Latest / The Occult Rejects / Khalid Ibn Yazid- The Alchemist Prince

Transcript

Khalid Ibn Yazid- The Alchemist Prince · The Occult Rejects

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: You see, something's going to happen. What's going to happen? What?
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the occult rejects. In today's episode, we'll be
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: discussing someone who is a figure where history and legend intertwine,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: a prince of the mighty umaya Kaliphate who later became
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: known as an alchemist and seeker of a cult wisdom.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: In this episode, we discuss Khalid i've bin Yazib, tracing
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: his noble lineage, dramatic political struggles, and the enigmatic pursuits
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: that earned him the title the first Arab Alchemist. In
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: this episode, we will explore how this young umayad Air,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: once poised to rule an empire, instead became famous for mysticism, alchemy,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: and esoteric knowledge. From his upbringing amid the splendor and
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: strife of a rising Islamic empire to the tales of
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: secret teachings under a Christian hermit, Khalid's story is rich
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: with human drama and supernatural appeal. I only pursue this
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: art so that I may enrich my companions and brothers.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: I once craved the caliphate, and it was denied me.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: So I found solace only in attaining the ultimate knowledge
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: of this craft such that no one who's known me
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: will ever need to stand at a ruler's door out
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: of want or fear. The journey of Khalid is it's
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: not just a historical chronicle, but a window into the
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: occult heritage of early Islam. Why does he deserve a
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: feature on the Occult Rejects because his life embodies the
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: very crossroads of power and arcane knowledge. A royal alchemist
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: who pursued that which is impossible in the eyes of contemporaries,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: yet inspired generations of later scientists, mystics, and artists. Today,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: we will walk through Khalid's life, his princely youth during
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: the Second Islamic Civil War, the heartbreak of losing a throne,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: his retreat into scholarly solitude, and the legacy of texts
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: and legends that sprouted around his name. By the end,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: you'll understand how Khalid Iban Yazid's quest for wisdom left
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: an imprint on occult lore, religious thought, and the scientific imagination,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: making his tale a perfect fit for exploration of the
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: rejected and the arkane. Let us return to the exposition
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: of the three words in which the whole art consists.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Khalid was born around six sixty eight CE into the
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: ruling family of the Umayad Kaliphate, a dynasty then consolidating
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: its grip over the recently expanded Islamic world. His father
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: was Calif Yazid the First, and his grandfather was mu Aweyah,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: the first founder of the Umayad state. Thus, Khalid grew
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: up in the elite circle of Damascus, to Umayad capital,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: enjoying the privileges of a princely upbringing. We can imagine
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: him as a child in the lavish courts of Syria,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: educated by tutors in chronic studies, Arabic poetry, and perhaps
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: even exposed to Greek or Syriac learning through local Christian scholars.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: His mother, Fikda, was herself from a prominent clan. This
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: noble heritage imbued Kalid with a sense of destiny from
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: an early age. The world Kalid was born into was
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: one of dynamic change and cultural fusion. The Muslim Empire
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: had exploded out of Arabia in the mid seventh century,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: conquering lands from Persia to Egypt. By Khalid's youth, the
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Umaya Caliphate stretched across the Middle East and North Africa,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: ruling over diverse peoples and inheriting centers of ancient knowledge
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: like Alexandria. The atmosphere in Syria was cultured. Arabic was
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: the new official tongue, but Greek and Aramaic intellectual traditions
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: still lingered in schools and monasteries. This environment likely influenced
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Khalid's later intellectual curiosity. Indeed, the conquest of Alexandria in
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: six p. Forty two had put Muslims in contact with
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: the bulk of Greek philosophy and science, including alchemy, planting
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: seeds of scientific interest that Khalid would later nurture. One
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: medieval Arab writer Al Jahiz gives us a fascinating glimpse
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: of Khalid's character as a young man. Khalid ibin Yazid
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: was an orator, a poet, and was eloquent, comprehensive of
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: sound judgment, and extremely well mannered. Such praise suggests he
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: was not only of noble blood, but also carefully educated
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: in rhetoric and literature, standing out among his peers for
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: his intellect. Life in the umaiyard court also meant exposure
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: to politics and warfare early on. Khalid spent his childhood
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: in teens amid the turmoil of the second Fitner Islamic
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Civil War. When he was about fifteen, his father had
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: died and power passed briefly to Khalid's elder half brother,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Muwayah the Second, but within months his brother also perished,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: plunging the caliphate into a succession crisis. Though very young,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: perhaps sixteen, Khalid suddenly found himself a potential candidate for
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: the throne of an empire. Let's get into some of
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: his education and influences. First. Khalit's education unfolded inside at
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Umayard court that drew on Arab Adab Churonic study and
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: the Syriac Greek learning of Great Assyria. Later Arabic reportages
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: remember him not merely as a prince, but as a
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: seeker who turned from politics toward the divine art. Those
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: same sources pair him with Byzantine monk named Mariannis or Marinus,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: a reclusive stage of Palestine Assyria. In this classic Arabic
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: dossier later translated into Latin as the Liber Decomposition Alchemy,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Mariannis teaches Khalid and is sustained dialogue, framing the art
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: as both a science of substance and a path of purification.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Medieval writers even make Mariannis a pupil as Stephanos of Alexandria,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: visually stitching Colored into a late antique chain of transmission.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: It is through this very legend that Khalid's influences come
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: into focus Alexandra and Hermeticism and Neoplatonism, Syriac monastic craft lore,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: astrological cosmology, and the practical metallurgies of the Eastern Mediterranean.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: In short, whatever the historical literalness of Mariannas, the dossierre
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: accurately maps the currents of knowledge that fed Arabic alchemy
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: and that medieval readers believed Colored embodied. The Marianis Dialogue
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: later libre decomposition Alchemy is the earliest well documented Arabic
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Latin alchemy translation and the chief literary source for the
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: college teacher's storyline. It is precisely the text that made
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Khalid and Mariani's household names among medieval and Renaissance alchemists.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: For the nature and a pregnant woman is one thing,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: and in mercury another. In six point eighty four CE,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: the Umayad elite gathered to resolve the leadership crisis. Khaled,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: though of the ruling house, was still a teenager much
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: younger than other contenders. The Syrian nobles opted to bypass
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: him in favor of an older statesman, Marwuan Iban al Hakam,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: who held from a different branch of the Umayad clan.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Morman was chosen as caliph on the condition that Khaled
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: would be named Air after him. To seal this pact,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Mowan married Khaled's mother, the young widow Faikita, strengthening the
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: familial bond. For a moment, it seemed Khalid's royal ambitions
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: were merely deferred. He might ascend the throne after Moran's reign. However,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: power struggled intervened. Once firmly in power, Moran reneged on
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: the deal. He removed Khaled from succession and designated his
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: own sons as heirs instead. When Khaled reminded Moran of
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: the promise, the caliph reportedly publicly insulted Khaled's mother, Fikita,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: enraged and dishonoured. Fikita is said in later legend to
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: have murdered Morn in revenge by suffocating him with a pillow.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: While historians doubt this dramatic tale, it captures the intensity
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: of betrayal Khaled experience. In the span of a year,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: he went from the rightful heir of Muawia's lineage to
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: a sidelined prince who had lost both his father and
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: his promised throne. The Arabic chronic Ahmadi Eni some of
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: the Khalid's plight with the remark that he was pursuing
