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Ibn Sina, known as the 'doctor of
doctors', was born in 370/980 in Afshana,
his mother's home, near Bukhara.
His native language was Persian. His
father, an official of the Samanid
administration, had him very carefully
educated at Bukhara. Ibn Sina is known
in the West as Avicenna. He displayed
exceptional intellectual prowess as a
child and at the age of ten was already
proficient in the Qur'an and the Arabic
classics. During the next six years he
devoted himself to Muslim Jurisprudence,
Philosophy and Natural Science and
studied Logic, Euclid, and the Almeagest.
His intellectual independence was served
by an extraordinary intelligence and
memory, which allowed him to surpass his
teachers at the age of fourteen.
He then shifted his attention to
Medicine at the age of 17 years and
found it, as described by him, "not
difficult". He did, however, find
difficulty in understanding Aristotle's
Metaphysics, which he grasped only with
the help of al-Farabi's commentary.
Having cured the prince of khurasan of a
severe illness, he was allowed to make
use of the splendid library of the
Samanid princes. At the age of eighteen
he had mastered all the then known
sciences. His subsequent progress was
due only to his personal judgment.
He became a reputable physician at the
age of 18 and was summoned to attend the
Samani ruler Nuh ibn Mansur (reigned
976-997 C.E.), who, in gratitude for Ibn
Sina's services, allowed him to use the
royal library, and there he found as
many rare and unique books as he wanted.
His training through contact with life
was at least equal to his development in
intellectual speculation. At the age of
twenty-one he wrote his first
philosophical book.
The death of his father forced him to
enter the administration in order to
earn his living. His judgment was
swiftly appreciated. Having consulted
him on medical matters, the princes had
recourse to him also in matters of
politics. He was a minister several
times, his advice being always listened
to and appreciated; but people started
to envy him, and he was sometimes
persecuted by his enemies and sometimes
coveted by princes opposing those to
whom he wished to remain loyal. He took
flight and was obliged to hide on
several occasions, earning his living by
medical consultations.
He then moved to Ray, near modern
Teheran and established a busy medical
practice. When Ray was besieged, Ibn
Sina fled to Hamadan where he cured
Prince Shamsud-Dawala of colic and was
made Prime Minister. A mutiny of
soldiers against him caused his
dismissal and imprisonment, but
subsequently the Prince, being again
attacked by the colic, summoned him
back, apologized and reinstated him! His
life at this time was very tiring:
during the day he was busy with the
Prince's services, while a great deal of
the night was passed in lecturing and
dictating notes for his books. Students
would gather in his house and read parts
of his two great books.
Following the death of the prince, Ibn
Sina fled to Isfahan after a few brushes
with the law, including a period in
prison. He spent his final years in the
services of the ruler of the city, Ala
al-Daula whom he advised on scientific
and literary matters and accompanied on
military campaigns.
His friends advised him to slow down and
take life in moderation, but this wasn't
his character and so he rejected their
advice. "I prefer a short life
with width to a narrow one with
length", he used to say.
Al-Qifti states that Ibn Sina completed
21 major and 24 minor works on
philosophy, medicine, theology,
geometry, astronomy and the like.
Another source (Brockelmann) attributes
99 books to Ibn Sina comprising 16 on
medicine, 68 on theology and metaphysics
11 on astronomy and four on verse. Most
of these were in Arabic; but in his
native Persian he wrote a large manual
on philosophical science entitled
Danish-naama-i-Alai and a small treatise
on the pulse.
Among Ibn Sina's scientific works, the
leading two are the Kitab al-Shifa (Book
of Healing), a philosophical
encyclopaedia based upon Aristotelian
traditions and the al-Qanun al-Tibb
which represents the final
categorisation of Greco-Arabian thoughts
on Medicine.
Of Ibn Sina's 16 medical works, eight
are versified treatises on such matter
as the 25 signs indicating the fatal
termination of illnesses, hygienic
precepts, proved remedies, anatomical
memoranda etc. Amongst his prose works,
after the great Qanun, the treatise on
cardiac drugs, of which the British
Museum possesses several fine
manuscripts, is probably the most
important, but it remains unpublished.
The most famous and most important of
Ibn Sina's works is the Qanun. It
recognizes the contagious nature of
phthisis (tuberculosis of the lung) and
the spread of disease by water and soil.
It gives a scientific diagnosis of
ankylostomiasis and attributes the
condition to an intestinal worm. The
Qanun points out the importance of
dietetics and how far the environment
can affect the health and the surgical
use of oral anaesthetics. Ibn Sina
advised surgeons to treat cancer in its
earliest stages, ensuring the removal of
all the diseased tissue. The Qanun's
materia medica considers some 760 drugs,
explaining their application and
effectiveness. He recommended the
testing of a new drug on animals and
humans prior to general use.
Ibn Sina stressed the close relationship
between emotions and the physical
condition and felt that music had a
definite physical and psychological
effect on patients.
The Arabic text of the Qanun was
published in Rome in 1593 and was
therefore one of the earliest Arabic
books to see print. It was translated
into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in the
12th century. This 'Canon', with its
encyclopedic content, its systematic
arrangement and philosophical plan, soon
worked its way into a position of
pre-eminence in the medical literature
of the age displacing the works of
Galen, al-Razi and al-Majusi, and
becoming the text book for medical
education in the schools of Europe.
In the museum at Bukhara, there are
displays showing many of Ibn Sina's
writings, surgical instruments from the
period and paintings of patients
undergoing treatment. An impressive
monument to the life and works of the
man who became known as the 'doctor of
doctors' still stands outside Bukhara
museum and his portrait hangs in the
Hall of the Faculty of Medicine in the
University of Paris.
Ibn Sina got imprisoned, escaped, lived
for fourteen years in relative peace at
the court of Isfahan and died at Hamadan,
during an expedition of the prince 'Ala'
al-Dawla, in 428/1037. He was buried
there; and a monument was erected to him
to celebrate the (hidhri) millenary of
his birth.
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