The issue of desalination of salt water has captured the attention of many scientists of Islamic civilization due to the suffering of people who lived in dry areas with scarce fresh water and rain resources. The idea of desalination of salt water was a lifeline that provided them with sufficient quantities of fresh water. This research shows the antiquity of the idea of desalination of salt water, and studies the attempts of Arab scientists to invent many methods in an attempt to get rid of the salinity of water. Among the most significant findings of this study are: The idea of pure water distillation was clear to the Arab scientist Jabir ibn Hayyan, who invented a special device for pure distillation and called it the alembic, and this device is still used in modern laboratories for the same purpose. Jabir ibn Hayyan applied two methods for water distillation, and the principle of the basic water distillation experiment has been adopted in many modern laboratories for water desalination.
Article Banner: De Materia Medica 1224 Preparation of Medicine (Wikipedia)
Note: This article is a follow-up to a previous article, Water Sterilization Technology in Muslim Civilisation, and it was originally published in the Research Journal of Aleppo University- A Series of History of Arabic Sciences as “Desalination Technology in the Arab Scientific Heritage Until the End of the Seventh Century H / the Thirteenth Century A.D”.
Water in nature varies, some are fresh, some are turbid, some are mineral in taste, and some are salty. Therefore, since ancient times, have sought various methods to improve poor quality water to make it suitable for drinking and use.
The salty water that is abundant in nature remained one of the biggest challenges he faced, so he began to invent methods and ways to desalinate it, because water means life to man.
The research addresses the topic of desalination of salty water in the Arab scientific heritage, which is a topic that has not received sufficient attention from researchers before. This topic is highly relevant today, as it addresses the critical issue of fresh water scarcity that affects most countries worldwide and highlights the urgent need for a sustainable water resource to meet growing demands.
The process of desalination is known as the process of separating fresh water from the salts dissolved in it (whether seawater or well water).
Maritime transport played an important role in the lives of the Greeks, as ships sailed the seas on exploratory, commercial and military trips, and the greatest concern of the passengers of the ships was to maintain the freshwater supply that would provide them with life until they reached the nearest port, so their scientists tried to invent ways to help them desalinate seawater.
Figure 1. Roman ship with sails, oars, and a steering oar – Ulixes mosaic in the Bardo (Wikipedia)
…and the Arab sources – which translated the Greek books – conveyed their ideas on this subject, as Ibn Rubin al-Tabari (died 250 H/864 AD) quotes from Greek books what can be considered the first reference in written history to desalination of water according to the sources available to us, while talking about the reason for the salinity and coldness of water:
“The philosopher [Aristotle] said: Among the evidence that fresh water is lighter than salty water is that if you took wax and made a hollow vessel from it that has no mouth, and put it in the sea for a day and a night, you would find fresh water inside it, because fresh water penetrates into its interior due to its lightness and softness, while salty water does not penetrate due to its thickness.” [1]
The question that arises here is what material is the wax ball proposed by the philosopher Aristotle made of, which allows water to enter it? It is known that wax is a solid, flexible, waterproof material that has the properties of polishing, sticking, filling and plasticity, and is used in the manufacture of covering and packaging materials. The ancient Egyptians used it in mummifying the dead to protect the body from the surrounding factors of damage, and the inhabitants of Mesopotamia and the Phoenicians used it in the manufacture of textiles and leather that are resistant to water and corrosion [2].
However, it seems that the ancient Greeks knew the property of fatty and greasy substances extracted from animals, which is their ability to absorb water, so they were used since ancient times in the composition of skin moisturizing ointments, and are currently called absorbent bases, and are currently defined as semi-solid, non-aqueous pharmaceutical preparations, but they are capable of absorbing a limited amount of water or aqueous pharmaceutical solutions, to produce emulsions prepared for application to the skin or mucous membranes, and the ability of the absorbent base to absorb water is attributed to the presence of some fatty substances that contain polar groups in their chemical structure capable of attracting water, and their ability to absorb water varies according to their composition and the proportion of these polar groups, Some animal fats, especially the fat of fully grown cattle and sheep, were used in the past to make candles and soap [3].
