ibn sina biography in english

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Ibn Sina, also known by his Latinized name in Europe as Avicenna, was a Persian philosopher and polymath, born in 980 CE. Regarded as one of the most influential thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age, Ibn Sina wrote extensively on philosophy of ethics and metaphysics, medicine, astronomy, alchemy, geology psychology and Islamic theology. He was also a logician, mathematician and a poet.

Born in Afshana, Bukhara in Central Asia, his work on medicine, specifically the Canon, or the Qanun fil Tibb , was taught in schools in the Islamic world and in Europe alike till the early modern era. His treatise on philosophy, the Cure, or al Shifa , was greatly influential on European scholastics, such as Thomas Aquinas .

Chiefly being a metaphysical philosopher, Ibn e Sina attempted at presenting a comprehensive system linking human existence and experiences with its contingency, while staying in harmony with the Islamic exigency. Thus, he is considered as the first significant Muslim philosopher of all times. He based his theories on God as the chief Existence, and this forms the foundations of his ideas on soul, human rationale and the cosmos. He also attempted at a philosophical interpretation of religion and religious beliefs.

For Ibn Sina, gaining education was of foremost importance. Grasping the logic and the comprehensible is the first step towards determining the fate of one’s soul, thereby deciding human actions. For Ibn Sina, people can be categorized on the basis of their ability to grasp the intelligible. The highest category comprises of the prophets, who have pure rational souls and have knowledge of all things intelligible. The lowest is the person with an impure soul, who lacks the capability of developing an argument. People can elevate their position in the categories by having a rational approach, balanced temperament and by purifying their soul.

In the field of metaphysics, Ibn Sina differentiates between what exists and its essence. Essence is what comprises the nature of things, and should be recognized as something separate from the physical and mental realization of things. This difference applies to all things except God, said Ibn Sina. For him, God is the basic cause and so it is both the essence and the existence. He further argued that soul is ethereal and intangible; it cannot be destroyed. Is it the soul which compels a person to choose between good and evil in this world, and is a source of reward or punishment in the hereafter.

Being a devout Muslim himself, Ibn Sina applied rational philosophy at interpreting divine text and Islamic theology. His ultimate aim was to prove God’s presence and existence and the world is His creation through scientific reason and logic. His teachings and views on theology were part of the core curriculum of various schools across the Islamic world well into the nineteenth century. Ibn Sina also penned down a significant number of short treatise on Islamic theology and the prophets, whom he termed as ‘inspired philosophers’. He also linked rational philosophy with interpretation of Quran, the holy book of muslims.

Ibn e Sina passed away in June 1037, in the Hamadan area of Iran. Out of his 450 various publications and treatises, almost 240 of them have survived, majority of which belongs to philosophy and medicine.

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Abu ali al-husain ibn abdallah ibn sina (avicenna).

Destiny had plunged [ ibn Sina ] into one of the tumultuous periods of Iranian history, when new Turkish elements were replacing Iranian domination in Central Asia and local Iranian dynasties were trying to gain political independence from the 'Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad ( in modern Iraq ) .

... the power of concentration and the intellectual prowess of [ ibn Sina ] was such that he was able to continue his intellectual work with remarkable consistency and continuity and was not at all influenced by the outward disturbances.

... but he escaped to Isafan, disguised as a Sufi, and joined Ala al-Dwla.

... of a mysterious illness, apparently a colic that was badly treated; he may, however, have been poisoned by one of his servants.

... it is important to gain knowledge. Grasp of the intelligibles determines the fate of the rational soul in the hereafter, and therefore is crucial to human activity.

Ibn Sina sought to integrate all aspects of science and religion in a grand metaphysical vision. With this vision he attempted to explain the formation of the universe as well as to elucidate the problems of evil, prayer, providence, prophecies, miracles, and marvels. also within its scope fall problems relating to the organisation of the state in accord with religious law and the question of the ultimate destiny of man.

References ( show )

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• A de Libera, D'Avicenne à Averroès, et retour : Sur les sources arabes de la théorie scolastique de l'un transcendantal, Arabic Sci. Philos. 4 (1) (1994) , 6 - 7 , 141 - 179 .
• M E Mamura, Some aspects of Avicenna's theory of God's knowledge of particulars, J. Amer. Oriental Soc. 82 (1962) , 299 - 312 .
• P Morewedge, Philosophical analysis and Ibn Sina's 'Essence-Existence' distinction, J. Amer. Oriental Soc. 92 (1972) , 425 - 435 .
• H R Muzafarova, Basic planimetry concepts of Euclid's 'Elements' as presented by Qutb al-Din al Shirazi, Ibn Sina and their contemporaries ( Russian ) , Izv. Akad. Nauk Tadzhik. SSR Otdel. Fiz.-Mat. Khim. i Geol. Nauk (3)(77) (1980 , 16 - 23 .
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• I W Rath, Wie die Logik auf vor-Urteilen beruht : Überlegungen zu Aristoteles, zu Ibn Sina und zur modernen Logik, Conceptus 28 (72) (1995) , 1 - 19 .
• N Rescher, Avicenna on the logic of 'conditional' propositions, Notre Dame J. Formal Logic 4 (1963) , 48 - 58 .
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• A S Sadykov, Ibn Sina and the development of the natural sciences ( Russian ) , Voprosy Filos. (7) (1980) , 54 - 61 ; 187 .
• H M Said, Ibn Sina as a scientist, Indian J. Hist. Sci. 21 (3) (1986) , 261 - 269 .
• G Saliba, Ibn Sina and Abu 'Ubayd al-Juzjani : the problem of the Ptolemaic equant, J. Hist. Arabic Sci. 4 (2) (1980) , 403 - 376 .
• A N Shamin, The works of Ibn Sina in Europe in the epoch of the Renaissance ( Russian ) , Voprosy Istor. Estestvoznan. i Tekhn. (4) (1980) , 73 - 76 .
• S Kh Sirazhdinov, G P Matvievskaya and A Akhmedov, Ibn Sina and the physical and mathematical sciences ( Russian ) , Voprosy Filos. (9) (1980 , ) 106 - 111 .
• S Kh Sirazhdinov, G P Matvievskaya and A Akhmedov, Ibn Sina's role in the history of the development of the physico-mathematical sciences ( Russian ) , Izv. Akad. Nauk UzSSR Ser. Fiz.-Mat. Nauk (5) (1980) , 29 - 32 ; 99 .
• Z K Sokolovskaya, The scientific instruments of Ibn Sina ( Russian ) , in Mathematics and astronomy in the works of Ibn Sina, his contemporaries and successors ( Tashkent, 1981) , 48 - 54 ; 156 .
• T Street, Tusi on Avicenna's logical connectives, Hist. Philos. Logic 16 (2) (1995) , 257 - 268 .
• B A Tulepbaev, The scholar- encyclopedist of the medieval Orient Abu Ali Ibn Sina ( Avicenna ) ( Russian ) , Vestnik Akad. Nauk Kazakh. SSR (11) (1980) , 10 - 13 .
• A Tursunov, On the ideological collision of the philosophical and the theological ( on the example of the creative work of Ibn Sina ) ( Russian ) , Voprosy Filos. (7) (1980) , 62 - 75 ; 187 .
• A U Usmanov, Ibn Sina and his contributions in the history of the development of the mathematical sciences ( Russian ) , in Mathematics and astronomy in the works of Ibn Sina, his contemporaries and successors ( Tashkent, 1981) , 55 - 58 ; 156 .

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Ibn Sina’s Natural Philosophy

Ibn Sīnā (980–1037)—the Avicenna of Latin fame—is arguably the most important representative of falsafa , the Graeco-Arabic philosophical tradition beginning with Plato and Aristotle, extending through the Neoplatonic commentary tradition and continuing among philosophers and scientists in the medieval Arabic world. Avicenna’s fame in many ways is a result of his ability to synthesize and to extend the many intellectual trends of his time. These trends included not only the aforementioned Greek traditions, but also the Islamic theological tradition, Kalām, which was emerging at the same time that the Greek scientific and philosophical texts were being translated into Arabic. Avicenna’s own unique system survives in no fewer than three philosophical encyclopedias— Cure (or The Healing ), The Salvation and Pointers and Reminders . Each provides a comprehensive worldview ranging from logic to psychology, from metaphysics to ethics (although admittedly, ethics is treated only scantly). At the middle of this Avicennan worldview is natural philosophy or physics ( ʿilm ṭabīʿī ). The significance of natural philosophy, and Avicenna’s physics in particular, is twofold. First, it represents Avicenna’s best attempt to explain the sensible world in which we live and to provide the principles for many of the other special sciences. Second, Avicenna’s natural philosophy lays the foundations for a full understanding of his advancements in other fields. Examples of this second point include, but are certainly not limited to, the ramifications of logical distinctions for the sciences, the physical basis of psychology (as well as the limitation of physicalism for a philosophy of mind) and the introduction of key problems that would become the focal points of metaphysical inquiry. In all cases, Avicenna assumes his readers know their physics.

As others before him, Avicenna understands natural philosophy as the study of body insofar as it is subject to motion. Thus the present entry, after an overview of medieval physics generally, turns to Avicenna’s account of the nature of body followed by his account of motion. Central to an account of bodies is whether they are continuous or atomic, and so one must consider Avicenna’s critique of atomism and his defense and analysis of continuous magnitudes. The discussion of motion follows in two steps: one, his account of motion and, two, his account of the conditions for motion. The section on motion concentrates on Avicenna’s unique understanding of the Aristotelian definition of motion as the first actuality of potential as potential, while the conditions for motion involve his understanding of time and place.

1.1 Physical Causes and the Principles of Nature

2.1 general background, 2.2.1 kalām atomism, 2.2.2 avicenna’s criticisms of atomism, 2.3 continuity, 2.4 infinity and the shape of the cosmos, 2.5.1 the motions and qualitative powers of the elements.

• 2.5.2 Natural Minimums
• 3.1 Motion as First Actuality
• 3.2 Two Senses of Motion: Traversal and Medial Motion
• 3.3.1 The Genus and Species of Motion
• 3.3.2 An Analysis of Positional Motion
• 4.1 Place and Void
• 4.2 Time and the Age of the Universe
• al-Kindī
• Secondary Sources
• Other Internet Resources
• Related Entries

1. Medieval Physics

For Avicenna, the proper subject of natural philosophy, in its broadest or most general sense, is body insofar as it is subject to motion. Beyond general physics ( al-samāʿ al-ṭabīʿī ), the physical sciences are further divided into various special sciences distinguished according to either the kind of motion investigated or the kind of body treated. While Avicenna himself does not explicitly identify his decision procedure for dividing the special natural sciences, it is evidenced in the way that he divides up the books of his monumental encyclopedia of philosophy and the sciences, The Cure (al-Shifāʾ) . For example, his book On the Heavens and Earth (Fī l-Samāʾ wa-l-ʿālam) from The Cure generally treats rectilinear and circular motion; On Generation and Corruption (Fī l-Kawn wa-l-fasād) deals with change as it occurs in the Aristotelian category of substance, whereas On Actions and Passions (Fī l-Afʿāl wa-l-infiʿālāt) concerns how bodies are affected and affect one another with respect to, for example, the primary qualities of hot-cold and wet-dry, which they possess. Avicenna distinguishes additional special natural sciences according to the specific sort of body being considered, namely, whether the body is inanimate—generally the subject matter of Meteorology ( al-Maʿādin wa-l-āthār al-ʿulwiyya )—or the body is animate—the subject of psychology (literally, the science of the soul or animating principle). Avicenna further divides the study of living bodies into general psychology ( ʿilm al-nafs ), botany ( al-nabāt ) and zoology ( ṭabāʾiʿ al-hayawān ). The focus of the present study is limited primarily to Avicenna’s general natural philosophy, although at times the discussion is supplemented with developments in the special physical sciences.

The hallmark of natural philosophy and indeed of any science (sing. Gk. epistēmē , Ar. ʿilm ) for Avicenna and the entire Aristotelian tradition is to uncover and to grasp the basic causes (sing. ʿilla ) of the phenomenon under consideration. Like Aristotle before him, Avicenna identifies four sorts of causes: the matter, form, agent (or efficient cause) and end (or final cause) (Avicenna, [Ph], 1.10 and Avicenna, [MPh], bk. 6). For Avicenna the material cause is a wholly inert substratum for form. The matter explains any passivity or potentiality to be acted upon that a body might have. The form ( ṣūra ) is the cause, primarily, of a body’s being the actual kind or species that it is and performing the various actions associated with that species; secondarily, a form might be the cause of the accidental features and determinations that belong to that body (Avicenna occasionally uses hayʾa for this second sense of form). In general then, the form is the cause of any actuality, that is positive features or actions, that the body has or does. The efficient cause accounts for a body’s undergoing motion and change (or even for its existence), while the final cause is that for the sake of which the form occurs in the matter.

