Was looking up the history of soju, learned the process of making it came to Korea because of the Mongols and it was called the Levantine distillation process. This lead me to learn that both the root word for alcohol and the process of making the hard stuff came from the Arabs.
All I can say is thank you Arabic science for making my new years that much better!
He may also have not existed at all and was a pen name used by a group of alchemists.
Interesting how history plays out, considering many Arabs by way of Islam won't touch the stuff now. Neat :caught-in-4che:
fun thing the wiki page says is that it was invented during the time islam was quite firmly set into their culture. Ibn Hayyan said he didn't see any use for it beyond the scientific, but apparently when it got out to the common folk they fucking loved it. Arak's attributed to being the first liquor made through the Levantine distillation process, and is still drunk to this day in the arabian peninsula.
My dad had a bottle of arak growing up, its good stuff!
Similar flavor profiles, I think. Been a long, long time.
Actual practices regarding alcohol have varied wildly across different times and cultures throughout Islamic history. There's a lot of famous Muslim poetry about how awesome wine is.
Nonmuslims with time machine: Hello, I am your grandchild
Muslims with time machine: No Jabir, don't!
Critical support:
Distillation good, but I can't fully support anyone involved in m*th
Alcohol has a neat etymology. It's the same root as Khol, the dark eye make up youstereotypically see on ancient egyptians. If I remember correctly "kohl" went from meaning fine consmetics to any highly refined substance. When ibn Hayyan figured out how to distill alcohol it came to be associated with refined beer or wine or whatever. Then al-kohol migrated in to English as alcohol.
