نبذة مختصرة : Arabic alchemical literature includes a series of didactic dialogues, which present a wise master answering questions from a disciple, usually of royal lineage. The characters systematically bear foreign names – notably Greek, Persian and Indian – and constantly rely on the authority of Greek alchemists. Some of these dialogues are presented as translations from Greek. This literary form seems to be by nature a privileged form for studying the transmission of the occult sciences in the Arab-Muslim world. However, even if it is a priori an open and explicit teaching, the occult character of the art is not different from that of other forms of alchemical treatises. Nevertheless, when faced the disciple’s perplexity, the master may have recourse to comparisons (qiyÄs) with other craft techniques or sciences, whose concreteness contrasts with the authoritative argument of the Ancients. On the technical side, textile dyeing is the most frequently mentioned, but comparisons are also made with bread making, glass making, cooking, pharmacology, agriculture or even carpentry. As far as the sciences are concerned, most of the comparisons relate to the natural sciences: human generation and nature, medicine and botany. Alongside this, there are also some references to astronomy and arithmetic. In this paper, I will present some rich examples of these comparisons, taken from different alchemical dialogues. I will then try to show in which contexts and with which objectives these comparisons are used by the authors of these texts. Finally, I will study what status the master gives to these sciences and craft techniques in relation to alchemy.
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