Unlike Aristotle, Avicenna also recognizes a broader division of causes into physical causes and metaphysical causes (Avicenna, [Ph], 1.10 [3]). The distinction is best approached by considering the Aristotelian division between substances and accidents as found in the ten categories. (Within the Aristotelian tradition, including Avicenna, the ten categories purport to provide the broadest classification of ways things are found ( mawjūd ) in the world; Avicenna, [Cat], 1.1 and [MPh], 3.1.) The primary category is that of substance, which for Avicenna is the existence that belongs to a thing through itself, for example, the existence that belong to a human as human or a dog as dog (Avicenna, [MPh], 2.1 [1–2]). Accidents are what exist in another, namely, in a substance, and include a substance’s quantity, quality, relation, where, when, position, possession, activity and passivity. Metaphysical causes involve what accounts for the existence and continual conservation of a substance, or, more exactly, of a concrete particular. Physical causes in contrast involve those factors that bring about changes in the accidental features of bodies, primarily changes of quality, quantity, location and position. For example, a father is responsible for seeing that his semen becomes located within the mother, and the mother ensures that the right womb temperature for the fetus is maintained and that the fetus is fed. Location, temperature, possession of nutriment and the like belong to categories of accidents, not to that of substance. Consequently, for Avicenna the father and mother are most properly physical agents, that is, the cause of accidental changes that prepare the matter for the form. As such the parents are not the cause of the existence of the offspring’s species form by which it is the specific substance it is. Instead, the metaphysical agent—the one who imparts the species form to the matter such that there comes to be a substance of the same kind as the parents—is a separate (immaterial) agent, which Avicenna calls the Giver of Forms (Avicenna, [Ph], 1.10 [3]; [AP], 2.1; [MPh], 6.2 [5] & 9.5 [3–4]). [ 1 ]

Regardless of whether one is considering physical or metaphysical causes, any motion or change (whether of some specific existence itself or just of some new accident), Avicenna explains, requires three things: (1) the form that comes to be as a result of the change, (2) the matter in which that form comes to be and (3) the matter’s initial privation of that form (Avicenna, [Ph], 1.2 [12–13]). These three—the form, matter and privation—are frequently referred to, following Aristotle, as “principles of nature” (cf. Aristotle, Physics , 1.7). While Avicenna happily agrees that these three factors are present in every instance of something’s coming to be after not having been, he is not as happy as to whether all three of these features are equally “principles” (sing. mabdaʾ ). His concern is that, strictly speaking, causes and principles exist simultaneous with their effects, whereas privation is only ever prior to the change and passes away with the change (Avicenna, [Ph], 1.3 [14]; McGinnis 2012, Lammer 2018, §3.3). More properly speaking, Avicenna contends, privation is a precondition for change rather than a principle. Still, he concedes that if one is lax in one’s use of “principle” so as to understand a principle as “whatever must exist, however it might exist, in order that something else exists, but not conversely” ( ibid ) privation would count as a principle of change. Avicenna reasons thusly: The elimination of the privation from something as changeable renders that thing no longer changeable, whereas the elimination of that changeable thing itself does not eliminate the privation. In other words, insofar as something is changeable, it depends on or requires that there be some privation. Conversely, privation does not depend on and does not require that there be anything changeable. For example, for Avicenna, the celestial Intellects—think Angelic host—are not subject to change; nonetheless, they all possess some privation of existence and perfection, which is found in God. Thus privation has a certain ontological priority to the changeable. There can be privation without the changeable, but there cannot be the changeable without privation.

Closely related to causes and principles is the notion of a nature (Gk. phusis , Ar. ṭabīʿa ), for Aristotle defined a nature as “a principle of being moved and being at rest in that to which it belongs primarily, not accidentally but essentially” (Aristotle, Physics , 2.1, 192b21–3). Before commenting Aristotle’s definition of nature, Avicenna begins his chapter “On Defining Nature” from The Cure (Avicenna, [Ph], 1.5) by distinguishing between the motions and actions that proceed from a substance owing to external causes and those that proceed from a substance owing to the substance itself. For instance, water becomes hot as a result of some external heat sources, whereas it becomes cool of itself. Avicenna next identifies two sets of parameters for describing those motions and actions that proceed from a substance owing to that substance itself. They may either proceed from the substance as a result of volition or without volition. Additionally they may proceed either uniformly without deviation or non-uniformly with deviation. Thus there are four very general ways for dividing and describing all the motions and actions that are found in the cosmos.

(1) Motions and actions may proceed as a result of volition and do so in a uniform and unvarying way, such as the motion of the heavenly bodies. The internal cause in these cases, Avicenna tells us, is a celestial soul. [ 2 ] (2) Other motions and actions may proceed as a result of volition but do so in a non-uniform and varying way, like the motions and actions of animals; the internal cause in these cases is an animal soul. (3) Again, other motions and actions may not proceed as a result of volition and are non-uniform and varying, like plant growth; the internal cause in these cases is a plant soul. Finally (4) some motions and actions may proceed without volition while doing so in a uniform and unvarying way, like the downward motion of a clod of earth and the heating of fire; the internal cause in these cases is a nature.

Next, he turns to Aristotle’s own account of nature and begins by chiding Aristotle for his cavalier assertion that trying to prove that natures exist is a fool’s errand, since it is self-evident that things have such (internal) causes. While we are immediately aware of motions and actions that seemingly proceed from substances of themselves, that there truly exist internal causes of these actions and motions is certainly in need of demonstration. Indeed, one who first encounters the motion of a magnet, Avicenna gives as an example, might imagine that its motion is a result solely of itself rather than of iron in the vicinity. Moreover, during Avicenna’s time the question of whether natures existed at all was a hotly debated topic between philosophers in the Graeco-Arabic tradition, like Avicenna, and thinkers in the Kalām tradition, the tradition of Islamic speculative theology and cosmology.

Proponents of the Kalām tradition, such as al-Bāqillānī (950–1013) and al-Ghazālī (1058–1111), had a two-stage critique. First, anticipating Hume by at least 700 years, these thinkers noted that observation alone could not distinguish between causal connections and mere constant conjunctions. (A contemporary example often found in statistic classes is that the summer sun’s heat seems to be causally connected with ice cream’s melting, whereas eating ice cream is only constantly conjoined, at least in the US, with an increase in violent crimes.) Observation alone, these thinkers warn us, cannot determine, for example, whether the cotton’s burning, which follows upon placing fire in the cotton, or intoxication, which follows upon imbibing alcohol, is causally connected with the natures of fire and alcohol respectively, or whether these sets of events are merely constantly conjoined. Indeed the concurrence of two events may be a result of God’s habit or custom ( ʿāda or sunna ) of causing the one event together with the other. While one might think that appealing to God to explain the various mundane events that we constantly observe around us is extravagant, Kalām thinkers countered that it was in fact the philosophers who are ontologically profligate, for the theologians assume only one class of causes, namely, willful agent(s), whereas the philosophers are committed to two ontologically distinct classes of causes, if not more. This point leads to the second stage of the Kalām critique of natures. God’s (omnipotent) causal power extends to every actual or even possible event. God’s causal power is either sufficient to produce these effects or it is not. If God’s power is not sufficient, then either the deity needs the added “boost” of natural powers, or it needs natures as a tool or instrument, etc. This later position flirts with impiety. If, however, God’s causal power is sufficient to produce every effect and there are also natures, functioning as internal causes, every event is over-determined. Indeed it is not clear at all what causal role natures have to play. A principle of parsimony, so the Kalām critique concludes, suggests that natures be jettisoned and one reserve all causal power to God alone. While Avicenna addresses the issue of the existence of natures and offers up a demonstration for their existence in the Metaphysics (4.2, 9.2 & 9.5; also see Dadikhuda 2019), he also notes that the science of physics is not the proper place to undertake such an enterprise. That is because the existence of a science’s subject matter, Avicenna notes following Aristotle, is never demonstrated within that very science itself but only in a higher science.

Having set aside the issue of whether natures exist and for present purposes posits that they do, Avicenna now unpacks Aristotle’s definition. Before considering his analysis, however, it should be noted that there is a certain ambiguity in Aristotle’s overall treatment of nature. The ambiguity involves whether nature should be taken in a passive sense: is nature a cause of a substance’s being moved ? Or, alternatively, should nature be taken in an active sense: is a nature a cause of a substance’s (self) motion? In Physics , 2.1, the text where Aristotle defines nature, he suggests, although does not explicitly claim, that nature can be understood in both senses: a passive nature, which corresponds with a substance’s matter, and an active nature, which corresponds with the form of that substance, and so is a cause of its motion. In contrast, later in the Physics , he argues that natures should be understood exclusively as passive (Aristotle, Physics , 8.4, 225b29–256a3). This conclusion follows upon Aristotle’s principle that everything that is moved must be moved by something, which he established at Physics , 7. The principle is significant for a key element in Aristotle’s his natural philosophy, namely, his proof for an unmoved mover. (The unmoved mover is intended to explain why there is motion at all.) The aforementioned principle is significant because if all natural substances were capable of self motion, it is no longer clear that there is a need for an unmoved mover to account for the motion of the cosmos. This ambiguity in Aristotle account of nature, namely, whether nature is an active source of moving or a passive factor of being moved, was the source of much discussion among Aristotle’s subsequent Greek commentators, who included Alexander of Aphrodisias (ca. 200 CE) and the late Christian, Neoplatonic Philosopher John Philoponus (ca. 490–570). (For more detailed studies of this tradition see Macierowski & Hassing 1988, Lang 1992, 97–124 and Lammer 2015, 2018, ch. 4).

Aristotle’s definition of nature as it came down to Avicenna in Arabic literally translates into English as “the primary principle of motion and rest in that to which it belongs essentially rather than accidentally” (quoted in Avicenna, [Ph], 1.5 [4]). [ 3 ] A “principle of motion,” Avicenna tells us, means “an efficient cause from which proceeds the production of motion in another, namely, the moved body” (ibid). Immediately we recognize that a nature for Avicenna can be understood as an active cause that produces motion. Such a position is to be contrasted with Aristotle’s claim at Physics 8.4 that a nature is not an internal cause of a thing’s motion, but of its being moved . [ 4 ] Next we learn that “primary” in the definition means that the nature causes the motion in the body without some further intermediary cause. As for “essentially,” (Gk. kath hauto , Ar. bi-dhātihi ) it is an equivocal notion with two senses, Avicenna tells us. In one sense, “essentially” is predicated relative to the mover, while in another sense it is predicated relative to what is subject to motion, namely, the body. Thus, on the one hand, when “essentially” is said relative to the mover, a substance’s nature, as efficient cause, essentially produces those motions and actions that typify the substance as the kind that it is. On the other hand, when “essentially” is said relative to the body, it refers to the body’s essentially being subject to those naturally characteristic motions and actions. In effect, by distinguishing the two relative senses of “essentially,” Avicenna has made room for Aristotle’s definition to include nature as an active and as passive principle. To sum up, for Avicenna, a substance’s nature is the immediate efficient cause for all of the naturally characteristic actions and motions it produces (active nature) as well as explaining why the body is subject to those characteristic actions and motions (passive nature).

2. Bodies and Magnitudes

With the distinction between nature as active and nature as passive in place, it becomes clear why Avicenna identifies the proper subject matter of natural philosophy with body insofar as it is subject to motion, for the science of physics studies nature in both of its active and passive senses. Nature as passive refers to that which is subject to motion, namely, bodies, while nature as active refers to the causes and conditions of the motions and actions that bodies naturally undergo. In this section, I begin with Avicenna’s general introduction to bodies. I then take up his critique of atomism, specifically as that theory was developed within Kalām. Thereafter, I turn to Avicenna’s theory of the continuity of magnitudes and his conception of infinity, concluding with a brief survey of his theory of the elements.

Sensible body ( jism or occasionally jirm ), one can assume, is an aggregation of parts. Starting from this assumption, Avicenna next says of the body that it either (1) has actual parts or (2) has no actual parts. Avicenna effectively divides the logical space for a discussion of the aggregation of body into two categorical propositions: either “Some parts in a body are actual” or “No parts in a body are actual.” These are logically contradictory propositions, and so along one dimension they exhaust all logically possible options. In the case of “some parts,” the obvious question is, “How many?” where “finite” and “infinite” exhaust the possible options. Of course, the question, “How many?” is irrelevant when applied to no or 0 parts. Thus, there are three possible positions: body is an aggregate of (1) a finite number of actual parts, a position identified with that of the atomists; (2) an infinite number of actual parts, a position identified with that of Ibrāhīm al-Naẓẓām (c. 775–c. 845); (3) no actual parts, a position associated with the Aristotelian tradition and the contention that bodies are continuous and so not an aggregate of actual parts, even if potentially divisible ad inifinitum.

Avicenna makes short work of (2), al-Naẓẓām’s position (Avicenna, [PR], namaṭ 1, ch. 2; and [Ph], 3.4 [1]). The parts are units of the whole, which must have either no magnitude or some magnitude. If the units have no magnitude, then while multiplying them may increase the number of units present in a body, it will not increase the size of the body. Consequently, bodies would not have any magnitude, an obviously false conclusion. If the units have some magnitude, be it ever so small, and the body is composed of an actual infinity of these units, then complains Avicenna, “the relation of the finite units to the infinite units would be the relation of a finite to a finite, which is an absurd contradiction” (Avicenna, [PR], namaṭ 1, ch. 2, p. 162). For instance, assume that al-Naẓẓām’s unit measures some extremely small yet positive amount of distance, for example, 1.5 x 10 -35 of a meter, then:

∞ al-Naẓẓām’s-units : 1 m :: 1.5 x 10 -35 al-Naẓẓām’s-units : 1 m.

Thus ∞ : 1.5 x 10 -35 , that is, an infinite is proportional to a finite, which, as Avicenna notes, is absurd.

Avicenna’s more important target was Kalām atomism, which is significantly different from the Democritean atomism, which Aristotle had criticized. Thus, let us consider it quickly before turning to Avicenna’s critique of atomism.

