Ketab al-Kanz al-Kabir

• Arabic Title: کتاب الکنز الکبیر
• Transliterated Title: Kitāb al-Kanz al-Kabīr
• English Title: The Book of the Great Treasure
• Author: Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad Miskawayh al-Rāzī (d. 421 A.H.)
• Editor: Abū al-Qāsim Imāmī
• Language: Arabic
• ISBN: 978-600-203-149-5
• Publication Year: 2017
• Pages: 182
• Format: PDF
• Category: Sciences and Techniques
• Miras Maktoob Collection Code: 313

【Summary】

Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb Miskawayh (d. 421 A.H.) ranks among the foremost scholars of the fourth and fifth centuries A.H., having authored more than forty books and treatises across a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, mathematics, medicine, and alchemy. A significant portion of his scholarly life was devoted to the study of alchemy, to the extent that—among Muslim philosophers after Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyāʾ al-Rāzī—few pursued this field with comparable depth and continuity.

Kitāb al-Kanz al-Kabīr is one of Miskawayh’s most important alchemical writings, presenting theoretical reflections and practical considerations characteristic of medieval Islamic alchemy. The present critical edition has been prepared on the basis of four manuscript witnesses, offering a reliable and scholarly text for the study of alchemical thought in the Islamic world and for reassessing Miskawayh’s role in the history of the natural sciences.