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: that which is impossible, that is alchemy. Many interpret this
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: as a metaphor Khalid's political ambitions, like the alchemist's stream
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: of turning lead to gold, had proved futile. This quote,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: possibly misread by later writers, would ironically spark the legend
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: of Khalid the Alchemist. More on that soon. Despite the setback,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Khalid adopted fast. He forged a close friendship with Marmon's son,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: the new Caliph, Abd al al Malik. Rather than rebelling,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Khalid served loyally and was rewarded with influential roles. In
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: sixteen ninety one, during a decisive campaign to reunify the
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: fracture Caliphate, Abod appointed Khalid as a commander in the
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Siege of Circasium against the rebel faction. He then led
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: the left wing of the Umayad army at the Battle
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: of maskin which crushed the rival Caliphate in Iraq. These
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: victories restored Umayad control over the eastern provinces. Khaled, still
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: only in his early twenties, had proven his medal on
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: the battlefield and earned the trust of the Caliph. As
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: further affirmation, Abbid married his own daughter Ayesha to Khaled,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: making Khaled his son in law by blood and loyalty.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Khaled was now firmly integrated into the ruling family, even
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: if he would never wear the caliph crown himself. After
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: these eventful years, Khaled made a crucial choice. He withdrew
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: from public life. Around sixteen ninety two or shortly thereafter,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Khalid left the political and military arena and settled in
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Hams in central Syria. Abbid Almalik granted him the governorship
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: of Hams as a kind of estate, and there Khalid
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: lived out the rest of his life and re relative seclusion.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: One might speculate on his motives. Perhaps the cutthroat nature
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: of court politics and the trauma of his earlier disappointment
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: left him disillusioned with power. By retiring to Hams, Kalin
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: gains something he may have longed for, peace and time
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: for intellectual pursuits. Later sources hint that in Harms he
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: engaged in scholarly and artistic activities, such as writing poetry
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: and studying hadith, which is prophetic traditions. We can picture
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: him as a regional prince patron, holding learned discussions in
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: his villa, far from the intrigues of Damascus. This period
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: of quiet retirement set the stage for Klledge's transformation into
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: a legendary wise man. Freed from worldly ambition, he now
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: turned his formidal mind toward the wisdom of the stars
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: and the secrets of substance. The relative obscurity of his
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: final decade allowed legends to grow. There is scant contemporary
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: record of Colleed's specific activity at Halms, but within a
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: century or two stories began to circulate that this princely
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: dropout had immersed himself in alchemy and occult sciences. As
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: we shall see, what Khaled actually did in Halms is
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: less documented than what later generations imagined he did, and
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: those imaginations ran wild, casting Khaled as the seminal philosopher
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: prince of the Islamic world. By the ninth century, Khaled
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Ibid Yazid's name had become enshrined in Arabic lore as
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: a master of alchemy and the occult. This is an
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: interesting evolution. In his own time, Khaled was known as
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: a poet, patron, and ex prince, not necessarily an alchemist.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: So how did this legend take shape? A combination of
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: later historical writings, synonymous t an oral tradition built the
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: image of Khaled as the first Muslim alchemist. One early
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: thread came from the historian al Baladuri in eight ninety two, who,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: as noted, quoted his teacher Al Madaini's witty description that
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Khalid busied himself with alchemy in the figurative sense. It
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: appears that al Baladuri took it literally, or at least
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: helped spread the anecdote that Khalid was pursuing that which
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: is impossible alchemy. Later writers seized on this as evidence
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: that Khalid dabbled in the art. Soon all the prominent
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: scholars repeated the association. The great Adib al Jahiz praised
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Khalid's learning and explicitly wrote that he was the first
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: in Islam who ordered the translation of works on astronomy, medicine,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: and alchemy. This claim, though historically dubious, hugely influential. It
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: portrayed Khalid as a pioneer of science, a royal patron
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: who kickstarted the translation of Greek knowledge into Arabic. In
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: popular imagination, Khalid became the Arab ermes, a conduit of
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: ancient wisdom into the new Muslim Empire. Another key figure,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: the bibliographer Abid alan Dadim, firmly cemented Khalid's alchemical reputation
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: and his famous catalog al fist. Iban alan Dadeim wrote,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: the first Muslim alchemist was Kalid Ibid Yazid, who is
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: said to have studied alchemy under the Christian Mariannus Marianus
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: of Alexandria. This succinct statement packs in the core of
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: the legend Khalid as a disciple of the mysterious Christian
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Sage learning the secrets of alchemia. We'll examine that story momentarily.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Iban al Dadim also listed several alchemical books attributed to Kalid,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: indicating that by nine eighty Si seven CE, a substantial
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: corpus bore Khaled's name. Why Kalid specifically, Scholars have theorized
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: on the legend's origins. One view, man forred Omens, is
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: that a simple misunderstanding gave birth to it. Al Madaini's
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: quip about Khaled pursuing the impossible was glossed by al
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Baldo Hurri as a literal alchemy, thereby accidentally inaugurating the myth.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Another view, Pierre Lauri's, suggests the texts attributed to Khaled
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: were actually composed in humbler circles, perhaps by earlier occultists
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: who lacked the noble patriarge and then ascribed to a
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: prince to grant them prestige. By attaching their work to
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: the famous Umaid royal, these eighth ninth century alchemists gave
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: their writings an aura of antiquity and authority in any case.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: From the eight hundreds onward, Arabic writings frequently mentioned Khaled
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: as an alchemist. Authors like al Jahizz al Tabari and
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: Abu Faraj all name dropped him as a pioneer in
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: the occult arts. The legend had eclipsed reality. At the
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: heart of Khalid's alchemical lore is the captivating tale of
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: his mentorship under Mariannus, often called Mariannas in Arabic. This
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: story is the closest thing we have to a personal
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: antidote about Khaled's mystical wanderings, and it reads almost like
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: spiritual adventure literature. According to later accounts, Khaled, in his
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: quest for the secrets of creation, learned of a Greek
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: monk and hermit named Mariannas or Marianus, who dwelt in
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: Palestine or Syria. Mariannus was said to be a reclusive sage,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: an ancient adept and hermit of Jerusalem, rumoured to possess
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: the Philosopher's Stone and able to produce gold each year
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: from base metals. Intrigued, Prince Khaled dispatched messengers and personally
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: sought out this wise hermit. Eventually, he found Mariannus living
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: in the wilderness near Jerusalem. In a dramatic meeting, Khalid
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: invited the elderly monk to his court. Mariannus, clad in
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: a coarse hair shirt and exuding an aura of wisdom,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: agreed to share his knowledge. It is said that Khalid
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: visited Marianna's daily, sitting at the feet of the hermit
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: to discuss philosophy, history, and the hidden arts. Over time,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Mariannus initiated Kalad into the deepest secrets of alchemy, the
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: knowledge of transmuting metals and achieving inner purification. This master
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: disciple relationship echoes the archetypal transfer of Hermetic wisdom from
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the fading Byzantine world to then ascent Arabic world. One
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Arabic source even provides a chain of transmission. Jabir ibin Hayen,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: the eighth century father of his Life Alchemy, mentions that
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: he studied alchemy under a monk who was a pupil
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: of Mariannas, the tutor of Khalid Ibid Yazid. In other words,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Jabir claims his teacher's teacher was Khalid's teacher, forming a
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: neat lineage of occult knowledge from Alexandria to the Umayard