2.2 Avicenna on Atomic/Discrete Magnitudes

Aristotle had in his physical writings addressed and critiqued atomism (e.g., Aristotle, Physics , 6.1 and On Generation and Corruption , 1.2). In the time between Aristotle and Avicenna, however, there were a number of developments in atomic theory both by Epicurus, one generation after Aristotle, and by Muslim theologians, that is, proponents of Kalām, most of whom were atomists (Dhanani 1994, 2015). As a result, Avicenna’s critique of atomism needed to address new innovations and challenges. One such innovation, which can be traced back to the Greek world, is a distinction between physical divisibility and conceptual divisibility. Thus, for example, the atoms of Democritus (d. 370 BCE) have as one of their properties shapes. If atoms have a shape and to have a shape is to have definite limits, then one might reason that Democritean atoms have distinct limits into which they can at least be conceptually divided, even if not physically divided. Aristotle in fact exploited this point in his critique of Democritus. In contrast, the minimal parts of Epicurus (d. 270 BCE) had no shape, and so were not subject to the same criticism. Indeed, Epicurean minimal parts are purportedly not merely physically indivisible but also conceptually indivisible. To provide a rough and ready image of an Epicurean minimal part, one might think of the surface thickness of a plank, and the plank itself as the aggregation of such surfaces. For example, then, when the surfaces of two planks are brought together tightly, intuitively one may think that the two surfaces remain two distinct physical things; the bottom of the top plank, for instance, is distinct from the top of the bottom plank. When some enormous number of these surfaces is aggregated, a plank with a definite thickness, one might imagine, results. So how thick are these surfaces? One cannot fathom, but again being so thin that dividing it further is inconceivable is the very point of Epicurus’ minimal parts. Whatever the chain of transmission, it was something much like Epicurus’ minimal parts that Muslim atomists identified with their atoms, or more precisely, indivisible parts ( sing. al-juzʾ alladhī lā yatajazzaʾu )—a spatial magnitude that was not merely physically indivisible but also conceptually indivisible.

Another difference between the theory of atomism that Aristotle addressed and the one that Avicenna does is the very nature of the atoms themselves. Democritus’ atoms with their differences in shapes as well as differences in possible arrangement and positions are best considered as corpuscles, that is, small bodies. Thus when speaking of Democritus, we can speak of “corpuscular atomism.” Such is not necessarily the case with Epicurean minimal parts or Kalām atoms, which, while making up the parts of bodies, were not themselves considered bodies. While there is some dispute about this point concerning Epicurus, Kalām atomists are fairly consistent in saying that the sole property of their atoms is that they occupy space ( mutaḥayyiz ) but otherwise lack any other determinations. In fact, Kalām atoms might best be thought of as a matrix making up all space, with the individual atom representing the smallest spatial magnitude necessary for the occurrence of some co-incidental event, determination or accident, like being red or hot or wet or even possessing power. In this respect, Kalām atoms are comparable to the pixels on a modern-day TV or computer screen. The two are comparable in that both are the smallest relevant units in which a sensible effect occurs, whether some color for modern pixels or any accident more generally for Kalām atomists. Consequently, this variety of atomism might be called “pixelated atomism” to contrast it with the corpuscular atomism that had been the target of Aristotle’s criticisms. The significant point is that Avicenna could not simply appeal to Aristotle and his attack on corpuscular atomism when critiquing atomism as he found it.

Regardless of what form of atomism one endorsed, a common argument in atomism’s favor appeals to the notion of a sensible body’s being an aggregation of parts. The argument is directed against the idea that a continuous magnitude, which for the philosophers included the natural sensible bodies that make up the world, can be potentially divisible ad infinitum (cf. Aristotle, Physics 3.7, 207b16). The most general form of the argument rests on two principles: (1) the impossibility of an actual infinity, a premise that even most Aristotelians accepted; and (2) an analysis of potentiality in terms of an agent’s power, namely, to say that some action φ is potential is to say that there exists an agent who has the power actually to do φ. As part of a reductio-style argument, one is asked to assume (3), bodies are potentially divisible infinitely. In that case, from (2), there must exist some agent (e.g., God) that can actually bring about the division. So let the agent enact the potential division. Either the result is an actually infinite number of parts or a finite number of parts. From (1), recall, an actual infinity is impossible. Therefore, the totality of potential parts that actually can be produced from the division is finite, but it was assumed that they were infinite, a contradiction. Since (1), (2) and (3) are mutually incompatible, one of these assumptions must be false. The atomists point to the assumption of infinite divisibility and a potentially infinite number of parts. Thus, the argument concludes, the parts from which sensible bodies are aggregated must be finite, whether actually or potentially.

Avicenna’s response to this argument against the potentially infinite divisibility of bodies is considered when discussing his theory of continuity . Prior to that, his reasons for rejecting atomism must be examined. To start, Avicenna accepts that division with respect to body is of two sorts: physical division and conceptual division. In physical division, there is the actual fragmentation of a body, with the parts of the body becoming physically separated and at a distance from one another. An example would be when one takes a single quantity of water and places part of it in one vessel and the other part in another vessel. Avicenna concedes that it well may be the case that bodies have some physical limit beyond which they no longer can be physically divided and still remain the same sort of body. To provide an example of Avicenna’s point, our quantity of water can be divided as water until one reaches a single water molecule; division beyond that point, while producing hydrogen and oxygen atoms, does not produce smaller particles of water. A single water molecule, then, is physically indivisible as water; it no longer remains as water after any further division. Still, inasmuch as a single water molecule occupies some space, however small, one can conceive of half of that water molecule, and so it is conceptually divisible qua magnitude. Whether there actually are such physically indivisible units, Avicenna insists, requires proof, which I consider when looking at Avicenna’s elemental theory .

The form of atomism that Avicenna rejects is that there exist minimal parts that cannot even be conceptually divided further. These are the minimal parts of Epicurus and the atoms of Kalām. Avicenna’s arguments against this conception of atomism takes two forms: one, arguments showing that there is a physical absurdity with such atoms and, two, arguments showing that this form of atomism is incompatible with our best mathematics, namely, that of Euclidean geometry. The following two examples give one a sense of how Avicenna’s physical-style and mathematical-style criticisms work (Avicenna, [PR], namaṭ 1, ch. 1 and [Ph], 3.4; Lettinck 1988). While all the arguments considered are specifically directed toward a theory of pixilated atomism, they apply equally well to corpuscular atomism. Additionally, Avicenna has a series of arguments, not considered here, showing the absurdities that would follow on the purported motion of corpuscular atoms.

While some of Avicenna’s physical-style arguments are quite complex and sophisticated, showing that the aggregation of bodies would simply be impossible on the Kalām atomists’ view (an example can be found in Section 2.3 of the entry on Arabic and Islamic natural philosophy and natural science ), the following thought experiment is perhaps more intuitively obvious. Posit a sheet of conceptually indivisible atoms between yourself and the sun. Certainly the side facing the sun is distinct from the side facing you, for if the side that the sun is illuminating is the very same side upon which you are gazing, there is no sense in which the sheet of atoms is between you and the sun. Thus on the assumption that it is physically possible for this sheet to exist between you and the sun, all the atoms composing the sheet have a sun-side and a you-side, and these two sides are distinct. Purportedly, conceptually indivisible atoms have been divided, a contradiction.

Avicenna’s mathematical-style critique of Kalām atomism frequently appeal to issues associated with incommensurability. In this vein he argues that such geometrical commonplaces as diagonals and circles would be impossible on the assumption of conceptually indivisible atoms. For example, in the pixilated atomism of the Kalām, the atoms might be thought to form a three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system with each atom corresponding to some ordered triplet on this space. A two-dimensional plane, then, would look something like a chessboard. Avicenna now has us describe a right isosceles triangle on this chessboard, setting the two equal sides, for instance, at 3 units. Given the Pythagorean Theorem, A 2 + B 2 = C 2 , we should be able to solve for the length of the hypotenuse, which is √18 ≈ 4.25. Avicenna, next observes that assuming Kalām atomism, the hypotenuse of our triangle must fall either well below the solution given by the Pythagorean theorem—namely, it would be 3 units if one just counts the 3 squares along the diagonal of a 3x3 chessboard—or significantly exceed it—for instance 6 units, if the atoms can somehow be stair stepped. Alternatively, one might consider units smaller than the atoms, but such a move is to give up atomism. Kalām atomism, then, cannot even approximate the answer of the Pythagorean Theorem, and yet the Pythagorean Theorem is arguably the most well-proven theorem in the history of mathematics. Given the choice between a dubious physical theory and our best mathematics, Avicenna sides with Euclidean geometry and its assumption of continuous magnitudes. [ 5 ]

Having rejected atomism, with its central claim that sensible bodies must be aggregates of a finite number of conceptually indivisible parts, Avicenna must explain and defend his preferred account of bodies. Avicenna adopts a modified form of Aristotle’s theory of the continuity of bodies. Aristotle himself had provided no fewer than three different accounts of continuity (Gk. sunecheia , Ar. ittiṣāl ):

• AB is continuous iff AB can be divided into things always capable of further division ( Physics , 3.7 & De Caelo , 1.1)
• A is continuous with B iff the extremities of A and B are one and the same ( Physics , 6.1)
• A is continuous with B iff there is a common boundary at which they join together ( Categories , 6)

Precisely because these three accounts are different, Avicenna starts his own discussion of continuity, claiming that “being continuous is an equivocal expression that is said in three ways” (Avicenna, [Ph], 3.2 [8]). Two of these senses, he continues, are relative notions, while only one, i.e., (3) above, identifies the true essence of what it is to be continuous. In fact, he even goes as far as to say that account (1) is not truly a definition of being continuous at all; rather, it is a necessary accident of the continuous that must be demonstrated, a point to which I return when I look at what Avicenna considers to be the proper account of continuity.

As for the relative notions of continuity, the explanations can be quick. First, discrete objects might be said to constitute a continuous whole relative to a motion. For example, all the connected cars on a moving locomotive are clearly distinct and separate things, and yet they move together as a continuous whole. Second, discrete objects might be said to be continuous according to Aristotle’s definition (2) relative to some shared extremity. For example, for any angle ∠ABC greater than or less than 180°, the lines AB and BC share one and the same extremity, B, and yet are distinct and jointed. Neither of these senses is strictly speaking the target of the atomist’s critique nor the thesis concerning the continuity of bodies and magnitudes that Avicenna (or other Aristotelians) is keen to defend. Thus for Avicenna only (3), that two things are continuous if and only if there is a common boundary at which they join together, captures the proper definition of continuity.

A continuous sensible body (or any magnitude), Avicenna insists, must ultimately lack any parts and instead must be considered entirely as a unified whole. Admittedly, one can posit parts in this unified whole, like the left-part and the right-part, but such accidental parts are wholly the result of one’s positing and they vanish, claims Avicenna, with the cessation of the positing.

[Such parts are] like what happens when our estimative faculty imagines or we posit two parts for a line that is actually one, where we distinguish one [part] from the other by positing. In that way, a limit is distinguished for [the line] that is the same as the limit of the other division. In that case, both are said to be continuous with each other. Each one, however, exists individually only as long as there is the positing, and so, when the positing ceases, there is no longer this and that [part]; rather, there is the unified whole that actually has no division within it. Now, if what occurs through positing were to be something existing in the thing itself and not [merely] by positing, then it would be possible for an actually infinite number of parts to exist within the body (as we shall explain), but this is absurd (Avicenna, [Ph], 3.2 [8]).

To press Avicenna’s point a bit further, a continuous body has no parts in it, not even potential parts, if by “potential parts” one means points or the like latent within the body waiting for some power to actualize them or divide the body at them. To appreciate Avicenna’s point here fully, a few words must be said about his conception of the form-matter constitution of bodies and the relation of his view of continuity to psychological processes.

Like Aristotle and other Aristotelians both before and after him, Avicenna is convinced that bodies are constituted of matter and form. If one considers just body as such, that is, disregarding any specific kind of body it might be, then this absolute body, Avicenna tells us, is a composite of matter ( hayūlā ) and the form of corporeality ( ṣūra jismiyya ). Avicenna conceives matter as wholly passive, having no active qualities or features. (For discussion’s of Avicenna theory of matter see Hyman 1965; Buschmann 1979; Stone 2001; McGinnis 2012; but also see Lammer 2018, §3.2 for corrections of some of these earlier views.) In fact, Avicennan matter has no positive characterizations of its own at all by which it can be defined; rather, for Avicenna, matter is best understood solely in relation to the forms by which it is actualized and informed. Avicenna’s matter, then, is intimately linked with relative privation ( ʿadam ), that is, some lack, which under the right conditions can be realized. Given matter’s essentially privative character, it, then, cannot be the explanation for a sensible body’s having the positive characteristics of being unified and one, nor the cause of that body’s being extended so as to be subject to division. Instead, according to Avicenna, what makes a body a unified whole and subject to division is its form of corporeality.

For a determinate body to exist at all, Avicenna believes, it must have a determinate shape, and so be three dimensional, and so be localized in space. Both of these features are the result of its corporeal form (For a fuller discussion see Hyman 1965; Shihadeh 2014; Lammer 2018, §3.1). When the form of corporeality comes to inform matter, there comes to be a single unified body, existing on account of its particular and individual form of corporeality. Should the body be physically divided, the particular and individual form of corporeality is not so much divided as destroyed and replaced with two new particular and individual forms of corporeality corresponding with two new bodies. It is essentially the form of corporeality that unifies and makes a body numerically and actually one. Additionally, while the form of corporeality makes the body actually one, it also makes the body potentially many. That is to say, the form of corporeality is the cause of a body’s being three-dimensional such that one can posit such divisions as right-side and left-side in it.

We are now led to the role of psychological processes in Avicenna’s account of a continuous body’s infinite divisibility. While it is true for Avicenna that continuous bodies can conceptually be divided without end, such a feature is not the result of any positive attribute within the body. This potentiality for division does not correspond with any positive features latent within the body. Instead the potentiality for infinite division refers to a privation in the matter of the body. The matter, extended and possessing quantity as a result of the form of corporeality, does not preclude or prevent one from positing imagined divisions within the body as small as one wants. Indeed, this psychological process of imaging or positing divisions in principle has no end. Thus, looking at, for example, a meter stick, one can posit a halfway point, then the halfway point of one side and then a further halfway point and so on as long as one likes; however, as soon as one stops the process of imagining halfway points, the imagined points (regardless of how many one has imagined) do not magically remain but altogether cease with the cessation of their being posited. The body remains as it always was, a unified whole, whose unity is only ever lost by actual physical division, not conceptual division.

