Abu Musa Jābir ibn Hayyān was a prominent polymath: a chemist and alchemist, astronomer and astrologer, engineer, geologist, philosopher, physicist, and pharmacist and physician. He is considered by many to be the "father of chemistry." His ethnic background is not clear; although some sources state that he was an Arab, other sources introduce him as Persian. Jābir is held to be the first practical alchemist.
As early as the tenth century, the identity and exact corpus of works of Jābir was in dispute in Islamic circles.His name was Latinised as "Geber" in the Christian West and in 13th century Europe an anonymous writer produced a non-trivial body of alchemical and metallurgical writings under the pen-name Geber. This person is usually referred to as Pseudo-Geber.
