Page 132 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

ibn sina 951

Belief in truth begins with doubting all that has hitherto been
believed true. • Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

widely recognized as the field of world history contin- bility during the Samanid dynasty (864–999 CE), the first
ues to grow. native dynasty to arise in Iran. Ibn Sina’s renown in med-
icine led him to be summoned to cure the Samanid king,
Michael C. Low
Nuh ibn Masur (reigned 976–997 CE). Having been given
See also Writing World History a cure that had eluded more experienced physicians, the
king offered ibn Sina handsome rewards. However, the
young physician is said to have requested permission
Further Reading only to use the Royal Library of the Samanids, access to
Baali, F. (1992). Society, state, and urbanism: Ibn Khaldun’s sociological which was vital to Ibn Sina’s scholarship.
thought. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Fischel,W. (1967). Ibn Khaldun in Egypt. Berkley and Los Angeles: Uni- By age twenty-one Ibn Sina had established a thriving
versity of California Press. medical practice in Ray, near modern Tehran, Iran, before
Issawi, C. (1950). An Arab philosophy of history: Selections from the Pro-
legomena of Ibn Khaldun of Tunis (C. Issawi, Trans.). London: John political instability forced him to relocate to Hamadan,
Murray Publishers. also in present Iran. He then turned to writing and
Lacoste, Y. (1984). Ibn Khaldun: The birth of history and the past of the wrote more than one hundred titles on mathematics,
Third World (D. Macy,Trans.). London: Verso.
Mahdi, M. (1957). Ibn Khaldun’s philospophy of history. London: Allen medicine, and the use of medicinal drugs, physics, and
and Unwin. metaphysics. Most of these works were written in both
Rosenthal, F. (1957). Introduction to Ibn Khaldun.The Muqaddimah:An
introduction to history (F. Rosenthal,Trans.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton his native Persian and Arabic.
University Press. His two most important works are Kitab al-Shifa’
Schmidt, N. (1930). Ibn Khaldun. New York: Columbia University Press.
(Book of Healing) and his Qanun. Kitab al-Shifa’ was an
enormous undertaking that covered topics such as logic,
the natural sciences, psychology (Ibn Sina studied in
great detail the physiology of human emotions), Euclid-
Ibn Sina ian geometry, astronomy, mathematics, and even music

(980–1037) as a branch of math based on musical intervals (the dis-
Islamic scientist and philosopher tance between notes on a chord) and rhythmic patterns.
Although this work attracted considerable attention
bn Sina was a physician, scientist, philosopher, and from his contemporaries, Ibn Sina’s Qanun secured his
Imathematician whose Qanun (Canon of Medicine) place in world history.
was the standard medical reference in Europe and the With well more than one million words, the Qanun
Middle East until the seventeenth century. Ibn Sina was has been called the most important single work in the
born to middle-class Persian (Iranian) parents in the vil- history of medicine, even if its influence today has
lage of Afshana, near Bukhara, Uzbekistan.A precocious waned. It was the standard medical reference in Europe
child whose Arabic name is “Abu al-Husayn ibn Sina,” and the Middle East until the seventeenth century. The
ibn Sina (widely known as “Avicenna” in the West) mas- Qanun is divided into five books. The first covers gen-
tered the Quran and available Arabic and Greek classics eral principles; the second deals with medicinal drugs
as a teenager. (a field of Ibn Sina’s expertise that attracted Western
By age seventeen Ibn Sina turned his energy and intel- doctors for centuries), the third with particular organs
lect to the study of medicine, the field in which he made of the body, the fourth with diseases, and the fifth with
his most significant contributions. Like those of many compound medicines (i.e., medicines made from vari-
great historical scholars and artists, Ibn Sina’s life and ous substances).
career were closely tied to the political climate of his The Arabic text of the Qanun was published in Rome
day. Ibn Sina lived during a period of great political insta- in 1593, making it one of the earliest Arabic books to