With this conception of continuity in place, the Kalām argument against potential divisibility ad infinitum dissolves. Again that argument assumed two principles: (1) the impossibility of an actual infinity; and (2) an analysis of potentiality in terms of an agent’s power, namely, the view that some action φ is potential if and only if there is an agent who has the power actually to do φ. In point of fact, Avicenna rejects both principles (his conception of infinity is discussed at 2.4 ); for now he simply questions the theologians’ inference from something’s being potential to the possibility of its being realized all at once at some moment or other. The original Kalām argument assumed that a potential infinity of divisions existed in a continuous body. In that case, the argument continued, let God actualize that potential, and one is confronted with an actual infinity. Avicenna in contrast understands the potential infinite divisibility of bodies in terms of an ongoing process of positing successive divisions within the magnitude, a process that by definition has no end. Of course, there is a contradiction here in assuming that some agent, even God, can get to the end of some process that has no end, but such a contradiction does not tell against Avicenna’s theory of continuous bodies. In fact, Avicenna’s conception of potential infinite divisibility is compatible with (2), since there is no immediate contradiction in saying that God eternally and without ceasing posits ever-decreasing halfway points in some magnitude. Still even in this case, there never is an actual infinity of such halfway points, as the proponents of Kalām atomism maintain.

With the introduction of continuity and its corresponding notion of infinite divisibility one is also obliquely introduced to the notion of infinity ( lā nihāya ). Avicenna, following Aristotle’s account of the infinite ( apeiron ) at Physics , 3.6, defines it as “that which whatever you take from it—and any of the things equal to that thing you took from it—you [always] find something outside of it” (Avicenna, [Ph], 3.7 [2]). In natural philosophy, the immediate issue is whether an infinity exists either in quantities that posses some position or in numbers in an ordered series (Avicenna, [Ph], 3.7 [1]). The mutakallimūn, that is, the proponents of Kalām, were for the most part opposed to predicating the infinite of anything other than God. This opposition included both actual infinity and potential infinity, as we have seen. While it is notoriously difficult to give a precise account of the difference between the actual as opposed to the potential infinite, a rough characterization is this: In the case of an actually infinite magnitude, all the parts of that magnitude are somehow simultaneously and fully present, whereas in the case of the potentially infinite there is an going process or succession in which the units come to be, never wholly existing as actual at some given point or moment. While Avicenna happily accepts the reality of potential infinities, he denies that there are material instances of either actually infinite qualities, like infinitely large bodies, or numbers, like infinitely large sets of bodies, all of which exist simultaneously. [ 6 ]

Avicenna has a number of arguments attempting to show that an actual infinity in nature is impossible (for a presentation and assessment of some of these arguments see Zarepour 2020). These arguments can be divided into those that appeal to motion as part of the proof, and those that do not appeal to motion. Here I merely consider one of Avicenna’s non-motion proofs against an actual (spatial) infinity. The argument, which I present, is not the preferred proof in either The Cure or The Salvation , although he had toyed with it in The Cure (Avicenna, [Ph], 3.8 [5–7]). Still it is his preferred and indeed only argument against an actual infinity in his shorter and last philosophical encyclopedia, Pointers and Reminders (Avicenna, [PR], namaṭ 1, ch. 11, p. 183–90). [ 7 ] Moreover, the proof is a uniquely Avicennan one.

The argument asks one to posit some actually infinite ray, AB and then another actually infinite ray, AC, so as to form an acute angle ∠BAC. Next Avicenna asks one to consider the gap, BC, between the two rays. The farther from A that BC is, the larger BC becomes. Since the two rays are actually infinitely extended, BC should, in principle, also be actually infinite; however, BC always lies between AB and AC and of necessity terminates at them, so BC is finite. Thus, there is a contradiction: BC is both finite and infinite and, claims Avicenna, what produced the contradiction is the assumption that there is actually infinite space. Whether Avicenna’s new argument is successful became a matter of intense debate in post-classical Islamic natural philosophy, with such notables as Abū l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī (1080–1165) and Najm al-Dīn al-Kātibī al-Qazwīnī (ca. 1203–1277) finding it wanting, whereas Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (1201–1274) and Mullā Ṣadrā (1571–1636) considered it defensible (McGinnis 2018).

Avicenna’s arguments against an actual infinity in nature are in general all directed against the possibility of infinite spatial magnitude. Consequently, since space must be finite (i.e., limited), all bodies must be limited, and in being limited they have shape. This conclusion holds for the cosmos as a whole as well. As for the shape of the cosmos, while such a topic takes us slightly afield from a discussion of infinity, it does round out Avicenna’s abstract discussion of body. For a number of reasons, Avicenna thinks that the shape of the cosmos must be spherical. While in some ways Avicenna takes this claim to be a matter of empirical observation, he also argues that since the nature of the heavenly bodies is completely homogeneous and unvarying, there cannot be dissimilarities in a heavenly body such that a part of it would be angular and another part rectilinear or such that part of it has one sort of curve and another part a different sort (Avicenna, [DC], 3; also Avicenna, [Ph], 1.8 [2] provides the general argument, albeit there it is applied to showing the sphericity of the Earth). Inasmuch as the cosmos is spherical, it must have some center, which, at least from the point of physics, Avicenna identifies with the Earth. (Strictly speaking the Earth is a bit off center in accordance with the demands of the Ptolemaic astronomy, which Avicenna adopts.)

We thus now have a general picture of Avicenna’s conception of body in the abstract. Body is not composed of conceptually indivisible atoms but must be continuous and finite. In the next section I briefly consider body not in the abstract, but particular kinds of bodies, namely, the so-called elements.

2.5 Simple Bodies and the Elements

When Avicenna speaks of elements (sing. usṭuquss ) and (elemental) components (sing. ʿunṣur ), he means simple bodies, that is, bodies that are not composed of other sorts of bodies in the way that flesh, blood and bones, for example, are composed of more basics elements. Despite being simple, the elements are form-matter composites (Avicenna, [DC], 1). On account of their form and matter, elements have two powers: an active power following upon the element’s form and a passive power following upon its matter.

Avicenna: the Persian polymath who shaped modern science, medicine and philosophy

Doctoral Candidate, Comparative Literature, Religion and History of Philosophy, University of Sydney

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Over a thousand years ago, Nuh ibn Mansur, the reigning prince of the medieval city of Bukhara, fell badly ill. The doctors, unable to do anything for him, were forced to send for a young man named Ibn Sina, who was already renowned, despite his very young age, for his vast knowledge. The ruler was healed.

Ibn Sina was an 11th century Persian philosopher, physician, pharmacologist, scientist and poet, who exerted a profound impact on philosophy and medicine in Europe and the Islamic world. He was known to the Latin West as Avicenna.

Avicenna’s Canon of medicine , first translated from Arabic into Latin during the 12th century, was the most important medical reference book in the West until the 17th century, introducing technical medical terminology used for centuries afterwards.

Avicenna’s Canon established a tradition of scientific experimentation in physiology without which modern medicine as we know it would be inconceivable.

For example, his use of scientific principles to test the safety and effectiveness of medications forms the basis of contemporary pharmacology and clinical trials.

Avicenna has been in the news recently due to his work on contagions. He produced an early version of the germ theory of disease in the Canon where he also advocated quarantine to control the transmission of contagious diseases.

Uniquely, Avicenna is the rare philosopher who became as influential on a foreign philosophical culture as his own. He is regarded by some as the greatest medieval thinker .

Read more: Explainer: what Western civilisation owes to Islamic cultures

Maverick and prodigious

He was born Abdallāh ibn Sīnā in 980AD in Bukhara, (present day Uzbekistan, then part of the Iranian Samanid empire ). Avicenna was prodigious from youth, claiming in his autobiography to have mastered all known philosophy by 18.

Avicenna’s output was extraordinarily prolific. One estimate of his body of work counts 132 texts. These cover logic, natural philosophy, cosmology, metaphysics, psychology, geology, and more. Some of these texts he wrote while on horseback, travelling from one city to another!

His work was a virtuosic kind of encylopedism , gathering the various traditions of Greek late antiquity, the early Islamic period and Iranian civilisation into one rational knowledge system covering all of reality.

Avicenna’s texts were forged out of the colossal Graeco-Arabic translation movement that took place in medieval Baghdad . They then played a key role in the Arabic to Latin translation movement that brought Aristotle’s philosophy back, in a highly enriched manner, into Western thought.

This was a chapter in the story of large-scale transmission of knowledge from the Islamic world to Europe .

From the 12th century on, Avicenna shaped the thought of major European medieval thinkers. Thomas Aquinas’s writings feature hundreds of quotations from Avicenna regarding issues such as God’s providence . Aquinas also sought to refute some of Avicenna’s positions such as that which argued the world was eternal .

Book of Healing

Avicenna’s Kitāb al-shifā , The Book of Healing , was as influential in Latin as his medical Canon.

Divided into sections covering logic, science, mathematics and metaphysics, it produced highly influential theses on the distinction between essence and existence and the famous Flying Man thought experiment , which aims to establish how the soul is innately aware of itself.

Read more: Four centuries of trying to prove God’s existence

A medical pioneer

Avicenna’s Canon brilliantly synthesises Islamic medicine with that of Hippocrates (460 – 370 BC) and Galen (129 – 200 AD). There are also elements of ancient Persian, Mesopotamian and Indian medicine. This was supplemented by Avicenna’s extensive medical experiences.

In the Canon, Avicenna introduced diagnoses and treatments for illnesses unknown to the Greeks, being the first doctor to describe meningitis. He made new arguments for the use of anaesthetics, analgesics, and anti-inflammatory substances .

Read more: Forget folk remedies, Medieval Europe spawned a golden age of medical theory

Looking forward to modern notions of disease prevention, Avicenna proposed adjustments in diet and physical exercise could heal or prevent illnesses.

Avicenna was also vital to the development of cardiology , pulsology , and our understanding of cardiovascular diseases .

Avicenna’s detailed descriptions of capillary flow and arterial and ventricular contractions in the cardiovascular system (the blood and circulatory system) assisted the Arab-Syrian polymath Ibn al Nafis (1213-1288), who became the first physician to describe the blood’s pulmonary circulation , the movement of blood from the heart to the lungs and back again to the heart.

This happened in 1242, centuries before scientist William Harvey arrived at the same conclusion in 17th century England.

Holistic medicine

Another innovative aspect of Avicenna’s Canon is its exploration of how our body’s well-being depends on the state of our mind, and the interaction between the heart’s health and our emotional life.

This connection has been seen in the last few months, with doctors describing increases in heart damage due to the psycho-emotional pressures of the pandemic.

Avicenna’s advocacy for an interrelated, organic and systems-based understanding of health gives his thought universal, ongoing relevance.

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World History Edu

Ibn Sina (aka Avicenna): Life, Accomplishments and Major Works of the Renowned Persian Polymath

by World History Edu · November 29, 2022

It’s common knowledge that the advances in modern medicine are the result of numerous centuries of research, development and experimentation. However, unbeknownst to many people, a large number of those advancements took place in the Islamic world between the 9th and 14th centuries, a period historians like to refer to as the Islamic Golden age. Inspired by the works of ancient Greeks and Romans, Islamic Golden age scholars were tolerant and open to new knowledge and technology from different parts of the world, including from non-Muslims. One of such distinguished scholars was the Persian polymath ibn Sīnā, who is known in the West as Avicenna. ibn Sīnā’s medical texts had profound influence on the study of medicine throughout Europe for many centuries. For example, until the late 17th century, his work “The Canon of Medicine” remained the standard textbook in many medical schools across Europe and beyond.

What else was ibn Sīnā best known for? And how did his works and contributions to medicine come to epitomize the Islamic Golden Age?

Below, we look at the life and major achievements of Ibn Sina, the Persian polymath who is often hailed as the “Father of Early Modern Medicine”.

Abu Ali al-Husayn Ibn Abd Allan Ibn Sina, popularly known in Western societies as Avicenna, was the son of Abdullah and Setareh. He was born in c. 980 in Transoxiana, a place in central Asia. Soon after his birth, his family relocated to Bukhara, where he received his early education in Hanafi jurisprudence from Isma’il Zahid and began his studies in medicine under the tutelage of a variety of experts.

He became a well-known doctor by the time he was 16 years old and spent a lot of time learning about physics, natural sciences, and philosophy in addition to his medical studies. He rose to notoriety after successfully curing a very rare illness that had plagued Nuh ibn Mansur, the Sultan of Bukhara of the Samanid Court, Nuh ibn Mansur.

In 997, after Ibn Sina had healed Nun ibn Mansur of his disease, Mansur employed him as his personal physician. In addition to that, the sultan granted him access to his library and its collection of priceless manuscripts so that he could continue his studies. This education and access to the medical library of the Samanid court aided him in his pursuit of philosophical understanding. As one of the finest of its sort in the medieval world, the sultan’s royal library was a source of great prestige for his country, and Ibn Sina took full advantage of the opportunity to advance his knowledge in a host of disciplines.

What was the polymath best known for?

Avicenna also wrote numerous psychological works about the connection between the mind, the body, and the senses.

Ibn Sina’s book “Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb” ( The Canon of Medicine ) is widely regarded as a landmark in the field of medicine because of the way it skillfully weaves together old medical wisdom with modern discoveries made by Islamic scientists of the Golden Age.

At some point in the 12th century, the book was translated into Latin, and from that point on, it was employed as a go-to medicine textbook at universities across Europe until the middle of the 17th century.

Ibn Sina not only outlined the anatomy of various body components, including the eye and the heart, but he also listed over 550 potential treatments for common diseases. The physician also discusses the impact that plants and roots have on the human body, demonstrating his expertise as a botanist.

One of his most important contributions to medicine was his research on the usefulness of quarantines in preventing the transmission of disease. He argued that a quarantine of at least 40 days was necessary to prevent the spread of infection. This became one of his most notable contributions to medicine.

The Book of Healing

“The Book of Healing”, one of his most influential writings outside of medicine, is divided into four parts and covers a wide range of topics, including mathematics, physics, biological sciences, and psychology. After an extensive 50 page a day write up, Sina completed “The Book of Healing”; however, the book only became available in Europe fifty years later under a new title known as “Sufficientia”.

