The Position of Jabir Ibn Hayyan in the Thoughts of Kraus and Sezgin

Abu Abdollah Jabir Ibn Hayyan Ibn Abdollah Koufi (103-200 AH/ 721-815 AD) is known as a great scholar in chemistry in the Shiite world. He is a figure being debated by orientalists and gives rise to various and contradictory opinions including the most important characters in the history of Islamic sciences. Paul Kraus and Fuat Sezgin are two of these orientalists who have conducted lots of studies and proposed different ideas about him. The paper intends to investigate the views of these two scholars and their reasons about Jabir. To do so, firstly, it is dealt with introducing Jabir and then, Kraus and Sezgin’s viewpoints about him are discussed.