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: court via Kalid, and then to the opposite era via Jabir.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: This lineage may not be historically true, but it was
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: psychologically true for the medieval alchemists who craved continuity and antiquity.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: Through Khalid, they linked themselves to the ancient Hermetic tradition,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: going back to Hermes Trismegistus, The tale of Khalida Moriennis
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: was immortalized in a book that became extremely influential in
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: both the Islamic and European alchemical corpus Khalid's questions to
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: the monk Mariannas. In this dialogue, Khalid poses queries and
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Mariannis reveals the answers, essentially laying out the step to
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: create the electure or philosopher's stone. The text was translated
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: into Latin in eleven forty four by Robert of Chester
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: under the title Liber Decomposition Alchemy, notable for being the
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: first Arabic alchemical work ever rendered into Latin, and the
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: preface the translator explains the novelty of the science to
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: the West. Since what alchemia is and what its composition
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: is your Latin world does not yet know, I will
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: explain it in the present book. The content that follows
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: introduced European readers to the mystical dialogue of Khalid and Mariennis,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: describing all chemical concepts in allegorical language. For example, Mariannis
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: tells Khaled that the thing o King is extracted from THEE.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: With THEE it is found by THEE it is received,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: hinting that the ingredients of the work come from the
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: nature and the self, and that the king himself Khalid
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: holds the key within Such cryptic wisdom would fascinate alchemist's
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: for centuries. So powerful was the legend of Khalid's tutelage
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: that his and Marianus's names became revered in the medieval alchemy.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: One historian writes that the names of Mariennis and Kalid
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: became well known to all alchemists in Europe. Their importance
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: matched that of al Razi, Ibinsina and Jabir. In other words,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: European alchemical texts placed Khalid rex King Khalid alongside luminaries
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: like Razi's Evncia and Gerber and engraving from the seventeenth
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: century even depicts Mauriennis to Greek in King Khalid Ibid
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Yazid sitting together, symbolizing the handoff of esoteric knowledge, an
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: image often reproduced in alchemy compendiums of that era. With
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: the legend firmly established, Khalid Ibid Yazid's historical persona was
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: transformed to the later eyes. He was no longer primarily
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: a failed claimant to the caliphate or a provincial governor.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: He was the wise prince who chose wisdom of a
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: worldly power. In a sense, Kalid became an occult role model,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: a man who turned his back on the throne to
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: seek enlightenment in the hidden arts. This dramatic art full
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: of mystical lore, ensued that Khaled's name lived on far
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: longer than many actual callous Next we will cover the
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: writings attributed to him, the body of work that cements
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: his status as an author of our chemical doctrine. Water
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: is said to preserve the fetus in the womb for
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: three months, air warms it for three months, fire guards
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: it the same span. A large number of alchemical treaties, epistles,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: and poems are credited to Kalid in various manuscripts. Modern
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: scholars generally view these texts as works written by unknown
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: authors between the eighth and tenth century, but ascribed to
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Kalid to lend them authority. Nonetheless, they form a fascinating
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: corpus reflecting early Islamic alchemical thought. Here I will touch
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: on some of his major works. And first we have
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: The Registry of the Stars and the Paradise of Wisdom,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: and that is described as a collection of alchemical poems
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: and treaties attributed to Calid. These titles suggest a cosmic
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: or philosophical framing of alchemical knowledge. In essence, it is
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: an anthology of didacted poetry on alchemy, likely interspersed with
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: short prose sections. One Arabic source explicitly calls this a
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: dewan of poetry in Alchemy, indicating that this work chiefly
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: consists of verse odes expounding chemical lore. These poems probably
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: employ rich symbolism of stars, minerals, and the wisdom paradise
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: of alchemy's sets. For example, one verse as tcribed to
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Kalid emphasizing keeping alchemical wisdom hidden truly, I conceal from
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: people what I harbor of knowledge, for fear that a
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: spiteful rival might enrich himself by it. This couplet reflects
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: the esoteric ethos of the text, alchemy's truths availed to
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: prevent misuse by the unworthy. The Registry of the Stars
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: is believed to have been compiled at a relatively late date,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: perhaps thirteenth to fifteenth century, by later alchemists drawing on
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: earlier materials. It may incorporate poems circulating in alchemical circles
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: and compile them under Khalid's name to create a prestigious legacy.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: The original language is Arabic, and no medieval Latin version
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: is recorded, while medieval bibliographers like Haji Khalifa mentioned the
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Registry of the Stars among Khaled's work. There is no
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: evidence Khaled himself wrote this anthology. It is consider legendary attribution.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: And then we have the Book of his Testament to
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: his Son on the Art. This work is known as
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Khalid's Spiritual and Practical Advice to his Son regarding the
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: art of alchemy. It is essentially a testament or lengthy
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: letter in which a father hands down al chemical doctrine
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: to the next generation. This text is not widely published.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Abin al Nadine in his Fearist records, having seen the
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Book of the Testament to his Son on the Art
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: among four works of Kalid, this indicates writings existed by
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: the tenth century. Its original language is Arabic and it
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: was never translated into Latin, suggesting a primarily Middle Eastern circulation.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Scholars unanimously regard the text as a later writer's creation.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: It may date from the ninth or tenth century, when
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: the legend of college as an alchemist was flourishing. The
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: didactic father to son genre was a known literary device,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: often used to convey secret knowledge. Thus, a later alchemist
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: likely adopted Khaled's persona to lend authority to his own teachings.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Man fren Omen and Sebastian Moreau note that such attributions
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: reflect the image of Khaled as a sage carefully instructing
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: his heir, which aligns with the narrative of him being noble,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: minded and deeply enamoredive sciences. Unlike the more popular college
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Questions to the Monk Marianos, which we'll talk about next,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: The Book of His Testament to his Son on the
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Art is less widely attested. It was certainly extent in
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: the medieval period, but many copies have been lost. Modern
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: researchers have identified at least one manuscript. A copy of
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: the writing was noted by Fae sign as an item,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: and a PDF of a manuscript was circulated in a
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: private forum in twenty eighteen, implying it survives in a collection.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: The Book of His Testament to his Son on the
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Art has not yet seen a printed edition or translation,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: remaining accessible only through manuscript studies. Libraries in the Middle
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: East could possibly hold unstudied copies under variant titles. Often
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: works of this genre are simply titled Wisia phi el
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Camia in catalogs. And next we have Khaled's Questions to
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: the Monk Marianos, also known as the Epistle of the
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Wise Monk Marianos to Prince Khalib, This is perhaps the
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: most famous work attributed to Khalid. This is a dialogue
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: between Prince Khalid and a Byzantine monk, Mariannos, who instructs
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: him in alchemy. In the Arabic, it is framed as
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: an epistolary discourse often titled Epistle of the Wise Monk
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Mariannas to Khalid, consisting of questions by Kalid and answers
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: by Mariannas. The text opens with a narrative prolog. Khalid,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: eager to learn alchemy, hears of a Christian hermit in Jerusalem. Mariannas,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: famed for his mess of the art Colled, sends for him.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Mariannus comes to Damascus to become his teacher. This dramatic
