Everything about Avicenna totally explained
(; c.
980 in
Bukhara,
Khorasan –
1037 in
Hamedan), also known as
Ibn Seena and commonly known in English by his Latinized name
Avicenna (Greek
Aβιτζιανός), was a
Persian Muslim polymath and the foremost
physician and
Islamic philosopher of his time. He was also an
astronomer,
chemist,
Hafiz,
logician,
mathematician,
poet,
psychologist,
physicist, scientist,
Sheikh,
soldier,
statesman and
theologian.
Ibn Sīnā wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived. In particular, 150 of his surviving treatises concentrate on
philosophy and 40 of them concentrate on
medicine. His most famous works are
The Book of Healing, a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopaedia, and
The Canon of Medicine, which was a standard medical text at many Islamic and European universities up until the early 19th century. The
Canon of Medicine was used as a text-book in the universities of
Montpellier and
Louvain as late as 1650. Ibn Sīnā developed a medical system that combined his own personal experience with that of
Islamic medicine, the medical system of the
Greek physician
Galen,
Aristotelian metaphysics (Avicenna was one of the main interpreters of
Aristotle), and
ancient Persian,
Mesopotamian and
Indian medicine. He was also the founder of
Avicennian logic and the philosophical school of
Avicennism, which were influential among both Muslim and
Scholastic thinkers.
Ibn Sīnā is regarded as a father of early modern
medicine, particularly for his introduction of systematic
experimentation and
quantification into the study of
physiology, his discovery of the contagious nature of
infectious diseases,
randomized controlled trials,
efficacy tests,
clinical pharmacology,
neuropsychiatry, He is also considered the father of the fundamental concept of
momentum in
physics, and regarded as a pioneer of
aromatherapy.
George Sarton, the father of the
history of science, wrote in the
Introduction to the History of Science:
Circumstances
Avicenna created an extensive corpus of works during what is commonly known as Islam's Golden Age (ca 10-11 century CE), in which the translations of Graeco-Roman, Neo- and Mid-Platonic, and Aristotelian texts by the Kindi schools were commented, redacted and developed substantially by Islamic intellectuals, as well as building upon Persian and Indian mathematical systems, astronomy, algebra, trigonometry, and medicine.
Samanid dynasty in
Greater Khorasan and
central Asia as well as
Buwayhid on in western part of
Persia and
Iraq could provide a thriving atmosphere for scholarly and cultural development. Under the Samanids,
Bukhara rivalled
Baghdad as a cultural capital of Islam.
The study of
Quran and
Hadith throve in such a scholarly atmosphere. Philosophy
Fiqh and theology
kalam were further developed, most noticeably by Avicenna and his opponents.
al-Razi and
Al-Farabi had provided methodology and knowledge in medicine and philosophy. Avicenna could use the great libraries of
Balkh,
Khwarezm,
Gorgan,
Rey,
Isfahan and
Hamedan. As various texts, such as the 'Ahd with Bahmanyar show, he debated philosophical points with the greatest scholars of the time. As
Aruzi Samarqandi describes in his
four articles before Avicenna left Khwarezm he'd met
al-Biruni (a noted scientist and astronomer),
Abu Nasr Iraqi(a renowned mathematician),
Abu Sahl Masihi (a respected philosopher) and
Abu al-Khayr Khammar (a great physician).
Biography
Early life
He was born in
Persia around 980 in Afshana, in
Bukhara province, his mother's home, a small city now part of
Uzbekistan. His father, a respected
Ismaili scholar of Balkh, an important town of the
Persian state of
Khorasan, now part of
Afghanistan, was at the time of his son's birth the governor in one of the
Samanid Nuh ibn Mansur's estates. He had his son very carefully educated at
Bukhara. Ibn Sina himself was a
Twelver Shia. Ibn Sina's independent thought was served by an extraordinary intelligence and memory, which allowed him to overtake his teachers at the age of fourteen. As he said in his autobiography there wasn't anything which he hadn't learned when he reached eighteen.
Ibn Sīnā was put under the charge of a tutor, and his precocity soon made him the marvel of his neighbours; he displayed exceptional
intellectual behaviour and was a
child prodigy who had
memorized the Qur'an by the age of 7 and a great deal of
Persian poetry as well. He learned
Indian arithmetic from an
Indian greengrocer, and he began to learn more from a wandering scholar who gained a livelihood by curing the sick and teaching the young. He also studied
Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) under the Hanafi scholar Ismail al-Zahid.