The book is regarded as one of the most notable works of physiology and taking a closer would reveal the polymath’s knowledge displayed across numerous fields.

Did Avicenna believe in God?

The establishment of his own version of Aristotelian logic and the use of reason to prove the presence of God were Ibn Sina’s most significant contributions to the field of philosophy.

The Persian polymath, while challenging his Greek predecessor Aristotle , held the view that humans possessed three souls: the vegetative, the animal, and the intellectual. He believed that humans’ reasoning ability was the link between them and God, whereas the first two tied them to the ground.

With this philsophy, Ibn Sina authored a book titled “Burhan al-Siddiqin” ( Proof of the Truthful ) in which he argued that God must exist because there is no such thing as a nonexistent being. He went on to say that everything other than this is dependent on the existence of another entity. A person’s own existence, for instance, is dependent on the presence of their parents, who in turn depend on the existence of their family members, and so forth.

Ibn Sina reasoned that even when everything in the universe is added up, it is still contingent, since everything needs a non-contingent cause outside of itself, which he believed to be God. Ibn Rushd later argued that this kind of thinking was flawed because it relied on unprovable metaphysical principles rather than observable natural rules. Therefore, Ibn Sina kept his belief in God.

READ MORE: Top 10 Philosophers from Ancient Greece

The link between the human senses and soul

Ibn Sina dedicated most of his life to learning the ins and outs of the human senses and proving that they were more complex than previously thought. He suggested that we possess inner senses that work in tandem with the five traditionally recognized senses (i.e. taste, smell, hearing, sight, and touch).

An avid intuitive scholar, he considered common sense to be an internal sense and even credited it with performing some of the soul’s tasks. Therefore, in his view, the process of coming up with an opinion and deciding on an action is an act of the soul.

He believed that aside from using common sense, individuals also relied on their retentive imagination to recall the facts they had learned. This perceptual faculty saves numerous information in the mind, allowing you to recall this information and identify them.

Finally, Ibn Sina explained that understanding is the ability to use all the information to the best of our internal senses’ capacities, while memory is responsible for preserving all the knowledge created by the other senses.

Other discoveries of the polymath

In his scientific writings, Avicenna argued that light traveled at a constant velocity. He also described the path of sound in the air and proposed a theory of motion. Here are some other notable discoveries and works made by Avicenna:

• The polymath, during his study of an early kind of psychiatry, discussed the physical manifestations of mental health problems like depression and anxiety.
• The study of earthquakes and cloud formation were two examples of the natural phenomena studied by the Persian polymath. He explained that surface-level earthquakes are caused by plate movements and other subsurface processes.
• By comparing the apparent size of Venus to the sun’s disc, Ibn Sina deduced that Venus was actually further from the sun than the Earth. It’s been said that he may have discovered that the SN 1006 supernova, visible for three months around the turn of the first millennium CE, briefly outshone Venus and was visible even in broad daylight.
• The physicist also invented a gadget to track the positions of stars and discovered that stars emit their own light.

How did Avicenna die?

He died in June 1037, which was in the holy month of Ramadan. Image: Avicenna Mausoleum in Hamadan, Iran

In June 1037, at the age of 58, Ibn Sina passed away following a protracted bout with colic. All his efforts to heal himself proved futile as he was steadily poisoned by one of his slaves. This resulted in his early death. His tomb in Hamdan, Iran, which is now a mausoleum, served as the site of his burial.

Other interesting facts about Ibn Sina

This 11th-century Muslim scholar was one of the prominent men of the Golden Age. He is credited with penning over 200 works, ranging from subjects such as geometry, peotry, astronomy, and medicine. It was in the latter that he made his greatest impact. Image: Statue of Ibn Sina in United Nations Office in Vienna

Here are a few more interesting facts about Ibn Sina:

• Ibn Sina was recognized as a Qur’an Hafiz (one who has memorized the entire Qur’an) at the tender age of ten. At the age of fourteen, he had already surpassed his educators due to his outstanding intelligence.
• The Persian polymath succeeded his father as the Governor of Harmaytan.
• By the 12th century, Avicennism had emerged as the preeminent school of Islamic thought in the medieval Islamic world, thanks to Avicenna’s successful attempt to reconcile Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism, coupled with Kalam.
• For his extensive works, he became the most famous and influential polymath of the Islamic Golden Age.
• At some point in his life, he served as the private physician and confidant of the Emir of Buyid Majd al-Dawla.
• He also served in the court of ʿAlā al-Dawlah Muhammad, the founder of the Kakuyid dynasty in Jibal.
• It was during his stay at Eṣfahān that he penned his most famous works – Kitāb al-shifāʾ ( Book of the Cure , or  The Cure ) and Kitāb al-najāt ( Book of Salvation ).
• He lived during the Abbasid Caliphate era (750-1258).
• Much of what we know of Avicenna comes from his autobiography dictated to his loyal student, al-Jūzjānī.

Avicenna: Fast Facts

Full name : Abū ʾAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā

Born : c. 980

Place of birth : Transoxiana, Samanid Empire (in modern-day Uzbekistan)

Died : June 22, 1037

Place of death : Hamadan (in modern-day Hamadan Province, Iran)

Father : Abd Allah

Notable works :  l-Qānūn fī al-ṭibb  ( The Canon of Medicine ) and Kitāb al-shifāʾ  ( Book of the Cure , or  The Cure )

Scholars that influenced him : Hippocrates , Aristotle, Galen, al-Farabi, al-Kindi

Scholars that he influenced : René Descartes , Al-Ghazali, Tusi, Duns Scotus, al-Juzjani, Thomas Aquinas, Sir William Osler

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Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā; Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā)

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Avicenna (Ibn Sina): Biography And The Canon Of Medicine

13/03/2019 08:00h | Updated at 2019-03-20 10:13h

Avicenna is one of the world's most famous medics   and many have named him "the father of modern medicine" - an honor he shares with Hippocrates, the Greek doctor that penned the Hippocratic oath. 

As a pioneer and essential figure in Arabic culture in the Islamic Golden Age, Ibn Sina has been forever immortalized in Noah Gordon's "The Physician" novel and in the movie, where Ben Kingsley gives life to the legendary Avicenna. 

Hippocrates: Life, Contributions And The Hippocratic Oath   

Avicenna - biography of a medical titan 

Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Abdallah ibn al-Hasan ibn Ali ibn Sina is the full name of the most transcendental figure in philosophy and medicine in the Middle Ages, usually shortened to Ibn Sina (ابن سينا) or Avicenna. His disciples would call him "The Greatest Doctor", and "The Prince of Physicians".

Ibn Sina lived in Persia between 980 and 1037 during a period known as the Islamic Golden Age. His father was a scholar working for the Samanid Empire, which used to cover all of today's Afganistan. According to his biography, Avicenna memorized the Coran before he was 10 , learned maths from a vegetable seller, and medicine from a traveling doctor. By the time he was 18, Avicenna was already a reputable doctor making a living off of his profession. 

Avicenna's most famous writings include "The Book of Healing" and "The Canon of Medicine" - two transcendental books that revolutionized how medicine was practiced in universities across the Middle Ages, both in Islam and the Western world.   "The Canon of Medicine" was particularly successful and got translated into Latin while being widely used until the Renaissance 

Ibn Sina's contributions are not limited to medicine; on the contrary, his work also left a significant mark on sciences such as mathematics, physics, psychology, astronomy, geography, geology, and alchemy. The polymath also wrote about theology, music theory, and the soul among many other topics. 

Avicenna remains one of the most the most significant philosopher in the Islamic tradition   and arguably the most influential philosopher of the pre-modern era. 

• 10 Famous Female Scientists

The Canon of Medicine 

Avicenna's most known body of work is   The Canon of Medicine - a 5 volume medical encyclopedia that was used as a medical guideline in Europe and the Islamic world until the 18th century. Ibn Sina wrote and published the final volume in 1025. 

The first volume detailed basic principles of medicine , anatomy, and human physiology. Avicenna also described treatments, diets, and general exercise routines. 

In book 2,   Materia Medica, Avicenna lists 800 therapeutic natural substances   from vegetal, animal, or mineral sources. The author also describes six basic rules for experimenting with new substances, which he based off of Galen's work -  Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. 

The third volume analyzes the mechanism and ailments of each organ in the human body, from head to toes, while the fourth book talks about diseases and infections that affect the body in its entirety. 

Lastly, the fifth volume of the Canon compiles   a list of 650 medicinal compounds along with their respective recipes . Some of these have been attributed to Avicenna himself, while others come from external sources. This last book also includes the author's opinion on the effectiveness of the medicine he introduces. 

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Medical influence in the Middle Ages 

One of the reasons that could explain the popularity of Avicenna's work in Europe could be the fact that in Persia, at the time, Aristotle, Galen, and Hippocrates were believed to be the more prominent scholars. 

Hippocrates and Galen, known for their theory of humorism (which explains personality in relation to the biological temperament) were seen as   key figures in Islamic medicine as well as well as in many places in Europe and their work left a significant mark on Avicenna.

Philosopher and   doctor Ibn Rushd, Latinized as Averroes, was a Muslim Spanish Andalusian philosophe r and thinker who also had an important influence on Ibn Sina and promoted uniting the Islamic and the Greek philosophies, considering that both scholars were knowledgeable in these areas. 

Among the most significant contributions that Avicenna made to medicine, we can mention his   accurate description of the anatomy of the human eye   and of the symptoms caused by diabetes mellitus, cataract, pleuresia, and meningitis. The polymath also   accurately predicted that rats would play an essential role in the proliferation of the plague (Avicenna mentioned this in the year 1000AD), a hypothesis which came to life three hundred years later in one of the most devastating pandemics of the world, also known as the Black Death.  

The End Of The World: Between Science And Religion   

Ibn Sina in “The Physician” by Noah Gordon

In 1986, author Noah Gordon published the novel "The Physician"   which includes Ibn Sina as the main character, and although its success was limited in the United States (Gordon's home country), the book was well received in Spain and Germany.  https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/21/books/best-selling-author-but-not-at-home.html

The book's popularity in Europe prompted the author to write two more volumes, thus creating a trilogy. His additions were Shaman (1992) and Matters of Choice (1996). 

Following in the book's footsteps, as it were, German director Philipp Stölzl released the movie The Physician   (Der Medicus in German), who stars Tom Payne and Ben Kingsley who interprets the role of Avicenna.

The Physician tells the story of an orphan man who, after the death of his mother, travels to Persia in an attempt to study medicine from one of the most famous physicians of the land - Ibn Sina. 

Check out the original article:   Avicena (Ibn Sina): biografía e influencia del autor del Canon de Medicina  at viviendolasalud.com  

References;

Gutas, D. (1988). Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition: Introduction to Reading Avicenna’s Philosophical Works. Leiden: Brill.

Khan, A. (2006). Avicenna (Ibn Sina): Muslim physician and philosopher of the eleventh century. The Rosen Publishing Group.

McGinnis, J. (2010). Avicenna. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Saffari, M. & Pakpour, A. (2012). Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine: A look at health, public health, and environmental sanitation. Archives of Iranian Medicine, 15: 785-789.

Segovia, C. A. (2006). Avicena (Ibn Sina). Cuestiones divinas (Ilahiyyat): Textos escogidos. Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva.

Weisser, U. (2011). Avicenna: The influence of Avicenna on medical studies in the West. Encyclopedia Iranica.

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IBN SINA (AVICENNA)

Ibn Sina ( Avicenna ) (980-1037) is one of the foremost philosophers of the golden age of Islamic tradition that also includes al-Farabi and Ibn Rushd . He is also known as al-Sheikh al-Rais (Leader among the wise men) a title that was given to him by his students. His philosophical works were one of the main targets of al-Ghazali ’s attack on philosophical influences in Islam. In the west he is also known as the " Prince of Physicians " for his famous medical text al-Qanun "Canon". In Latin translations, his works influenced many Christian philosophers, most notably Thomas Aquinas .  

CORPUS (Works):

In Original Language (Arabic/Persian): Autobiography in Arabic Html Biography by his student in Arabic word file.  Biography from Uyun al'anba fi tabaqat al-'atibia' by Ibn 'abi asaiba' (Arabic word file) Isharat wa-Tanbahat (Remarks and Admonitions) (ed. S. Dunya) Commentary by Nasirudeen at-Tusi :    Volume 1: Logic ( PDF , file size: 25000 kb)   Volume 2: Physics ( PDF , file size: 13100 kb)   Volume 3: Metaphysics ( PDF , file size: 8400 kb)   Volume 4: Sufism ( PDF , file size: 4601 kb) Kitab an-Najat (Book of Safety) (ed. M. Fakhry) (PDF, File size 9723 Kb) Somewhat edited e-text in word format . (1.2 megs) with hyperlinked table of contents Somewhat edited e-text in html format.  (6.5 megs) with hyperlinked table of contents. Kitab al-mabda' wa l-ma'ad  (PDF, File size TBD Kb) Ishart (*Unedited e-text in word format) with commentary maybe by Tusi in four parts (from warraq): Part I Part II Part III Part IV Kitab ash-Shifa (Book of Healing) Part 1: Ilhyat:  Minor editing of e-text in word format . (from warraq) (1.2) Ilhyat in Arabic html format . (5.4 Megs) big file -with table of contents. Part 2: Psychology (Tabiyat: ilm an-Nafs) ed. Jan Bakos ( PDF , file size: 18304kb) (link) Part 3: Logic madkhal - maqulat - maqiyas ( Zipped in 3 Arabic word files) A gift from Mufid Dankali. Canon of Medicine (al-Qanun fi al-tibb) . (link to complete 1593 edition) thanks to B. Ludvigsen & AUB. Kitab al-Hudud (livre des définitions) (Arabic-French) ed. (A. M. Goichon) ( PDF , file size: 2624kb) Uyun al-Hikmah: e-text in word format . (from warraq) Risala fi'l 'ashq (Treatise on Love) Trans. E. Fackenheim . ( PDF , file size: 1919kb) also available in word file .  al-Mubhathat (discussions) from Aristu inda' al-Arab (Aristotle According to Arabs) edited by A. Badawi. (Arabic PDF 10200 kb) Ibn Sînâ. Lettre au vizir Abû Sa‘d. Editio princeps d’après le manuscrit de Bursa, traduction de l’arabe, introduction, notes et lexique, « Sagesses Musulmanes, 4 », Paris, Albouraq, 1421/2000, XII, 130*, 61, 4 et 186 p. ISBN 2-84161-150-7. Attributed works (Questionably by Ibn Sina): Risala fi al-Huzn (from a rare Persian manuscript) (Arabic PDF , file size: 78kb) Danish Nameh Alali (Book of knowledge dedicated to Alai Dawlah) (In Persian) we are looking for it. If you have it do let me know. French Translation . (French PDF , file size: 27.2 Megs) 4 volumes.   In English & other languages: Medieval Sourcebook: Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (973-1037): On Medicine ( link) Overview of Shifa . (link) Kitab al-mabda' wa l-ma'ad (Annotated "exploratory" French Translation by Prof. Y. Michot.) (PDF, File size 427 Kb) Remarks and Admonitions Part One: On Logic (Vol. 1 Ishart & Tanbihat) Tr. S. Inati ( PDF , file size: 5585kb) Ibn Sina & Mysticism (Vol. 4 Ishart & Tanbihat) Tr. S. Inati ( PDF , file size: 4591kb) Danish Nameh Alali (Book of knowledge dedicated to Alai Dawlah) (Logic) pdf link.

