Medicine of metals (Tibb al-Ajsad): Reviewing the relation between medicine and alchemy

Background and Purpose:

Medicine of metals (Tibb al-Ajsad), is a notion Islamic alchemists used to understand and treat metal disease. Metals were assumed to have a temperament (Mizaj) similar to the human body, which could be determined by the science of balance. Any deviation in balance was eliminated by Alchemical modifications like compositions (Tarkib). Before this and in the Islamic era, the science of elixir has been a field showing the relation between alchemy and medicine. In this article, we describe the main notion and method in medicine of metals and suppose this category helps reviewing the relation between medicine and alchemy.
 

In this library research, we reviewed several alchemical manuscripts belonging to Jabir Ibn Hayyan, Moayyedoddin al-Tughrai and Aydamor al-Jaldaki, three famous and effective Islamic alchemists. Subsequently, retrieved content was analyzed in terms of metal diseases and remedies.
 

A significant part of the studied text belonged to medicine of metals that describes disease causations and methods of eliminating or modifying them by human, mineral or planet materials based on composition, similar to what Physicians (Atibba) do. According to this similarity, Islamic Alchemists explain how body parts work and how we can fix them.
 

Due to a shared notion and method, the medicine of metals can help the historiographer to review the relations between medicine and alchemy from a new point of view and expand this perspective.