Ibn al-Baytar (died 646 H/1248 AD) mentioned in his book Al-Jami’ li-Mufradat al-Adwiya wa al-Aghdhiyya (The Compendium of simple Drugs and Foods) what Galen (129-199 AD) wrote in his fifteenth article on fat in his book, The Composition of Medicines, saying:
“pig fat is the moistest of all fats… and for this reason it is mixed with medicines that are beneficial for hot tumors.” [4]
Then he mentioned the different types of animal fats such as goat fat, duck fat, rooster and chicken fat, bull fat, ram fat, snake fat, and bear fat.
Figure 2. Wool fat/grease cream (Lanolin Natural) (Source)
He also mentioned what Dioscorides (who was alive in the first century AD) said in his second article on fat in his book Al-Hasha’ish (Weeds), describing several methods for extracting these fats purely and their uses in making different types of drinks and medicines [5].
Aristotle (384-322 BC) may have meant wax made from wool fat, so it seems that the Greeks knew the substance of wool fat (lanolin). Lanolin is a pure, anhydrous waxy substance obtained from raw sheep wool. It is a white-yellow fatty material that, and when melted, becomes a clear or nearly clear yellow liquid. Its melting point ranges from 38 to 44 degrees, and 10 grams of lanolin absorbs more than 20 ml of water [6].
Figure 3. Wool Fat -lanoli (Lanolin ointment)
Dioscorides mentioned therapeutic recipes in which dirty wool is used, and recipes in which clean wool is used, saying:
“Wool that is still dirty is suitable for accepting things (i.e. absorbing them) that are placed on the organs that are exposed to disintegration and are struck by anything, if what is placed is of the same type as what is used to grease and make the organ sweat, then it helps these things to mix with it strongly due to the dirt in it.” [7]
This method appeared again by the philosopher Ibn Rushd (520-595 H / 1126-1198 AD) in his book Al-Athar Al-Alawiyyah (Astronomical events), where he mentioned while talking about the salinity of the sea:
“And among the evidence for that is also that if a hollow ball is made of bitumen and thrown into the sea, fresh water enters its interior.” [8]
The reader may be surprised by the use of tar in making the hollow ball, but Ibn al-Baytar mentioned in his book al-Jami` that:
“The people of Morocco call wax tar” [9]
Ibn Al-Qaf Al-Karaki (630-685 H/1233-1286 AD) confirms this method, saying:
“What was mentioned about the desalination of salty water is that you take a funnel ball that is empty from the inside, and put it in the aforementioned water, then its inside will be filled with sweet water.” [10]
Unfortunately, he did not mention the material from which the funnel ball was made.
Another method has appeared to get rid of the salinity of water, similar to a modern method used today for desalination, which is the ion exchange method, which was mentioned by Galen. This method involves adding various materials to salt water to reduce its salinity, with clay being particularly noteworthy among them. Galen says:
“If the water is salty, throw in it Shamy carob, myrtle fruits, hawthorn, and Khuzay clay, or gruel, as all of that will make it sweet.” [11]
This method is further explained by Ibn Wahshiyya (who lived in the fourth century H/tenth century AD) in his book al-Filahat al-Nabatia (Nabataean Agriculture), which he translated from the language of the Kasdanians into Arabic:
“As for bitter salty water, to ward off its harm, sticky red clay is poured over it after it dries, then sprinkled over it, and left in it for an hour, then filtered and drunk, or pieces of new brick are taken, thrown over it, soaked in it for two hours, then drunk.” [12]
The principle of the ion exchange method is based on the fact that when salts dissolve in water, their complex components separate into negative ions and positive ions. Accordingly, the chemical system for removing salt ions is called ion exchange. Ion exchange has been used for a long time in reverse methods for removing water hardness by replacing sodium ions with calcium ions to obtain Clearwater instead of hard water [13].
