Al-Tughrai

Who was Al-Tughrai?

Mu'ayyad al-Din Abu Isma‘il al-Husayn ibn Ali al-Tughra'i was an 11th–12th century Persian physician.

Mu'ayyad al-Din al-Tughra'i, was born in Isfahan in 1061CE, and was an important alchemist, poet, and administrative secretary. He ultimately became the second most senior official in the civil administration of the Seljuki empire.

He was, however, executed unjustifiably, according to most historians in the year 1121. After a Seljuk power struggle.

He was a well-known and prolific writer on astrology and alchemy, and many of his poems are preserved today as well. In the field of alchemy, al-Tughra'i is best known for his large compendium titled Mafatih al-rahmah wa-masabih al-hikmah, which incorporated extensive extracts from earlier Arabic alchemical writings, as well as Arabic translations from Zosimos of Panopolis old alchemy treatises written in Greek, which were until 1995 erroneously attributed to unknown alchemists by mistakes and inconsistencies in the transliteration and transcription of his name into Arabic.

In 1112CE, he also composed Kitab Haqa'iq al-istishhad, a rebuttal of a refutation of the occult in alchemy written by Ibn Sina.