HTML clipboardIbn Sina (Avicenna) - doctor of doctors
Abdullah, an adherent of the Ismaili sect, was from
Balkh and his mother from a village near Bukhara.
In any age
Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna, would have been a giant among giants.
He displayed exceptional intellectual prowess as a child and at the age of ten
was already proficient in the Qur'an and the Arabic classics. During the next
six years he devoted himself to Muslim Jurisprudence, Philosophy and Natural
Science and studied Logic, Euclid, and the Almeagest.
He turned
his attention to Medicine at the age of 17 years and found it, in his own words,
"not difficult". However he was greatly troubled by metaphysical
problems and in particular the works of Aristotle. By chance, he obtained a
manual on this subject by the celebrated philosopher al-Farabi which solved his
difficulties.
By the age
of 18 he had built up a reputation as a physician and was summoned to attend the
Samani ruler Nuh ibn Mansur (reigned 976-997 C.E.), who, in gratitude for Ibn
Sina's services, allowed him to make free use of the royal library, which
contained many rare and even unique books. Endowed with great powers of
absorbing and retaining knowledge, this Muslim scholar devoured the contents of
the library and at the age of 21 was in a position to compose his first book.
At about the same time he lost his father and soon afterwards
left Bukhara and wandered westwards. He entered the services of Ali ibn Ma'mun,
the ruler of Khiva, for a while, but ultimately fled to avoid being kidnapped by
the Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna. After many wanderings he came to Jurjan, near the
Caspian Sea, attracted by the fame of its ruler, Qabus, as a patron of learning.
Unfortunately Ibn Sina's arrival almost coincided with the deposition and murder
of this ruler. At Jurjan, Ibn Sina lectured on logic and astronomy and wrote the
first part of the Qanun, his greatest work.
He then moved to Ray, near modern Teheran and established a
busy medical practice. When Ray was besieged, Ibn Sina fled to Hamadan where he
cured Amir Shamsud-Dawala of colic and was made Prime Minister. A mutiny of
soldiers against him caused his dismissal and imprisonment, but subsequently the
Amir, being again attacked by the colic, summoned him back, apologised and
reinstated him! His life at this time was very strenuous: during the day he was
busy with the Amir's services, while a great deal of the night was passed in
lecturing and dictating notes for his books. Students would gather in his home
and read parts of his two great books, the Shifa and the Qanun, already
composed.
Following
the death of the Amir, Ibn Sina fled to Isfahan after a few brushes with the
law, including a period in prison. He spent his final years in the services of
the ruler of the city, Ala al-Daula whom he advised on scientific and literary
matters and accompanied on military campaigns.
Friends
advised him to slow down and take life in moderation, but this was not in
character. "I prefer a short life with width to a narrow one with length",
he would reply. Worn out by hard work and hard living, Ibn Sina died in 1036/1
at a comparatively early age of 58 years. He was buried in Hamadan where his
grave is still shown.
Al-Qifti
states that Ibn Sina completed 21 major and 24 minor works on philosophy,
medicine, theology, geometry, astronomy and the like. Another source
(Brockelmann) attributes 99 books to Ibn Sina comprising 16 on medicine, 68 on
theology and metaphysics 11 on astronomy and four on verse. Most of these were
in Arabic; but in his native Persian he wrote a large manual on philosophical
science entitled Danish-naama-i-Alai and a small treatise on the pulse.
His most
celebrated Arabic poem describes the descent of Soul into the Body from the
Higher Sphere. Among his scientific works, the leading two are the Kitab
al-Shifa
(Book of Healing), a philosophical encyclopaedia based
upon Aristotelian traditions and the al-Qanun al-Tibb
which represents the final categorisation of Greco-Arabian thoughts on Medicine.
Of Ibn
Sina's 16 medical works, eight are versified treatises on such matter as the 25
signs indicating the fatal termination of illnesses, hygienic precepts, proved
remedies, anatomical memoranda etc. Amongst his prose works, after the great
Qanun, the treatise on cardiac drugs, of which the British Museum possesses
several fine manuscripts, is probably the most important, but it remains
unpublished.
The Qanun
is, of course, by far the largest, most famous and most important of Ibn Sina's
works. The work contains about one million words and like most Arabic books, is
elaborately divided and subdivided. The main division is into five books, of
which the first deals with general principles; the second with simple drugs
arranged alphabetically; the third with diseases of particular organs and
members of the body from the head to the foot; the fourth with diseases which
though local in their inception spread to other parts of the body, such as
fevers and the fifth with compound medicines.
The Qanun
distinguishes mediastinitis from pleurisy and recognises the contagious nature
of phthisis (tuberculosis of the lung) and the spread of disease by water and
soil. It gives a scientific diagnosis of ankylostomiasis and attributes the
condition to an intestinal worm. The Qanun points out the importance of
dietetics, the influence of climate and environment on health and the surgical
use of oral anaesthetics. Ibn Sina advised surgeons to treat cancer in its
earliest stages, ensuring the removal of all the diseased tissue. The Qanun's
materia medica considers some 760 drugs, with comments on their
application and effectiveness. He recommended the testing of a new drug on
animals and humans prior to general use.
