Avicenna - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from Abu 'Ali al-Husayn Ibn Sina) Persian polymath, physician and philosopher (c. 980–1037) For the crater, see Avicenna (crater). "Ibn Sīnā" redirects here. Not to be confused with Ali Sina or Ibn Sina Peak.

Avicenna Ibn Sina
ابن سینا
Portrait of Avicenna on a 1950 Iranian postage stamp
Born	c. 980 Afshana, Transoxiana, Samanid Empire
Died	22 June 1037(1037-06-22) (aged 56–57) Hamadan, Kakuyid Emirate
Monuments	Avicenna Mausoleum
Other names	Sharaf al-Mulk (شرف الملك) Hujjat al-Haq (حجة الحق) al-Sheikh al-Ra'is (الشيخ الرئيس) Ibn-Sino (Abu Ali Abdulloh Ibn-Sino) Bu Alī Sīnā (بو علی سینا)
Philosophy career
Notable work	The Book of Healing The Canon of Medicine

Era	Islamic Golden Age
Region	Middle Eastern philosophy Persian philosophy
School	Aristotelianism, Avicennism
Main interests	Medicine Aromatherapy Philosophy and logic Kalām (Islamic theology) Science Poetry

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Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā)

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The Book of Healing The Canon of Medicine Al-Nijat
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Avicennism On God's existence Floating man Al-Ghazali's criticism of Avicennian philosophy
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Abu 'Ubayd al-Juzjani Bahmanyar Ibn Abi Sadiq Ali ibn Yusuf al-Ilaqi
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Ibn Sina (Persian: ابن سینا, romanized: Ibn Sīnā; c. 980 – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna (/ˌævɪˈsɛnə, ˌɑːvɪ-/), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian rulers. He is often described as the father of early modern medicine. His philosophy was of the Peripatetic school derived from Aristotelianism.

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 European universities and remained in use as late as 1650. Besides philosophy and medicine, Avicenna's corpus includes writings on astronomy, alchemy, geography and geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics, and works of poetry.

Avicenna wrote most of his philosophical and scientific works in Arabic, but also wrote several key works in Persian, while his poetic works were written in both languages. Of the 450 works he is believed to have written, around 240 have survived, including 150 on philosophy and 40 on medicine.

Name

Avicenna is a Latin corruption of the Arabic patronym Ibn Sīnā (ابن سينا), meaning "Son of Sina". However, Avicenna was not the son but the great-great-grandson of a man named Sina. His formal Arabic name was Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn bin ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Ḥasan bin ʿAlī bin Sīnā al-Balkhi al-Bukhari (أبو علي الحسين بن عبد الله بن الحسن بن علي بن سينا البلخي البخاري).

Circumstances

Avicenna created an extensive corpus of works during what is commonly known as the Islamic Golden Age, in which the translations of Byzantine, Greco-Roman, Persian, and Indian texts were studied extensively. Greco-Roman (Middle Platonic, Neoplatonic, 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 Empire 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 for cultural capital of the Muslim world. There, Avicenna had access to the great libraries of Balkh, Khwarazm, Gorgan, Rey, Isfahan and Hamadan.

Various texts (such as the 'Ahd with Bahmanyar) show that Avicenna debated philosophical points with the greatest scholars of the time. Nizami Aruzi described how before ibn Sina left Khwarazm, he had met al-Biruni (a scientist and astronomer), Abu Nasr Mansur (a renowned mathematician), Abu Sahl 'Isa ibn Yahya al-Masihi (a respected philosopher) and ibn al-Khammar (a great physician). The study of the Quran and the Hadith also thrived, and Islamic philosophy, fiqh "jurisprudence", and kalam "speculative theology" were all further developed by ibn Sina and his opponents at this time.

Biography

Early life and education

Avicenna was born in c. 980 in the village of Afshana in Transoxiana to a Persian family. The village was near the Samanid capital of Bukhara, which was his mother's hometown. His father Abd Allah was a native of the city of Balkh in Bactria. An official of the Samanid bureaucracy, he had served as the governor of a village of the royal estate of Harmaytan near Bukhara during the reign of Nuh II (r. 976–997). Avicenna also had a younger brother. A few years later, the family settled in Bukhara, a center of learning, which attracted many scholars. It was there that Avicenna was educated, which early on was seemingly administered by his father.

Although both Avicenna's father and brother had converted to Isma'ilism, he himself did not follow the faith. He was instead a Hanafi Sunni, the same school followed by the Samanids.

Avicenna was first schooled in the Quran and literature, and by the age of 10, he had memorized the entire Quran. He was later sent by his father to an Indian greengrocer, who taught him arithmetic. Afterwards, he was schooled in fiqh by the Hanafi jurist Ismail al-Zahid. Sometime later, his father invited the physician and philosopher al-Natili to their house to educate ibn Sina. Together, they studied the Isagoge of Porphyry (died 305) and possibly the Categories of Aristotle (died 322 BCE) as well. After Avicenna had read the Almagest of Ptolemy (died 170) and Euclid's Elements, al-Natili told him to continue his research independently. By the time Avicenna was eighteen, he was well-educated in Greek sciences. Although ibn Sina only mentions al-Natili as his teacher in his autobiography, he most likely had other teachers as well, such as the physicians Qumri and Abu Sahl 'Isa ibn Yahya al-Masihi.

Career

In Bukhara and Gurganj

At the age of seventeen, Avicenna was made a physician of Nuh II. By the time Avicenna was at least 21 years old, his father died. He was subsequently given an administrative post, possibly succeeding his father as the governor of Harmaytan. Avicenna later moved to Gurganj, the capital of Khwarazm, which he reports that he did due to "necessity". The date he went to the place is uncertain, as he reports that he served the Khwarazmshah, the ruler of Khwarazm, the Ma'munid ruler Abu al-Hasan Ali. The latter ruled from 997 to 1009, which indicates that Avicenna moved sometime during that period.

He may have moved in 999, the year in which the Samanid Empire fell after the Kara-Khanid Khanate captured Bukhara and imprisoned the Samanid emir Abd al-Malik II. Due to his high position and strong connection with the Samanids, ibn Sina may have found himself in an unfavorable position after the fall of his suzerain.

It was through the minister of Gurganj, Abu'l-Husayn as-Sahi, a patron of Greek sciences, that Avicenna entered into the service of Abu al-Hasan Ali. Under the Ma'munids, Gurganj became a centre of learning, attracting many prominent figures, such as ibn Sina and his former teacher Abu Sahl al-Masihi, the mathematician Abu Nasr Mansur, the physician ibn al-Khammar, and the philologist al-Tha'alibi.

In Gorgan

Avicenna later moved due to "necessity" once more (in 1012), this time to the west. There he travelled through the Khurasani cities of Nasa, Abivard, Tus, Samangan and Jajarm. He was planning to visit the ruler of the city of Gorgan, the Ziyarid Qabus (r. 977–981, 997–1012), a cultivated patron of writing, whose court attracted many distinguished poets and scholars. However, when Avicenna eventually arrived, he discovered that the ruler had been dead since the winter of 1013. Avicenna then left Gorgan for Dihistan, but returned after becoming ill. There he met Abu 'Ubayd al-Juzjani (died 1070) who became his pupil and companion. Avicenna stayed briefly in Gorgan, reportedly serving Qabus's son and successor Manuchihr (r. 1012–1031) and resided in the house of a patron.

In Ray and Hamadan

In c. 1014, Avicenna went to the city of Ray, where he entered into the service of the Buyid amir Majd al-Dawla (r. 997–1029) and his mother Sayyida Shirin, the de facto ruler of the realm. There he served as the physician at the court, treating Majd al-Dawla, who was suffering from melancholia. Avicenna reportedly later served as the "business manager" of Sayyida Shirin in Qazvin and Hamadan, though details regarding this tenure are unclear. During this period, Avicenna finished writing The Canon of Medicine and started writing his The Book of Healing.

In 1015, during Avicenna's stay in Hamadan, he participated in a public debate, as was customary for newly arrived scholars in western Iran at that time. The purpose of the debate was to examine one's reputation against a prominent resident. The person whom Avicenna debated against was Abu'l-Qasim al-Kirmani, a member of the school of philosophers of Baghdad. The debate became heated, resulting in ibn Sina accusing Abu'l-Qasim of lack of basic knowledge in logic, while Abu'l-Qasim accused ibn Sina of impoliteness.

