Abu Ali Ibn Sina

Abu Ali Ibn Sina (Abu Ali al-Husayn Ibn-Abdallah Ibn-Sina, Latinized as Avicenna)

(980-1037). 57 years

        The great Persian scholar, physician, philosopher, musician.
     Europeans often refer to Ibn Sina as Avicenna, as during the translation into Latin in the 12th century, the Latin pronunciation of his name “Aben” or “Aven Sina” transformed into “Avicenna,” and under this name, he became known in the West.

    He was born on August 16, 980, in the village of Afshana, near Bukhara. His father was a high-ranking official in the Samanid government. From an early age, he exhibited exceptional abilities and talents. By the age of ten, he had memorized almost the entire Quran. At 20, Ibn Sina began treating people without charging any fees, and by 22, he was already referred to as “the prince of physicians.” At the age of 27, he cured Nuh ibn Mansur, the emir of Bukhara from the Samanid dynasty, for which he was appointed court physician. Thus, Ibn Sina gained access to the magnificent library of the emir of Bukhara, where he spent long hours studying medicine, mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy.

     Ibn Sina lived in a turbulent era, and his life was equally changeable: years of prosperity were followed by years of wandering. Due to his genius in various fields, primarily medicine, he enjoyed the favor of the powerful, was a prominent statesman, and advisor to the greatest rulers, but during changes in power and political upheavals, he was forced to escape from persecution, sometimes on foot and sometimes on horseback, wandering in search of refuge across various cities of Central Asia and Iraq; at times, he survived solely by practicing medicine. Many of his works were written in the saddle during long journeys. He was imprisoned several times, where he also wrote part of his compositions.

    The biography of Ibn Sina recounts the story of his imprisonment in the fortress of Fardjan, built on a high cliff near Hamadan to protect the approaches to the capital. The commandant of the fortress suffered from deafness, which worsened over time. On the third day of his imprisonment, Ibn Sina examined his ears, washed them, and removed the earwax, after which the old man could distinguish familiar sounds. In gratitude for the healing, he ordered the scholar to be freed from chains, even bringing the prisoner paper from his own office, an inkwell, and a reed pen, and in captivity, Ibn Sina wrote “The Book of the Right Path,” and revised “The Book of Colics.”

     Ibn Sina had to serve at the courts of several sultans and emirs of that time; he was the court physician of the Samanid and Daylamite sultans, served for a time as vizier in Hamadan, and later settled in Isfahan, but he never knew complete peace, security, and tranquility.

     Thus, in 1030, after the capture of Isfahan by Masud of Ghazni, all of Ibn Sina’s belongings were looted. A vast encyclopedia titled Kitab al-Insaf (“The Book of Impartial Judgments,” 28,000 questions and answers in twenty volumes), where he contrasted his own philosophy, which he called “Eastern Philosophy” (hikmat mashriqiya), with the works of other thinkers, filled with difficulties and inconsistencies, disappeared. He managed to restore only a few fragments of this colossal work.

   Persecuted until the end of his life by enemies and envious individuals, he had no family, and with his health undermined, he met his death on the road – during the campaign of emir Alaeddin Dawud – in Hamadan in 1037, at the age of 57. Before his death, he ordered all his possessions to be distributed to the poor. He was buried in Hamadan (Iran), where his grave still stands.

    The treatises of Ibn Sina were extraordinarily popular in the East and the West. In total, there are more than two hundred works by Ibn Sina.
     The main work of Ibn Sina – the encyclopedia of theoretical and clinical medicine “The Canon of Medicine” (in 5 books) – is a synthesis of the views and experiences of Greek, Roman, Indian, and Central Asian physicians, where his system of medicine is outlined, which shares many similarities with Galen’s system.
     “The Canon of Medicine” is one of the most famous books in the history of medicine. This monumental work, comprising about 200 printed sheets, was already translated from Arabic into Latin in the twelfth century and circulated in numerous manuscripts. When the printing press was invented, “The Canon…” was among the first printed books, and in terms of the number of editions, it rivaled the Bible. The Latin text of “The Canon of Medicine” was first published in 1473, and the Arabic version in 1593 (in 4 volumes in Rome). There are many translations of “The Canon…” into Latin. The most thorough of them belongs to Plemiy (Lviv, 1658). 
     “The Canon…” was for many centuries a mandatory guide for physicians, including in medieval Europe, and has undergone about 30 Latin editions.
     The exact date of the completion of work on “The Canon…” is not established. It is presumed to be 1020.

    Ibn Sina also expressed his medical discoveries in poetic form in the form of a poem, and he did this intentionally: in the form of verse, instructions are better perceived and remembered by descendants.
    “The Poem on Medicine” (Urjuza), written by Ibn Sina, is still alive today. It is located in the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan (Tashkent). This is the second most significant medical work of Ibn Sina after the famous “Canon of Medicine.”

  From “The Poem on Medicine”:             About food and drink
                                              “Food is worthy of praise if again
                                              It will replace and purify the blood.
                                              Fish is certainly useful for those,
                                              Who are weakened, completely exhausted.
                                              Sharp and pungent are onion, garlic, mustard,
                                            But great benefits lie hidden in them”.

     In “The Treatise on the Pulse,” Ibn Sina describes over 60 types of simple and 30 types of complex pulses, as well as discusses their diagnostic significance.

   Any book written by Avicenna contains separate chapters dedicated to issues of private and general pharmacology. He examines over 3000 simple and complex medicinal substances, more than 80% of which are plant-based.

     Ibn Sina is still referred to as “the immortal great thinker of the East.” His discoveries pertain not only to medicine but also to philosophy, mathematics, poetry, and literary studies.

    His philosophical works have also been published in Latin translation. Scholastics particularly focused on Avicenna’s work on metaphysics (serving as a commentary on Aristotle’s metaphysics). The main philosophical works – “The Book of Healing,” “The Book of Guidance and Instructions,” and others – also contain natural scientific views and musical-theoretical positions of Ibn Sina.

     Avicenna’s aphorism:         “Of wisdom they say: it is priceless,
                                                      But the world pays not a penny for it”.

     And another aphorism:       “About your stomachache,
                                                    Tell the sick – the healthy will not understand”.

        Legends are composed about Ibn Sina, tales are told, and parables are passed from mouth to mouth.
        Here we present some of them, reminding in case that folk legends and traditions usually have little in common with reality and cannot be used as facts in the biography of the great Teacher…

Ibn Sina. Parables:

– Observance and Sensitivity
– Female Cunning and Truth
– Sounds of the Heart
– Ingenuity
– Practical Psychology