A tribute to Avicenna
Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
980-1037 AD
Image courtesy of
the National Library of Medicine -
Washington DC
Lyman
Phillips is pleased to submit this
information to CyberMedics on the Persian philosopher and physician,
Avicenna.
Who was Avicenna?
Avicenna was a Persian Muslim
philosopher and physician in the Middle Ages who compiled many works, the
most famous of which isThe Canon of Medicine, a definitive
encyclopedia of Greek and Roman medical achievement.
Avicenna, or Ibn Sina was very
influential to both the Islamic world and the Latin middle ages. He was
born in a village near Bukhara in Turkistan. At the age of 18 he could
consider himself an accomplished physician and had acquired immense
philosophical knowledge as displayed in his large philosophical
encyclopedias and in his numerous small treatises. After the collapse of
the Samanid empire in 999 he decided to leave Bokhara. About 1020 he was
Vizier in Hamadan. The last 14 years of his life were spent in the company
of 'Ala ad-Daula, the ruler of Isfahan, whom he accompanied on all his
journeys and on military ventures. He died in Isfahan in 1037 and was
buried Hamadan. His existing writings, some of which are in his native
Persian though most are in Arabic, include an autobiography (completed by
an intimate pupil).
Medical Works
The work for which Avicenna is best
remembered for is Al-Qanun fi'l-Tibb ("The Canon of
Medicine"), a systematic encyclopedia based for the most part on the
achievements of Greek physicans of the Roman imperial age and on other
Arabic works, and, to a lesser extent, on his own experience (his own
clinical notes were lost during his journeys). The influence if this work
is evident not only because of its influence in the Islamic world (which
was already quite advanced at this time), but was also studied in European
universities for centuries, first in a 12th-century translation by Gerard
of Cremona (printed 15 times before 1500) and then in a new translation by
Andrea Alpago of Belluno (1527 and later editions). It was also the second
text ever to be printed in Arabic (1593). Today, in a time in which major
discoveries are made yearly, the creation of a work which is relevant for
500 years points to Avicenna's insight and understanding of the medical
sciences.
Philosophical Works
Avicenna's works are of a synoptic
nature, the most notable being a philosophical encyclopedia. As Avicenna
mastered the medical knowledge of his era, he sought to master the other
great discipline of the Islamic world, philosophy. For Avicenna,
philosophy was the true path to understanding. His summaries of Aristotle
reveal a Neoplatonic outlook, especially in his emphasis on the dualism of
mind and matter. He saw matter as passive and creation as the act of
instilling existence into this passive substance; only in the divine are
being and existence one.
Bibliography
For a general account, see:
S. M. Afnan, Avicenna, His Life and
Works (1958, repr. 1980); L. E. Goodman, Avicenna (1992).
For Avicenna's medicine see:
J. Hirschberg and J. Lippert, Die
Augenheilkunde des Ibn Sina (1902)
P. de Konining, Trois traites d'anatomie arabes (1903)
O. Cameron Gruner, A Treatise on the Canon of Medicine of Avicenna
Incorporating a Translation of the First Book (1930)
H. Jahier and A. Noureddine, Urjuzat fi'l-Tibb (1955)
For Avicenna's philosophy, see:
Heath, P. Allegory and Philosophy in
Avicenna (, 1992)
M. Horten, Die Metaphysik Avicenna (1907)
N. Carame, Avicennae metaphysics compendium (1926)
F. Rahman, Avicenna's Psychology (1952)
E. L. Fackenheim, "A Treatise on Love by Ibn Sina," Medieval
Studies (1945)
J. Arberry, Avicenna on Theology (1951)
Online Resources
Avicenna's
Dome
Ibn Sina of
Persia
Some material excerpted from Compuserve
Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia and the Encyclopaedia Brittanica.
Additional text original.
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