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: encounter is vividly described. I dwell in Jerusalem, the man
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: tells cold, and I know of a hermit called Mariannus,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: the monk who has achieved the art. He comes each
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: year to Jerusalem, giving great sums to the poor. Called
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: entreats Marianus for knowledge, and the core of the text
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: ensues Mariannus reveals the secrets of the great Work in
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: a series of didactic exchanges. Oh, Mariannus, know that I
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: have long sought the superior or great work, but found
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: none to counsel me in this matter. Therefore I earnestly
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: request that you prepare me for some portion of your
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: magis theory. You shall have for me, then whatever you
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: may ask, and I will see to it that you
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: return to your own land, God willing. The dialogue covers
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: classical alchemical doctrine, the nature of the Philosopher's Stone, the
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: unity of metals, the stages of transmutation, and allegorical descriptions
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: of chemical operations. Mariannas uses cryptic imagery, describing the one
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: thing that conquers all, the marriage of sun and moon,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: gold and silver, and the generation of the elixir. For example,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: he explains that the stone is composed of a spirit
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: and a body united, which must be repeatedly dissolved and coagulated.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: The Latin translation famously includes the line Arabic Appalachia elixir
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: when introducing the Philosopher's Stone. This book is structured as
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: questions by Kalipe and answers by the Monk, often in
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: elaborate metaphor. At one point, Marianis declares take one part
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: of the sun and one of the moon, indicating gold
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: and silver as ingredients couched in hermetic symbolism. The dialogue
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: emphasized this is divine inspiration. Mariannus attributes the power of
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: transformation to God's will, aligning the mystical aspect of alchemy
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: with its practical instructions. By the end calladists who have
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: said to have grasped the divine secrets of the Magistrate,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: having received Mariannas's Testament of Wisdom. Though set in the
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: late seventh century, the text itself was written much later.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: Scholarly consensus place it in the early to mid tenth century.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: Pierre Lauri even proposed an eighth century origin for some parts,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: but more recent analysis by Marian Dapson's suggests a tenth
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: century compilation. The author is unknown, possibly an Arabic speaking
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Christian or Sabian alchemist familiar with Hermetic dialogues. The work
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: shows syncretism of Greek, Alexandrian and early Islamic al chemical ideas,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: consistent with the atmosphere of Baghdad Assyria in the ninth
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: to tenth centuries. It purports to preserve a legendary moment,
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: the trans mission of Byzantine alchemy to the Arab world.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: In reality, this legend likely evolved over time. By the
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: ninth century, writers like al Baladuri had mentioned Kaled's interest
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: in alchemy, and by the tenth the full story of
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: Kalid and Marianis was entrenched. This text may well be
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: the literary crystallization of that legend, a dramatic teaching dialogue
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: created to embody the fabled initiation of Islam's first alchemist.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: This Arabic dialogue holds a special place in history as
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: the first Arabic alchemical treaties translated into Latin. On February eleventh,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: eleven forty four, Robert of Chester completed his Latin version,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: titled Liber Decomposition Alchemy. Robert's preface recounts how he obtained
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: the Arabic texts in Spain and rendered it for the West.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: The Latin closely mirrors the dialogue form Marianis instructs Khalid.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: The content is nearly identical. For instance, Mariannas in Latin
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: described the stone's four qualities hot, cold, dry, and moist,
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: and how the hidden becomes manifest through the alchemical process.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: One passage reads, this is the book of the three words.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: In it there is heat, dryness, cold, and moisture. One
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: power lies hidden, and another is manifest. Then this spirit
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: is transformed into the most noble body, and does not
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: flee the fire, but flows like oil, a living tincture,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: most perpetual, and yet it is the precious sun. Robert
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: of Chester's translation had enormous influence in Europe. It introduced
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Latin readers to the concept of alchemy as a wisdom
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: inherited from antiquity. The Testament of Marianis was widely copied, printed,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: and translated into vernacular languages in the early modern period.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: For example, it appeared in French and English alchemical compendia
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: of the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Western alchemists from Roger
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: Bacon to Isaac Newton were aware of Mariannus. It imparted
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: key hermetic concepts, the unity of matter, the cyclic distillation
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: into Latin alchemical discourse. Its very framed story an adept
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: monk transmitting secrets to an Arab prince resonated as a
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: legitimizing myth for alchemy's divine pedigree. On the Arabic side.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: This writing survives in multiple manuscripts, notably one in Istanbul
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: Faith Ms. Three two two seven and Istanbul sehed Ali
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Pasa MS. Seventeen forty nine contained the complete Arabic dialogue.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: Fragments are preserved in the writings of later alchemists in
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: the thirteenth and fourteenth century that both site Mariannas's teaching.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: The National Library of Medicine holds an Arabic copy in
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: NLMMSA seventy item nineteen. Other known manuscripts were in Cairo
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: and Hyderabad. As noted by Paul Krauss, the Khaled Marianist
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: dialogue has been studied extensively as a cornerstone of early
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: Islae alchemy. Julius Ruska analyzed the legend and even doubted
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: the historicity of Mariennas. Rusca initially suggested that the Latin
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: texts might have been composed by a later, possibly Latin author,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: though subsequent research upheld the Arabic origin. Manfred Omen's article
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: critically examined how the colled Marienna's story evolved, concluding that
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: the alchemy legend was grafted onto college biography by later
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: myth makers. Marion's recent doctoral thesis twenty twenty one provides
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: the most comprehensive study comparing the Arabic and the two
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: Latin versions. In detail, she investigates the text sources and
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: its doctrine, which includes an explicit description of the elixir
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: and the metallic transmutation process. Dabsence confirms that the Latin
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: translation of eleven forty four is faithful and that it
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: truly stands as the earliest full alchemical treaties in Latin.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: The impact of this text is twofold. In the Islamic world,
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: it set a template for chemical teachers student dialogues. It
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: may have inspired parts of the Tiberian Corpus, which often
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: used dialogues and letters to impart wisdom. In Europe, the
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: Testament of Marianis was seminal, along with translations of Avicina
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: and Gerber It helped ignite the twelfth century Latin alchemical tradition.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: Roger Bacon in the thirteenth century echoes some of Marianis's
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: teaching and even names Mariannis as an adept. Later, the
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: text popularity is evident. It appears in the famous Theatrem
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: chemicalm sixteen twenty two and was translated into English by
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: fifteenth century practitioners. The liber decomposition also introduced the very
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: word alchemy to the West, as coming from Arabic knowledge.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: In some this writing served as a bridge. It transmitted
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: to the hermetic gnostic alchemy of late Antiquity into both
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: the Islamic Golden Age and via Latin translation into medieval
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: europe scientific canon. And here are a few excerpts. And
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: this is said by Caliph, how can it be that
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: the major work should have but one root and one substance?
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: And Mariannis responds, its names may vary, yet I say
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: it is but one. On this point, I will cite
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: the authorities to you. And here's another excerpt. O, old man,
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: wisest of men, know that I have long sought for
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: many the magistry of Hermes, but can never find any
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: who would open the true matter to me. Then we
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: have another one. What words are these that you use?
