khorasan about 15 kilometers from Mashhad

Mashhad

Mashhad , is the second largest city in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia Muslim world. It is also the only major Iranian city with an Arabic name. It is located east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Its...

 in Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

. In his writings he reveals that he spent seventeen years traveling through Iraq, Anatolia

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

, Yemen

Yemen

The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....

, North Africa

North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...

, and Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

, finally settling in Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 where he composed many of his treatises.

He was a prolific author of alchemical writings, of which the United States National Library of Medicine

United States National Library of Medicine

The United States National Library of Medicine , operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library. Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NLM is a division of the National Institutes of Health...

 has three. His treatises, which reflect interests much broader than simply alchemy, preserve extensive quotations from earlier authors.

He died in Cairo in 1342.

Sources

• C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur, 1st edition, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1889–1936). Second edition, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1943–49). Page references will be to those of the first edition, with the 2nd edition page numbers given in parentheses, vol. 2, p. 138-9 (173-5)

See also

• List of Iranian scientists