He was greatly troubled by the
Metaphysics of
Aristotle, which he couldn't understand until he read
al-Farabi's commentary on the work. For the next year and a half, he studied
philosophy, in which he encountered greater obstacles. In such moments of baffled inquiry, he'd leave his books, perform the requisite ablutions (
wudu), then go to the
mosque, and continue in prayer (
salah) till light broke on his difficulties. Deep into the night he'd continue his studies, and even in his dreams problems would pursue him and work out their solution. Forty times, it's said, he read through the
Metaphysics of
Aristotle, till the words were imprinted on his memory; but their meaning was hopelessly obscure, until one day they found illumination, from the little commentary by
Farabi, which he bought at a bookstall for the small sum of three dirhams. So great was his joy at the discovery, thus made by help of a work from which he'd expected only mystery, that he hastened to return thanks to God, and bestowed alms upon the poor.
He turned to
medicine at 16, and not only learned medical theory, but also by gratuitous attendance on the sick had, according to his own account, discovered new methods of treatment. The teenager achieved full status as a physician at age 18 and found that "Medicine is no hard and thorny science, like
mathematics and
metaphysics, so I soon made great progress; I became an excellent doctor and began to treat patients, using approved remedies." The youthful physician's fame spread quickly, and he treated many patients without asking for payment.
Adulthood
His first appointment was that of physician to the
emir, who owed him his recovery from a dangerous illness (
997). Ibn Sina's chief reward for this service was access to the royal
library of the
Samanids, well-known patrons of scholarship and scholars. When the library was destroyed by fire not long after, the enemies of Ibn Sina accused him of burning it, in order for ever to conceal the sources of his knowledge. Meanwhile, he assisted his father in his financial labours, but still found time to write some of his earliest works.
When Ibn Sina was 22 years old, he lost his father. The
Samanid dynasty came to its end in December
1004. Ibn Sina seems to have declined the offers of
Mahmud of Ghazni, and proceeded westwards to
Urgench in the modern
Uzbekistan, where the
vizier, regarded as a friend of scholars, gave him a small monthly stipend. The pay was small, however, so Ibn Sina wandered from place to place through the districts of
Nishapur and
Merv to the borders of
Khorasan, seeking an opening for his talents.
Shams al-Ma'äli Kavuus, the generous ruler of
Dailam and central
Persia, himself a poet and a scholar, with whom Ibn Sina had expected to find an asylum, was about that date (
1052) starved to death by his troops who had revolted. Ibn Sina himself was at this season stricken down by a severe illness. Finally, at
Gorgan, near the
Caspian Sea, Ibn Sina met with a friend, who bought a dwelling near his own house in which Ibn Sina lectured on
logic and
astronomy. Several of Ibn Sina's treatises were written for this patron; and the commencement of his
Canon of Medicine also dates from his stay in
Hyrcania.
Ibn Sina subsequently settled at
Rai, in the vicinity of modern
Tehran, (present day capital of Iran), the home town of
Rhazes; where
Majd Addaula, a son of the last
Buwayhid emir, was nominal ruler under the regency of his mother (
Seyyedeh Khatun). About thirty of Ibn Sina's shorter works are said to have been composed in
Rai. Constant feuds which raged between the regent and her second son,
Shams al-Daula, however, compelled the scholar to quit the place. After a brief sojourn at
Qazvin he passed southwards to Hamadãn where
Shams al-Daula, another
Buwayhid emir, had established himself. At first, Ibn Sina entered into the service of a high-born lady; but the emir, hearing of his arrival, called him in as medical attendant, and sent him back with presents to his dwelling. Ibn Sina was even raised to the office of
vizier. The emir consented that he should be banished from the country. Ibn Sina, however, remained hidden for forty days in a
sheikh Ahmed Fadhel's house, till a fresh attack of illness induced the emir to restore him to his post. Even during this perturbed time, Ibn Sina persevered with his studies and teaching. Every evening, extracts from his great works, the
Canon and the
Sanatio, were dictated and explained to his pupils. On the death of the emir, Ibn Sina ceased to be vizier and hid himself in the house of an
apothecary, where, with intense assiduity, he continued the composition of his works.