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: Are you ignorant? How many men have been deprived of
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: their lives by me for such speeches. If your words
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: are true, I will enrich you. But if false, expect
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: extreme torments. And finally, the power lies hidden in another
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: manifest Then the spirit is transformed into the most noble body,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: and it does not flee fire, but flows like oil,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: a living tincture. And next we have Libre Secretorum Alchemy,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: the Book of the Secrets of Alchemy. Libre Secretorum Alchemy
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: is a Latin treatise attributed to Calid, son of Yazak.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: The Libre Secretorum is a practical handbook of alchemical recipes
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: and secrets. It purports to reveal secret formulas for transmutation.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: Essentially a collection of alchemical instructions or aphorisms. This text
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: is concise and recipe like. For instance, one surviving reference
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: indicates it contained an age old formula for orum portobile
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: or drinkable gold, instructing how to dissolve gold leaf in
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: a mixture of wine and distilled vinegar to extract a
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: medical elixir. The work likely enumerates the arcana of the art,
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: preparation of the philosopher's mercury, various color stage indicators, and
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: the secret properties of materials. In structure. It may open
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: with a brief theoretical preface and then list a series
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: of secrets, like methods to produce tinctures or accelerate maturation
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: of metals. It is not framed as a dialogue. Rather,
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: it reads as a manual or notebook of alchemical processes.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: Given its attribution to college. It might also contained occasional
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: references to wisdom of ancient authorities, but primarily it promises
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: practical knowledge the secrets kept hidden by the sages. Modern
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: scholars believe that this book is based on an Arabic
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: original now lost that likely dates to no earlier than
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: the eleventh century. The Latin text as we have it
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: was probably translated in the twelfth or thirteenth century, during
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: the period of intense Arabic to Latin scientific translation. However, intriguingly,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: the Latin work does not correspond neatly to any extent.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: Arabic treaties attributed to Colin might derive from an Arabic
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: compendium of alchemical secrets that circulated under Kalid's name in
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: the High Middle Ages but later disappeared. According to the
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: historian Jay Hello, the Libre Secretarium shows linguistic cues of
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: translation and is classed as a translation from Arabic. Its
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: Arabic source could have been a short treatise or a
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: section of a larger pseudocalid a chemical corpus. The Latin
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: translator is unknown. It was not Robert of Chester. Some
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: have speculated it might have been translated in Spain or
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: southern Italy, given the interest in alchemy there. Because it's
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: simpler and more recipe like than the theoretical Marianis dialogue,
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: the Libris Secretarium may reflect a later stratum of practical alchemy,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: possibly in Lance by the growing Giberian recipes circulating or
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: Latin Gerber works of the thirteenth century. In any event,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: by the time it appears in Latin it was accepted
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: as one of Kalid's authentic works, even though we now
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: consider that attribution as bogus. The Latin Libre Secretorum Alchemy
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: did not achieve the same wide manuscript diffusion as the
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: Testament of Marienus. Scholars note that it was poorly circulated
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: in the Latin West. Only a few manuscript copies are recorded.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: For example, a Middle English alchemical compilation mentions Liber Secretorum
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: Alcheme of Kalid as one source, suggesting it was known
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: to some fifteenth century English alchemists, perhaps in Latin or translated.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: Notable milestone is its inclusion in the fifteen forty five
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: printed compendium Alchemy Giebri. This printed edition made that text
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: available to early modern scholars to fifteen forty five. Print
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: and subsequent reprints are our main sources today. Manuscript wise,
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: the University of Glasgow and the British Library catalogs show
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: entries for Libres Secretorum Alchemy under Pseudo Kalidy, indicating at
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: least a couple of late medieval copies existed. For instance,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: an inventory of Saint Leonard's College in Saint Andrew's Lists
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: Libres Secretorum Alchemy in a collection along with Speculum Alchemy.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: Manuscripts like Melon Ms. Thirty three at Yale also contain
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: an English translation of it from the sixteenth century. Overall,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: why not plentiful. The presence of the text in a
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: few key collections suggests it was read by practicing alchemists,
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: albeit to a lesser extent than more famous works. He
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: Lo's Lay's Texts makes an important observation. Libres Secretorum presupposes
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: some Arabic source and can be understood only in that
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: transmission context. Recent research by Marie lou von Franz and
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: others in examining Latin outcome codses have described Libre Secretorium
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: as a straightforward treatise of chirochemical secrets, essentially bridging alchemy.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: In early chemistry, the structure and language are less allegorical
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: and more procedural. This has led some historians to compare
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: it to later pseudo gerber works or the short experiment
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: that found in medieval Latin collections. Dabsins and Moreau in
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: a twenty twenty one article on alchemy transmission, note that
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: unlike the Marianas texts, which has clear Arabic parallels, Libre
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: Secretorium's Arabic archetype is not directly known, hinting it might
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: have been an Arabic epistle of practical tips that simply
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: did not survive or remains undentified. They also point out
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: that the Latin Libre Secretorium did not become as foundational
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: in university circles. It was more of a niche text
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: for dedicated alchemists. Its contents is nonetheless valuable to history
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: orians because it represents the kind of recipe knowledge that
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: was being transmitted alongside theoretical texts. In some academically, the
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: Libre Secretorum is seen as evidence of how early Islamic
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: alchemical know how, especially technical processes and medicinal alchemy, trickled
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: into Europe in a compact form. Within the Latin tradition,
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: the Libre Secretarium Alchemy had a modest but real influence.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: It contributed to the growing body of secrets literature. Books
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: of secrets were very popular in the late Middle Ages.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: It may have informed the works like Roger Bacon's Radik's
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: Mundai or the anonymous Liber trace Gretium, which also compiled
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: practical alchemical operations. For instance, the Minerological Record notes that
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: the seventeenth century collections list Libre Secretarium Alcheme alongside the
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: Tabula Smrigdina and other staples, implying that those who studied Ermes,
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: Gerber and Lull also paid some attention to colle s
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: secrets in the Arabic world. If the original was circulating,
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: it likely reinforced Khaled's legend as well. However, since this
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: work is known only through its Latin its primary influence
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: was on European practitioners, who mined it for recipes such
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: as the preparation of potable gold or the creation of
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: philosophical mercury. Unlike the Marianas Dialogue, Libre Secretorium doesn't have
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: to have spawned commentary or wide discussion. It was taken
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: at face value as a cookbook of alchemy. By the
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: sixteenth century, with its printing, it became one piece of
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: the vast puzzle of alchemical literature available to experimenters like
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: Paracelsus or John d In short, Libre Secretary Alchemy didn't
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: revolutionize alchemical theory, but it quietly disseminated practical techniques in
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: secret formulas, extending the Kalydian legacy into the hands on
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: workshops of medieval and Renaissance alchemists. Now we will move
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: on to lib Trium Verborum. Liber Trium Verborum, attributed to
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: Calid is an alchemical treatise that revolves around three enigmatic
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: words or principles central to the art. The text is
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: written in Latin, likely translated from an Arabic original now
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: lost or unidentified. It is composed in a highly allegorical
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: and didactic style, divided into multiple short chapters or sections
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: that systematically unveil the meaning of the three words. The
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: treaties essentially expounds the entire alchemical work, often personified as
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: the Philosopher's Stone, through a triatic formula. These three words
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: are not explicitly listed at the outset, but as the
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: text unfolds, it becomes clear they refer to the three
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: fundamental concepts or stages. Many scholars interpret them as symbolic code,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: perhaps for the body, soul, spirit, or for the three
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: phases of the magnam opis. For example, the text explains
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: from three two are understood, and from two five, but
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: three are not understood, a riddle indicating numeric relationship in
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: the process, which likely conceal the proportions or steps of
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: the work. Liber Treum Verborum employs natural philosophical analogies. A
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: notable part of the text compares the alchemical work to
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: the development of a fetus in the womb, governed by
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: the seven planets. It describes month by month how Saturn, Jupiter, Mars,
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: and so on act on the embryo, an allegory mapping
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: onto the stages of transmutation. For instance, in the fourth month,
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: the Sun as lord, breathes in the spirit and life begins.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: In the seventh month, the moon labors to expel the fetus.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: This elaborate metaphor illustrates the gradual perfection of the philosophical child,
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: equating the stone gestation with a human birth. The three
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: words themselves are hinted to be hidden and revealed, not
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: given to the impious, but to the faithful, indicating they
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: encapsulate the secret of the stone's composition in a veiled way.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: The treaties emphasizes polarity and unity. It speaks of making
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: the hidden manifest and the manifest hidden, of converting spirit
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: into body and body into spirit classical alchemical tenets of
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: solva a coagula. The final chapters discuss astronomical timing observing
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: the planets in the work, and enumerate specific cycles like
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: the circle of the Sun of twenty eight years, the
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: leap of the moon, and so on, blending astrology with
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: alchemical timing. The treatise ends on a triumphant note that
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: once these degrees are fulfilled, alchemy is borne by art,
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: but more truly born naturally according to the order of
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: the planets, as God showed the first man in essence.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: Liber Trium Verborum is a meticulous allegorical exposition of the
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: magnum opus, structured around a triple formula that encapsulates the
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: whole process from start to finish. The work was likely
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: composed in Arabic originally, though no Arabic title by that
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: name is known. Its content suggests an Islamic alchemical origin
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: ninth to tenth century, with later Latin translation perhaps twelve
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: to thirteenth century. Notably, the text cites the Persian philosophers
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: and uses ideas of pergio Arabic alchemy. The reference to
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: Persian philosophers aligns with the Islamic world contexts, pointing to
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: an author drawing on Eastern sources. The presence of detailed
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: planetary embryology found also in Islamic alchemical works further supports
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: an Arabic origin. Scolars like Ruska observe that the liber
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: Trium Verborum shares content with pseudo Ratzi alchemical texts. In fact,
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: Rusca in nineteen twenty four described Libratrium Verborum in detail,
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: indicating it might have been incorrectly attributed to al Razi
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: in some manuscripts before being recognized as Colled's work. This
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: suggests that in medieval Arabic tradition, the text's true authorship
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: was murky, possibly attributed to various stages until the Latin
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: translators fixed it under Khaled's name. The Latin translation is anonymous,
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: it likely occurred alongside the wave of alchemical translations in
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: Spain or Italy. Thorndyke and Kira's Catalog of Incipits, Item
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: seventy six identifies Libratrium Verborum, confirming its circulation and medieval libraries.
