Given Jabir's purported ties with both the Shi'ite Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and the Barmakid family (who served the Abbasids as viziers), or with the Abbasid caliphs themselves, it has sometimes been thought plausible that Ḥayyān al-ʿAṭṭār ("Hayyan the Druggist"), a proto-Shi'ite activist who was fighting for the Abbasid cause in the early 8th century, may have been Jabir's father (Jabir's name "Ibn Hayyan" literally means "The Son of Hayyan"). Although there is no direct evidence supporting this hypothesis, it fits very well in the historical context, and it allows us to think of Jabir, however obscure, as a historical figure. However, it has recently been shown that Ḥayyān al-ʿAṭṭār was a client ("mawlā") of the Nakhaʿ tribe, which renders it highly improbable that he should have been the father of Jabir.