Biography
Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Abdallah ibn Sina was born on 16 August 980 in the village of Afshona near Bukhara, into the family of an official of the Samanid administration. By the age of ten he knew the Quran by heart; he studied mathematics with the merchant Mahmud Massah, logic and Islamic law with Ismail Zahid, and medicine with the Bukharan physician Abu Mansur Qamari, and beyond that he was largely self-taught.
In 997, aged seventeen, he cured the Samanid emir Nuh ibn Mansur and as a reward was given access to the rich palace library of Bukhara, where he could study works on philosophy, medicine and the natural sciences that were out of other people’s reach. After the fall of the Samanid state in 999 he left Bukhara and travelled widely among the cities of Transoxiana and Khorasan.
From 1015 to 1024 he lived in Hamadan, where he cured the emir Shams al-Dawla and was made vizier, combining state service with scholarship. There he began his principal philosophical work, “Kitab al-Shifa” (“The Book of Healing”), an encyclopaedia of logic, physics, mathematics and metaphysics.
His last years, from 1023 to 1037, he spent at the court of the emir Ala al-Dawla in Isfahan as adviser and court physician — the calmest and most productive period of his life. There he completed “The Canon of Medicine” (“al-Qanun fi al-Tibb”), a five-volume encyclopaedia of medicine that for five centuries remained the main textbook both in the medieval East and in the universities of Europe, where Ibn Sina was known as Avicenna.
He died on 18 June 1037 in Hamadan and is buried there. Of the roughly 450 works attributed to him, about 240 survive, on philosophy, medicine, mathematics, astronomy and music; his legacy had an enormous influence on Islamic and medieval European science, and the title Shaykh al-Ra’is (“Chief of the Scholars”) has stayed with his name for centuries.
Career
- Samanid court in BukharaCourt physician · Bukhara · 997–999
- Court of Emir Shams al-Dawla in HamadanVizier and court physician · 1015–1024
- Court of Emir Ala al-Dawla in IsfahanAdviser and court physician · 1023–1037
Works
- “Kitab al-Shifa” (“The Book of Healing”)Philosophical and scientific encyclopaedia
A compendium of logic, physics, mathematics and metaphysics — one of the most comprehensive scientific encyclopaedias of the Middle Ages.
- “The Canon of Medicine” (al-Qanun fi al-Tibb)Medical encyclopaedia
A five-volume work that brought together Greek, Persian, Indian and Arabic medicine; it served as the main textbook in European universities until the 17th century.
- “Remarks and Admonitions” (al-Isharat wa-l-Tanbihat)Philosophical treatise
A late work on logic, physics and mystical knowledge, one of the most original of Ibn Sina’s writings.
- “Danishnama” (“The Book of Knowledge”)Philosophical work
The first major philosophical work written in Persian rather than Arabic — intended for the ruler Ala al-Dawla.
Life path
- 980Birth
Born in the village of Afshona near Bukhara, in the family of an official of the Samanid administration.
- 997Service at the Samanid court
Cured the emir Nuh ibn Mansur and gained access to the rich palace library of Bukhara.
- 999Leaving Bukhara
After the fall of the Samanid state he left the city and began many years of wandering through Transoxiana and Khorasan.
- 1012Beginning of the «Canon of Medicine»
In Gurganj he met his student Abu Ubayd al-Juzjani and began writing his principal medical work.
- 1015Vizier in Hamadan
Cured the emir Shams al-Dawla of colic and was appointed vizier at his court.
- 1022Imprisonment
After the death of Shams al-Dawla he was accused of secret correspondence with the ruler of Isfahan and held for several months in a fortress.
- 1024Move to Isfahan
Escaped from prison disguised as a Sufi and entered the service of the emir Ala al-Dawla.
- 1025Completion of the «Canon of Medicine»
Finished his principal medical work, based on Greek, Persian, Indian and Arabic medicine.
- 1037Death
Died in Hamadan during a military campaign of Ala al-Dawla and was buried there.
Legacy
Ibn Sina's «Canon of Medicine», translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in the 12th century, served as the main textbook in European universities until the 17th century — longer than any other medical work in history. In the West he was known as Avicenna, and his philosophical system («Avicennism») influenced both Islamic and medieval European scholasticism. Since 2003 UNESCO has awarded the international Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science, and a crater on the Moon bears his name.
Era: The flowering of Islamic science, 10th–11th centuries- The «Canon of Medicine» translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona (1180)
- Mausoleum of Ibn Sina opened in Hamadan (1952)
- UNESCO proclaimed an international year of the 1,000th anniversary of Ibn Sina's birth (1980)
- UNESCO's international Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science established (2003)