After the debate, Avicenna sent a letter to the Baghdad Peripatetics, asking if Abu'l-Qasim's claim that he shared the same opinion as them was true. Abu'l-Qasim later retaliated by writing a letter to an unknown person in which he made accusations so serious that ibn Sina wrote to Abu Sa'd, the deputy of Majd al-Dawla, to investigate the matter. The accusation made towards Avicenna may have been the same as he had received earlier, in which he was accused by the people of Hamadan of copying the stylistic structures of the Quran in his Sermons on Divine Unity. The seriousness of this charge, in the words of the historian Peter Adamson, "cannot be underestimated in the larger Muslim culture."

Not long afterwards, Avicenna shifted his allegiance to the rising Buyid amir Shams al-Dawla, the younger brother of Majd al-Dawla, which Adamson suggests was due to Abu'l-Qasim also working under Sayyida Shirin. Avicenna had been called upon by Shams al-Dawla to treat him, but after the latter's campaign in the same year against his former ally, the Annazid ruler Abu Shawk (r. 1010–1046), he forced Avicenna to become his vizier.

Although Avicenna would sometimes clash with Shams al-Dawla's troops, he remained vizier until the latter died of colic in 1021. Avicenna was asked to stay as vizier by Shams al-Dawla's son and successor Sama' al-Dawla (r. 1021–1023), but he instead went into hiding with his patron, Abu Ghalib al-Attar, to wait for better opportunities to emerge. It was during this period that Avicenna was secretly in contact with Ala al-Dawla Muhammad (r. 1008–1041), the Kakuyid ruler of Isfahan and uncle of Sayyida Shirin.

It was during his stay at Attar's home that Avicenna completed The Book of Healing, writing 50 pages a day. The Buyid court in Hamadan, particularly the Kurdish vizier Taj al-Mulk, suspected Avicenna of correspondence with Ala al-Dawla, and as a result, had the house of Attar ransacked and ibn Sina imprisoned in the fortress of Fardajan, outside Hamadan. Juzjani blames one of ibn Sina's informers for his capture. He was imprisoned for four months until Ala al-Dawla captured Hamadan, ending Sama al-Dawla's reign.

In Isfahan

Coin of Ala al-Dawla Muhammad (r. 1008–1041), the Kakuyid ruler of Isfahan

Avicenna was subsequently released, and went to Isfahan, where he was well received by Ala al-Dawla. In the words of Juzjani, the Kakuyid ruler gave Avicenna "the respect and esteem which someone like him deserved." Adamson also says that Avicenna's service under Ala al-Dawla "proved to be the most stable period of his life." Avicenna served as the advisor, if not vizier of Ala al-Dawla, accompanying him in many of his military expeditions and travels. Avicenna dedicated two Persian works to him, a philosophical treatise named Danish-nama-yi Ala'i ("Book of Science for Ala"), and a medical treatise about the pulse.

During the brief occupation of Isfahan by the Ghaznavids in January 1030, Avicenna and Ala al-Dawla relocated to the southwestern Iranian region of Khuzistan, where they stayed until the death of the Ghaznavid ruler Mahmud (r. 998–1030), which occurred two months later. It was seemingly when Avicenna returned to Isfahan that he started writing his Pointers and Reminders. In 1037, while Avicenna was accompanying Ala al-Dawla to a battle near Isfahan, he contracted a severe colic, which he had been suffering from throughout his life. He died shortly afterwards in Hamadan, where he was buried.

Philosophy

Avicenna 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, then the language of science in the Muslim world, and some in Early New Persian. Of linguistic significance even to this day are a few books that he wrote in Persian, particularly the Danishnama. Avicenna's commentaries on Aristotle often criticized the philosopher, encouraging a lively debate in the spirit of ijtihad.

Avicenna's Neoplatonic scheme of emanations became fundamental in kalam in the 12th century.

The Book of Healing became available in Europe in a partial Latin translation some fifty years after its composition under the title Sufficientia, and some authors have identified a "Latin Avicennism" as flourishing for some time paralleling the more influential Latin Averroism, but it was suppressed by the Parisian decrees of 1210 and 1215.

Avicenna's psychology and theory of knowledge influenced the theologian William of Auvergne and Albertus Magnus, while his metaphysics influenced the thought of Thomas Aquinas.

Metaphysical doctrine

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Early Islamic philosophy and Islamic metaphysics, imbued as it is with kalam, distinguishes between essence and existence more clearly than Aristotelianism. Whereas existence is the domain of the contingent and the accidental, essence endures within a being beyond the accidental. The philosophy of Avicenna, particularly that part relating to metaphysics, owes much to al-Farabi. The search for a definitive Islamic philosophy separate from Occasionalism can be seen in what is left 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 (Arabic: ماهية, romanized: māhiya) and existence (Arabic: وجود, romanized: wujūd). He argued that the fact of existence cannot be inferred from or accounted for by the essence of existing things, and that form and matter by themselves cannot 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.

Impossibility, contingency, necessity

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 cannot 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.

Differentia

Reception

Avicenna's theology on metaphysical issues (ilāhiyyāt) has been criticized by some Islamic scholars, among them al-Ghazali, ibn Taymiyya, and ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. While discussing the views of the theists among the Greek philosophers, namely Socrates, Plato and Aristotle in Al-Munqidh min ad-Dalal "Deliverance from Error", al-Ghazali noted:

must be taxed with unbelief, as must their partisans among the Muslim philosophers, such as Avicenna and al-Farabi and their likes. None, however, of the Muslim philosophers engaged so much in transmitting Aristotle's lore as did the two men just mentioned. The sum of what we regard as the authentic philosophy of Aristotle, as transmitted by al-Farabi and Avicenna, can be reduced to three parts: a part which must be branded as unbelief; a part which must be stigmatized as innovation; and a part which need not be repudiated at all.

Argument for God's existence

Main article: Proof of the Truthful

Avicenna made an argument for the existence of God which would be known as the "Proof of the Truthful" (wajib al-wujud). Avicenna argued that there must be a Proof of the Truthful, an entity that cannot not exist and through a series of arguments, he identified it with God in Islam. Present-day historian of philosophy Peter Adamson called this argument one of the most influential medieval arguments for God's existence, and Avicenna's biggest contribution to the history of philosophy.

Al-Biruni correspondence

Correspondence between ibn Sina with his student Ahmad ibn ʿAli al-Maʿsumi and al-Biruni has survived in which they debated Aristotelian natural philosophy and the Peripatetic school. al-Biruni began by asking eighteen questions, ten of which were criticisms of Aristotle's On the Heavens.

Theology

Ibn Sina was a devout Muslim and sought to reconcile rational philosophy with Islamic theology. He aimed to prove the existence of God and His creation of the world scientifically and through reason and logic. His views on Islamic theology and philosophy were enormously influential, forming part of the core of the curriculum at Islamic religious schools until the 19th century.

Avicenna wrote several short treatises dealing with Islamic theology. These included treatises on the prophets and messengers in Islam, whom he viewed as "inspired philosophers", and also on various scientific and philosophical interpretations of the Quran, such as how Quranic cosmology corresponds to his philosophical system. In general, these treatises linked his philosophical writings to Islamic religious ideas; for example, the body's afterlife.

There are occasional brief hints and allusions in his longer works, however, that Avicenna considered philosophy as the only sensible way to distinguish real prophecy from illusion. He did not state this more clearly because of the political implications of such a theory if prophecy could be questioned, and also because most of the time he was writing shorter works which concentrated on explaining his theories on philosophy and theology clearly, without digressing to consider epistemological matters which could only be properly considered by other philosophers.

Later interpretations of Avicenna's philosophy split into three different schools; those (such as al-Tusi) who continued to apply his philosophy as a system to interpret later political events and scientific advances; those (such as al-Razi) who considered Avicenna's theological works in isolation from his wider philosophical concerns; and those (such as al-Ghazali) who selectively used parts of his philosophy to support their own attempts to gain greater spiritual insights through a variety of mystical means. It was the theological interpretation championed by those such as al-Razi which eventually came to predominate in the madrasahs.

Avicenna memorized the Quran by the age of ten, and as an adult, wrote five treatises commenting on surahs of the Quran. One of these texts included the Proof of Prophecies, in which he comments on several Quranic verses and holds the Quran in high esteem. Avicenna argued that the Islamic prophets should be considered higher than philosophers.

Avicenna is generally understood to have been aligned with the Hanafi school of Sunni thought. Avicenna studied Hanafi law, many of his notable teachers were Hanafi jurists, and he served under the Hanafi court of Ali ibn Mamun. Avicenna said at an early age that he remained "unconvinced" by Ismaili missionary attempts to convert him.

Medieval historian Ẓahīr al-dīn al-Bayhaqī (d. 1169) believed Avicenna to be a follower of the Brethren of Purity.