Meanwhile, he'd written to
Abu Ya'far, the
prefect of the dynamic city of
Isfahan, offering his services. The new emir of Hamadan, hearing of this correspondence and discovering where Ibn Sina was hidden, incarcerated him in a fortress. War meanwhile continued between the rulers of Isfahan and Hamadãn; in
1024 the former captured Hamadan and its towns, expelling the Tajik
mercenaries. When the storm had passed, Ibn Sina returned with the emir to Hamadan, and carried on his literary labours. Later, however, accompanied by his brother, a favourite pupil, and two slaves, Ibn Sina escaped out of the city in the dress of a
Sufi ascetic. After a perilous journey, they reached Isfahan, receiving an honourable welcome from the prince.
Later life and Death
The remaining ten or twelve years of Ibn Sīnā's life were spent in the service of
Abu Ja'far 'Ala Addaula, whom he accompanied as physician and general literary and scientific adviser, even in his numerous campaigns.
During these years he began to study
literary matters and
philology, instigated, it's asserted, by criticisms on his style. He contrasts with the nobler and more intellectual character of
Averroes. A severe
colic, which seized him on the march of the army against Hamadan, was checked by remedies so violent that Ibn Sina could scarcely stand. On a similar occasion the disease returned; with difficulty he reached Hamadan, where, finding the disease gaining ground, he refused to keep up the regimen imposed, and resigned himself to his fate.
His friends advised him to slow down and take life moderately. He refused, however, stating that:
"I prefer a short life with width to a narrow one with length". On his deathbed remorse seized him; he bestowed his goods on the poor, restored unjust gains, freed his slaves, and every third day till his death listened to the reading of the Qur'an. He died in June
1037, in his fifty-eighth year, and was buried in
Hamedan,
Iran.
Avicennian science
The Canon of Medicine
The Canon of Medicine, which was a standard medical text in Europe and the Islamic world up until the 18th century.
The book is known for its introduction of systematic
experimentation and
quantification into the study of
physiology,
risk factor analysis, and the idea of a
syndrome in the
diagnosis of specific diseases, But the
Canon of Ibn Sīnā is distinguished from the
Al-Hawi (Continens) or
Summary of Rhazes by its greater method, due perhaps to the logical studies of the former.
The work has been variously appreciated in subsequent ages, some regarding it as a treasury of wisdom, and others, like
Averroes, holding it useful only as waste paper. In modern times it has been seen of mainly historic interest as most of its tenets have been disproved or expanded upon by scientific medicine. The vice of the book is excessive classification of bodily faculties, and over-subtlety in the discrimination of diseases. It includes five books; of which the first and second discuss
physiology,
pathology and
hygiene, the third and fourth deal with the methods of treating disease, and the fifth describes the composition and preparation of remedies. This last part contains some personal observations.
He is, like all his countrymen, ample in the enumeration of symptoms, and is said to be inferior to Ali in practical medicine and
surgery. He introduced into medical theory the
four causes of the Peripatetic system. Of
natural history and
botany he pretended to no special knowledge. Up to the year
1650, or thereabouts, the
Canon was still used as a textbook in the universities of
Leuven and
Montpellier.
In the museum at
Bukhara, there are displays showing many of his writings,
surgical instruments from the period and paintings of patients undergoing treatment. Ibn Sīnā was interested in the effect of the
mind on the
body, and wrote a great deal on
psychology, likely influencing
Ibn Tufayl and
Ibn Bajjah. He also introduced medical herbs.
Avicennian psychology
In
Muslim psychology and the
neurosciences, Avicenna was a pioneer of
neuropsychiatry. He first described numerous neuropsychiatric conditions, including
hallucination,
insomnia,
mania,
nightmare,
melancholia,
dementia,
epilepsy,
paralysis,
stroke,
vertigo and
tremor.
Avicenna's legacy in classical
psychology is primarily embodied in the
Kitab al-nafs parts of his Kitab al-shifa' (
The Book of Healing) and
Kitab al-najat (
The Book of Deliverance). These were known in Latin under the title
De Anima (treatises "on the soul"). The main thesis of these tracts is represented in his so-called "flying man" argument, which resonates with what was centuries later entailed by
Descartes's
cogito argument (or what
phenomenology designates as a form of an "
epoche").
Astronomy and astrology
In 1070,
Abu Ubayd al-Juzjani, a pupil of Ibn Sīnā, claimed that his teacher Ibn Sīnā had solved the
equant problem in
Ptolemy's planetary model.