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: The Latin style is didactic, with frequent use of imperative
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: and explanatory prose, indicating a competent translation retaining technical terms.
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: Hallou classifies it as translation from Arabic, and its Latin
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: incipit matches no known independent Latin treaties, enforcing that it
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: was rendered from an earlier source. Libertrium for Borum enjoyed
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: moderate popularity in Europe's alchemical circles. Manuscripts are found in
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: several collections. For example, Yale's Binicky Library Melon MS twenty seven,
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: early fifteenth century, contains Libertrium for Borum. The text was
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: also incorporated into a famous compendia. It appears in Zetzner's
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: Theotrum chemicalm sixteen thirteen edition. Under Kalid, An English translation
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: existed by the sixteenth century. Elias Ashmol's Alchemy Manuscripts lists
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: a book of the Three Words of King Khalid, which
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: was translated into English. The Internet and modern esoteric publishers
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: have circulated this translation. In nineteen forty one, Eugene Cancellate,
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: a student of Faulcanelli, included Libertrium Verborum excerpts in French
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: and Alchemy Explice, showing its appeal to twentieth century alchemists. However,
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: unlike the Mariennis text, Libertreum for Borum was not one
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: of the early twelve century translations highlighted by historians, so
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: it remained somewhat in the shadows academically. Only in recent
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: scholarship through cross analysis of Latin and Arabic works, has
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: Libertreum Verborum been given attention. Notably, its description by Rusca
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty four remains a standard reference. No standalone
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: critical edition exists, yet researchers rely on comparing multiple manuscript witnesses. Fortunately,
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: the text consistency across copies, as evidenced by identical incipits
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: and chapter structures in different manuscripts, suggests a stable transmission.
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: Scala's view Libra tree and Forborum as important to medieval
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: l chemical teaching. Its use of a numerical riddle, the
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: three words in the extended embryological metaphor signal and intent
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: to encode how chemical operationations and learned allegory. This aligns
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: with the layers of secrecy approach, delivering truth in obscure
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: terms accessible only to the initiated. The planetary embryo allegory
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: specifically has drawn commentary. It mirrors ideas in the writings
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: of Pseudocalid and Rbia that the alchemist is imitating nature's
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: generative processes. The three words themselves have been given the
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: subject of debate. Some propose that they might be salt, sulfur, mercury,
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: three principles, though the text doesn't name them explicitly. Others
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: think they refer to three crucial instructions or phrases hidden
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: within the work. For instance, the treatise stresses doing ABC
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: in a particular order. Those might be the actual three words.
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: Bond Friends and Youngergan scholars found psychological symbolism in the
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: trinity of words, linking it to trios in alchemical symbolism.
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: And lastly, Libratree in Verborum reveals a blend of alchemy
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: and astrology characteristic of fourteenth to fifteenth century alchemy, even
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: though its roots are older. Its emphasis on time periods
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: twenty eight years, cycles and so on, suggests it was
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: used to integrate astrological timing. It's a practical lab work.
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: And lastly we have Epistola medieval sources preserve and untitled
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: Arabic letter treatise attributed to Khalid, whose Latin counterpart circulates
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: simply as Epistola a letter with the translator unknown. The
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: best modern study is Marian Dapson's in Sebastian Moreau The
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: Four Signs of the Art, which edits to Arabic, gives
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: an English translation and identifies the Latin version. They show
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: the work is very well attested about twelve Arabic manuscripts
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: and six Latin witnesses, and that the Latin closely tracks
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: the Arabic, though both traditions have minor divergences. A distinct
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: feature of these treaties is that it organizes practical doctrine
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: around the four signs of the art, diagnostic markers by
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: which the operator knows the matter has entered the right states.
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: Dabsence and Moreau introduce and translate these passages. They are
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: one of the core teaching blocks of the text. The
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: Prome is classic alchemical ethics of secrecy. The author says
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: that he has watched people seek the craft of wisdom
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: in every age, while the ancient Sieges detested broadcasting it
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: and preserved it from the ignorant. Two authentic Arabic lines
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: from the QDL manuscript are and now I have seen
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: that people have sought the craft of wisdom in every age,
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: for if they did not keep it hidden, it would
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: pass into base hands and vile conditions. The ethical frame
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: immediately sets up the treaties as a didactic letter to
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: a worthy reader. The art can be written down, but
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: only veiled, and only for those with patience and discipline,
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: while individual will manuscripts very slightly. The main blocks are
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: stable as synthesized from dabsince of Moreause study and the
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: Arabic witnesses, and they are one prome Why write and
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: why veil? The author justifies committing secrets to writing to
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: protect the worthy and spare them from waste, yet warns
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: against publication to the unfit. Two the matter and first principles.
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: The doctrine insists on unity, the one thing with many names,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: and on the rule like acts on like a signature
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: Kalydian maxim that reoccurs across the corpus. The closing line
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: in the same QTL sums it up for nature cleaves
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: to nature, and nature prevails over nature. The number three
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: operations in outline the epistle gives layers of operations solve
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: and coagula cycles, repeated nourishings, gentle heating, and rest periods
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: expressed less in recipes than in sign based in structions
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: like when you see X, proceed to Y. Dapsons of
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: Moreau emphasize how the text teaches through signs rather than measurements.
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: And number four the four Signs of the art the
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: heart of the treaties a set of four diagnostic signs
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: the artists must watch for, described with sensory cues, appearance,
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: behavior under heat, and so on. These benchmark states indicate
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: when to raise, maintain, or slacken the fire, and when
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: to move to their next operation. Number five Cautions and Tests.
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: The letter warns about false colors and premature fixation, and
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: closes with practical tests that confirm completion. Again phrased as
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: signs if it behaves, thus proceed if not, continue cooking,
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: mirroring how sign based instructions replaces explicit weights in times
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: and finally, number six closing exhortation return to secrecy, humility,
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: and gratitude to God for the gift, a hallmark of
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: early Arabic alchemical prose. Now we will get into these
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: in a little more detail. It opens in a quiet,
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: cautionary key. The writer, speaking in the royal persona of Khalid,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: looks out at generation of seekers who chase the craft
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: of wisdom and reminds you why the sages veiled their art.
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: People have always looked for this craft, he says. The
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: ancients hit it not out of miserliness, but to keep
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: it from the unfit. The Epistola is not a recipe book.
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: It reads like a master's long letter to a single student.
