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AVICENNA
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AVICENNA [See also:Abu `See also:Ali al-Husain See also:ibn 'Abdallah ibn See also:Sinai (980-1037), Arabian philosopher, was See also:born at Afshena in the See also:district of See also:Bokhara. His See also:mother was a native of the See also:place; his See also:father, a See also:Persian from See also:Balkh, filled the See also:post of tax-See also:collector in the neighbouring See also:town of Harmaitin, under Nuh II. ibn Mansur, the Samanid See also:amir of Bokhara. On the See also:birth of Avicenna's younger See also:brother the See also:family migrated to Bokhara, then one of the See also:chief cities of the Moslem See also:world, and famous for a culture which was older than its See also:conquest by the See also:Saracens. Avicenna was put in See also:charge of a See also:tutor, and his precocity soon made him the marvel of his neighbours,—as a boy of ten who knew by rote the See also:Koran and much Arabic See also:poetry besides. From a See also:green-See also:grocer he learnt See also:arithmetic; and higher branches were begun under one of those wandering scholars who gained a livelihood by See also:cures for the sick and lessons for the See also:young. Under him Avicenna read the Isagoge of See also:Porphyry and the first propositions of See also:Euclid. But the See also:pupil soon found his teacher to be but a See also:charlatan, and betook himself, aided by commentaries, to See also:master See also:logic, See also:geometry and the Almagest. Before he was sixteen he not merely knew medical theory, but by gratuitous attendance on the sick had, according to his own See also:account, discovered new methods of treatment. For the next See also:year and a See also:half he worked at the higher See also:philosophy, in which he encountered greater obstacles. In such moments of baffled inquiry he would leave his books, perform the requisite ablutions, then hie to the See also:mosque, and continue in See also:prayer till See also:light See also:broke on his difficulties. Deep into the See also:night he would continue his studies, stimulating his senses by occasional cups of See also:wine, and even in his dreams problems would pursue him and See also:work out their See also:solution. See also:Forty times, it is said, he read through the See also:Metaphysics of See also:Aristotle, till the words were imprinted on his memory; but their meaning was hopelessly obscure, until one See also:day they found See also:illumination from the little commentary by See also:Farabi (q.v.), which he bought at a bookstall for the small sum of three dirhems. So See also:great was his joy at the See also:discovery, thus made by help of a work from which he had expected only See also:mystery, that he hastened to return thanks to See also:God, and bestowed an See also:alms upon the poor. Thus, by the end of his seventeenth year his See also:apprenticeship of study was There is, however, one true See also:nest-See also:building See also:parrot, the See also:grey-breasted parrakeet (Myopsittacus monachus), which constructs a huge nest of twigs. The true love-birds (Agapornis) may also be said to build nests, for they See also:line their nest-hole with strips of pliant bark.concluded, and he went forth to find a See also:market for his accomplishments. His first See also:appointment was that of physician to the amir, who owed him his recovery from a dangerous illness (997). Avicenna's chief See also:reward for this service was See also:access to the royal library of the See also:Samanids (q.v.), well-known patrons of scholarship and scholars. When the library was destroyed by See also:fire not See also:long after, the enemies of Avicenna accused him of burning it, in See also:order for ever to conceal the See also:sources of his knowledge. Mean-while, he assisted his father in his See also:financial labours, but still found See also:time to write some of his earliest See also:works. At the See also:age of twenty-two Avicenna lost his father. The Samanid See also:dynasty came to its end in See also:December 1004. Avicenna seems to have declined the offers of Mahmud the Ghaznevid, and proceeded westwards to Urjensh in the See also:modern See also:Khiva, where the See also:vizier, regarded as a friend of scholars, gave him a small monthly See also:stipend. But the pay was small, and Avicenna wandered from place to place through the districts of See also:Nishapur and Mery to the See also:borders of See also:Khorasan, seeking an opening for his talents. Shams al-Ma`ali Qabus, the generous ruler of DaiIam, himself a poet and a See also:scholar, with whom he had expected to find an See