The study of
astrology was refuted by Avicenna. His reasons were both due to the methods used by astrologers being
conjectural rather than
empirical and also due to the views of astrologers conflicting with orthodox
Islam. He also cited passages from the
Qur'an in order to justify his refutation of astrology on both scientific and religious grounds.
Chemistry
In
chemistry,
steam distillation was described by Ibn Sīnā. The technique was used to produce
alcohol and
essential oils.
As a
chemist, Avicenna was one of the first to write refutations on
alchemy, after
al-Kindi. Four of his works on the refutation of alchemy were translated into
Latin as:
Liber Aboali Abincine de Anima in arte Alchemiae
Declaratio Lapis physici Avicennae filio sui Aboali
Avicennae de congelatione et conglutinatione lapifum
Avicennae ad Hasan Regem epistola de Re recta
In one of these works, Ibn Sīnā discredited the theory of the transmutation of substances commonly believed by alchemists:
Liber Aboali Abincine de Anima in arte Alchemiae was the most influential, having influenced later medieval chemists and alchemists such as Vincent of Beauvais.}}
Physics
In physics, Ibn Sīnā was the first to employ an air thermometer to measure air temperature in his scientific experiments.
In mechanics, Ibn Sīnā developed an elaborate theory of motion, in which he made a distinction between the inclination and force of a projectile, and concluded that motion was a result of an inclination (mayl) transferred to the projectile by the thrower, and that projectile motion in a vacuum wouldn't cease. He viewed inclination as a permanent force whose effect is dissipated by external forces such as air resistance. His theory of motion was thus consistent with the concept of inertia in Newton's first law of motion. Ibn Sīnā's theory of mayl was further developed by Jean Buridan in his theory of impetus.
In optics, Ibn Sina discovered that the speed of light is finite, as he "observed that if the perception of light is due to the emission of some sort of particles by a luminous source, the speed of light must be finite." He also provided a sophisticated explanation for the rainbow phenomenon. Carl Benjamin Boyer described Ibn Sīnā's theory on the rainbow as follows:
Avicennian philosophy
Ibn Sīnā wrote extensively on early Islamic philosophy, especially the subjects logic, ethics, and metaphysics, including treatises named Logic and Metaphysics. Most of his works were written in Arabic - which was the de facto scientific language of that time, and some were written in the Persian language. Of linguistic significance even to this day are a few books that he wrote in nearly pure Persian language (particularly the Danishnamah-yi 'Ala', Philosophy for Ala' ad-Dawla'). Ibn Sīnā's commentaries on Aristotle often corrected the philosopher, encouraging a lively debate in the spirit of ijtihad.
In the medieval Islamic world, due to Avicenna's successful reconciliation between Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism along with Kalam, Avicennism eventually became the leading school of Islamic philosophy by the 12th century, with Avicenna becoming a central authority on philosophy.
Avicennism was also influential in medieval Europe, particular his doctrines on the nature of the soul and his existence-essence distinction, along with the debates and censure that they raised in scholastic Europe. This was particularly the case in Paris, where Avicennism was later proscribed in 1210. Nevertheless, his psychology and theory of knowledge influenced William of Auvergne and Albertus Magnus, while his metaphysics had an impact on the thought of Thomas Aquinas.
Metaphysical doctrine
Early Islamic philosophy, imbued as it's with Islamic theology, distinguishes more clearly than Aristotelianism the difference between essence and existence. Whereas existence is the domain of the contingent and the accidental, essence endures within a being beyond the accidental. The philosophy of Ibn Sīnā, particularly that part relating to metaphysics, owes much to al-Farabi. The search for a truly definitive Islamic philosophy can be seen in what is left to us of his work.
Following al-Farabi's lead, Avicenna initiated a full-fledged inquiry into the question of being, in which he distinguished between essence (Mahiat) and existence (Wujud). He argued that the fact of existence can not be inferred from or accounted for by the essence of existing things and that form and matter by themselves can't interact and originate the movement of the universe or the progressive actualization of existing things. Existence must, therefore, be due to an agent-cause that necessitates, imparts, gives, or adds existence to an essence. To do so, the cause must be an existing thing and coexist with its effect.