Thought experiments

Main article: Floating man

While he was imprisoned in the castle of Fardajan near Hamadhan, Avicenna wrote his famous "floating man"—literally falling man—a thought experiment to demonstrate human self-awareness and the substantiality and immateriality of the soul. Avicenna believed his "Floating Man" thought experiment demonstrated that the soul is a substance, and claimed humans cannot doubt their own consciousness, even in a situation that prevents all sensory data input. The thought experiment told its readers to imagine themselves created all at once while suspended in the air, isolated from all sensations, which includes no sensory contact with even their own bodies. He argued that, in this scenario, one would still have self-consciousness. Because it is conceivable that a person, suspended in air while cut off from sense experience, would still be capable of determining his own existence, the thought experiment points to the conclusions that the soul is a perfection, independent of the body, and an immaterial substance. The conceivability of this "Floating Man" indicates that the soul is perceived intellectually, which entails the soul's separateness from the body. Avicenna 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. Following is an English translation of the argument:

One of us (i.e. a human being) should be imagined as having been created in a single stroke; created perfect and complete but with his vision obscured so that he cannot perceive external entities; created falling through air or a void, in such a manner that he is not struck by the firmness of the air in any way that compels him to feel it, and with his limbs separated so that they do not come in contact with or touch each other. Then contemplate the following: can he be assured of the existence of himself? He does not have any doubt in that his self exists, without thereby asserting that he has any exterior limbs, nor any internal organs, neither heart nor brain, nor any one of the exterior things at all; but rather he can affirm the existence of himself, without thereby asserting there that this self has any extension in space. Even if it were possible for him in that state to imagine a hand or any other limb, he would not imagine it as being a part of his self, nor as a condition for the existence of that self; for as you know that which is asserted is different from that which is not asserted and that which is inferred is different from that which is not inferred. Therefore the self, the existence of which has been asserted, is a unique characteristic, in as much that it is not as such the same as the body or the limbs, which have not been ascertained. Thus that which is ascertained (i.e. the self), does have a way of being sure of the existence of the soul as something other than the body, even something non-bodily; this he knows, this he should understand intuitively, if it is that he is ignorant of it and needs to be beaten with a stick .
— Ibn Sina, Kitab Al-Shifa, On the Soul

However, Avicenna posited the brain as the place where reason interacts with sensation. Sensation prepares the soul to receive rational concepts from the universal Agent Intellect. The first knowledge of the flying person would be "I am," affirming his or her essence. That essence could not be the body, obviously, as the flying person has no sensation. Thus, the knowledge that "I am" is the core of a human being: the soul exists and is self-aware. Avicenna thus concluded that the idea of the self is not logically dependent on any physical thing, and that the soul should not be seen in relative terms, but as a primary given, a substance. The body is unnecessary; in relation to it, the soul is its perfection. In itself, the soul is an immaterial substance.

Principal works

The Canon of Medicine

Main article: The Canon of Medicine

Avicenna authored a five-volume medical encyclopedia, The Canon of Medicine (Arabic: القانون في الطب, romanized: al-Qānūn fī l-ṭibb). It was used as the standard medical textbook in the Islamic world and Europe up to the 18th century. The Canon still plays an important role in Unani medicine.

Liber Primus Naturalium

Avicenna considered whether events like rare diseases or disorders have natural causes. He used the example of polydactyly to explain his perception that causal reasons exist for all medical events. This view of medical phenomena anticipated developments in the Enlightenment by seven centuries.

The Book of Healing

Main article: The Book of Healing

This section should include only a brief summary of The Book of Healing. See Misplaced Pages:Summary style for information on how to properly incorporate it into this article's main text. (July 2016)

Earth sciences

Avicenna wrote on Earth sciences such as geology in The Book of Healing. While discussing the formation of mountains, he explained:

Either they are the effects of upheavals of the crust of the earth, such as might occur during a violent earthquake, or they are the effect of water, which, cutting itself a new route, has denuded the valleys, the strata being of different kinds, some soft, some hard ... It would require a long period of time for all such changes to be accomplished, during which the mountains themselves might be somewhat diminished in size.

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 discussed 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 explained that the ideal situation is when one grasps that a "relation holds between the terms, which would allow for absolute, universal certainty". Avicenna then added 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 does not lead to the absolute, universal, and certain premises that it purports to provide." In its place, he developed a "method of experimentation as a means for scientific inquiry."

Logic

An early formal system of temporal logic was studied by Avicenna. Although he did not develop a real theory of temporal propositions, he did study the relationship between temporalis and the implication. Avicenna's work was further developed by Najm al-Dīn al-Qazwīnī al-Kātibī and became the dominant system of Islamic logic until modern times. Avicennian logic also influenced several early European logicians such as Albertus Magnus and William of Ockham. Avicenna endorsed the law of non-contradiction proposed by Aristotle, that a fact could not be both true and false at the same time and in the same sense of the terminology used. He stated, "Anyone who denies the law of non-contradiction should be beaten and burned until he admits that to be beaten is not the same as not to be beaten, and to be burned is not the same as not to be burned."

Physics

In mechanics, Avicenna, in The Book of Healing, developed a theory of motion, in which he made a distinction between the inclination (tendency to motion) 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 would not cease. He viewed inclination as a permanent force whose effect is dissipated by external forces such as air resistance.

The theory of motion presented by Avicenna was probably influenced by the 6th-century Alexandrian scholar John Philoponus. Avicenna's is a less sophisticated variant of the theory of impetus developed by Buridan in the 14th century. It is unclear if Buridan was influenced by Avicenna, or by Philoponus directly.

In optics, Avicenna was among those who argued that light had a speed, observing 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 wrong explanation of the rainbow phenomenon. Carl Benjamin Boyer described Avicenna's ("Ibn Sīnā") theory on the rainbow as follows:

Independent observation had demonstrated to him that the bow is not formed in the dark cloud but rather in the very thin mist lying between the cloud and the sun or observer. The cloud, he thought, serves as the background of this thin substance, much as a quicksilver lining is placed upon the rear surface of the glass in a mirror. Ibn Sīnā would change the place not only of the bow, but also of the color formation, holding the iridescence to be merely a subjective sensation in the eye.

In 1253, a Latin text entitled Speculum Tripartitum stated the following regarding Avicenna's theory on heat:

Avicenna says in his book of heaven and earth, that heat is generated from motion in external things.

Psychology

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"). Notably, Avicenna develops what is called the Flying Man argument in the Psychology of The Cure I.1.7 as defence of the argument that the soul is without quantitative extension, which has an affinity with Descartes's cogito argument (or what phenomenology designates as a form of an "epoche").

Avicenna's psychology requires that connection between the body and soul be strong enough to ensure the soul's individuation, but weak enough to allow for its immortality. Avicenna grounds his psychology on physiology, which means his account of the soul is one that deals almost entirely with the natural science of the body and its abilities of perception. Thus, the philosopher's connection between the soul and body is explained almost entirely by his understanding of perception; in this way, bodily perception interrelates with the immaterial human intellect. In sense perception, the perceiver senses the form of the object; first, by perceiving features of the object by our external senses. This sensory information is supplied to the internal senses, which merge all the pieces into a whole, unified conscious experience. This process of perception and abstraction is the nexus of the soul and body, for the material body may only perceive material objects, while the immaterial soul may only receive the immaterial, universal forms. The way the soul and body interact in the final abstraction of the universal from the concrete particular is the key to their relationship and interaction, which takes place in the physical body.

The soul completes the action of intellection by accepting forms that have been abstracted from matter. This process requires a concrete particular (material) to be abstracted into the universal intelligible (immaterial). The material and immaterial interact through the Active Intellect, which is a "divine light" containing the intelligible forms. The Active Intellect reveals the universals concealed in material objects much like the sun makes colour available to our eyes.

Other contributions

Astronomy and astrology

Main article: Astrology in the medieval Islamic world

Avicenna wrote an attack on astrology titled Missive on the Champions of the Rule of the Stars (رسالة في ابطال احكم النجوم) in which he cited passages from the Quran to dispute the power of astrology to foretell the future. He believed that each classical planet had some influence on the Earth but argued against current astrological practices.

Avicenna's astronomical writings had some influence on later writers, although in general his work could be considered less developed than that of ibn al-Haytham or al-Biruni. One important feature of his writing is that he considers mathematical astronomy a separate discipline from astrology. He criticized Aristotle's view of the stars receiving their light from the Sun, stating that the stars are self-luminous, and believed that the planets are also self-luminous. He claimed to have observed the transit of Venus. This is possible as there was a transit on 24 May 1032, but ibn Sina did not give the date of his observation and modern scholars have questioned whether he could have observed the transit from his location at that time; he may have mistaken a sunspot for Venus. He used his transit observation to help establish that Venus was, at least sometimes, below the Sun in the geocentric model, i.e. the sphere of Venus comes before the sphere of the Sun when moving out from the Earth.