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: Ethics first, then doctrine, then the bench. Its doctrine is
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: the oldest alchemical confidence, one thing many names learned not
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: by memorizing weights, but by recognizing signs. Throughout. The author's
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: method is diagnostic. Watch how the matter behaves, change heat
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: by degrees, Do not hurry, prove what you think you've made.
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: The body of the letter moves through three art. First,
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: it establishes the one root, a single substance that hides
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: contrary qualities heat, dryness inside, cold, and moisture outside. It
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: must be educated by fire until the hidden appears and
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: the manifest is cured. Second, it teaches the work as
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: mutual conversion spirit into body, body into spirit until stability
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: is reached. Third, it ends with the proofs of a
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: true tincture, right adhesion, no smoke, no flight from fire.
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: The final page stitches the doctrine into a maximum you
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: hear again across the Klydian dossier. For nature cleaves to nature,
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: and nature prevails over nature. The letter's first doctrine looks simple,
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: but governs everything that follows. The subject is one the
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: signs of plural alchemical vocabulary. Proliferates, water, vinegar, spirit, oil, sulfur.
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: But these are masks for behaviors. Don't be trapped by names.
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: The writer says, Watch how your matter answers heat, how
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: it takes color, how it returns from vapor to body.
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: If you know the Marianna's dialogue, you'll hear the same music,
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: one root, one substance, even under many appellations. Midway, the
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: letter states its center plainly. The work succeeds when the
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: spirit becomes body and body becomes spirit, repeated until the
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: union no longer breaks under trial heat. This is the
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: moral of all the parables, from womb and birth in
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: the Latin Libra tree in Verborum to Sun and Moon
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: and Mariannas. But here it's taught as lab behavior. No fleeing,
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: no smoke, oily flow, quiet fixation. Then we have the
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: four signs of the art, condensed from daspins and a
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: rose edition. Sign one rite disillusion. The matter softens and
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: wets under gentle heat. Aqueous smoke that burns or blackens
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: is a false path. Even compliance pllution is the real entrance.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: Keep the fire small. Watch the answer. Sign two the
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: subtle breath and the gross part a thin, penetrative spirit rises,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: while the heavy, feculent part settles. Nurse the fire until
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: the light returns and joins the heavy without stench a soot.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: Sign three fixation, no flight from fire. You have begun
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: to fix the volatile. When the mass does not flee,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: the fire gives no watery fume and flows obediently. This
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: letter hinges of spirit and body conversions until consistency appears.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: Sign four tinkting power the proof. The work grips clean
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: metal at heat, like wax, does not smoke, does not blanch,
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: and repeats its tincture on trial only, then increase by
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: roll and finish. Finally, the last pages are all discernment.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: False red will smoke, leap away or blanche. A true
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: tincture adheres to glowing metal like wax, remains in the
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: fire without flight, and tinks again on repetition. Only then,
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: and only by rule not in patience, do you raise
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: the heat to finish those same trial proofs or what
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: the Latin three words will later ritualize as degrees and tests.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: The family resemblance is no accident. Before we wrap this
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: letter up, think of the epistola as the hands on
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: conscience of the collid corpus. The Morihiannist dialogue gives the
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: romance and the one root philosophy that Latin alchemy fell
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: in love with. The liber trium vaborium compresses the regiment
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: into degrees and tests. The epistola is the quiet hinge
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: signs you can actually watch, told in the spare moral
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: voice of an early Arabic master. Its manuscript footprint shows
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: it was popular in Arabic and also circulated in Latin.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: Dapson's in a Row identify by a matching Latin epistola.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: That tracks the Arabic closely a century ago, this writing
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: Satin catalogs without much common Today, we can place it precisely.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: Marian Dapson's and Sebastian Moreau edited the Arabic texts and
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: translated it in a major twenty twenty one study, showing
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: that this letter is one of the most copied Kalyidian
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: items in that it focused pivots on the four signs
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: of the art. Now, it's also important to note that
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: none of these texts are definitely by Kalid's own hand.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: They were probably composed by early alchemists who use Kalid
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: as a pseudonym, a practice not uncommon, and as the
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: Alchemy Web Museum equips, this use of pseunonymous authorship is
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: a common feature of medieval alchemical literature. Nonetheless, to medieval readers,
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: these were Khalid's teachings, and that is how he influenced posterity.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: In summary, the writings attributed to Khalid portray a complete
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: alchemical curriculum, theoretical foundations, practical instructions, spiritual guidance, dialogues or initiation,
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: and even poetic allegories. Whether or not Khalid truly authored
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: any of these, their existence solidified his name as the
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: fountain head of exlomic alchemy. As one modern scholar put it,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: Khalid occupies a high standing among Arabic alchemists, and most
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: Arabic works on alchemy give citations from his writings and
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: poems on the art. His legendary status was such that
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: doubting it came to be seen as almost heretical among
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: later occultists. Only in modern times have researchers untangled the myth,
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: understanding Khalid's role in alchemy's history as likely symbolic but
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: nonetheless profoundly influential. The liquid makes a globe and receives flesh, blood,
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: and members. Kalid's story is as much about the realm
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: of ideas in the seven to eighth centuries as it
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: is about one man. To truly grasp why he is
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: revered in occult lore, we must appreciate the mystical and
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: scientific worldview of his time, especially as it relates to alchemy, astronomy,
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: and cosmology. In kalid Zerra, the boundaries between science, magic,
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: and spirituality were thin. Alchemy was not mere silliness. It
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: was a philosophically rich discipline that encompassed chemistry, metallurgy, medicine, astrology,
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: and spiritual transformation. The prevailing cosmology was inherited from late Antiquity,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: a blend of hermetic, Neoplatonic, and Aristolian ideas. The universe
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: was seen as a grand chain of correspondences. The seven
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: planets influenced the seven metals, The four elements combined in
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: various proportions to create all matter. Everything had an outer
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: exoteric form and an inner esoteric spirit. This way of
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: thinking naturally lent itself to mystical interpretation. Within this framework,
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: alchemy was often called the divine art or the sacred art.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: As we see in Kaled's attributed titles, it wasn't just
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: about making gold, it was about perfecting nature, imitating the
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: creator's work on a small scale. Many alchemists were devout,
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: seeing their work as uncovering the laws set by God
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: and later Islamic thought, Alchemy sometimes took on allegorical meaning
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: for spiritual purification, the idea that one can transmutate the
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: lead of the soul into the gold of enlightenment. While
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: Kalid himself predates formal Sufi mysticism, it's telling that Shabir,
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: one of his intellectual descendants, was called al Sufi, and
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: that some Sufi alchemists emerged not long after, blending esoteric
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: Islam with alchemical symbolism. Khalid's legendary pursuits fit pertly into
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: the occult spiritual paradigm. He was credited with translating books
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: on astronomy and medicine, as well as alchemy. Astronomy at
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: that time was deeply entangled with astrology, understanding the stars, men,
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: understanding fate, and cosmic influences. If indeed, colled Sponsored was
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: believed to sponsor the translation of the Book of the Stars,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: he would have been bringing in text like Ptolemy's works
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: or Herme's astrological law. The title the Wan of the
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: Stars attributed to him resonates with astrology, implying a record
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: or compilation of star knowledge. Alchemy itself was often considered
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: astrology of the earth, with metals growing in the womb
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: of the earth under stellar guidance. One old belief held
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: that each metal matures underground over long errors, influenced by
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: the motions of the heavens, gold being the perfectly matured metal.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: The Paradise of Wisdom in College's Dewan might have included
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: cosmological sections describing the structure of the heavens and the climates,
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: as suggested by how later alchemist al Iraqi included Ptolemaic
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: seven climes in his own work. We should also consider
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: mysticism and occultism more broadly in the Umayad context. Islam
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: in College's day was still developing its intellectual contours. It
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: wasn't an established a cult tradition in Islam yet, but
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: there were certainly exoteric versus esoteric tensions. Some strict religious
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: scholars frowned on alchemy and astrology as dubious or impious.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: It was a sense that alchemy was a respository for
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: those seeking deeper truths beyond the literal religious law, a
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: form of occult knowledge pursued by an intellectual elite. College's
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: legend slots neatly into this narrative, a prince of the
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: ruling Sunni dynasty who steps into the shadows to seek
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: hidden wisdom. It gives a romantic rebel quality to his character,
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: the one who wasn't content with orthodox knowledge alone. Finally,
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: when we speak of contemporary beliefs in mathematics, it's worth
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: noting Khalid was also linked to early alchemy inventions Some
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: later sources mused that Kalid's pursuit of alchemy led to
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: actual technical discoveries. For example, Jabir credits his monk teacher
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: Mariannas with teaching him how to create certain acid and
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: chemical compounds. It's not impossible that the real Kalid, if
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: he dabbled in chemistry, experimented with dyes of metal urgy.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: Syria had industries of glass making and metalwork which required
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: chemical nohow. One modern article claims without solid proof, that Kalid,
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: who died at a very young age at seven o
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: four a d Was the first Islamic scientist who opened
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: doors to the knowledge of wisdom, discovery, and invention. This
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: may be hyperbole, but a reflexive view that Kalid started
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: a scientific impulse in Islam. His curiosity, as imagined, spam
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: from mathematics to astronomy, to medicine, and legend he even
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: authored a medical text or two, but those are lost.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: What did the world look like through Khaled's eyes? Perhaps
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: a world alive with occult forces, metals growing like plants
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: in the dark, earth, stars singing in the sky, imparting
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: secrets below, numbers and proportions governing the harmony of creation.
