What is an Alchemy?
"Starting from the ancient Greek in 8th century, to about 16th century, early scientists or say chemists are called Alchemists and their philosophy, knowledge and their unique, approach is called an Alchemy".
History of Alchemy:
The word "Alchemy" found its origin in ancient Egypt. Egyptians used word "Khem"(in Egyptian) meaning flooded plains of the great river Nile. This, Egyptians, were well advanced at mummification that is "preserving dead bodies for centuries". This particular ritual based on their belief of life after death, developed their rudimentary chemical knowledge to achieve the goal of next life and thus, immortality.
By 332 BC, Alexander the great, conquered Egypt and thus, Greek scholars begun to know, understand and see this unknown chemical knowledge. Moreover, Greek experts were fascinated by the belief of Egyptians that all matter is made up of the four basic elements of nature- Fire, Water, Air and Earth. Being, amazed by the egyptian culture and knowledge they gave a new name to Egypt called "Khemia"(In Greek Language).
In the 7th century when, Arabs invaded Egypt, added "al" to the word "Khemia" and thus, this new word "alkhemia" meaning "the Black land" is thought to be the origin of the word Alchemy. Later in 391 BC, invasion of Christians and burning of the great library of Alexandria, further erased the less known, early history of Alchemy.
The Scholars, consider the independent development of chemical knowledge that took place in India and other parts of Asia, belongs to an Alchemy era. But I don't perceive this and this is my opinion as nothing is documented or very less known about what great Indian Rushimunis and monks could do. India or Bharat ransacked and looted many times after 1100 AD. It is said when, Bakhtiyar Khilji attacked the great Nalanda university, he beheaded numerous scholar rishimunis and monks. He further burned the Nalanda university, the literatures and books were so huge in number that the university kept burning for almost 3 months. And, the vast, priceless treasure of knowledge was lost in the ashes.
O!..Sorry readers, I got distracted. Coming back to the Arabs who brought alchemy for the first time in Spain, which spread quickly all over the Europe. This, arabs considered every metal is made up of the sulphur and mercury in varying proportions. Gold was considered as the perfect metal and rest others were seen as imperfect or less perfect by the western alchemists. And therefore they strive hard to convert lower metals into gold by means of conceptual substance called "Philosopher's stone".
Also, people in those times strongly believed that this stone was capable of giving immortality.
Further, in Europe Alchemy, made a noteworthy contribution in the development of laboratory apparatus, amalgams and many important chemical processes. But by the 16th century, European alchemists separated their ways in two groups. First group adopted pure scientific, experimental ways and developed important chemical compounds and chemical processes. And, second one kept continue their search for Philosopher's stone and other possible ways to convert lower metals into gold.
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