He also wrote the Summary of the Almagest based on Ptolemy's Almagest with an appended treatise "to bring that which is stated in the Almagest and what is understood from Natural Science into conformity". For example, ibn Sina considers the motion of the solar apsis, which Ptolemy had taken to be fixed.

Chemistry

Avicenna was first to derive the attar of flowers from distillation and used steam distillation to produce essential oils such as rose essence, which he used as aromatherapeutic treatments for heart conditions.

Unlike al-Razi, Avicenna explicitly disputed the theory of the transmutation of substances commonly believed by alchemists:

Those of the chemical craft know well that no change can be effected in the different species of substances, though they can produce the appearance of such change.

Four works on alchemy attributed to Avicenna 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 lapidum
Avicennae ad Hasan Regem epistola de Re recta

Liber Aboali Abincine de Anima in arte Alchemiae was the most influential, having influenced later medieval chemists and alchemists such as Vincent of Beauvais. However, Anawati argues (following Ruska) that the de Anima is a fake by a Spanish author. Similarly the Declaratio is believed not to be actually by Avicenna. The third work (The Book of Minerals) is agreed to be Avicenna's writing, adapted from the Kitab al-Shifa (Book of the Remedy). Avicenna classified minerals into stones, fusible substances, sulfurs and salts, building on the ideas of Aristotle and Jabir. The epistola de Re recta is somewhat less sceptical of alchemy; Anawati argues that it is by Avicenna, but written earlier in his career when he had not yet firmly decided that transmutation was impossible.

Poetry

Almost half of Avicenna's works are versified. His poems appear in both Arabic and Persian. As an example, Edward Granville Browne claims that the following Persian verses are incorrectly attributed to Omar Khayyám, and were originally written by Ibn Sīnā:

از قعر گل سیاه تا اوج زحل
کردم همه مشکلات گیتی را حل
بیرون جستم زقید هر مکر و حیل
هر بند گشاده شد مگر بند اجل

From the depth of the black earth up to Saturn's apogee,
All the problems of the universe have been solved by me.
I have escaped from the coils of snares and deceits;
I have unraveled all knots except the knot of Death.

Legacy

Classical Islamic civilization

Robert Wisnovsky, a scholar of Avicenna attached to McGill University, says that "Avicenna was the central figure in the long history of the rational sciences in Islam, particularly in the fields of metaphysics, logic and medicine" but that his works didn't only have an influence in these "secular" fields of knowledge alone, as "these works, or portions of them, were read, taught, copied, commented upon, quoted, paraphrased and cited by thousands of post-Avicennian scholars—not only philosophers, logicians, physicians and specialists in the mathematical or exact sciences, but also by those who specialized in the disciplines of ʿilm al-kalām (rational theology, but understood to include natural philosophy, epistemology and philosophy of mind) and usūl al-fiqh (jurisprudence, but understood to include philosophy of law, dialectic, and philosophy of language)."

Medieval and Renaissance Europe

As early as the 14th century when Dante Alighieri depicted him in Limbo alongside the virtuous non-Christian thinkers 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 the great figures in intellectual history. Johannes Kepler cites Avicenna's opinion when discussing the causes of planetary motions in Chapter 2 of Astronomia Nova.

George Sarton, the author of The History of Science, described Avicenna as "one of the greatest thinkers and medical scholars in history" and called him "the most famous scientist of Islam and one of the most famous of all races, places, and times". He was one of the Islamic world's leading writers in the field of medicine.

Avicenna at the sickbed, miniature by Walenty z Pilzna, Kraków (ca 1479–1480)

Along with Rhazes, Abulcasis, Ibn al-Nafis and al-Ibadi, Avicenna is considered an important compiler of early Muslim medicine. He is remembered in the Western history of medicine as a major historical figure who made important contributions to medicine and the European Renaissance. His medical texts were unusual in that where controversy existed between Galen and Aristotle's views on medical matters (such as anatomy), he preferred to side with Aristotle, where necessary updating Aristotle's position to take into account post-Aristotelian advances in anatomical knowledge. Aristotle's dominant intellectual influence among medieval European scholars meant that Avicenna's linking of Galen's medical writings with Aristotle's philosophical writings in the Canon of Medicine (along with its comprehensive and logical organisation of knowledge) significantly increased Avicenna's importance in medieval Europe in comparison to other Islamic writers on medicine. His influence following translation of the Canon was such that from the early fourteenth to the mid-sixteenth centuries he was ranked with Hippocrates and Galen as one of the acknowledged authorities, princeps medicorum ("prince of physicians").

Modern reception

Institutions in a variety of counties have been named after Avicenna in honour of his scientific accomplishments, including the Avicenna Mausoleum and Museum, Bu-Ali Sina University, Avicenna Research Institute and Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences. There is also a crater on the Moon named Avicenna.

The Avicenna Prize, established in 2003, is awarded every two years by UNESCO and rewards individuals and groups for their achievements in the field of ethics in science.

The Avicenna Directories (2008–15; now the World Directory of Medical Schools) list universities and schools where doctors, public health practitioners, pharmacists and others, are educated. The original 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 is needed for the promotion of health services of high quality.

In June 2009, Iran donated a "Persian Scholars Pavilion" to the United Nations Office in Vienna. It now sits in the Vienna International Center.

In popular culture

The 1982 Soviet film Youth of Genius (Russian: Юность гения, romanized: Yunost geniya) by Elyor Ishmukhamedov [ru] recounts Avicenna's younger years. The film is set in Bukhara at the turn of the millennium.

In Louis L'Amour's 1985 historical novel The Walking Drum, Kerbouchard studies and discusses Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine.

In his book The Physician (1988) Noah Gordon tells the story of a young English medical apprentice who disguises himself as a Jew to travel from England to Persia and learn from Avicenna, the great master of his time. The novel was adapted into a feature film, The Physician, in 2013. Avicenna was played by Ben Kingsley.

List of works

The treatises of Avicenna influenced later Muslim thinkers in many areas including theology, philology, mathematics, astronomy, physics and music. His 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, and The Canon of Medicine.

Avicenna wrote at least one treatise on alchemy, but several others have been falsely attributed to him. His Logic, Metaphysics, Physics, and De Caelo, are treatises giving a synoptic view of Aristotelian doctrine, though Metaphysics demonstrates a significant departure from the brand of Neoplatonism known as Aristotelianism in Avicenna's world; Arabic philosophers have hinted at the idea that Avicenna was attempting to "re-Aristotelianise" Muslim philosophy in its entirety, unlike his predecessors, who accepted the conflation of Platonic, Aristotelian, Neo- and Middle-Platonic works transmitted into the Muslim world.

The Logic and Metaphysics have been extensively reprinted, the latter, e.g., at Venice in 1493, 1495 and 1546. Some of his shorter essays on medicine, logic, etc., take a poetical form (the poem on logic was published by Schmoelders in 1836). Two encyclopedic treatises, dealing with philosophy, are often mentioned. The larger, Al-Shifa' (Sanatio), exists nearly complete in manuscript in the Bodleian Library and elsewhere; part of it on the De Anima appeared at Pavia (1490) as the Liber Sextus Naturalium, and the long account of Avicenna's philosophy given by Muhammad al-Shahrastani seems to be mainly an analysis, and in many places a reproduction, of the Al-Shifa'. A shorter form of the work is known as the An-najat (Liberatio). The Latin editions of part of these works have been modified by the corrections which the monastic editors confess that they applied. There is also a حكمت مشرقيه (hikmat-al-mashriqqiyya, in Latin Philosophia Orientalis), mentioned by Roger Bacon, the majority of which is lost in antiquity, which according to Averroes was pantheistic in tone.