Figure 4. Definition of ion exchange and working principle (Source)
Ion exchange is used in the purification and separation of impurities from water and other liquids by means of ion exchangers. Common ion exchangers include resin, clay, and clay soil [14]. Clay is used because it is composed mainly of very small, plate-shaped particles of alumina and silica bound together with water [15].
Clay is viscous in nature and is highly absorbent. Clay minerals are crystalline granules that have the ability to gain and lose water and also have a high ability to exchange ions without changing the structure of the clay mineral.
It is interesting to discover the principle of this method since ancient times, despite the lack of knowledge of the chemical properties of salt water or an explanation of the mechanism by which salinity is eliminated from water.
It seems that Arab scientists learned about this method from translated Greek books, and confirmed its validity, so they used it a lot, so we find almost the same words in Thabit bin Qurra (221-228 H / 826-901 AD):
“For the traveler who want to drink water, if it is salty, mix it with plain sakangbin (a drink made from honey and vinegar) , or some vinegar, or throw in it Shamy carob, or myrtle fruits, or hawthorn, or free clay.” [16]
Figure 5-6. Crepe Myrtle (Lagerstroemia) and Hawthorn Berry (Crataegus)
It was also mentioned by the physician Al-Razi (251-320 H/865-925 AD) among the methods used to get rid of the salinity of water:
“As for salty water, the taste of its saltiness is eliminated by throwing into it free clay that has no saltiness in it, or new bricks, or oven pottery, then filtering it and drinking it.” [17]
The Umayyad era witnessed an increasing interest in religious sciences such as interpretation, hadith, jurisprudence, and Arabic language sciences. On the other hand, signs of interest in worldly sciences such as history and politics appeared. The first Umayyad Caliph, Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan (who assumed power in 40 H/661 AD), was fond of learning about the lives of kings and princes to gain experience from the experiences of those who preceded him, as Al-Masudi (died 346 H/956 AD) mentioned [18].
Despite the scarcity of references in Arab sources that talk about the beginning of the scientific and practical renaissance at the beginning of the Umayyad era, they agree that the Umayyad prince Khalid bin Yazid bin Muawiyah was the first to start this renaissance.
Khalid was nominated for the caliphate after his brother Muawiyah bin Yazid abdicated, but he abdicated to Marwan bin Al-Hakam, and he turned to seeking knowledge, driven by his passion that he inherited from his grandfather for books and sciences, so he was
“the first to speak about the science of chemistry, and wrote books about it, and explained the making of the al-Ixir and the Balance, and studied the books of the philosophers of the people of Islam.” [19]
Ibn Kathir (701-774 H / 1301-1372 AD) spoke about Khalid bin Yazid:
“He was the most knowledgeable of the Quraysh in the arts of science, and he had experience in medicine, and he was very interested in chemistry, and he had benefited from that from a monk named Maryans, and Khalid was eloquent, articulate, poetic, and logical.” [20]
Khalid encouraged the translation of scientific books, especially those related to chemistry.
“Khalid bin Yazid bin Muawiyah was called the wise man, and he had ambition and a love for science. He wanted to learn the craft (chemistry), so he ordered the translation of books from Greek and Coptic into Arabic. This was the first translation in Islam from one language to another.” [21] Al-Jahiz (150-255 H/767-868 AD) confirms in his book Al-Bayan wa al-Tabyin: “Khalid bin Yazid bin Muawiyah was the first to translate books on astronomy, medicine, and chemistry.” [22]
Khalid wrote several books in which he summarized his work and research in the field of chemistry.
“Some of his books: Paradise of Wisdom in the Science of Chemistry, The Book of the Great Sahifa, The Book of the Small Sahifa, The Wonderful Secret in the Inaccessible Symbol in the Science of Palmistry, and the Articles of Marianus the Monk.” [23]
This passion for science made Khalid think of new methods to extract fresh water from the salty sea water (desalination by distillation).