Ibn Sina
noted the close relationship between emotions and the physical condition and
felt that music had a definite physical and psychological effect on patients. Of
the many psychological disorders that he described in the Qanun, one is of
unusual interest: love sickness! ibn Sina is reputed to have diagnosed this
condition in a Prince in Jurjan who lay sick and whose malady had baffled local
doctors. Ibn Sina noted a fluttering in the Prince's pulse when the address and
name of his beloved were mentioned. The great doctor had a simple remedy: unite
the sufferer with the beloved.
The Arabic
text of the Qanun was published in Rome in 1593 and was therefore one of the
earliest Arabic books to see print. It was translated into Latin by Gerard of
Cremona in the 12th century. This 'Canon', with its encyclopaedic content, its
systematic arrangement and philosophical plan, soon worked its way into a
position of pre-eminence in the medical literature of the age displacing the
works of Galen, al-Razi and al-Majusi, and becoming the text book for medical
education in the schools of Europe. In the last 30 years of the 15th century it
passed through 15 Latin editions and one Hebrew. In recent years, a partial
translation into English was made. From the 12th-17th century, the Qanun served
as the chief guide to Medical Science in the West and is said to have influenced
Leonardo da Vinci. In the words of Dr. William Osler, the Qanun has remained
"a medical bible for a longer time than any other work".
Despite such glorious tributes to his work, Ibn Sina
is rarely remembered in the West today and his fundamental contributions to
Medicine and the European reawakening goes largely unrecognised. However, in the
museum at Bukhara, there are displays showing many of his writings, surgical
instruments from the period and paintings of patients undergoing treatment. An
impressive monument to the life and works of the man who became known as the
'doctor of doctors' still stands outside Bukhara museum and his portrait hangs
in the Hall of the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Paris.
Selected References:
1. Edward G. Browne (1921) Arabian
Medicine, London, Cambridge University Press.
2. Ynez Viole O'Neill (1973) in
Mcgraw-Hill Encyclopaedia of World Biography vol I: Aalto to Bizet.
3. Philip K. Hitti (1970) History of the
Arabs, 10th ed, London, Macmillan, pp 367-368
4. M.A. Martin (1983) in The Genius of
Arab Civilisation, 2nd ed, Edited by J.R. Hayes, London, Eurabia Puplishing, pp
196-7
Abdullah, an adherent of the Ismaili sect, was from
Balkh and his mother from a village near Bukhara.
In any age
Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna, would have been a giant among giants.
He displayed exceptional intellectual prowess as a child and at the age of ten
was already proficient in the Qur'an and the Arabic classics. During the next
six years he devoted himself to Muslim Jurisprudence, Philosophy and Natural
Science and studied Logic, Euclid, and the Almeagest.
He turned
his attention to Medicine at the age of 17 years and found it, in his own words,
"not difficult". However he was greatly troubled by metaphysical
problems and in particular the works of Aristotle. By chance, he obtained a
manual on this subject by the celebrated philosopher al-Farabi which solved his
difficulties.
By the age
of 18 he had built up a reputation as a physician and was summoned to attend the
Samani ruler Nuh ibn Mansur (reigned 976-997 C.E.), who, in gratitude for Ibn
Sina's services, allowed him to make free use of the royal library, which
contained many rare and even unique books. Endowed with great powers of
absorbing and retaining knowledge, this Muslim scholar devoured the contents of
the library and at the age of 21 was in a position to compose his first book.
At about the same time he lost his father and soon afterwards
left Bukhara and wandered westwards. He entered the services of Ali ibn Ma'mun,
the ruler of Khiva, for a while, but ultimately fled to avoid being kidnapped by
the Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna. After many wanderings he came to Jurjan, near the
Caspian Sea, attracted by the fame of its ruler, Qabus, as a patron of learning.
Unfortunately Ibn Sina's arrival almost coincided with the deposition and murder
of this ruler. At Jurjan, Ibn Sina lectured on logic and astronomy and wrote the
first part of the Qanun, his greatest work.
He then moved to Ray, near modern Teheran and established a
busy medical practice. When Ray was besieged, Ibn Sina fled to Hamadan where he
cured Amir Shamsud-Dawala of colic and was made Prime Minister. A mutiny of
soldiers against him caused his dismissal and imprisonment, but subsequently the
Amir, being again attacked by the colic, summoned him back, apologised and
reinstated him! His life at this time was very strenuous: during the day he was
busy with the Amir's services, while a great deal of the night was passed in
lecturing and dictating notes for his books. Students would gather in his home
and read parts of his two great books, the Shifa and the Qanun, already
composed.
Following
the death of the Amir, Ibn Sina fled to Isfahan after a few brushes with the
law, including a period in prison. He spent his final years in the services of
the ruler of the city, Ala al-Daula whom he advised on scientific and literary
matters and accompanied on military campaigns.