Avicenna's works further include:

Sirat al-shaykh al-ra'is (The Life of Avicenna), ed. and trans. WE. Gohlman, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1974. (The only critical edition of Avicenna'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; second edition 2014.)
Al-isharat wa al-tanbihat (Remarks and Admonitions), ed. S. Dunya, Cairo, 1960; parts translated by S.C. Inati, Remarks and Admonitions, Part One: Logic, Toronto, Ont.: Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies, 1984, and Ibn Sina and Mysticism, Remarks and Admonitions: Part 4, London: Kegan Paul International, 1996.
Al-Qanun fi'l-tibb (The Canon of Medicine), ed. I. a-Qashsh, Cairo, 1987. (Encyclopedia of medicine.) manuscript, Latin translation, Flores Avicenne, Michael de Capella, 1508, Modern text. Ahmed Shawkat Al-Shatti, Jibran Jabbur.
Risalah fi sirr al-qadar (Essay on the Secret of Destiny), trans. G. Hourani in Reason and Tradition in Islamic Ethics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Danishnama "The Book of Scientific Knowledge", ed. and trans. P. Morewedge, The Metaphysics of Avicenna, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973.
The Book of Healing, Avicenna's major work on philosophy. He probably began to compose al-Shifa' in 1014, and completed it in 1020. Critical editions of the Arabic text have been published in Cairo, 1952–83, originally under the supervision of I. Madkour.
Kitab al-Najat "The Book of Salvation", trans. F. Rahman, Avicenna's Psychology: An English Translation of Kitab al-Najat, Book II, Chapter VI with Historical-philosophical Notes and Textual Improvements on the Cairo Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952. (The psychology of al-Shifa'.) (Digital version of the Arabic text)
Risala fi'l-Ishq "A Treatise on Love". Translated by Emil L. Fackenheim.

Persian works

Avicenna's most important Persian work is the Danishnama (دانشنامه علائی, "Book of Knowledge". Avicenna created a new scientific vocabulary that had not previously existed in Persian. The Danishnama covers such topics as logic, metaphysics, music theory and other sciences of his time. It has been translated into English by Parwiz Morewedge in 1977. The book is also important in respect to Persian scientific works.

Andar Dānish-i Rag (اندر دانش رگ, "On the Science of the Pulse") contains nine chapters on the science of the pulse and is a condensed synopsis.

Persian poetry from Avicenna is recorded in various manuscripts and later anthologies such as Nozhat al-Majales.

References

Citations

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(page 117) "But for the time being, it was a Persian from Khurasan who would have commentaries lavished upon him. Avicenna would be known by the honorific of "leading master" (al-shaykh al-raʾis)."
(page 206) "Persians like Avicenna"
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^ Nader El-Bizri, The Phenomenological Quest between Avicenna and Heidegger (Binghamton, N.Y.: Global Publications SUNY, 2000)
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Salem Mashran, al-Janib al-ilahi 'ind Ibn Sina (Damascus, 1992), p. 99
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^ Adamson 2013, p. 170.
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^ Aisha Khan (2006). Avicenna (Ibn Sina): Muslim physician and philosopher of the eleventh century. The Rosen Publishing Group. p. 38. ISBN 978-1-4042-0509-3.
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See a discussion of this in connection with an analytic take on the philosophy of mind in: Nader El-Bizri, 'Avicenna and the Problem of Consciousness', in Consciousness and the Great Philosophers, eds. S. Leach and J. Tartaglia (London: Routledge, 2016), 45–53
Ibn Sina, الفن السادس من الطبيعيات من كتاب الشفاء القسم الأول (Beirut, Lebanon.: M.A.J.D Enterprise Universitaire d'Etude et de Publication S.A.R.L)
يجب أن يتوهم الواحد منا كأنه خلق دفعةً وخلق كاملاً لكنه حجب بصره عن مشاهدة الخارجات وخلق يهوى في هواء أو خلاء هوياً لا يصدمه فيه قوام الهواء صدماً ما يحوج إلى أن يحس وفرق بين أعضائه فلم تتلاق ولم تتماس ثم يتأمل هل أنه يثبت وجود ذاته ولا يشكك في إثباته لذاته موجوداً ولا يثبت مع ذلك طرفاً من أعضائه ولا باطناً من أحشائه ولا قلباً ولا دماغاً ولا شيئاً من الأشياء من خارج بل كان يثبت ذاته ولا يثبت لها طولاً ولا عرضاً ولا عمقاً ولو أنه أمكنه في تلك الحالة أن يتخيل يداً أو عضواً آخر لم يتخيله جزء من ذاته ولا شرطاً في ذاته وأنت تعلم أن المثبت غير الذي لم يثبت والمقربه غير الذي لم يقربه فإذن للذات التي أثبت وجودها خاصية على أنها هو بعينه غير جسمه وأعضائه التي لم تثبت فإذن المثبت له سبيل إلى أن يثبته على وجود النفس شيئاً غير الجسم بل غير جسم وأنه عارف به مستشعر له وإن كان ذاهلاً عنه يحتاج إلى أن يقرع عصاه.
— Ibn Sina, Kitab Al-Shifa, On the Soul
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^ Nader El-Bizri, The Phenomenological Quest between Avicenna and Heidegger (Binghamton, NY: Global Publications SUNY, 2000), pp. 149–171.
^ Nader El-Bizri, "Avicenna's De Anima between Aristotle and Husserl," in The Passions of the Soul in the Metamorphosis of Becoming, ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003), pp. 67–89.
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Indian Studies on Ibn Sina's Works by Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman, Avicenna (Scientific and Practical International Journal of Ibn Sino International Foundation, Tashkent/Uzbekistan. 1–2; 2003: 40–42
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Street, Tony (2000), "Toward a History of Syllogistic After Avicenna: Notes on Rescher's Studies on Arabic Modal Logic", Journal of Islamic Studies, 11 (2): 209–228, doi:10.1093/jis/11.2.209
Street, Tony (1 January 2005). "Logic". In Peter Adamson & Richard C. Taylor (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. pp. 247–265. ISBN 978-0-521-52069-0.
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Kneale p. 229
Kneale: p. 266; Ockham: Summa Logicae i. 14; Avicenna: Avicennae Opera Venice 1508 f87rb
Avicenna, Metaphysics, I; commenting on Aristotle, Topics I.11.105a4–5
Fernando Espinoza (2005). "An analysis of the historical development of ideas about motion and its implications for teaching", Physics Education 40 (2), p. 141.
A. Sayili (1987), "Ibn Sīnā and Buridan on the Motion of the Projectile", Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 500 (1), pp. 477–482: "It was a permanent force whose effect got dissipated only as a result of external agents such as air resistance. He is apparently the first to conceive such a permanent type of impressed virtue for non-natural motion."
Jack Zupko, "John Buridan" in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2014 (fn. 48 Archived 11 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine) "We do not know precisely where Buridan got the idea of impetus, but a less sophisticated notion of impressed forced can be found in Avicenna's doctrine of mayl (inclination). In this he was possibly influenced by Philoponus, who was developing the Stoic notion of hormé (impulse). For discussion, see Zupko (1997) ."
George Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science, Vol. 1, p. 710.
Carl Benjamin Boyer (1954). "Robert Grosseteste on the Rainbow", Osiris 11, pp. 247–258 .
Gutman, Oliver (1997). "On the Fringes of the Corpus Aristotelicum: the Pseudo-Avicenna Liber Celi Et Mundi". Early Science and Medicine. 2 (2): 109–128. doi:10.1163/157338297X00087.
Avicenna (1952). F. Rahman (ed.). Avicenna's Psychology. An English translation of Kitāb al-Najāt, Book II, Chapter VI, with Historico-Philosophical Notes and Textual Improvements on the Cairo edition. London: Oxford University Press, Geoffrey Cumberlege. p. 41.
Avicenna (1952). F. Rahman (ed.). Avicenna's Psychology. An English translation of Kitāb al-Najāt, Book II, Chapter VI, with Historico-Philosophical Notes and Textual Improvements on the Cairo edition. London: Oxford University Press, Geoffrey Cumberlege. pp. 68–69.
George Saliba (1994), A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam, pp. 60, 67–69. New York University Press, ISBN 0-8147-8023-7.
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^ Sally P. Ragep (2007). "Ibn Sīnā: Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn Sīnā". In Thomas Hockey (ed.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer Science+Business Media. pp. 570–572. Archived from the original on 21 September 2020. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
Ariew, Roger (March 1987). "The phases of venus before 1610". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A. 18 (1): 81–92. Bibcode:1987SHPSA..18...81A. doi:10.1016/0039-3681(87)90012-4.
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Essa, Ahmed; Ali, Othman (2010). Studies in Islamic Civilization: The Muslim Contribution to the Renaissance. International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). p. 70. ISBN 978-1-56564-350-5.
Marlene Ericksen (2000). Healing with Aromatherapy, p. 9. McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN 0-658-00382-8.
Ghulam Moinuddin Chishti (1991). The Traditional Healer's Handbook: A Classic Guide to the Medicine of Avicenna. Inner Traditions / Bear & Co. p. 239. ISBN 978-0-89281-438-1.
Robert Briffault (1938). The Making of Humanity, p. 196–197.
^ Georges C. Anawati (1996), "Arabic alchemy", in Roshdi Rashed, ed., Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, Vol. 3, pp. 853–885 . Routledge, London and New York.
Leicester, Henry Marshall (1971), The Historical Background of Chemistry, Courier Dover Publications, p. 70, ISBN 978-0-486-61053-5, There was one famous Arab physician who doubted even the reality of transmutation. This was 'Abu Ali al-Husain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina (980–1037), called Avicenna in the West, the greatest physician of Islam. ... Many of his observations on chemistry are included in the Kitab al-Shifa, the "Book of the Remedy". In the physical section of this work he discusses the formation of minerals, which he classifies into stones, fusible substances, sulfurs, and salts. Mercury is classified with the fusible substances, metals
E.G. Browne, Islamic Medicine (sometimes also printed under the title Arabian medicine), 2002, Goodword Pub., ISBN 81-87570-19-9, p61
E.G. Browne, Islamic Medicine (sometimes also printed under the title Arabian medicine), 2002, Goodword Pub., ISBN 81-87570-19-9, pp. 60–61)
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Wisnovsky, Robert (1 October 2012). "Indirect Evidence for Establishing the Text of the Shifā". Oriens. 40 (2): 257–258. doi:10.1163/18778372-00402004. ISSN 0078-6527.
Johannes Kepler, New Astronomy, translated by William H. Donahue, Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1992. ISBN 0-521-30131-9
George Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science.
(cf. A. Zahoor and Z. Haq (1997). Quotations From Famous Historians of Science Archived 3 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Cyberistan.)
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"Home Page". amch.edu.pk. 28 March 2014. Archived from the original on 8 November 2013.
"UNESCO: The Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science". 4 September 2019. Archived from the original on 1 June 2016. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
"Educating health professionals: the Avicenna project" The Lancet, March 2008. Volume 371 pp. 966–967.
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"Youth of Genius" (USSR, Uzbekfilm and Tajikfilm, 1982): 1984 – State Prize of the USSR (Elyer Ishmuhamedov); 1983 – VKF (All-Union Film Festival) Grand Prize (Elyer Ishmuhamedov); 1983 – VKF (All-Union Film Festival) Award for Best Cinematography (Tatiana Loginov). See annotation on kino-teatr.ru Archived 20 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Avicenna". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 62–63.
Thought Experiments: Popular Thought Experiments in Philosophy, Physics, Ethics, Computer Science & Mathematics by Fredrick Kennard, p. 115
^ "Ibn Sina Abu 'Ali Al-Husayn". Muslimphilosophy.com. Archived from the original on 2 January 2010. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
Tasaneef lbn Sina by Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman, Tabeeb Haziq, Gujarat, Pakistan, 1986, pp. 176–198
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Flowers of Avicenna. Printed by Claude Davost alias de Troys, for Bartholomeus Trot. 1 January 1508. Archived from the original on 4 March 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
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Sources