also:asylum, was about that date (1012) starved to See also:death by his own revolted soldiery. Avicenna himself was at this See also:season stricken down by a severe illness. Finally, at Jorjan, near the See also:Caspian, he met with a friend, who bought near his own See also:house a dwelling in which Avicenna lectured on logic and See also:astronomy. For this See also:patron several of his See also:treatises were written; and the commencement of his See also:Canon of See also:Medicine also See also:dates from his stay in See also:Hyrcania. He subsequently settled at Rai, in the vicinity of the modern See also:Teheran, where a son of the last amir, Majd Addaula, was nominal ruler, under the regency of his mother. At Rai about See also:thirty of his shorter works are said to have been composed. But the See also:constant feuds which raged between the See also:regent and her second son, Shams Addaula, compelled the scholar to quit the place, and after a brief sojourn at Kazwin, he passed southwards to See also:Hamadan, where that See also:prince had established himself. At first he entered into the service of a high-born See also:lady; but ere long the amir, See also:hearing of his arrival, called him in as medical attendant, and sent him back with presents to his dwelling. Avicenna was even raised to the See also:office of vizier; but the turbulent soldiery, composed of Kurds and See also:Turks, mutinied against their nominal See also:sovereign, and demanded that the new vizier should be put to death. Shams Addaula consented that he should be banished from the See also:country. Avicenna, however, remained hidden for forty days in a sheik's house, till a fresh attack of illness induced the amir to restore him to his post. Even during this perturbed time he prosecuted his studies and teaching. Every evening extracts from his great works, the Canon and the Sanatio, were dictated and explained to his pupils; among whom, when the See also:lesson was over, he spent the See also:rest of the night in festive enjoyment with a See also:band of singers and players. On the death of the amir Avicenna ceased to be vizier, and hid himself in the house of an See also:apothecary, where, with intense assiduity, he continued the See also:composition of his works. Meanwhile, he had written to Abu Ya'far, the See also:prefect of See also:Isfahan, offering his services; but the new amir of Hamadan getting to hear of this See also:correspondence, and discovering the place of Avicenna's concealment, incarcerated him in a fortress. See also:War meanwhile continued between the rulers of Isfahan and Hamadan; in 1024 the former captured Hamadan and its towns, and expelled the See also:Turkish mercenaries. When the See also:storm had passed Avicenna returned with the amir to Hamadan, and carried on his See also:literary labours; but at length, accompanied by his brother, a favourite pupil, and two slaves, made his See also:escape out of the See also:city in the See also:dress of a Sufite ascetic. After a perilous See also:journey they reached Isfahan, and received an See also:honourable welcome from the prince. The remaining ten or twelve years of Avicenna's See also:life were spent in the service of Abu Ya'far `See also:Ala Addaula, whom he accompanied as physician and See also:general literary and scientific adviser, even in his numerous See also:campaigns. During these years he began to study literary matters and See also:philology, instigated, it is asserted, by
criticisms on his See also:style. But amid his restless study Avicenna never forgot his love of enjoyment. Unusual bodily vigour enabled him to combine severe devotion to work with facile See also:indulgence in sensual pleasures. His See also:passion for wine and See also:women was almost as well known as his learning. Versatile, light-hearted, boastful and See also:pleasure-loving, he contrasts with the nobler and more intellectual See also:character of See also:Averroes. His bouts of pleasure gradually weakened his constitution; a severe See also:colic, which seized him on the See also: On a similar occasion the disease returned; with difficulty he reached Hamadan, where, finding the disease gaining ground, he refused to keep up the regimen imposed, and resigned himself to his See also:fate. On his deathbed remorse seized him; he bestowed his goods on the poor, restored unjust gains, freed his slaves, and every third day till his death listened to the See also:reading of the Koran. He died in See also:June 1037, in his fifty-eighth year, and was buried in Hamadan. It was mainly See also:accident which determined that from the 12th to the 17th See also:century Avicenna should be the See also:guide of medical study in See also:European See