Ibn Asakir (630-711 H/1232-1311 AD) mentioned a funny incident that shows the beginnings of Arab scientific research and the research mentality that Khalid possessed, saying:
“Khalid was present one day in the council of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, and those present discussed the matter of water, so Khalid said: Some of it comes from the sky, and some of it is drawn by the clouds from the sea and is sweetened by thunder and lightning, but as for what comes from the sea, no plants grow from it, and as for plants, they grow from the water of the sky, then he said: If you wish, I will sweeten the water of the sea for you, so he brought jugs of water, then he described how it is sweetened.” [24]
Perhaps this was the first indication in Arab-Islamic history of how to desalinate and purify seawater by applying the principles of chemistry, distillation and evaporation, as is currently done in seawater desalination factories.
Unfortunately, Ibn Asakir did not detail the method of the experiment. Did Khalid desalinate the water using the evaporation method, which is done by placing the water in a flat container, covering it with a glass container, and exposing it to sunlight, so that the sunlight passes through the glass and the vapors condense on it at the same time.
This method was used in modern times for the first time in Chile more than a hundred years ago, where evaporation units with a glass roof were built [25].
Did he desalinate the water by distillation? The distillation method depends on boiling water in a special vessel to convert it into steam using heat, then condensing the steam to turn it into a liquid using an alembic, and collecting the condensed liquid in a special flask. This method is used to rid the liquid of suspended and dissolved materials.
We believe that Khalid implemented the first method because the discussion in the council was about how seawater evaporates by sunlight, and turns into rain clouds later. It seems that Khalid tried to imitate the action of nature after understanding the hydrological cycle of water in nature and the process of natural distillation when water vapor in the atmosphere condenses on the surface of a river or land with slight differences in temperature. This is somewhat similar to the natural water cycle when surface water (seas, oceans and lakes) evaporates, then it is suspended in the atmosphere as vapor or fog or rises to the top to form clouds, then the clouds rain, or the water spray carried by the fog collides with a solid body, and the vapor next to the ground condenses as dew drops [26].
Figure 7. Water cycle showing human influences and major pools (storages) and fluxes. (Wikipedia)
The idea of water distillation was clarified by Jabir ibn Hayyan ibn Abdullah al-Azdi, about whom there are many and very different stories, but some sources state that he died in the year (200 H / 815 AD) [27], and he had a major role in developing the science of chemistry, so many titles were given to him, including “the great professor”, “the father of chemistry”, and “the sheikh of Muslim chemists”
Jabir ibn Hayyan was a student of Imam Jaafar al-Sadiq (80-148 H/699-765 AD) [28], and a student of Khalid ibn Yazid ibn Muawiyah from his writings and works, and from these sources he received his knowledge, and excelled in the field of chemistry, and truly became the father of chemistry as he laid the foundations for the beginning of modern chemistry.
The process of impure distillation was known to the Babylonians, Egyptians and Greeks since ancient times to extract the oils of some plants [29].
Figure 8. Essential Oils (Wikipedia)
But Jabir ibn Hayyan was the first to describe the method of pure distillation to purify chemicals and water [30], where he made a glass distillation device with a long funnel that is still known today as the “Alembic” [31].
