Avicenna

Avicenna (/ˌævᵻˈsɛnə/; Latinized form of Ibn-Sīnā, Arabic full name Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Al-Hasan ibn Ali ibn Sīnā أبو علي الحسين ابن عبد الله ابن سينا‍; c. 980 – June 1037) was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age.

Of the 450 works he is known to have written, around 240 have survived, including 150 on philosophy and 40 on medicine.

His most famous works are The Book of Healing – a philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and The Canon of Medicine – a medical encyclopedia which became a standard medical text at many medieval universities and remained in use as late as 1650. In 1973, Avicenna's Canon Of Medicine was reprinted in New York.

Besides philosophy and medicine, Avicenna's corpus includes writings on astronomy, alchemy, geography and geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics and poetry.

Circumstances

Ibn Sina created an extensive corpus of works during what is commonly known as the Islamic Golden Age, in which the translations of Greco-Roman, Persian, and Indian texts were studied extensively. Greco-Roman (Mid- and Neo-Platonic, and Aristotelian) texts translated by the Kindi school were commented, redacted and developed substantially by Islamic intellectuals, who also built upon Persian and Indian mathematical systems, astronomy, algebra, trigonometry and medicine. The Samanid dynasty in the eastern part of Persia, Greater Khorasan and Central Asia as well as the Buyid dynasty in the western part of Persia and Iraq provided a thriving atmosphere for scholarly and cultural development. Under the Samanids, Bukhara rivaled Baghdad as a cultural capital of the Islamic world.

Golden Age

The term Golden Age (Greek: χρύσεον γένοςchryseon genos) comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five (or more) Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, Heroic, and then the present (Iron), which is a period of decline, sometimes followed by the Leaden Age. By definition, one is never in the Golden Age.

By extension "Golden Age" denotes a period of primordial peace, harmony, stability, and prosperity. During this age peace and harmony prevailed, people did not have to work to feed themselves, for the earth provided food in abundance. They lived to a very old age with a youthful appearance, eventually dying peacefully, with spirits living on as "guardians". Plato in Cratylus (397 e) recounts the golden race of humans who came first. He clarifies that Hesiod did not mean literally made of gold, but good and noble.

There are analogous concepts in the religious and philosophical traditions of the South Asian subcontinent. For example, the Vedic or ancient Hindu culture saw history as cyclical, composed of yugas with alternating Dark and Golden Ages. The Kali yuga (Iron Age), Dwapara yuga (Bronze Age), Treta yuga (Silver Age) and Satya yuga (Golden Age) correspond to the four Greek ages. Similar beliefs occur in the ancient Middle East and throughout the ancient world, as well.

The Canon of Medicine

The Canon of Medicine (Arabic: القانون في الطب‎ al-Qānūn fī aṭ-Ṭibb) is an encyclopedia of medicine in five books compiled by Persian philosopher Avicenna (Ibn Sina) and completed in 1025. It presents an overview of the contemporary medical knowledge, which had been largely influenced by Galen

The Canon of Medicine remained a medical authority for centuries. It set the standards for medicine in Medieval Europe and the Islamic world, and was used as a medical textbook through the 18th century in Europe. It is still used in Unani medicine, a form of traditional medicine practiced in India.

Etymology

The English title The Canon of Medicine is a translation of the Arabic title القانون في الطب (al-Qānūn fī aṭ-Ṭibb), with "Canon" used in the sense of "law". The word Canon derives from the cognate Arabic original Qanun (the English word "canon" comes from Latin canōn, from Ancient Greek κανών (kanón, "measuring rod, standard"), while the Arabic qanun comes directly from the same Ancient Greek root).

Sina

Sina may refer to:

Ibn al-Nafis

Ala-al-din abu Al-Hassan Ali ibn Abi-Hazm al-Qarshi al-Dimashqi (Arabic: علاء الدين أبو الحسن عليّ بن أبي حزم القرشي الدمشقي ), known as Ibn al-Nafis (Arabic: ابن النفيس ), was an Arab physician mostly famous for being the first to describe the pulmonary circulation of the blood. The work of Al-Nafis regarding the right sided (pulmonary) circulation pre-date the much later work (1628) of William Harvey's De motu cordis. Both theories attempt to explain circulation. Together, they represent the earliest and best of Eastern and Western exploration of cardiac physiology.

Apart from medicine, Ibn al-Nafis learned jurisprudence, literature and theology. He was an expert on the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence and an expert physician. He also performed several human dissections during the course of his work. The number of medical textbooks written by al-Nafis in his lifetime is estimated at more than 110 volumes.

Biography

He was born in a village called al-Qurashiyya Damascus and studied medicine at Nuri Hospital in Damascus, which was founded by the Turkish Prince Nur-al Din Muhmud ibn Zanki, in the 12th century. Ibn al-Nafis was taught by the founder of a medical school in Damascus, Muhadhdab al-Din ‘Abd al-Rabin ib ‘Ali al-Dakhwar. Al-Nafis taught and practiced at his own, then lesser known hospital in Egypt. He became the chief physician there and personal physician for prominent political leaders, thus becoming also an authority among practitioners of medicine. Prior to his death, he donated his house and personal library to Qalawun Hospital or, as it was also known, the House of Recovery. He died on December 17, 1288, in Cairo.