Muslims Profiles: Ibn Sina

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.

Source: ummah.net