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ALCHEMY AND ISLAM

As we read Corbin, the profound link between Alchemy (and Gnosis and almost all Esoteric Sciences in the Muslim world) and the Chi'a is evident. Perhaps one of the reasons is the Imam Ja'far Sadiq. This Chi'ite Imam is included in the silsilah (or chain of transmission) of the majority of the tarikas (Sufi brotherhoods), and all of the latter also include Imam Ali (the naqshbandiyya being the exception: it includes Abu Bakr and Jafar but not Ali).

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Regarding the Black Virgins, Islam has very interesting things to say on Mary, specially the doxography on the birth of Isha (Jesus): Mary is said to have stood by a palm-tree or a date-palm when she felt the first pains... Compare these trees with the following verse from the Coran (ch. XXIV v. 35, M. H. Shakir translation):

Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth;
a likeness of His light is as a niche in which is a lamp,
the lamp is in a glass, (and) the glass is as it were a brightly shining star,
lit from a blessed olive-tree, neither eastern nor western,
the oil whereof almost gives light though fire touch it not
- light upon light -
Allah guides to His light whom He pleases,
and Allah sets forth parables for men,
and Allah is Cognizant of all things.

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SUGGESTED READING ON ALCHEMY AND ISLAM:
•Henry Corbin, Alchimie comme art hiératique. Paris, L’Herne, 1986.
•Pierre Lory, Alchimie et mystique en terre d’Islam. Verdier, 1989.
•Jâbir Ibn Hayyân, Dix traités d’alchimie. Translation, introduction and comments by P. Lory. Sindbad/Actes Sud, 1983.