Figure 9. Alembic – an alchemical still consisting of two vessels connected by a tube, used for the distillation of liquids (Wikipedia) Gourd and alembic: They are either made of pottery or glass and resemble the distillation devices used today. The alembic consists of two vessels, each in the shape of a hemisphere in which the material to be sublimated or distilled is placed. It is called the gourd and is connected to the second, called the qabalah, and the connection between them is sealed with clay. Then a deep hole is dug and a wood fire is lit in it and the vessel containing the materials is thrown into the hole. Meanwhile, the process of sublimation and condensation takes place inside the two vessels. This process is similar to the sublimation and distillation processes used today in purifying chemical materials. Darkal, Banan, Ancient Arabic Chemical Names and Terms, Apr 2006,(Source)
Jabir explained two methods of pure distillation by using his device:
The first method: Distilling water with drying. He said:
“take a gourd (heating jug) pressed in the middle, and pour water into its ground, then take the bamboo rods and split them in half, then make a ring out of them, Then put it in the middle (the narrow place of the gourd) and close it the with cotton, and tighten the closure with threads between the rods so that the steam does not pass through it without the water, and tighten the connection to it from the outside – I mean the alembic (condenser) and the gourd – after bending the ends of the rods towards the alembic trench, and your bending of it should be before installing it for a period of time so that it does not open during work, Then distill it dry over low heat.” [32]
The second method is the method of distillation by moisture (sublimation):
Water is poured “into a gourd in a cauldron containing water, and the gourd is suspended so that it does not reach the bottom of the cauldron, and there is water in the cauldron that reaches a level of less than half the gourd, then a strong fire is lit under the cauldron until the water boils violently, then the water is dripped from the gourd into the receiver (receiving bottle) as we did in the first method, but the water was distilled in that method by dryness, and here it was distilled by moisture, and whenever the water decreases from the cauldron, hot water is poured into the cauldron until it returns to its level.” [33]
Thus, Jabir was able to separate the water he wanted to prepare by sublimating it into steam and then condensing it back into a liquid.
Jabir explained the need to distill water several times, showing the difference between the results of the filtration process and the distillation process according to the nature and type of impurities that mix with the water and pollute it, saying:
“The dirt in the water is mixed with its own mass, so filtration only purifies what is coarse and dry from it, but what is fine and delicate from it, filtration does nothing to it at all, the fire takes what is in it of filth and eats it and eradicates it because it is ready to burn, even if it is mixed with the body of the water, so it goes and the water remains, and filtration does not burn anything of it, but what is coarse and dry is hidden, and what is dissolved in the water comes out in the water, so this is the reason for it.” [34]
The words of Jabir ibn Hayyan show that he had understood the type of solids found in drinking water in the modern sense, and how to get rid of each type. The solids usually found in water are of a very different nature (organic-inorganic, volatile-fixed, dissolved in water-insoluble and remain suspended) [35].
In natural water used as a source for drinking water, most of the materials are in the form of dissolved bodies, suspended colloidal materials, and undissolved materials of large sizes. The origin of these materials may be animal, plant, or in the form of bacteria [36].
The filtration process can remove undissolved materials of large sizes, but it is not able to remove the materials dissolved in the water, and this is what Jabir bin Hayyan explained in his previous statement.
Figure 10. Artistic impression of Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber in Latin) (Wikipedia)
Modern scientific references mention that the principle of the distillation method was the basis on which modern seawater distillation plants called conventional distillation plants (conventional alembic) or single-action evaporator were based. Then this method was developed so that several units of the project operated at different pressures, and the distillation plant was called a multi-action evaporator.
This model has been used for more than a hundred years in sugar factories, salt extraction and other industries, as well as in early desalination works ]37].
The orientalist Gustave Le Bon mentioned that (Jabir was the first to describe in his books basic works such as distillation, crystallization, dissolution and conversion…). [38]
The distillation method became widespread. It was mentioned by the physician Abu Bakr al-Razi, who worked for a long time in the field of chemistry, in his book, The Secret of Secrets, he described the tools he and his predecessors invented and used in preparing medicines or administering drugs. He said, describing the tools used in the wet method:
“The gourd, and the alembic with a long tube, capable of distilling water. The secret is that the gourd should be large and thick, with no protrusion at the bottom, and the alembic should be firmly fixed to it, and the pot on which the gourd is placed should be in the shape of a cauldron, and the gourd should be immersed in water to the top of the medicine, and there should be a jug near the stove containing boiling water, which is added to the pot whenever it is low. Be careful not to pour cold water into the gourd, and secure the gourd tightly so that it does not move or its bottom hits the bottom of the pot and break.” [39]