also:universities, and See also:eclipse the names of Rhazes, Ali ibn al-Abbas and See also:Avenzoar. His work is not essentially different from that of his predecessors Rhazes and Ali; all See also:present the See also:doctrine of See also:Galen, and through Galen the doctrine of See also:Hippocrates, modified by the See also:system of Aristotle. But the Canon of Avicenna is distinguished from the Al-Hawi (Continens) or See also:Summary of Rhazes by its greater method, due perhaps to the logical studies of the former, and entitling him to his surname of Prince of the Physicians. The work has been variously appreciated in subsequent ages, some regarding it as a See also:treasury of See also:wisdom, and others, like Avenzoar, holding it useful only as See also:waste See also:paper. In modern times it has been more criticized than read. The See also:vice of the See also:book is excessive See also:classification of bodily faculties, and over-subtlety in the discrimination of diseases. It includes five books; of which the first and second treat of See also:physiology, See also:pathology and See also:hygiene, the third and See also:fourth See also:deal with the methods of treating disease, and the fifth describes the composition and preparation of remedies. This last See also:part contains some contingent of See also:personal observation. He is, like all his countrymen, ample in the enumeration of symptoms, and is said to be inferior to Ali in See also:practical medicine and See also:surgery. He introduced into medical theory the four causes of the Peripatetic system. Of natural See also:history and See also:botany he pretends to no See also:special knowledge. Up to the year 165o, or thereabouts, the Canon was still used as a See also:text-book in the universities of See also:Louvain and See also:Montpellier. About roo treatises are ascribed to Avicenna. Some of them are tracts of a few pages, others are works extending through several volumes. The best-known amongst them, and that to which Avicenna owed his European reputation, is the Canon of Medicine; an Arabic edition of it appeared at See also:Rome in 1593, and a See also:Hebrew version at See also:Naples in 1491. Of the Latin version there were about thirty See also:editions, founded on the See also:original See also:translation by See also:Gerard of See also:Cremona. The 15th century has the See also:honour of composing the great commentary on the text of the Canon, grouping around it all that theory had imagined, and all that practice had observed. Other medical works translated into Latin are the Medicamenta Cordialia, Canticum de Medicina, Tractatus de Syrupo Acetoso. Scarcely any member of the Arabian circle of the sciences, including See also:theology, philology, See also:mathematics, astronomy, physics and See also:music, was See also:left untouched by the treatises of Avicenna, many of which probably varied little, except in being commissioned by a different patron and having a different See also:form or extent. He wrote at least one See also:treatise on See also:alchemy, but several others have been falsely attributed to him. His book on animals was translated by See also:Michael See also:Scot. His Logic, Metaphysics, Physics, De Caelo, are treatises giving a synoptic view of Aristotelian doctrine. The Logic and Metaphysics have been printed more than once, the latter, e.g., at See also:Venice in 1493, 1495 and 1546. Some of his shorter essays on medicine, logic, &c., take, a poetical form (the poem on logic was published by Schmoelders in 1836). Two encyclopaedic63
treatises, dealing with philosophy, are often mentioned. The larger, Al-Shifa' (Sanatio), exists nearly See also:complete in See also:manuscript in the Bodleian library and elsewhere; part of it on the De Anima appeared at See also:Pavia (1490) as the See also:Libel. Sextus Naturalium, and the long account of Avicenna's philosophy given by See also:Shahrastani seems to be mainly an See also:analysis, and in many places a See also: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 monkish editors confess that they applied. There is also a Philosophia Orientalis, mentioned by See also:Roger See also: 213-332; K. Prantl, Geschichte der Logik, ii. 318-361; A. Stockl, Phil. d. Mittelalters, ii. 23-58; S. Munk, Melanges, 352-366; B. Haneberg in the Abhandlungen der philos.-philolog. Class. der bayerischen Academie (1867) ; and Carra de See also:Vaux, Avicenne (See also:Paris, 1900). For See also:list of extant works see C. Brockelmann's Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (See also:Weimar, 1898), vol. i. pp. 452-458. (W. W.; G. W. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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