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: Some of Colleed's work that cite him use Egyptian hiro
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: glyph inspired symbols like eagles, serpents, black sons to encode
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: alchemical operations. This shows that by the thirteenth century, Kaled's
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: legacy was woven into a rich tapestry of occult symbolism.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: In one illustration in the Book of Seven Climes, we
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: see figures like a raven symbolizing the black phase, negrito,
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: an eagle, the volatile spirit, and a distillation furnace drawn
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: with mystical emblems. Khaled's name in such manuscripts is evoked
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: as an authority who understood these symbols. In summary, Klled's
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: association with mysticism, occultism, cosmology, and mathematics is mostly through
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: the lens of alchemy. As the universal science. He symbolizes
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: the moment when the Islamic world took up the mantle
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: of ancient occult knowledge, whether in factual deeds or mythical attributions.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: College stands at the crossroads of religion and science, a
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: devout Muslim prince intrigued by the workings of God's universe
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: at its most arcane levels. This dual identity both pious
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: and occult made him a uniquely inspiring figure for generations
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: to come, from medieval scholars writing our chemical allegories to
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: modern authors and even podcasters fascinated by the hidden side
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: of history the secret of the secrets of God. Though
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: Khalid's historical footprint was relatively modest, he never ruled as
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: caliph and he died young, his legendary legacy has proven enduring.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: Let's examine how he influenced the world, especially in the
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: realms of science, spirituality, and culture, and why his story
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: still captivates us today. His direct influence can be traced
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: in the chain of alchemists after him. Jabir Iban Hayen Gerber,
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: the most famous Islamic alchemist, consistently linked his knowledge back
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: to Khalid through Mariennas. Jabir's writing the Jiberian Corpus often
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: mentioned the books of Prince Khalid as sources. For example,
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: Jabir's Book of seventy lists Khalid among authorities and quotes
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: him on chemical operations. This means that the technical content
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: of those psunonymous colleague texts did feed into subsequent research
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: concepts like using mercuric and sulfirous compounds. Apparatuses like the
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: bain Marie name the after Marry the Jewess, but presumably
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: passed down via Morienis to Colin and various recipes all
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: traveled through the literature with Colled's name attached. In a way,
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: Khaled became a symbolic author whose name guaranteed a text value,
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: in the same way Hermetic texts were ascribed to Hermes
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: and Neoplatonic ones to Plato al Chemical texts ad Khalid.
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: One specific legacy is the Liber Decomposition Alchemy in Latin Europe.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: Translated in the twelfth century. It spread Khalid's fame to
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: Western alchemists. Its translator, Robert of Chester, was in awe
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: that the book joins the most precious substances, naturally transforming
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: them into better substances. That book was read by figures
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: like Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, and countless anonymous adepts. In fact,
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: it was printed multiple times during the Renaissance and translated
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: further into French, German and English. This means entered the
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: canon of Western alchemy under the latinized name Khalid Clid.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: For instance, the sixteen seventeen Alchemical Compendium by Michael Meyer
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: includes Khalid clid in the imaged gathering of stages at
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: the table of Hermes. Hence, Khalid indirectly influenced European science
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: by inspiring Latin alchemist. He played a part through texts
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: in the long development that would one day lead to chemistry.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: Khalid's story also carries a spiritual moral that resonated with mystics.
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: He exemplified renunciation of power for the sake of knowledge.
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: In Islamic culture, renouncing the worldly life for knowledge is respected,
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: and here he was a prince who did exactly that.
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: Some Sufi writers later cited Kalid as an example of
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: one who turned inward. The notion that he studied with
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: a Christian hermit also served as an in faith spiritual theme.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: Wisdom is universal, and a Muslim prince can learn from
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: a Christian monk in harmony. This is somewhat echoed in
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: later Islamic esoteric movements that integrated ideas from various sources Neoplatonism, hermeticism,
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: and so on. It's clear that Khaled's real legacy is
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: less about what he tangibly achieved and more about what
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: he came to represent. He symbolizes the thirst for knowledge
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: that transcends borders and creeds, a true seeker that, perhaps
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: more than any gold made in a crucible, is his
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: richest contribution to history. Khalid deserves a spotlight on the
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: occult rejects because history encapsulate what it means to seek
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: truth on the margins of the Orthodox. He was, in
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: essence and occultist in the court his peers, chase power
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: and conquest. College sought the philosopher's stone, both literally in
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: laboratories and metaphorically in enlightenment. In a world that might
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: have dismissed alchemy as fool's gold, Callid embraced it, thereby
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: legitimizing an entire tradition. He represents those historical figures whose
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: contributions were undervalued by mainstream chronicles but kept alive in
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: esoteric circles. Just as they called reject's aims to shine
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: a light on hidden truths and forgotten pioneers. Khaled's tale
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: brings forth the message that wisdom can flourish even when
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: rejected by the wholes of power. In closing this episode
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: on Kala would not only recount facts and legends, but
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: also evoke a heartfelt reflection on the pursuit of wisdom
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: against the odds, even though the story may not be
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: completely true. Khaled's life teaches us about resilience, how a
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: young man turned personal defeat into a victory for human knowledge.
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: It teaches us about open mindedness, how Muslim prints learned
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: from a Christian monk in a time of religious conflict,
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: a beautiful reminder of unity beyond dogma. And it teaches
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: there's the value of curiosity and courage. Khaled had the
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: courage to pursue the impossible, and in doing so, he
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: expanded the realm of the possible for generations to come.
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: His story resonates today as we continue to explore the
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: boundaries of science and spirituality, often facing skepticism. Colled's spirit
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: encouraged us to remain seekers, to look up at the
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: stars with wonder and down into the crucible with hope,
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: knowing that the quest itself can transmute our lives into
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: something golden.