Adamson, Peter (2013). Interpreting Avicenna: Critical Essays. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-0-521-19073-2.
Adamson, Peter (2016). Philosophy in the Islamic World: A history of philosophy without any gaps, Volume 3. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-957749-1.
Bennison, Amira K. (2009). The great caliphs: the golden age of the 'Abbasid Empire. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-15227-2.
Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (1978). "K̲h̲wārazm-S̲h̲āhs". In van Donzel, E.; Lewis, B.; Pellat, Ch. & Bosworth, C. E. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume IV: Iran–Kha. Leiden: E. J. Brill. OCLC 758278456.
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Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (1984b). "ʿAlāʾ-al-dawla Moḥammad". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 7. pp. 773–774. Archived from the original on 3 September 2021. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
Copleston, Frederick (1993). A History of Philosophy, Volume 2: Medieval Philosophy – From Augustine to Duns Scotus. Image Books. ISBN 978-0-385-46844-2.
Corbin, Henry (1998). The Voyage and the messenger: Iran and philosophy. North Atlantic Books. ISBN 9781556432699.
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Daftary, Farhad (2017). Ismaili History and Intellectual Traditions. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-28810-2.
Daly, Jonathan (19 December 2013). The Rise of Western Power: A Comparative History of Western Civilization. A&C Black. ISBN 978-1-4411-1851-6.
El-Bizri, Nader (2006). "Ibn Sina, or Avicenna". In Meri, Josef W. (ed.). Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Routledge. pp. 369–370. ISBN 978-0-415-96691-7.
Glick, Thomas F.; Livesey, Steven John; Wallis, Faith (2005). Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-1-138-05670-1.
Goichon, A.M (1986). "Ibn Sīnā". In Lewis, B.; Ménage, V. L.; Pellat, Ch. & Schacht, J. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume III: H–Iram. Leiden: E. J. Brill. OCLC 495469525.
Gutas, Dimitri (1987). "Avicenna ii. Biography". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Volume III/1: Ātaš–Awāʾel al-Maqālāt. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 67–70. ISBN 978-0-71009-113-0.
Gutas, Dimitri (1988). "Avicenna's Maḏhab with an appendix on the question of his date of Birth". Quaderni di Studi Arabi. 6: 323–336. JSTOR 25802612. (registration required)
Gutas, Dimitri (2014). Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition: Introduction to Reading Avicenna's Philosophical Works. Second, Revised and Enlarged Edition, Including an Inventory of Avicenna's Authentic Works. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-9004201729.
Khalidi, Muhammad Ali (2005). Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-82243-5.
Lazard, G. (1975). "The Rise of the New Persian Language". In Frye, Richard N. (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 4: From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 595–633. ISBN 0-521-20093-8.
Madelung, Wilferd (1975). "The Minor Dynasties of Northern Iran". In Frye, Richard N. (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 4: From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 595–633. ISBN 0-521-20093-8.
Pasnau, Robert; Dyke, Christina Van (2010). Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy, Volume 1. Cambridge University Press.

External links

"Avicenna" at Encyclopædia Iranica
Works by Avicenna at Project Gutenberg
Works by Avicenna at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Gutas, Dimitri. "Ibn Sina [Avicenna]". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Lizzini, Olga. "Ibn Sina's Metaphysics". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Strobino, Riccardo. "Ibn Sina's Logic". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
McGinnis, Jon. "Ibn Sina's Natural Philosophy". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Rizvi, Sajjad H. "Avicenna (Ibn Sina)". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Chatti, Saloua. "Avicenna (Ibn Sina): Logic". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Avicenna (Ibn-Sina) on the Subject and the Object of Metaphysics with a list of translations of the logical and philosophical works and an annotated bibliography
Avicenna on In Our Time at the BBC

v t e Avicenna
Works	The Canon of Medicine The Book of Healing Al-isharat wa al-tanbihat Alai Encyclopedia Book of science Al-Nijat Five Treatises On the Science of the Pulse The Book of the Mi'raj
Category Commons

Associated subjects

Alchemy in the medieval Islamic world

Alchemists

8th century	pseudo-Khālid ibn Yazīd (Calid) pseudo-Apollonius of Tyana
9th century	Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (Geber)
10th century	Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (Rhazes) Ibn Umayl (Senior Zadith) Ibn Waḥshiyya Maslama al-Qurṭubī Abū Manṣūr al-Muwaffaq al-Zahrāwī (Abulcasis)
11th century	pseudo-Avicenna al-Khawārizmī al-Kāthī al-Muʿizz ibn Bādīs Aḥmad ibn ʿImād al-Dīn Ibn al-Wāfid (pharmacist)
12th century	al-Ṭughrāʾī Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs Artephius
13th century	al-Simāwī Ibn al-Bayṭār (pharmacist) Abū l-ʿAbbās al-Nabātī (pharmacist) Ḥasan al-Rammāḥ (engineer)
14th century	al-Jildakī Ibn al-Rassām Abū l-Ashbā ibn Tammām