Al-Razi also described the method of dry distillation and the tools used in this process, saying:
“It may be distilled from a gourd covered with clay, and hung in the stove on a clay stand, and a soft fire is lit under it. Whenever the stove heats up and begins to distill heavily, the fire must be turned off until the distillation calms down and stops. The gourd may be placed in a pot containing ash and a fire is lit under it, and this is more specific.” [40]
Al-Razi re-explains the distillation process when he talks about the methods of extracting pure water from turbid water (not salty water), but since he was a man who had a close connection with the people and the society around him, he was aware of the troubles of people’s daily lives, and how much they needed to simplify things, so he changed some parts of the alembic, and replaced them with things found in homes and within the reach of the general public, explaining the distillation process in a simple way that would be easy for people to understand so that they would be able to apply it in their homes. He used simple tools such as a clay pot instead of a glass pot, and wool instead of a thin tube, saying:
“Or by cooking and fluffy wool in this manner, which is to put water in a clay pot, and place a split reed on top of it, and above it a fleece of pure, washed wool, and light a thin fuel under it, and squeeze the wool when it is wet with steam.” [41]
Thus, anyone could perform the distillation process and obtain pure fresh water. It seems that this method became widespread among people. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (691-751 H / 1292-1349 AD) mentions it when he talks about seawater in his book, Prophetic Medicine, saying:
“And whoever is forced to drink it, there are methods of treatment that will ward off its harm. (Among them): to put it in a pot, and to put reeds on top of the pot with new, fluffy wool on them, and to light a fire under the pot until its steam rises to the wool. If it increases: to squeeze it, and to continue doing this until he collects what he wants, so that the steam produces fresh water in the wool, and the bitter salt remains in the pot.” [42]
Al-Razi mentioned the method of sublimation to sweeten salty water, saying:
“It is distilled from thin jars, so the distilled water becomes sweet. If it is possible to distill it with moisture in the same way as rose water is made, then it will produce sweet distilled water or water close to sweet, according to the strength of the fire and the thickness of its salt. If its saltiness is from a thick salt, the saltiness will leave it quickly with this treatment. If it is from ammonia, or salt blossom, or borax, then that is more difficult.” [43]
Figure 11. Pharmacist preparing drugs. From a MS of the Arabic translation of Dioscorides’ Materia Medica (Wikipedia)
This method remained popular among people, so Ibn Butlan (died 435 H/1043 AD) mentioned the method of desalinating salt water by distillation, but by using other tools, as he placed a clay pot with very small pores in the salt water, so the distillation process turned into filtration, as he said:
“The salinity of salt water is managed by distillation with an alembic and gourd, or filtration by placing a collection vessel in the salt water so that fresh water filters into it.” [44]
In this way, Ibn Butlan applies what is known in modern times as Fick’s first law of diffusion. This law is named after the German scientist Adolf Fick who derived it in 1855 AD, and this law links the diffusion flow of a substance in a medium, and the concentration field of this substance.
This law relates the diffusion flux of a substance within a medium to its concentration field. The underlying assumption of this law is that the flux is from areas of high concentration in the field to areas of low concentration, in an amount proportional to the concentration gradient in the field. [45].
Thus, Arab scientists invented a new method for desalinating salt water based on their precise observations of natural phenomena. They applied the law of diffusion several centuries before it was mentioned by the German scientist Adolf Fick.
The attempts of Arab Muslim scientists to invent many methods in an attempt to get rid of the salinity of water began in the early Umayyad era by Khalid bin Yazid bin Muawiyah, who studied chemistry and made the first attempts to desalinate salt water. Then, the idea of distilling water fermented and became clear at the hands of Jabir bin Hayyan bin Abdullah Al-Azdi, who invented a special device for distillation and called it the alembic. This device is still used in modern laboratories to the same extent, and the experiment of distilling water is still the basic principle on which many modern seawater desalination plants depend.
Arab Muslim scientists also invented a new method for desalinating salt water based on their accurate observations of natural phenomena, so they applied the law of diffusion before the German scientist Adolf Fick mentioned it several centuries ago.
These scientists were not far from reality, as they realized the difficulty of people’s daily lives and the extent of their need to simplify things. They changed some parts of the alembic and replaced them with things found in homes and within the reach of the general public. They explained the distillation process in a simplified way that was easy for people to understand, so that they could apply it in their homes.
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