AL-KINDI THE FATHER OF MODERN PERFUMERY

Yaʻqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī (Arabic: يعقوب بن اسحاق الكندي) (c. 801–873 CE), also known by the Latinized version of his name Alkindus to the West, was a Muslim Arab polymath: a philosopher, scientist, physicist, astrologer, astronomer, cosmologist, chemist, logician, mathematician, musician, physician, psychologist, and meteorologist. Al-Kindi was the first of the Muslim Peripatetic philosophers, and among his numerous accomplishments, he is known for his efforts to introduce Greek and Hellenistic philosophy to the Arab world, and as a pioneer in chemistry, cryptography, medicine, music theory, physics, and scientific methodology.

Al-Kindi was a descendant of the Kinda tribe. He was born and educated in Kufa, before going to pursue further studies in Baghdad. Al-Kindi became a prominent figure in the House of Wisdom, and a number of Abbasid Caliphs appointed him to oversee the translation of Greek scientific and philosophical texts into the Arabic language. This contact with "the philosophy of the ancients" (as Greek and Hellenistic philosophy was often referred to by Muslim scholars) had a profound effect on his intellectual development, and lead him to write a number of original treatises of his own on a range of subjects ranging from metaphysics and ethics to mathematics and pharmacology.

In the field of mathematics, al-Kindi played an important role in introducing Indian numerals to the Islamic and Christian world. He was a pioneer in cryptanalysis and cryptology, and devised several new methods of breaking ciphers, including the frequency analysis method. Using his mathematical and medical expertise, he was able to develop a scale that would allow doctors to quantify the potency of their medication. He also first experimented with music therapy.

The central theme underpinning al-Kindi's philosophical writings is the compatibility between philosophy and other "orthodox" Islamic sciences, particularly theology. And many of his works deal with subjects that theology had an immediate interest in. These include the nature of God, the soul and prophetic knowledge. But despite the important role he played in making philosophy accessible to Muslim intellectuals, his own philosophical output was largely overshadowed by that of Al-Farabi and very few of his texts are available for modern scholars to examine. Despite this, he is still considered to be one of the greatest philosophers of Arab descent, and for this reason is known simply as "The Arab Philosopher".

Life:
Al-Kindi was born in Kufa to an aristocratic family of the Kindah tribe, which had migrated there from Yemen. His full name was Abu-Yusuf Ya`qoub ibn `Ishaq ibn al-Sabbah ibn `Omran ibn Isma`il al-Kindi (Arabic: أبو يوسف يعقوب ابن اسحاق ابن الصّبّاح ابن عمران ابن اسماعيل الكندي transliteration: Abū-Yūsuf Ya‘qūb ibn Isḥāq ibn as-Ṣabbāḥ ibn ‘Omrān ibn Isma‘īl al-Kindī). His father was the governor of Kufa, and al-Kindi received his preliminary education there. He later went to complete his studies in Baghdad, where he was patronized by the Abbasid Caliphs al-Ma'mun and al-Mu'tasim. On account of his learning and aptitude for study, al-Ma'mun appointed him to House of Wisdom, a recently established centre for the translation of Greek philosophical and scientific texts, in Baghdad. He was also well known for his beautiful calligraphy, and at one point was employed as a calligrapher by Al-Mutawakkil.

When al-Ma'mun died, his brother, al-Mu'tasim became Caliph. Al-Kindi's position would be enhanced under al-Mu'tasim, who appointed him as a tutor to his son. But on the accession of al-Wathiq, and especially of al-Mutawakkil, al-Kindi's star waned. There are various theories concerning this: some attribute al-Kindi's downfall to scholarly rivalries at the House of Wisdom; others refer to al-Mutawakkil’s often violent persecution of unorthodox Muslims (as well as of non-Muslims); at one point al-Kindi was beaten and his library temporarily confiscated. Henry Corbin, an authority on Islamic studies, says that in 873, al-Kindi died "a lonely man", in Baghdad during the reign of Al-Mu'tamid.

After his death, al-Kindi's philosophical works quickly fell into obscurity and many of them were lost even to later Islamic scholars and historians. Felix Klein-Franke suggests a number of reasons for this: aside from the militant orthodoxy of al-Mutawakkil, the Mongols also destroyed countless libraries during their invasion. However, he says the most probable cause of this was that his writings never found popularity amongst subsequent influential philosophers such as Al-Farabi and Avicenna, who ultimately overshadowed him.

Chemistry and Perfumery:
As an advanced chemist, al-Kindi was the first to oppose the practice of alchemy; he debunked the myth that simple, base metals could be transformed into precious metals such as gold or silver. He wrote two treatises on the refutation of alchemy: Warning against the Deceptions of the Alchemists and Refutation of the Claim of Those Who Claim the Artificial Fabrication of Gold and Silver.

The isolation of ethanol (alcohol) as a relatively pure compound was also first achieved by al-Kindi. He was the first to unambiguously describe the production of pure distilled alcohol from the distillation of wine.

Al-Kindi invented a wide variety of scent and perfume products, and is considered the father of the perfume industry. He carried out extensive research and experiments in combining various plants and other sources to produce a variety of scent products. He elaborated a vast number of recipes for a wide range of perfumes, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. His work in the laboratory is reported by a witness who said:

"I received the following description, or recipe, from Abu Yusuf Ya'qub b. Ishaq al-Kindi, and I saw him making it and giving it an addition in my presence."

The writer goes on in the same section to speak of the preparation of a perfume called ghaliya, which contained musk, amber and other ingredients, and reveals a long list of technical names of drugs and apparatus.

The Kitab Kimiya' al-'Itr (Book of the Chemistry of Perfume) written by al-Kindi contains recipes for fragrant oils, salves, aromatic waters, and substitutes or imitations of costly drugs. He also provided the earliest recipe for the production of camphor.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Al-Kindi". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.

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References

• Robert L. Arrington (2001) [ed.] A Companion to the Philosophers. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-22967-1
• Peter J. King (2004) One Hundred Philosophers. New York: Barron's. ISBN 0-7641-2791-8
• Peter Adamson (2005) 'Al-Kindi'. In Peter Adamson & Richard C. Taylor (eds). The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Peter Adamson (2006) Al-Kindi. Oxford: OUP.
• Felix Klein-Frank (2001) Al-Kindi. In Oliver Leaman & Hossein Nasr. History of Islamic Philosophy. London: Routledge.
• Henry Corbin (1993). History of Islamic Philosophy. London: Keagan Paul International.