Friends
advised him to slow down and take life in moderation, but this was not in
character. "I prefer a short life with width to a narrow one with length",
he would reply. Worn out by hard work and hard living, Ibn Sina died in 1036/1
at a comparatively early age of 58 years. He was buried in Hamadan where his
grave is still shown.
Al-Qifti
states that Ibn Sina completed 21 major and 24 minor works on philosophy,
medicine, theology, geometry, astronomy and the like. Another source
(Brockelmann) attributes 99 books to Ibn Sina comprising 16 on medicine, 68 on
theology and metaphysics 11 on astronomy and four on verse. Most of these were
in Arabic; but in his native Persian he wrote a large manual on philosophical
science entitled Danish-naama-i-Alai and a small treatise on the pulse.
His most
celebrated Arabic poem describes the descent of Soul into the Body from the
Higher Sphere. Among his scientific works, the leading two are the Kitab
al-Shifa
(Book of Healing), a philosophical encyclopaedia based
upon Aristotelian traditions and the al-Qanun al-Tibb
which represents the final categorisation of Greco-Arabian thoughts on Medicine.
Of Ibn
Sina's 16 medical works, eight are versified treatises on such matter as the 25
signs indicating the fatal termination of illnesses, hygienic precepts, proved
remedies, anatomical memoranda etc. Amongst his prose works, after the great
Qanun, the treatise on cardiac drugs, of which the British Museum possesses
several fine manuscripts, is probably the most important, but it remains
unpublished.
The Qanun
is, of course, by far the largest, most famous and most important of Ibn Sina's
works. The work contains about one million words and like most Arabic books, is
elaborately divided and subdivided. The main division is into five books, of
which the first deals with general principles; the second with simple drugs
arranged alphabetically; the third with diseases of particular organs and
members of the body from the head to the foot; the fourth with diseases which
though local in their inception spread to other parts of the body, such as
fevers and the fifth with compound medicines.
The Qanun
distinguishes mediastinitis from pleurisy and recognises the contagious nature
of phthisis (tuberculosis of the lung) and the spread of disease by water and
soil. It gives a scientific diagnosis of ankylostomiasis and attributes the
condition to an intestinal worm. The Qanun points out the importance of
dietetics, the influence of climate and environment on health and the surgical
use of oral anaesthetics. Ibn Sina advised surgeons to treat cancer in its
earliest stages, ensuring the removal of all the diseased tissue. The Qanun's
materia medica considers some 760 drugs, with comments on their
application and effectiveness. He recommended the testing of a new drug on
animals and humans prior to general use.
Ibn Sina
noted the close relationship between emotions and the physical condition and
felt that music had a definite physical and psychological effect on patients. Of
the many psychological disorders that he described in the Qanun, one is of
unusual interest: love sickness! ibn Sina is reputed to have diagnosed this
condition in a Prince in Jurjan who lay sick and whose malady had baffled local
doctors. Ibn Sina noted a fluttering in the Prince's pulse when the address and
name of his beloved were mentioned. The great doctor had a simple remedy: unite
the sufferer with the beloved.
The Arabic
text of the Qanun was published in Rome in 1593 and was therefore one of the
earliest Arabic books to see print. It was translated into Latin by Gerard of
Cremona in the 12th century. This 'Canon', with its encyclopaedic content, its
systematic arrangement and philosophical plan, soon worked its way into a
position of pre-eminence in the medical literature of the age displacing the
works of Galen, al-Razi and al-Majusi, and becoming the text book for medical
education in the schools of Europe. In the last 30 years of the 15th century it
passed through 15 Latin editions and one Hebrew. In recent years, a partial
translation into English was made. From the 12th-17th century, the Qanun served
as the chief guide to Medical Science in the West and is said to have influenced
Leonardo da Vinci. In the words of Dr. William Osler, the Qanun has remained
"a medical bible for a longer time than any other work".
Despite such glorious tributes to his work, Ibn Sina
is rarely remembered in the West today and his fundamental contributions to
Medicine and the European reawakening goes largely unrecognised. However, in the
museum at Bukhara, there are displays showing many of his writings, surgical
instruments from the period and paintings of patients undergoing treatment. An
impressive monument to the life and works of the man who became known as the
'doctor of doctors' still stands outside Bukhara museum and his portrait hangs
in the Hall of the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Paris.
Selected References:
1. Edward G. Browne (1921) Arabian
Medicine, London, Cambridge University Press.
2. Ynez Viole O'Neill (1973) in
Mcgraw-Hill Encyclopaedia of World Biography vol I: Aalto to Bizet.
3. Philip K. Hitti (1970) History of the
Arabs, 10th ed, London, Macmillan, pp 367-368
4. M.A. Martin (1983) in The Genius of
Arab Civilisation, 2nd ed, Edited by J.R. Hayes, London, Eurabia Puplishing, pp
196-7