Avicenna’s consideration of the essence-attributes question may be elucidated in terms of his ontological analysis of the modalities of being; namely impossibility, contingency, and necessity. Avicenna argued that the impossible being is that which can't exist, while the contingent in itself (mumkin bi-dhatihi) has the potentiality to be or not to be without entailing a contradiction. When actualized, the contingent becomes a ‘necessary existent due to what is other than itself’ (wajib al-wujud bi-ghayrihi). Thus, contingency-in-itself is potential beingness that could eventually be actualized by an external cause other than itself. The metaphysical structures of necessity and contingency are different. Necessary being due to itself (wajib al-wujud bi-dhatihi) is true in itself, while the contingent being is ‘false in itself’ and ‘true due to something else other than itself’. The necessary is the source of its own being without borrowed existence. It is what always exists. The Necessary exists ‘due-to-Its-Self’, and has no quiddity/essence (mahiyya) other than existence (wujud). Furthermore, It is ‘One’ (wahid ahad) since there can't be more than one ‘Necessary-Existent-due-to-Itself’ without differentia (fasl) to distinguish them from each other. Yet, to require differentia entails that they exist ‘due-to-themselves’ as well as ‘due to what is other than themselves’; and this is contradictory. However, if no differentia distinguishes them from each other, then there's no sense in which these ‘Existents’ are not one and the same. Avicenna adds that the ‘Necessary-Existent-due-to-Itself’ has no genus (jins), nor a definition (hadd), nor a counterpart (nadd), nor an opposite (did), and is detached (bari’) from matter (madda), quality (kayf), quantity (kam), place (ayn), situation (wad’), and time (waqt).
Avicennian logic
Avicenna discussed the topic of logic in Islamic philosophy extensively in his works, and developed his own system of logic known as "Avicennian logic" as an alternative to Aristotelian logic. By the 12th century, Avicennian logic had replaced Aristotelian logic as the dominant system of logic in the Islamic world. After the Latin translations of the 12th century, Avicennian logic was also influential in Europe.
Ibn Sina developed an early theory on hypothetical syllogism, which formed the basis of his early risk factor analysis. The first criticisms of Aristotelian logic were also written by Ibn Sina, who developed an original theory on temporal modal syllogism. Ibn Sina also contributed inventively to the development of inductive logic, being the first to describe the methods of agreement, difference and concomitant variation which are critical to inductive logic and the scientific method.
Natural philosophy
Ibn Sina and Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī engaged in a written debate, with al-Biruni mostly criticizing Aristotelian natural philosophy and the Peripatetic school, while Avicenna and his student Ahmad ibn 'Ali al-Ma'sumi respond to al-Biruni's criticisms in writing. Al-Biruni began by asking Avicenna eighteen questions, ten of which were criticisms of Aristotle's On the Heavens.
Philosophy of science
In the Al-Burhan (On Demonstration) section of The Book of Healing, Avicenna discussed the philosophy of science and described an early scientific method of inquiry. He discusses Aristotle's Posterior Analytics and significantly diverged from it on several points. Avicenna discussed the issue of a proper methodology for scientific inquiry and the question of "How does one acquire the first principles of a science?" He asked how a scientist would arrive at "the initial axioms or hypotheses of a deductive science without inferring them from some more basic premises?" He explains that the ideal situation is when one grasps that a "relation holds between the terms, which would allow for absolute, universal certainty." Avicenna then adds two further methods for arriving at the first principles: the ancient Aristotelian method of induction (istiqra), and the method of examination and experimentation (tajriba). Avicenna criticized Aristotelian induction, arguing that "it doesn't lead to the absolute, universal, and certain premises that it purports to provide." In its place, he develops a "method of experimentation as a means for scientific inquiry."
Theology
Ibn Sīnā was a devout Muslim and sought to reconcile rational philosophy with Islamic theology. His aim was to prove the existence of God and his creation of the world scientifically and through reason and logic. Avicenna wrote a number of treatises dealing with Islamic theology. These included treatises on the Islamic prophets, who he viewed as "inspired philosophers", and on various scientific and philosophical interpretations of the Qur'an, such as how Quranic cosmology corresponds to his own philosophical system.
Ibn Sīnā memorized the Qur'an by the age of seven, and as an adult, he wrote five treatises commenting on suras from the Qur'an. One of these texts included the Proof of Prophecies, in which he comments on several Quranic verses and holds the Qur'an in high esteem. Avicenna argued that the Islamic prophets should be considered higher than philosophers.