Concepts

Works

Islamic medicine

Physicians

7th century	Abu Hafsa Yazid Al-Harith ibn Kalada Bukhtishu Ibn Abi Ramtha al-Tamimi Ibn Uthal Masarjawaih Nafi ibn al-Harith Rufaida Al-Aslamia Zaynab al-Awadiya
8th century	Bukhtishu Ja'ar al-Sadiq
9th century	Al-Kindi Al-Ruhawi Albubather Ali al-Ridha Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari Bukhtishu Hunayn ibn Ishaq Ishaq ibn Hunayn Jabir ibn Hayyan Jabril ibn Bukhtishu Masawaiyh Salmawaih ibn Bunan Shapur ibn Sahl Yahya ibn Sarafyun Yuhanna ibn Bukhtishu Yusuf al-Khuri
10th century	'Ali ibn al-'Abbas al-Majusi Aayon Ibn Aayon Abu Bakr Rabee Ibn Ahmad Al-Akhawyni Bokhari Abu Bakr al-Razi Abu Sahl 'Isa ibn Yahya al-Masihi Abu Zayd al-Balkhi Abu al-Hasan al-Tabari Abu al-Qasim Muqane'i Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi Abu ul-Ala Shirazi Al-Kaŝkarī Al-Natili Al-Tamimi, the physician Eutychius of Alexandria Ibn Abi al-Ashʿath Ibn Juljul Ibn al-Jazzar Ibrahim ibn Baks Isaac Israeli ben Solomon Mohammed ibn Abdun al-Jabali Muvaffak Qumri Qusta ibn Luqa
11th century	Abdollah ibn Bukhtishu Abu 'Ubayd al-Juzjani Abu al-Hakam al-Kirmani Al-Biruni Ali ibn Isa al-Kahhal Ali ibn Ridwan Ali ibn Yusuf al-Ilaqi Ammar ibn Ali al-Mawsili Avicenna Badi' al-Asturlabi Ibn Abi Sadiq Ibn Al-Thahabi Ibn Butlan Ibn Hindu Ibn Jazla Ibn al-Haytham Ibn al-Kattani Ibn al-Wafid Jonah ibn Janah Masawaih
12th century	Abu Jafar ibn Harun al-Turjali Abu al-Bayan ibn al-Mudawwar Abu al-Majd ibn Abi al-Hakam Abu'l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī Ahmad ibn Farrokh Al-Samawal al-Maghribi Avempace Averroes Ibn Habal Ibn Jumay‘ Ibn Tufayl Ibn Zuhr Ibn al-Tilmīdh Moshe ben Maimon Muhammad ibn Aslam Al-Ghafiqi Serapion the Younger Ya'qub ibn Ishaq al-Israili Zayn al-Din Gorgani
13th century	Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon Al-Dakhwar Al-Shahrazuri Amin al-Din Rashid al-Din Vatvat As-Suwaydi Da'ud Abu al-Fadl Hussam al-Din al-Jarrahi Ibn Abi Usaibia Ibn Tumlus Ibn al-Baitar Ibn al-Nafis Ibn al-Quff Ibn al‐Raqqam Joseph ben Judah of Ceuta Najib ad-Din Samarqandi Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi Rashidun al-Suri Sa'ad al-Dawla Zakariya al-Qazwini
14th century	Al-Nagawri Aqsara'i Ibn Shuayb Ibn al-Akfani Ibn al-Khatib Jaghmini Mansur ibn Ilyas Mas‘ud ibn Muhammad Sijzi Muhammad ibn Mahmud Amuli Najm al-Din Mahmud ibn Ilyas al-Shirazi Nakhshabi Rashid-al-Din Hamadani Sadid al-Din al-Kazaruni Yusuf ibn Ismail al-Kutubi Zayn-e-Attar
15th century	Abu Sa'id al-Afif Burhan-ud-din Kermani Husayni Isfahani Muhammad Ali Astarabadi Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Harawi Nurbakhshi Shaykh Muhammad ibn Thaleb Şerafeddin Kadir
16th century	Rostam Gorgani ʽImad Shirazi Abul Qasim ibn Mohammed al-Ghassani Dawud al-Antaki Hakim-e-Gilani Sultan Ali Khorasani Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf
17th century	Qiwam al-Din Muhammad al-Hasani Abd El Razzaq Al-Jazaïri Qurayshi al-Shirazi Tunakabuni Maqsud-Ali Tabrizi
18th century	Al-Khurasani al-Shirazi

Concepts

Works

Centers

Influences

Influenced

Islamic philosophy

Fields	Alchemy Aqidah (theology) 'Aql (intellect) Cosmology astrology medieval astronomy Eschatology Ethics Kalam (dialectic) Fiqh (jurisprudence) Logic Metaphysics Natural philosophy (physics) Peace Madrasah (education) Medieval science Medieval psychology Sufism (mysticism)
Schools	Early Farabism Avicennism Averroism Illuminationism Sufi cosmology metaphysics psychology Transcendent theosophy Traditionalist Contemporary
Concepts	ʻAṣabīya Ḥāl Iʻjaz ʼIjtihād ʻIlm ʻIrfān Ijmāʿ Maslaha Nafs Qadar Qalb Qiyās Shūrā Tawḥīd Ummah

Philosophers by century (CE)

9th–10th	Al-Kindi Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari Abu al-Abbas Iranshahri Abu Bakr al-Razi Apharabius Abu Hatim al-Razi Al Amiri Ikhwan al-Safa Abu Sulayman Sijistani Ibn Masarrah Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani
11th	Al-Ghazali Ibn Miskawayh Avicenna Ibn Hazm Bahmanyār Mu'ayyad fi'l-Din al-Shirazi Nasir Khusraw Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani
12th	Abu'l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī Afdal al-Din Kashani Ahi Evren Ahmad Yasavi Ayn-al-Quzat Averroes Ibn Tufail Omar Khayyám Suhrawardi Shams Tabrizi
13th	Hajji Bektash Wali Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi Ibn Sab’in Ibn Arabi al-Abharī Nasir al-Din Tusi Fakhr al-Din al-Razi Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi Ibn Taymiyya
14th–16th	Ibn Khaldun Yunus Emre Hajji Bayram Jalaladdin Davani Sadr ad-Din Dashtaki Aziz Mahmud Hudayi Qadi Mir Husayn al-Maybudi Mahmud Shabistari Sayyid Haydar Amuli Dawūd al-Qayṣarī Jami
17th–19th	Mir Damad Mir Fendereski Mulla Sadra Mohsen Fayz Kashani Abd al-Razzaq Lahiji Mujaddid Alf-i-Sani Rajab Ali Tabrizi Qazi Sa’id Qumi Shah Waliullah Dehlawi Hādī Sabzavārī
20th–present	Muhammad Husayn Tabatabaei Muhammad Iqbal Gohar Shahi Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr René Guénon Frithjof Schuon Martin Lings Ismail al-Faruqi Seyyed Hossein Nasr Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas Abdolkarim Soroush Gholamhossein Ebrahimi Dinani Taha Abdurrahman Mohammed Abed al-Jabri Mohammed Arkoun Fouad Zakariyya Reza Davari Ardakani Ahmad Fardid Mostafa Malekian Hasanzadeh Amoli Javadi Amoli Partawi Shah

Persian literature

Old
Behistun Inscription Old Persian inscriptions Ganjnameh Inscription of Xerxes the Great in Van Fortress Achaemenid inscription in the Kharg Island

Middle
Ayadgar-i Zariran Counsels of Adurbad-e Mahrspandan Dēnkard Book of Jamasp Book of Arda Viraf Karnamak-i Artaxshir-i Papakan Cube of Zoroaster Dana-i Menog Khrat Shabuhragan of Mani Shahrestanha-ye Eranshahr Bundahishn Menog-i Khrad Jamasp Namag Dadestan-i Denig Anthology of Zadspram Warshtmansr Zand-i Wahman yasn Drakht-i Asurig Shikand-gumanig Vizar