Bibliography:

• Mu'allfat Ibn Sina (Works of Ibn Sina) By: G. C. Anawati. (Arabic PDF 12701 kb)
• AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ON IBN SINA (1970-1989) by: J. Janssens. (link: book Abstract.)
• There is also a supplement to the above. (link)

Works ON IBN SINA:

In Arabic: The inquiry of Avicenna concerning the corporal form by L. Khayrallah . Arabic word file. Ibn Sina and dental care (link: in Arabic). This site has a lot on the Medical theories of Ibn Sina. Childcare according to Ibn Sina (link: in Arabic). Cosmetics in the Canon (link: in Arabic). The distinction between existence and essence in the philosophy of Avicenna . by L. Khayrallah . Arabic word file. Explications de quelques arguments avicenniens contre la théorie des parties insécables. by L. Khayrallah . Arabic word file. In English & other languages: Avicenna, Jon McGinnis, New York: Oxford University Press, 2010, ISBN: 9780195331486. Avicenna and His Legacy, Y. Tzvi Langermann, ed. Turnhout: Berpols, 2009, ISBN: 9782503527536. A New Standard for Avicenna Studies . By D. Reisman (PDF) 3.5 megs. Avicenna His life and works . By S. Afnan. pdf format. Biography from History of Muslim Philosophy . (pdf) by Prof. F. Rahman Biography and works from the Encyclopedia Iranica. ( www.iranica.com ) (pdf) 4.2 megs. Biography & Works from Encyclopedia of Islam...(e-text) Biography & Works from Encyclopedia of Religion...(PDF e-text). (File Size: 498 KB)  Biography & works from Routledge...(e-text) Avicenna on Casual Priority . M. Marmura. ( PDF , file size: 543 KB) Avicenna on Theology A. J. Arberry. (pdf -link) Avicenna's Chapter on the Relative in the Metaphysics of the Shifa . M. Marmura. ( PDF , file size: 554 KB)   Ibn Sina's `Burhan Al-Siddiqin' - Journal of Islamic Studies. Vol. 12, # 1. Jan. 2001. pp.18-39. pdf . (pdf -link complete e-text) By: T. Mayer La distinction de l'existence et de l'essence dans la philosophie d'Avicenna . Par: L. Khayrallah . (French- word file) Ibn-Sina on the human soul , in Notes and observations on natural science, Book II, Section 5. By J. Kenny O. P. (link) God Physics: From Hawkings to Avicenna . By: W. Carroll (e-text in word only 82KB) An article about the Danesh Nameh translated from Russian. PDF.  Ibn Sina from: " A Medical History of Persia and the Eastern Caliphate " by C. Elgood. (link) An Evaluation of Ibn Sina's Argument for God's Existence in the Metaphysics of the Isharat , By: T. Mayer (link -Abstract only). Nader El-Bizri's interpretation of Ibn Sina: (link -Book Abstract). International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine . (link) AVICENNA AND HIS HERITAGE Edited by J. JANSSENS and D. DE SMET (link) Islamic Medicine organization has many articles in Arabic about Ibn Sina & Medicine. (link)   Über Ibni Sina und die arabische Medizin (link in German) Michot, Y. “A Mamluk Theologian’s Commentary on Avicenna’s Risla Adhawiyya : Being a Translation of a Part of the Dar' al-ta'rud of Ibn Taymiyya with Introduction, Annotation, and Appendices” Part I,  Journal of Islamic Studies , 2003 14:2 pp.149-203 and Part II , Journal of Islamic Studies, 2003 14:3 pp. 309-363 ( PDF ). Michot, Y. "Le Riz Trop Cuit Du Kirmânî: Présentation, Éditon Traduction et Lexique de L'épître d'Avicenne Contestant L'accusation d'avoir Pastiché Le Coran", in F. Dalemans, et. al. Mélanges Offerts À Hossam Elkhadem par ses Amis et ses Éléves , Bruxelles, 2007. pp. 81-129. ( PDF ) Michot, Y. "Al-Nukat wa-l-faw`id : An Important Summa of Avicenian Falsafa" , in Peter Adamson, ed., Classical Arabic Philosophy: Sources and Reception , Warburg Institue, London 2007, pp. 90-123. ( pdf ) Searches: Hippias: Avicenna - Ibn Sina . (links) *** Noesis: Avicenna - Ibn Sina . (links) Google: Avicenna - Ibn Sina . (links) Altavista: Avicenna - Ibn Sina .  (links) Conferences: 3rd Avicenna Study Group conference theme is going to be on the Avicennaian manuscript tradition. First Avicenna Study Group conference at Yale University March 2001 . Avicenna Study Group at the World Congress of Middle East Studies Associations conference Sept. 8 -13 2002.  (link) Manuscripts: The Canon of Medicine from the Islamic Medical Manuscripts at the National Library of Medicine. (link) Image of Canon of Medicine. (Local.) AUB's Saab Medical Library pages on the first printed Canon (link)

Links and Internet Biographies , just a sample of what is out there! :

Basic web biography ... (link) Good Biography with map of his trips. (link) A short Biography by Dr. A. Zahoor (link: much copied on the net!) A short Biography by Dr. M. Ahmed (link: much copied on the net!) The Oxford Companion to Philosophy article on Avicenna. (link) A short Biography by T. Kjeilen. (link) yet another Biography by M. Christensen. (link) U.S. News is on it too. (link) BBC why not too! (link) The Encyclopedia Britannica entry. (link) The Catholic Encyclopedia entry. (link) Ibn Sina (the Mathematician) from a Math History site has very good info. (link) From the Philosophical Dictionary . (link) The window's Philosophers . (link) Another Ibn Sina Bio (in French). (link) Yet another Bio with different portrait. (link) Yet another Bio By Sr. D. Hess from University of Louisville. (link) Yet another very brief Bio philosophical review. (link)

Portraits and stamps (Visuals): 

• ( Ibn Sina Gallery... Yes we see Ibn Sina everywhere here is more images from stamps, currency, TV, in stone, bronze, marble, etc. (Now 51 images in total) (LOCAL!)

Video & Audio too:

• Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr: Great thinkers series : Ibn Sina . (link)
• Lynn Redgrave narrates: Avicenna & Medieval Muslim Philosophy . (link)
• Boo Ali Sina the movie (okay its a serial)... (link)

City of his birth and work:

Avicenna's city "Hamadan" . (link)

Tomb, statue, etc.

Avicenna mausoleum . (link) Avicenna Museum . (link) The Avicenna Dome . (link) Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine & Sciences (link) The Avicenna hotel in Istanbul . (link) Avicenna Virtual Campus . (link) Avicenna's IQ . (link) Avicenna, Schools, Colleges, Clinics, Pharmacies, skin cream, hotels, etc... there is so much named after him.

Statement of Purpose:

This website is dedicated to the study of the philosophical works of Ibn Sina. Our aim is to provide original language works, translations and scholarly articles. We also encourage fellow scholars and students to join in this noble effort. Our initial efforts will be to collect as much source material as possible. We hope that we can offer not only in digitized form but e-texts as well of Ibn Sina's works. Everything that available locally on this site is provided free of charge. We hope that this effort makes your study of Ibn Sina easier. Please provide us with your input or critique into any facet of this site.

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  *If you are interested in editing any of these e-texts or publishing your own editions please let us know .

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Islamic Philosophy Online

PHILOSOPHIA ISLAMICA

Ibn Sina (Avicenna)

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980-1037) is one of the foremost philosophers of the golden age of Islamic tradition that also includes  al-Farabi  and  Ibn Rushd . He is also known as al-Sheikh al-Rais (Leader among the wise men) a title that was given to him by his students. His philosophical works were one of the main targets of  al-Ghazali ’s attack on philosophical influences in Islam. In the west he is also known as the “Prince of Physicians” for his famous medical text al-Qanun “Canon”. In Latin translations, his works influenced many Christian philosophers, most notably  Thomas Aquinas . 

CORPUS (WORKS):

In Original Language (Arabic/Persian):

• Autobiography  in Arabic Html
• Biography  by his student in Arabic word file. 
• Biography  from Uyun al’anba fi tabaqat al-‘atibia’ by Ibn ‘abi asaiba’ (Arabic word file)
•   Volume 1: Logic  (PDF, file size: 25000 kb)
•   Volume 2: Physics  (PDF, file size: 13100 kb)
•    Volume 3: Metaphysics  (PDF, file size: 8400 kb)
•   Volume 4: Sufism  (PDF, file size: 4601 kb)
• Somewhat edited e-text in word format . (1.2 megs) with hyperlinked table of contents
• Somewhat edited e-text in html format.   (6.5 megs) with hyperlinked table of contents.
• Kitab al-mabda’ wa l-ma’ad  (PDF, File size TBD Kb)
• Minor editing of e-text in  word format . (from warraq) (1.2)
• Ilhyat  in Arabic html format . (5.4 Megs) big file -with table of contents.
• Part 2:  Psychology (Tabiyat: ilm an-Nafs)  ed. Jan Bakos (PDF, file size: 18304kb) (link)
•  Part 3: Logic madkhal – maqulat – maqiyas ( Zipped  in 3 Arabic word files) A gift from Mufid Dankali. 
• Canon of Medicine (al-Qanun fi al-tibb) . (link to complete 1593 edition) thanks to B. Ludvigsen & AUB.
• Kitab al-Hudud (livre des définitions) (Arabic-French) ed. (A. M. Goichon)  (PDF, file size: 2624kb)
• Uyun al-Hikmah: e-text in  word format . (from warraq)
• Risala fi’l ‘ashq  (Treatise on Love) Trans. E. Fackenheim . (PDF, file size: 1919kb) also available in  word file . 
• al-Mubhathat  (discussions) from Aristu inda’ al-Arab (Aristotle According to Arabs) edited by A. Badawi. (Arabic PDF 10200 kb)
• Ibn Sînâ. Lettre au vizir Abû Sa‘d. Editio princeps d’après le manuscrit de Bursa, traduction de l’arabe, introduction, notes et lexique, « Sagesses Musulmanes, 4 », Paris, Albouraq, 1421/2000, XII, 130*, 61, 4 et 186 p. ISBN 2-84161-150-7.
• IBN SINA – Ḥayy ibn yaqẓān [Mehren, 1889 edition]
• IBN SINA – Isharāt and ṭayr [Mehren, 1891 edition]
• IBN SINA – Kitab al-ʿarshiya [pdf]
• IBN SINA – Qaṣidat al-nafs [pdf]
• IBN SINA – Traité ur le destin [Mehren 1899 edition]
• IBN SINA – Traités mystiques [Mehren 1894 edition]

Attributed works (Questionably by Ibn Sina):

• Risala fi al-Huzn  (from a rare Persian manuscript) (Arabic PDF, file size: 78kb)
• French Translation . (French PDF, file size: 27.2 Megs) 4 volumes.

In English & other languages:

• Medieval Sourcebook:  Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (973-1037): On Medicine  ( link)
• Overview of Shifa. (link)
• Kitab al-mabda’ wa l-ma’ad  (Annotated “exploratory” French Translation by Prof. Y. Michot.) (PDF, File size 427 Kb)
• Remarks and Admonitions Part One: On Logic (Vol. 1 Ishart & Tanbihat)  Tr. S. Inati (PDF, file size: 5585kb)
• Ibn Sina & Mysticism (Vol. 4 Ishart & Tanbihat)  Tr. S. Inati (PDF, file size: 4591kb) 
• Danish Nameh Alali  (Book of knowledge dedicated to Alai Dawlah) (Logic) pdf link.

