Abu Musa Jaffar Al-Sofi Geber, founder of the school of Arabian chemists about the close of the 8th century, born in Thus, Persia, or, according to Abulfeda, in Harran, Mesopotamia. He is reckoned by Cardan as one of the twelve subtlest geniuses of the world, and his authority was unrivalled among the alchemists of the middle ages. His works, only fragments of which remain, contain the germs of the belief in the transmutation of metals, and in the universal elixir, which he thought to be a solution of gold. They also contain curious and useful details concerning the nature, fusion, purification, and malleability of metals. They have all been translated into Latin (Dantzic, 1682), and into English by Russell (London, 1678).