Thought experiments
While he was imprisoned in the castle of Fardajan near Hamadhan, Avicenna wrote his famous "Floating Man" thought experiment to demonstrate human self-awareness and the substantiality of the soul. He referred to the living human intelligence, particularly the active intellect, which he believed to be the hypostasis by which God communicates truth to the human mind and imparts order and intelligibility to nature. His "Floating Man" thought experiment tells its readers to imagine themselves suspended in the air, isolated from all sensations, which includes no sensory contact with even their own bodies. He argues that, in this scenario, one would still have self-consciousness. He thus concludes that the idea of the self isn't logically dependent on any physical thing, and that the soul shouldn't be seen in relative terms, but as a primary given, a substance.
Other contributions
Engineering
In the chapters on mechanics and engineering in his encyclopedia Mi'yar al-'aql (The Measure of the Mind), Avicenna writes an analysis on the ilm al-hiyal (science of ingenious devices) and makes the first successful attempt to classify simple machines and their combinations. He first describes and illustrates the five constituent simple machines: the lever, pulley, screw, wedge, and windlass. He then analyzes all the combinations of these simple machines, such as the windlass-screw, windlass-pulley and windlass-lever for example. He is also the first to describe a mechanism which is essentially a combination of all of these simple machines (except for the wedge).
Poetry
Almost half of Ibn Sīnā's works are versified. His poems appear in both Arabic and Persian. As an example, Edward Granville Browne claims that the following verses are incorrectly attributed to Omar Khayyám, and were originally written by Ibn Sīnā:
از قعر گل سیاه تا اوج زحل,
Up from Earth's Centre through the Seventh Gate
کردم همه مشکلات گیتی را حل,
I rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate,
بیرون جستم زقید هر مکر و حیل,
And many Knots unravel'd by the Road;
هر بند گشاده شد مگر بند اجل.
But not the Master-Knot of Human Fate.
When some of his opponents blame him for blasphemy, he says
کفر چو منی گزاف و آسان نبود
The blasphemy of somebody like me isn't easy and exorbitant
محکمتر از ایمان من ایمان نبود
There isn't any stronger faith than my faith
در دهر چو من یکی و آن هم کافر
There is just one person greater than me in the world and that one is god
پس در همه دهر یک مسلمان نبود
Then there are Muslims in the whole world.
Legacy
Dante Alighieri showed him experiencing a perfect eternity with some the greatest men in history in his Divine Comedy such as Virgil, Averroes, Homer, Horace, Ovid, Lucan, Socrates, Plato, and Saladin, Avicenna has been recognized by both East and West, as one of history's great figures.
George Sarton, the father of the history of science, described Ibn Sīnā as "one of the greatest thinkers and medical scholars in history"
In March 2008, it was announced that Avicenna’s name would be used for new Directories of education institutions for health care professionals, worldwide. The Avicenna Directories will list universities and schools where doctors, public health practitioners, pharmacists and others, are educated. The project team stated “Why Avicenna? Avicenna … was … noted for his synthesis of knowledge from both east and west. He has had a lasting influence on the development of medicine and health sciences. The use of Avicenna’s name symbolises the worldwide partnership that's needed for the promotion of health services of high quality.”
Works
Scarcely any member of the Muslim circle of the sciences, including theology, philology, mathematics, astronomy, physics, and music, was left untouched by the treatises of Ibn Sīnā. This vast quantity of works - be they full-blown treatises or opuscula - vary so much in style and content (if one were to compare between the 'ahd made with his disciple Bahmanyar to uphold philosophical integrity with the Provenance and Direction, for example) that Yahya (formerly Jean) Michot has accused him of "neurological bipolarity".
Ibn Sīnā's works numbered almost 450 volumes on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived. In particular, 150 volumes of his surviving works concentrate on philosophy and 40 of them concentrate on medicine. His most famous works are The Book of Healing, a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopaedia, and The Canon of Medicine,
Sirat al-shaykh al-ra’is (The Life of Ibn Sina), ed. and trans. WE. Gohlman, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1974. (The only critical edition of Ibn Sina’s autobiography, supplemented with material from a biography by his student Abu ‘Ubayd al-Juzjani. A more recent translation of the Autobiography appears in D. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition: Introduction to Reading Avicenna’s Philosophical Works, Leiden: Brill, 1988.)Further Information
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