Bibliography:

• Mu’allfat Ibn Sina (Works of Ibn Sina)  By: G. C. Anawati. (Arabic PDF 12701 kb)
• AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ON IBN SINA  (1970-1989) by: J. Janssens. (link: book Abstract.)
• There is also a  supplement  to the above. (link)

WORKS ON IBN SINA:

• The inquiry of Avicenna concerning the corporal form  by  L. Khayrallah . Arabic word file.
• Ibn Sina and dental care (link: in Arabic). This site has a lot on the Medical theories of Ibn Sina.
• Childcare according to Ibn Sina  (link: in Arabic).
• Cosmetics in the Canon  (link: in Arabic).
• The distinction between existence and essence in the philosophy of Avicenna . by  L. Khayrallah . Arabic word file.
• Explications de quelques arguments avicenniens contre la théorie des parties insécables.  by  L. Khayrallah . Arabic word file.
• Avicenna, Jon McGinnis, New York: Oxford University Press, 2010, ISBN: 9780195331486.
• Avicenna and His Legacy, Y. Tzvi Langermann, ed. Turnhout: Berpols, 2009, ISBN: 9782503527536.
• A New Standard for Avicenna Studies . By D. Reisman (PDF) 3.5 megs.
• Avicenna His life and works . By S. Afnan. pdf format.
• Biography from History of Muslim Philosophy . (pdf) by Prof. F. Rahman
• Biography and works  from the Encyclopedia Iranica. ( www.iranica.com ) (pdf) 4.2 megs.
• Biography & Works  from Encyclopedia of Islam…(e-text)
• Biography & Works  from Encyclopedia of Religion…(PDF e-text). (File Size: 498 KB) 
• Biography & works  from Routledge…(e-text)
• Avicenna on Casual Priority . M. Marmura.  (PDF, file size: 543 KB)
• Avicenna on Theology  A. J. Arberry. (pdf -link)
• Avicenna’s Chapter on the Relative in the Metaphysics of the Shifa . M. Marmura.  (PDF, file size: 554 KB)  
• Ibn Sina’s `Burhan Al-Siddiqin’  -Journal of Islamic Studies. Vol. 12, # 1. Jan. 2001. pp.18-39. pdf. (pdf -link complete e-text) By: T. Mayer
• La distinction de l’existence et de l’essence dans la philosophie d’Avicenna . Par:  L. Khayrallah . (French- word file)
• Ibn-Sina on the human soul, in Notes and observations on natural science, Book II, Section 5. By J. Kenny O. P. (link)
• God Physics: From Hawkings to Avicenna . By: W. Carroll (e-text in word only 82KB)
• An article about  the Danesh Nameh translated  from Russian. PDF. 
• Ibn Sina from: “ A Medical History of Persia and the Eastern Caliphate ” by C. Elgood. (link)
• An Evaluation of Ibn Sina’s Argument for God’s Existence in the Metaphysics of the Isharat, By: T. Mayer (link -Abstract only).
• Nader El-Bizri’s interpretation  of Ibn Sina: (link -Book Abstract).
• International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine . (link)
• AVICENNA AND HIS HERITAGE  Edited by J. JANSSENS and D. DE SMET (link) Islamic Medicine organization has many articles in Arabic about Ibn Sina & Medicine. (link)
•   Über Ibni Sina und die arabische Medizin (link in German)
• Michot, Y. “A Mamluk Theologian’s Commentary on Avicenna’s  Risla Adhawiyya : Being a Translation of a Part of the  Dar’ al-ta’rud  of Ibn Taymiyya with Introduction, Annotation, and Appendices” Part I,   Journal of Islamic Studies , 2003 14:2 pp.149-203 and Part II ,  Journal of Islamic Studies,  2003 14:3 pp. 309-363 ( PDF ).
• Michot, Y. “Le Riz Trop Cuit Du Kirmânî: Présentation, Éditon Traduction et Lexique de L’épître d’Avicenne Contestant L’accusation d’avoir Pastiché Le Coran”, in F. Dalemans, et. al.  Mélanges Offerts À Hossam Elkhadem par ses Amis et ses Éléves , Bruxelles, 2007. pp. 81-129. ( PDF )
• Michot, Y.  “Al-Nukat wa-l-faw`id : An Important  Summa  of Avicenian  Falsafa” , in Peter Adamson, ed.,  Classical Arabic Philosophy: Sources and Reception , Warburg Institue, London 2007, pp. 90-123. ( pdf )

Conferences:

• 3rd Avicenna Study Group conference theme is going to be on the Avicennaian manuscript tradition.
• First Avicenna Study Group conference at Yale University March 2001.
• Avicenna Study Group  at the  World Congress of Middle East Studies  Associations conference Sept. 8 -13 2002.  (link)

Manuscripts:

• The Canon of Medicine  from the Islamic Medical Manuscripts at the National Library of Medicine. (link)
• Image  of Canon of Medicine. (Local.)
• AUB’s Saab Medical Library pages  on the first printed Canon  (link)

Links and Internet Biographies , just a sample of what is out there! :

• Basic web biography … (link)
• Good Biography with map of his trips. (link)
• A short Biography by Dr. A. Zahoor (link: much copied on the net!)
• A short Biography by Dr. M. Ahmed (link: much copied on the net!)
• The Oxford Companion  to Philosophy article on Avicenna. (link)
• A  short Biography  by T. Kjeilen. (link)
• yet another Biography by M. Christensen. (link)
• U.S. News is on it too. (link)
• BBC why not too! (link)
• The Encyclopedia Britannica entry. (link)
• The  Catholic Encyclopedia  entry. (link)
• Ibn Sina (the Mathematician) from a Math History site  has very good info. (link)
• From the  Philosophical Dictionary . (link)
• The  window’s Philosophers . (link)
• Yet another Bio  with different portrait. (link)
• Yet another Bio By Sr. D. Hess from University of Louisville. (link)

Portraits and stamps (Visuals): 

• ( Ibn Sina Gallery…  Yes we see Ibn Sina everywhere here is more images from stamps, currency, TV, in stone, bronze, marble, etc. (Now 51 images in total) (LOCAL!)

Video & Audio too:

• An Anthology of Philosophy in Persia: Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Mehdi Aminrazavi discuss philosophy in Persia a Library of Congress event. ( link )
• Science in a golden age: Al-Razi, Ibn Sina and the Canon of Medicine narrated by Jim al-Khalili – Al-Jazeera production ( link )
• Hidden Science Superstars: Ibn Sina ( link )
• Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr: Great thinkers series: Ibn Sina. (link)
• Lynn Redgrave narrates: Avicenna & Medieval Muslim Philosophy. (link)
• Boo Ali Sina  the movie (okay its a serial)… (link)

City of his birth and work:

• Avicenna’s city “Hamadan”. (link)

Tomb, statue, etc.

• Avicenna mausoleum . (link)
• Avicenna Museum . (link)
• The Avicenna Dome. (link)
• Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine & Sciences (link)
• The Avicenna hotel in Istanbul. (link)
• Avicenna Virtual Campus . (link)
• Avicenna’s IQ. (link)
• Avicenna, Schools, Colleges, Clinics, Pharmacies, skin cream, hotels, etc… there is so much named after him.

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If there is only one God, and the world is God’s creation, then the world must reflect God’s unity: there must be a single, unified cosmos under Divine rule. That has been the central theme of Islamic philosophy for over a millennium and a half, since the religion’s founding. In their insistence on unity, Islamic philosophers laid the groundwork for future attempts to synthesize various strands of world philosophy into a single cohesive framework.

As the Islamic Empire expanded outward from Arabia in the 7 th and 8 th centuries AD, it encountered more and more people with more and more diverse ideas. Like Alexander’s empire a thousand years earlier, the Caliphate became a global center of intellectual activity. Scholars from far-flung lands now belonged under a single, sprawling political system, and consequently they were increasingly able to learn from each other. By the time of the Islamic Golden Age (roughly 800-1300AD), the House of Wisdom at Baghdad had become the world’s preeminent institution of philosophy and science. And arguably the Islamic Empire’s greatest scholar was Ibn Sina , also known by the Latin name Avicenna.

Growing up in this global center of scholarship, Ibn Sina had plenty of opportunities for education. His family was not particularly wealthy, but his father worked in local government and ensured that his son was properly educated. As a child, Ibn Sina showed a remarkable propensity for learning: we’re told that he memorized the Qur’an at age 10, and by the time he reached his 20s he was a qualified doctor and was well-versed in the classics of Greek and Islamic philosophy.

It was in medicine that Ibn Sina achieved fame. He was a brilliant diagnostician, able to identify the causes of people’s illnesses and prescribe an appropriate remedy. He traveled widely within the eastern reaches of the Islamic Empire, working on his philosophy and earning a comfortable living as a physician until his death in 1037. He wrote a medical encyclopedia called The Canon of Medicine , which summarized all the best medical knowledge of the time. It became a standard textbook in medical schools throughout the world, and was not replaced until the European Enlightenment of the 18 th century, when medical science finally started to move beyond the insights of Ibn Sina.

Following his death, Ibn Sina’s influence was immediately felt in the Islamic world, where he convinced many of his colleagues that they ought to read the Greek philosophers, especially Aristotle . In the 13 th century, his ideas were discovered by the German philosopher Thomas Aquinas, who brought Ibn Sina’s Aristotelean monotheism into the Christian world. Thomas wrote some of the most influential works of Medieval Christian philosophy, and is known as one of the two most important Catholic philosophers (alongside Saint Augustine). In his writings are many arguments for the synthesis of Aristotelean philosophy and monotheism, arguments that he learned in part from Ibn Sina. Ibn Sina was therefore one of the most important thinkers in the development of Christian thought, despite the fact that he was himself a Muslim.

Ibn Sina’s Ideas

The floating man.

Imagine a person floating in the dark silence of outer space. Imagine they are so far out that they can’t see a single star. There is no sound, no smell, no sensation of any kind. If it helps, you can imagine that this person is paralyzed and therefore incapable of any sensations at all. It is as if the outside world simply does not exist. Now imagine that this person has no memories either – they simply woke up in this blank, dark nothingness.

What would such a person think? With no senses, Ibn Sina argues, they would not have any awareness of an outside world. They would not even be aware of their own body! Without any sense of touch, they cannot know that they have arms, legs, or a head. Would they therefore conclude that they don’t exist? Ibn Sina argues that this is impossible. Even a person with no awareness of the world, or of their own body, would still know that they exist in some form.

In other words, whatever else they might doubt, no human mind can doubt its own existence. In making this argument , Ibn Sina anticipated by several centuries the work of Descartes, who today is famous for his statement that “I think, therefore I am.” Descartes made his famous remark in 1644, some 600 years after Ibn Sina’s death, but it’s very similar to Ibn Sina’s argument.

I prefer a short life with width to a narrow one with length.

If that was Ibn Sina’s goal, he certainly achieved it. His interests were broad and his accomplishments spread across many fields. In an era when many people never left their hometown, he traveled to far-flung cities within the empire. (And, to be fair, his life was reasonably long as well – he was about 60 when he died, not bad for someone living in the 10 th century!)

God, the supreme being, is neither circumscribed by space, nor touched by time; he cannot be found in a particular direction, and his essence cannot change.

This is a standard part of Muslim theology , articulated succinctly by Ibn Sina. It affirms that God is not a physical being occupying any particular place in space and time. Because God is not part of the physical world, God can only be sought through prayer and contemplation, not through science. By the same token, science is independent of the existence of God, and the devoutly religious should understand their faith in light of the best science of the day. Thus, a man like Ibn Sina could be both a prominent scientist and a leading religious scholar, without fear of any contradiction.

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The cleric/healer.

b. Medicine

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c. Both A and B

d. Neither A nor B

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• Avicenna J Med
• v.4(1); Jan-Mar 2014

Avicenna's contribution to cardiology

Mohammed a.r. chamsi-pasha.

Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, USA

Hassan Chamsi-Pasha

1 King Fahd Armed Forces Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna, was the most famous and influential of all the Islamic philosopher-scientists. His most important medical works are the Canon of Medicine medical encyclopedia and a treatise on cardiac drugs. His Canon of Medicine remained the standard text in both the East and West until the 16 th century. Avicenna's description of cardiac diseases was logically presented perhaps for the first time in the history of medicine. Avicenna was the first to describe carotid sinus hypersensitivity, which presents with vasovagal syncope. He was a pioneer in pulsology and the first correct explanation of pulsation was given by Avicenna, after he refined Galen's theory of the pulse. Besides, he discussed the action of available drugs on the heart in details and mentioned their indications and contraindications. In conclusion, Avicenna made important contributions to cardiology. This article describes some of his contributions in this field.

INTRODUCTION

Islamic civilization once extended from India in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. Buildings such as the Alhambra in Granada and the Giralda in Seville are reminders of the architectural imprint this civilization left on Western Europe. Less well remembered, however, is the impact of Islamic civilization on Western science, technology, and medicine between the years 800 and 1450.[ 1 , 2 ] Before the Islamic era, medical care was largely provided by priests in sanatoriums and annexes to temples.[ 2 ]

Avicenna (Ibn Sina; 980-1037) was known in the West as “the prince of physicians”. His synthesis of Islamic medicine, al-Qanun fi’l tibb (The Canon of Medicine), was the final authority on medical matters in Europe for several centuries. George Sarton, the father of the history of science, wrote in the “Introduction to the History of Science”: One of the most famous exponents of Muslim universalism and an eminent figure in Islamic learning was Avicenna. For 1000 years he has retained his original renown as one of the greatest thinkers and medical scholars in history. His most important medical works are the Qanun (Canon) and a treatise on cardiac drugs”.[ 3 ]

Although Avicenna made advances in pharmacology and in clinical practice, his greatest contribution was probably in the philosophy of medicine. He created a system of medicine that today we would call “holistic” and in which physical and psychological factors, drugs, and diet were combined in treating patients.[ 4 ] Despite such glorious tributes to his work, Avicenna is rarely remembered in the West today and his fundamental contributions to Medicine go largely unrecognized.

