Editing Distillation (section)

=== Islamic Golden Age ===
{{Main|Fractional distillation#History}}
{{See also|Liquor#History of distillation}}
Medieval [[Alchemy and chemistry in the medieval Islamic world|Muslim chemists]] such as [[Jabir ibn Hayyan|Jābir ibn Ḥayyān]] (Latin: Geber, ninth century) and [[Abu Bakr al-Razi|Abū Bakr al-Rāzī]] (Latin: Rhazes, {{circa|865–925}}) experimented extensively with the distillation of various substances.  The [[fractional distillation]] of organic substances plays an important role in the works attributed to Jābir, such as in the [[Seventy Books|{{transliteration|ar|Kitāb al-Sabʿīn}}]] ('The Book of Seventy'), translated into Latin by [[Gerard of Cremona]] ({{Circa|1114–1187}}) under the title {{lang|la|Liber de septuaginta}}.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kraus|first=Paul|author-link=Paul Kraus (Arabist)|year=1942–1943|title=Jâbir ibn Hayyân: Contribution à l'histoire des idées scientifiques dans l'Islam. I. Le corpus des écrits jâbiriens. II. Jâbir et la science grecque|publisher=Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale|location=Cairo|oclc=468740510|isbn=9783487091150}} Vol. II, p. 5. On the attribution of the Latin translation to Gerard of Cremona, see {{cite journal|last1=Burnett|first1=Charles|year=2001|title=The Coherence of the Arabic-Latin Translation Program in Toledo in the Twelfth Century|journal=Science in Context|volume=14|issue=1–2|pages=249–288|doi=10.1017/S0269889701000096|s2cid=143006568}} p. 280; {{cite journal|last1=Moureau|first1=Sébastien|year=2020|title=Min al-kīmiyāʾ ad alchimiam. The Transmission of Alchemy from the Arab-Muslim World to the Latin West in the Middle Ages|journal=Micrologus|volume=28|issue=|pages=87–141|hdl=2078.1/211340|url=http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/211340}} pp. 106, 111.</ref> The Jabirian experiments with fractional distillation of animal and vegetable substances, and to a lesser degree also of mineral substances, is the main topic of the {{lang|la|De anima in arte alkimiae}}, an originally Arabic work falsely attributed to [[Avicenna]] that was translated into Latin and would go on to form the most important alchemical source for [[Roger Bacon]] ({{circa|1220–1292}}).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Newman |first1=William R. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gdLk3YPZiLEC&pg=PA35 |title=Instruments and Experimentation in the History of Chemistry |date=2000 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=9780262082822 |editor1-last=Holmes |editor1-first=Frederic L. |editor1-link=Frederic L. Holmes |location=Cambridge |pages=35–54 |chapter=Alchemy, Assaying, and Experiment |author1-link=William R. Newman |editor2-last=Levere |editor2-first=Trevor H.}} p. 44.</ref>

The distillation of [[wine]] is attested in Arabic works attributed to [[Al-Kindi|al-Kindī]] ({{Circa|801–873 CE}}) and to [[Al-Farabi|al-Fārābī]] ({{Circa|872–950}}), and in the 28th book of [[Al-Zahrawi|al-Zahrāwī]]'s (Latin: Abulcasis, 936–1013) ''{{Lang|ar-latn|[[Al-Tasrif|Kitāb al-Taṣrīf]]}}'' (later translated into Latin as ''{{Lang|la|Liber servatoris}}'').<ref>{{cite book|last1=al-Hassan|first1=Ahmad Y.|author-link=Ahmad Y. al-Hassan|year=2009|chapter=Alcohol and the Distillation of Wine in Arabic Sources from the 8th Century|title=Studies in al-Kimya': Critical Issues in Latin and Arabic Alchemy and Chemistry|location=Hildesheim|publisher=Georg Olms Verlag|pages=283–298}} (same content also available on [http://www.history-science-technology.com/notes/notes7.html the author's website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151229003135/http://www.history-science-technology.com/notes/notes7.html |date=29 December 2015 }}); cf. {{cite book|last1=Berthelot|first1=Marcellin|author1-link=Marcellin Berthelot|last2=Houdas|first2=Octave V.|year=1893|title=La Chimie au Moyen Âge|volume=I–III|location=Paris|publisher=Imprimerie nationale}} vol. I, pp. 141, 143.</ref> In the twelfth century, recipes for the production of ''{{Lang|la|aqua ardens}}'' ("burning water", i.e., ethanol) by distilling wine with [[salt]] started to appear in a number of Latin works, and by the end of the thirteenth century it had become a widely known substance among Western European chemists.<ref>{{cite book|last=Multhauf|first=Robert P.|author-link=Robert P. Multhauf|year=1966|title=The Origins of Chemistry|location=London|publisher=Oldbourne|isbn=9782881245947}} pp. 204–206.</ref> The works of [[Taddeo Alderotti]] (1223–1296) describe a method for concentrating alcohol involving repeated distillation through a water-cooled still, by which an alcohol purity of 90% could be obtained.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Holmyard |first1=Eric John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Bt-kwKRUzUC&pg=PA51 |title=Alchemy |date=1957 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-486-26298-7 |location=Harmondsworth |author1-link=Eric John Holmyard}} pp. 51–52.</ref>