The Turba Philosophorum

The Turba Philosophorum also known as Assembly of the Philosophers is one of the oldest European alchemy texts translated from the Arabic like the Picatrix. It is considered to have been written c. 900 A.D.To quote Plessner the Turba Philosophorum written c. 900 A.D. is a well planned and from a literary point of view a most remarkable attempt to put Greek alchemy into the Arabic language and to adapt it to Islamic science. Nine philosophers take part in a discussion being once the text has been transcribed back to the original Arabic Anaximander Anaximenes Anaxagoras Empedocles Archelaus Leucippus Ecphantus Pythagoras and Xenophanes. The statements of the philosophers whilst usually different from the known beliefs of the pre-Socratics are usually recognisable as outgrowths of Greek philosophy. They discuss matter how it acts and relate this to cosmology with three theses presented by Xenophanes in his closing speech being again from Plessner:1) The creator of the World is Allah the God of Islam; 2) The world is of a uniform nature; 3) All creatures of the upper as well as of the lower world are composed of all four elements.