CANON OF MEDICINE

The Canon of Medicine (Qanun: Law of Medicine) by Avicenna is one of the most famous books in the history of medicine. This book is a five-volume medical encyclopedia that was completed in 1025. The Arabic text of the Canon was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in the 12 th century and into Hebrew in 1279. This masterpiece has served as an essential medical encyclopedia for scholars in the Islamic territories and Europe for more than six centuries and, in the words of Dr. William Osler, it has remained “a medical Bible for a longer time than any other work”.[ 5 ]

He pulled together his own experiences and compiled the teachings of his predecessors, Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Galen, in order to write his Canon. However, one should realize that ancient principles of medicine are quite different in comparison with modern medicine and the description of diseases which Avicenna discussed their managements may be different today. The eleventh section of the third book principally deals with various kinds of heart diseases, their effects, and treatment.[ 6 ]

Avicenna was a pioneer in pulsology. In the words of Avicenna every beat of the pulse comprises two movements and two pauses. Thus, expansion: pause: contraction: pause. In ancient times, Galen as well as Chinese physicians erroneously believed that there was a unique type of pulse for every organ of the body and for every disease.[ 7 ]

The first correct explanation of pulsation was given by Avicenna, after he refined Galen's theory of the pulse. Avicenna was also the pioneer of the modern approach of examining the pulse using the wrist which is still practiced in the current time.[ 8 ]

Palpitation

The symptoms, effects, and treatment of palpitation are explained in detail by Avicenna. He mentioned that palpitation is a physiological affliction of the heart caused by injuries to the heart, to its outer covering or the anatomical organs close to the heart. All kinds of weaknesses of the heart result in palpitation on account of disharmony in its temperament.

Avicenna repeats the statement that when palpitation becomes acute it may lead to fainting and when the latter becomes acute and constant it may cause death.[ 9 ]

He was a pioneer in psychophysiology and psychosomatic medicine, developing a system for associating changes in the pulse rate with inner feelings. This idea was in anticipation of the word-association test attributed to Carl Jung.[ 10 ]

Avicenna was the first person to diagnose love sickness when he was treating a very ill patient by “feeling the patient's pulse and reciting aloud to him the name of provinces, districts, towns, streets and people”. He noticed the changes in patient's pulse and decided that the patient was in love with a girl whose home Avicenna was able to locate by the examination of patient's pulse.[ 3 ]

Carotid sinus hypersensitivity and vasovagal syncope

In Article 5 of Book III of the Canon of Medicine Avicenna described drop attacks following compression of the carotid artery, and associated with yawning, fatigue, and flushing, which together resemble neurogenic syncope. Such a description is most likely the first mention of carotid sinus hypersensitivity and vasovagal syncope.[ 11 ]

He wrote of patients who had been subjected to pressure on the carotid artery by “hammam” (traditional public bath) staffs or masseurs resulting in unconsciousness and falling.[ 6 ] Avicenna rebuked such actions and wrote that these drop attacks revealed disturbances of the ascending spirit of the brain. He called this condition “al-Lawa” in Arabic, translated as “Torsion” in English. He noted that such patients are generally fatigued, and have excessive yawning, muscle strain, and flushing.[ 6 ]

Flushing is a common finding in neurogenic syncope. Yawning can be one of the first manifestations of the vasovagal reflex.[ 12 ] In a recent study, fatigue was also found to be a prominent feature in patients with vasovagal syncope.[ 13 ]

Atherosclerosis

In the Canon of Medicine there is no concept of Atherosclerosis as such. However, he states that localized accumulation of abnormal humors in vessels or other spaces may result in obstruction. Generalized accumulation may fill vessels or spaces and constrict them without any obstruction. Avicenna says that the worst obstruction is the obstruction of arteries of chief organs: Heart, brain, and liver.[ 14 ]

He also mentioned that the blood that is pure and thin flows smoothly, but the blood that is impure and thick causes choking of vessels and obstruction. He has suggested that this may result in injury to the vital faculties, and may be due to excessive eating and drinking. According to Canon of Avicenna, vascular calcification is deposition of abnormal “black bile” in the artery.[ 15 ]

Pericardial disease

Avicenna states that the heart may be affected by an inflammation of its outer covering or any other organ close to it. Moreover, this inflammation is the cause of palpitation and fainting and may lead to instant death”.[ 16 ] He clearly described pericardial effusion when he says: “In the case of the accumulation of toxic matter, the matter may be deposited in the space between the cardiac muscle and the membrane that covers it”, i.e., pericardium.[ 17 ]

Prevention of cardiac diseases

Avicenna described in detail the subject of health preservation, and thus promoting disease prevention. One of the most important factors to attain this goal is “Exercise”. According to his viewpoint, if exercise is used correctly, intermediately and in an appropriate time, it can prevent physical illnesses as well as diseases.[ 18 ] He was also particular about the healthy diet of patients with heart disease. He states that the preservation of our health is by proper diet that is moderate in quantity and quality. Residual amount from every digestion is left over in the body. By repetition of this cycle, there is an accumulation of waste that is harmful to the body from several aspects.[ 19 ]

The book on drugs for cardiac diseases

Avicenna has a special book entitled “Kitab al-Adviyt-al-Qalbiye” that means “The book on drugs for cardiac diseases”.

This book is a separate and independent work which is medico-philosophical in character. Owing to its wide acceptance and importance, this treatise was translated to Latin in the early 14 th century by Arnaldo de Villanova (d. 1310 or 1313 A.D.) under the title “De Medicines Cordialibus” and it was translated for the second time to Latin by Alpagus in 1520 A.D.[ 19 ]

Among the diseases of the heart mentioned in this treatise are: Difficulty in breathing, palpitation, and syncope. Moreover he has described the effects of some psychological diseases like depression, stress, and anxiety on cardiovascular function. He adds that: “Because the heart is the chief and noble organ, it is necessary that the physician should treat it after careful consideration and with a firm will. It is necessary that he should have faith in the success of his course of treatment. The temperament of the patient is considered of fundamental importance in the treatment of heart diseases and if there is any disharmony or imbalance of any kind, it should be treated”.

In the second chapter, he described simple and compound drug remedies of heart diseases, but before that, he divided the drugs into several categories. These categories consist of stimulants, diuretics, and cooling agents. In this book, 83 simple and 17 compound drugs in the form of electuaries, crushed medicaments, pills, tonic and syrups derived from the vegetable, mineral and animal kingdoms are discussed explaining how they act on the heart. Furthermore, he described the dosage and strength of each drug and application techniques.[ 20 ]

In this treatment, the Galenic concept of the four humors (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) predominates. Although the terminology employed by Avicenna is basically Greco-Arab, the concept has been presented very lucidly.[ 17 ]

One of the drugs mentioned in this book is ‘zarnab’. He wrote that ‘zarnab’ (Taxus baccata L.) sets the heart at ease. It is recently demonstrated that this drug possessed calcium channel blocking activity.[ 21 ] One may say that Avicenna used a drug with calcium channel blocking activity much earlier than the arrival of synthetic drugs belonging to the same pharmacological group.[ 21 ] However, it is difficult to find out in which cardiac disturbance did Avicenna use this plant.[ 22 ]

The section of the Canon on heart disease contains merits as well as demerits but it cannot be judged from the point of view of the advanced and scientific knowledge of heart diseases and their treatment available in modern times.

What actually strikes the reader of this section of the Canon is the absence of a discussion of chest pain which may have been quite common in the days of Avicenna. He mentioned it only once and did not discuss it at all as a heart disease.

In the Canon as well as in the book of cardiac drugs he puts forward the traditional statement about the anatomy and physiology of the heart and the circulation of blood based mainly on the writings of Galen. He ignored the pulmonary circulation, which was later described by an Arab physician, Ibn al-Nafis, in the 13 th century AD.[ 23 ]

Interestingly, in describing cardiac morphology, he essentially followed the teachings of Aristotle, rather than Galen, on the 3-chambered nature of the heart.[ 24 , 25 ] It may be worth mentioning a quotation from Michelangelo, an Italian sculptor who also studied anatomy[ 26 ] : “It is better to be mistaken following Avicenna than to be true following others”.[ 27 ]

CONCLUSIONS

It is true that Avicenna did not know about elevated cholesterol levels and high blood pressure. Yet, it should be remembered that the Canon of Avicenna was written in early 11 th century and it should be reviewed in the light of the state of knowledge concerning heart diseases and their treatment attained at that time.

Research today has the advantage of highly sophisticated instruments which were not available to Avicenna 1000 years ago. That he wrote this section of the Canon in such detail and compiled a separate treatise on heart drugs are enough to prove that he had a clear understanding of the fatal character of heart diseases. He was an astute scientific observer and medical practitioner.

Source of Support: Nil

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

• Trees/Shrubs

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) Bio

Written by Tel Asiado.

Persian philosopher Ibn Sina or Avicenna (c.980-1037) was born in the village of Afshana near the present-day Bukhara (in Uzbekistan) then a leading city in Persia (Iran.) His mother Setareh was from the same village, while his father Abdullah was Ismaili, who was a respected local governor, under the Samanid dynasty was from the ancient city of Balkh (today Afghanistan). His real name is Abu Ali al-Husayn Ibn Abd Allan Ibn Sina, however, he is commonly referred to under his Latinized name Avicenna. In the Muslim world, he is known simply as Ibn Sina.

At an early age, his family moved to Bukhara where he studied Hanafi jurisprudence with Isma‘il Zahid and at about 13 years of age he studied medicine with a number of teachers. At the age of 16, he established himself as a respected physician. Besides studying medicine, he also dedicated much of his time to the study of physics, natural sciences and metaphysics.

His knowledge of medicine brought to the attention of Nuh ibn Mansur, the Sultan of Bukhara of the Samanid Court, whom he treated successfully. In 997, Avicenna was hired as a physician by Nun ibn Mansur, and he was permitted to use the sultan's library and its rare manuscripts allowing him to continue his research. This training and the library of the physicians at the Samanid court assisted him in his philosophical self-education. The sultan's royal library was considered one of the best kinds in the medieval world at the time.

Major Accomplishments

Avicenna was one of the most celebrated philosophers and physicians in the early Islamic empire. In the Latin West, his metaphysics and theory of the soul had a profound influence on scholastic arguments, and as in the Islamic East, it was the basis for considerable debate and argument. They regarded him as the principal representative of philosophy in Islam. Like other Islamic scholars, he studied the writings of the lands that were being absorbed into an expanding Islamic Empire. For example, the Canon of Medicine incorporates the work of Galen, as well as ancient Ayurvedic, Arabian and Persian texts. It also contains his own theories of medicine. The resulting synthesis sets out a medical system that was accepted as the standard for centuries. As such, his influence on the development of medicine across much of the world is significant.

His philosophy dealt with some of the most fundamental questions including the role of God in the human existence and the universe. He wrote on logic, metaphysics and ethics, but his greatest contribution to the development of both Muslim and Western thought was his attempt to reconcile the ancient Greek philosophy and God as the creator of all existence. Although his native language was Persian, most of his works were written in Arabic which was the language of the science in the Middle East in his time.

He wrote prolifically on a wide range of subjects. He is thought to have created over 400 works on various topics but only about half have made it though time. Forty of his medical texts have survived, including one of the most significant books in the history of medicine called "Canon of Medicine". It was printed in Europe at least 60 times between 1516 and 1574. The Canon remained a major authority for medical students in both the Islamic world and Europe until well into the 1700s.

Due to the lack of credible sources it is impossible to ascertain how much of his biography is accurate.

• c. 980 - Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Abdullah ibn Sina (or Ibn Sina for short) was born in Afshana, a village near Bukhara (present day Uzbekistan), capital of the Samanids, a Persian dynasty in Central Asia.
• Around 10 years old he had memorized the entire Qur'an.
• As a teenager he studied Aristotle's Metaphysics which had difficulty understanding. He also studied philosophy with even greater difficulty understanding. He also studied medicine with various teachers.
• At 16 he was established as a physician by his own account and discovered new methods of treatment.
• At 18 he achieved full status as a qualified physician, also from his own account, and quoted with: "Medicine is no hard and thorny science, like mathematics and metaphysics, so I soon made great progress; I began to treat patients, using approved remedies." The youthful physician's fame spread quickly.
• Around early 1000 his father passed away and political turmoil in 1002 was ripe so he was forced to leave Bukhara and went to Urganj (present-day Konye-Urgench) in today’s Uzbekistan.
• In 1012, out of necessity he moved to Gurgan (Jurjan or Gorgan) in Khurasan in search for a patron. He also started working on the Canon of Medicine which is his most famous work. He first met his disciple and scribe Juzjani.
• In 1013 he moved to Rai near the present-day Tehran to work as a physician.
• 1015 - He arrived in Hamadan where he settled down. He became vizier of Shams al-Dawla. After the latter's death in 1021, Avicenna once again sought a patron and became the vizier of the Kakuyid ‘Ala’ al-Dawla for whom he wrote an important Persian summa of philosophy, the Danishnama-yi ‘Ala’i (The Book of Knowledge for ‘Ala’ al-Dawla). In Hamadan, he established himself as a philosopher and physician, and wrote his greatest works. However, after the death of the emir of Hamadan, Avicenna wrote to the ruler of Isfahan and offered his service. When the new Hamadan emir found out about his letter, he had him imprisoned. He was eventually released but he decided to flee.
• 1025 - He arrived in Isfahan disguised as Sufi ascetics, along with his brother, a student and two slaves. They left Hamadan and arrived in Isfahan and were warmly welcomed by the city's ruler. He spent his last years in a relative peace, serving the city as the advisor of Isfahan's ruler and physician.

He died from severe colic in 1037 at 58 years of age. Said to be an arrogant thinker, he was fond of his slave-girls and wine.

• "Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Abdullah ibn Sina (Ibn Sina) (980-1037 CE)". Science Museum . Accessed April 14, 2014.
• Avicenna (Ibn Sina). Philosophers.co.uk. Accessed April 14, 2014.
• Ibn Sina (980-1037) Persian Scientist. www.hyperhistory.com . Accessed April 14, 2014.
• Ibn Sina: Abu 'Ali Al-Husayn (980-1037). Islamic Philosophy Online . Accessed April 14, 2013.

About the Author

Tel Asiado is a writer, author, content producer, and business consultant. She owns various niche websites. Her articles reflect her passions in writing & reading, biographies & histories, inventions & discoveries, to classical music, art & literature and small business. Tel has produced non-fictions, e-books and anthologies, and has written numerous articles on varied subjects online and in print. Her education is MBA, BScience in Chemistry, and Diploma in Small Business & Internet Mktg.

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