Classical

800s	Muhammad ibn Wasif
900s	Rudaki Daqiqi Ferdowsi (Shahnameh) Abu Shakur Balkhi Abu Tahir Khosrovani Shahid Balkhi Bal'ami Rabia Balkhi Abusaeid Abolkheir (967–1049) Avicenna (980–1037) Unsuri Asjadi Kisai Marvazi Ayyuqi
1000s	Bābā Tāher Nasir Khusraw (1004–1088) Al-Ghazali (1058–1111) Khwaja Abdullah Ansari (1006–1088) Asadi Tusi Qatran Tabrizi (1009–1072) Nizam al-Mulk (1018–1092) Masud Sa'd Salman (1046–1121) Omar Khayyam (1048–1131) Fakhruddin As'ad Gurgani Ahmad Ghazali Hujwiri Manuchehri Ayn-al-Quzat Hamadani (1098–1131) Uthman Mukhtari Abu-al-Faraj Runi Sanai Banu Goshasp Borzu-Nama Afdal al-Din Kashani Abu'l Hasan Mihyar al-Daylami Mu'izzi Mahsati Ganjavi
1100s	Iranshah Suzani Samarqandi Hassan Ghaznavi Faramarz Nama Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi (1155–1191) Adib Sabir Falaki Shirvani Am'aq Najm al-Din Razi Attar (1142–c.1220) Khaqani (1120–1190) Anvari (1126–1189) Faramarz-e Khodadad Nizami Ganjavi (1141–1209) Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149–1209) Kamal al-Din Esfahani Shams Tabrizi (d.1248)
1200s	Abu Tahir Tarsusi Awhadi Maraghai Shams al-Din Qays Razi Sultan Walad Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī Afdal al-Din Kashani Fakhr-al-Din Iraqi Mahmud Shabistari (1288–1320s) Abu'l Majd Tabrizi Amir Khusrau (1253–1325) Saadi (Bustan / Golestān) Bahram-e-Pazhdo Pur-Baha Jami Zartosht Bahram e Pazhdo Rumi Homam Tabrizi (1238–1314) Nozhat al-Majales Khwaju Kermani Badr Shirvani Zu'l-Fiqar Shirvani
1300s	Ibn Yamin Shah Ni'matullah Wali Hafez Abu Ali Qalandar Fazlallah Astarabadi Nasimi Emad al-Din Faqih Kermani
1400s	Ubayd Zakani Salman Savaji Hatefi Jami Kamal Khujandi Ahli Shirazi (1454–1535) Fuzuli (1483–1556) Ismail I (1487–1524) Baba Faghani
1500s	Vahshi Bafqi (1523–1583) Mohtasham Kashani (1500–1588) 'Orfi Shirazi
1600s	Taleb Amoli Saib Tabrizi (1607–1670) Asir-e Esfahani (c. 1620–1648) Kalim Kashani Hazin Lāhiji (1692–1766) Saba Kashani Abdul-Qādir Bēdil (1642–1720) Naw'i Khabushani Mohammad Qoli Salim Tehrani Rasa Salim Tehrani
1700s	Hatef Esfahani Azar Bigdeli (1722–1781) Neshat Esfahani Abbas Foroughi Bastami (1798–1857)
1800s	Yaghma Jandaqi (1782–1859) Mirza Ghalib (1797–1869) Zayn al-Abidin Shirvani (1779–1837) Reza-Qoli Khan Hedayat (1800–1871) Mirza Mohammad Taqi Sepehr (1801–1880) Qaani (1808–1854) Mahmud Khan Malek al-Sho'ara (1813–1893)

Contemporary

Poetry

Iran	Ahmadreza Ahmadi Mehdi Akhavan-Sales Hormoz Alipour Qeysar Aminpour Mohammad Reza Aslani Aref Qazvini Ahmad NikTalab Aminollah Rezaei Manouchehr Atashi Mahmoud Mosharraf Azad Tehrani Mohammad-Taqi Bahar Reza Baraheni Simin Behbahani Dehkhoda Hushang Ebtehaj Bijan Elahi Parviz Eslampour Parvin E'tesami Forugh Farrokhzad Hossein Monzavi Hushang Irani Iraj Mirza Bijan Jalali Siavash Kasraie Esmail Khoi Shams Langeroodi Mohammad Mokhtari Nosrat Rahmani Yadollah Royaee Tahereh Saffarzadeh Sohrab Sepehri Mohammad-Reza Shafiei Kadkani Mohammad-Hossein Shahriar Ahmad Shamlou Manouchehr Sheybani Nima Yooshij (She'r-e Nimaa'i) Fereydoon Moshiri
Armenia	Edward Haghverdian
Afghanistan	Nadia Anjuman Wasef Bakhtari Raziq Faani Khalilullah Khalili Youssof Kohzad Massoud Nawabi Abdul Ali Mustaghni
Tajikistan	Sadriddin Ayni Farzona Iskandar Khatloni Abolqasem Lahouti Gulrukhsor Safieva Loiq Sher-Ali Payrav Sulaymoni Mirzo Tursunzoda Satim Ulugzade
Uzbekistan	Asad Gulzoda
Pakistan	Muhammad Iqbal

Novels

Short stories

Plays

Screenplays

Translators

Children's literature

Essayists

Contemporary Persian and Classical Persian are the same language, but writers since 1900 are classified as contemporary. At one time, Persian was a common cultural language of much of the non-Arabic Islamic world. Today it is the official language of Iran, Tajikistan and one of the two official languages of Afghanistan.

Medieval Perso-Arab music

Origins

Achaemenid	Karnay

Parthian	gōsān Rhoptron

Sasanian	Bamshad Barbad Nagisa

Umayyad

Qiyan	Atika bint Shuhda Azza al-Mayla Djamila/Jamila Hababah Ubayda

Abbasid

Qiyan	Irfan Mahbubah Milh Al-Attara Inan bint Abdallah Shāriyah Faḍl al-Shāʻirah Arib al-Ma'muniyya Sarirah al-Ra’iqiyya

Andalusian-Arab	Ziryab Avempace Abu al-Majd ibn Abi al-Hakam

Theorists‎

Works

v t e Ancient anaesthesia
Plants / animals	Aconitum (aconite) Atropa belladonna (belladonna) Cannabis medical use Castoreum Coca Conium (hemlock) Datura innoxia (thorn-apple) Datura metel (devil's trumpet) Hyoscyamus niger (henbane) Lactucarium Mandragora officinarum (mandrake) Opium Saussurea (saw-wort) Willow
Preparations	Beer Wine
Compounds	Ethanol (medical use) Aconitine Atropine Cocaine Coniine Hyoscine Δ9-THC Hyoscyamine Morphine Salicylate
People	Abulcasis Avenzoar Avicenna Celsus Dioscorides Galen Hippocrates Rhazes Sabuncuoğlu Sushrutha Theophrastus Zhang

Aristotelianism

Overview

Ideas and interests

Active intellect
Antiperistasis
Arete
Category of being
Catharsis
Correspondence theory of truth
Essence–accident
Eudaimonia
Four causes
Future contingents
Genus–differentia
Hexis
Hylomorphism
Lexis
Magnanimity
Mimesis
Minima naturalia
Moderate realism
Mythos
Philia
Horror vacui (physics)
Rational animal
Phronesis
Potentiality and actuality
Substance theory (hypokeimenon, ousia)
Syllogism
Telos
Temporal finitism
Quiddity
Haecceity
Unmoved mover
Virtue ethics
Mathematical realism

Works

Organon	Categories On Interpretation Prior Analytics Posterior Analytics Topics Sophistical Refutations
Physics	Physics On the Heavens On Generation and Corruption Meteorology On the Soul
On Animals	History Parts Movement Progression Generation
Metaphysics	Metaphysics
Ethics and politics	Nicomachean Ethics Eudemian Ethics Politics Constitution of the Athenians
Rhetoric and poetics	Rhetoric Poetics
Parva Naturalia	Sense and Sensibilia On Memory On Sleep On Dreams On Divination in Sleep On Length and Shortness of Life On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration
Lost	Protrepticus
Pseudepigrapha	On Breath On Colors On Plants On Indivisible Lines On Melissus, Xenophanes, and Gorgias On the Universe On Things Heard Physiognomonics On Marvellous Things Heard Mechanics Problems The Situations and Names of Winds On Virtues and Vices Economics Rhetoric to Alexander Magna Moralia

Followers

Peripatetic school	Aristoxenus Clearchus of Soli Dicaearchus Eudemus of Rhodes Theophrastus Strato of Lampsacus Lyco of Troas Aristo of Ceos Critolaus Diodorus of Tyre Erymneus Andronicus of Rhodes

Islamic Golden Age	Al-Kindi Al-Farabi Avicenna Avicennism Averroes Averroism

Jewish	Maimonides

Scholasticism	Peter Lombard Albertus Magnus Thomas Aquinas Thomism Duns Scotus Scotism Peter of Spain Jacopo Zabarella Pietro Pomponazzi Cesar Cremonini

Modern	Newman Trendelenburg Brentano Adler Foot MacIntyre Smith Hursthouse Nussbaum

Name

Circumstances

Biography

Early life and education

Career

In Bukhara and Gurganj

In Gorgan

In Ray and Hamadan

In Isfahan

Philosophy

Metaphysical doctrine

Impossibility, contingency, necessity

Differentia

Reception

Argument for God's existence

Al-Biruni correspondence

Theology

Thought experiments

Principal works

The Canon of Medicine

Liber Primus Naturalium

The Book of Healing

Earth sciences

Philosophy of science

Logic

Physics

Psychology

Other contributions

Astronomy and astrology

Chemistry

Poetry

Legacy

Classical Islamic civilization

Medieval and Renaissance Europe

Modern reception

In popular culture

List of works

Persian works

See also

Namesakes of Ibn Sina

References

Citations

Sources

Further reading

Encyclopedic articles

Primary literature

Secondary literature

Medicine

Philosophy

External links