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Avicenna, the Third Master. His disciples called him sheik el-raïs, that is to say, “prince of scholars”, Master par excellence, or even the Third Master (after Aristotle and Al-Fārābī).

 

Avicenna, the Third Master

Avicenna, the Third Master

Ibn Sina (in Persian: ابن سینا) known in the West as Avicenna (from the medieval Latin Avicenna), is a Persian philosopher and physician, born August 7, 980 near Bukhara, in present-day Uzbekistan, and died on June 1037 in Hamadan (Iran). He is the author of reference works in medicine and philosophy, as well as related sciences, such as astronomy, alchemy, and psychology written mainly in classical Arabic.

Lineage

His full name Abu ʿAli al-Husayn Ibn Abd Allah Ibn Sīnā. His father, 'Abdallah, an Ismaili Shiite Muslim, originally from Balkh, in the north of present-day Afghanistan, was a village tax collector in the service of the Samanid ruler Nouh ibn Mansour. His mother, Sétareh (Star, in Persian), of Tajik origin, lives in Afshena.

Early shine

During his early childhood, Avicenna studied arithmetic with a herbalist merchant, an expert in Indian calculation. Having a good memory, the young boy ends up surpassing his master in calculation and mathematics. Under the guidance of the master Abu Abdallah Ennatili, he learned about the Koran, Arab authors, and philosophy, starting with Porphyry's Isagogè (a small educational treatise popularizing Aristotle's philosophy). At the age of ten, he mastered the Koran, arithmetic, Euclid's geometry, and the basics of philosophy such as logic. He embarks on difficult studies like Ptolemy's Almagest on his own.

 

Passion for knowledge

At the age of 14, his tutor Ennatili left him to go to another city. A doctor friend brought him translations of the works of Hippocrates, which he would have read in one go, night and day. He tells in his autobiography how when he felt his strength weakening and he fell asleep, he drank a hot drink to strengthen him to continue and continue reading.

Great memory

His memory was phenomenal, he also read all the translations of Galen. At the age of 16, he brilliantly qualified as a doctor at the Djundaysabur school where doctors of all faiths profess: Muslims, Christians, Mazdaeans, and Jews. At the age of 17, he took courses at the Bukhara Hospital which were followed by foreign doctors.

Medical prowess

Avicenna is called to Prince Nouh ibn Mansour who is suffering from violent colic. He diagnosed lead poisoning from the paints decorating the prince's dishes and managed to cure him. He is then authorized to consult the rich royal library of the Samanids.

 

Cognitive challenge

In a year and a half, he acquired knowledge of all the ancient authors available. However, he stumbles upon Aristotle's Metaphysics11 which he does not understand, but he overcomes this difficulty by discovering Al Farabi's comments. In his autobiography, he states that he had integrated all the knowledge of his time at the age of 18, thanks to his memory, but that his mind was not mature enough.

Works

His main works are the medical encyclopedia Qanûn (“Canon of Medicine”) and his two scientific encyclopedias the Book of Healing (of the Soul) and Danesh-e Nâma (“Book of Science”).

In his Qanûn, he carries out a vast medical-philosophical synthesis with the logic of Aristotle, combined with neo-Platonism, raising the dignity of medicine as an intellectual discipline, compatible with monotheism. Its influence will be predominant in the medieval Latin West until the 16th century.

 

Non-stop travel

• Around 1001, a fire destroyed the Samanid library. Ibn Sina's enemies accuse him of being the author. The new emir, Abdul Malik, prevents him from entering the Bukhara hospital. In disgrace, and risking imprisonment, Ibn Sina fled to Khwarezm, south of the Aral Sea. Ibn Sina stayed there for 9 years and it was there that he began to write his first books, at the age of 2112.

• In 1010, after the constant conflict between the dynasties of Turkish and Persian origin which forced him to flee again, Ibn Sina settled in Gorgan, where he resumed his main activity, law (or law) on medicine. Then he passes through the town of Rayy, where he heals the depressed prince.

• In 1014, he was summoned to Hamadan to the Buyid prince Shams al-Dawla, and cured of his unexplained pains. Then the prince chose him as vizier (prime minister). Ibn Sina imposes exhausting work on himself: he devotes himself to public affairs during the day, and to science at night. He completed his book on medicine and wrote several books with the help of Al-Mu'min Al-Jawzjani, his writer and biographer.

• In 1021, after the death of Prince Shams al-Dawla, his son Sama al-Dawla took power. No longer having a protector and a victim of political intrigue, Ibn Sina spent four months in prison, during which he continued to write books.

• In 1023, he managed to escape and went to Isfahan to the Kakkuyid prince Ala al-Dawla Muhammad. It was there that he wrote the last part of his work (Astronomy, Science, and Linguistics) for 14 years. However, he did not hesitate to take the road again, responding to calls from the princes of Persia, Mesopotamia, and Turkestan. His reputation and popularity were enormous because he practiced medicine both at the court of princes and among the most disadvantaged poor.

Qanûn (Avicenna)

His work covers the entire breadth of knowledge of his time: logic, linguistics, poetry; physics, psychology, medicine, chemistry; mathematics, music, astronomy; morality and economics; metaphysics; mystical, and commentaries on suras of the Koran.

Avicenna, a fine scholar, was the translator of the works of Hippocrates and Galen and took particular care in the study of Aristotle. It is part of a general movement that sees philosophers of Islamic culture discover Greek culture from the Byzantine Empire.

For several centuries, until the 17th century, his Qanûn constituted the foundation of teaching both in Europe, where he dethroned Galen and in Asia.

Avicenna's medicine

His Canon met with great success, which eclipsed the earlier works of Rhazes (850 - 926), Haly-Abbas (930 - 994) and Abu Al-Qasim (936 - 1013) and even those of Ibn-Al-Nafis (1210 - 1288) who are later.

Europeans from the 12th to the 17th centuries brought back from the Orient the Canon of Medicine, which influenced the practice and teaching of Western medicine.

Translation of his works

The work was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona, of the Toledo school, between 1150 and 1187. This is where Ibn Sina in Arabic becomes Ben Sina in Hebrew and Avicenna in Spanish. It was printed in Hebrew in Milan in 1473, then in Venice in 1527, and in Rome in 1593. Its influence lasted until its challenge during the Renaissance: Leonardo da Vinci rejected its anatomy and Paracelsus burned it.

It was the development of European science that caused its obsolescence, for example, the description of blood circulation by William Harvey in 1628. However, this work had a long impact on the study of medicine, and even in 1909, a course in medicine by Avicenna was given to Brussels.

Prince of the Arabs

Under Louis XIV, the surgeon Antoine Lambert cited him as one of the greatest doctors in history and nicknamed him “prince of the Arabs”.

Anatomy and physiology

As Koranic law prohibits the dissection of corpses, Avicenna's anatomy remains a bookish anatomy. It is based mainly on that of Galen, but also on Indian and Hebrew texts.

When Galen's anatomy contradicts that of Aristotle, Avicenna seeks to reconcile them with a preference for Aristotle, and in physiology, he combines Galen's theory of humors with Aristotle's theory of souls.

It was from a commentary on Avicenna's Canon, on the heart-lung circulatory relationships, that Ibn Nafis (1211-1288) put forward the idea of small circulation.

Encyclopedist scientist

Avicenna did not leave any subject relating to medicine and philosophy without treating it. He was interested in clinics and pathology, therapy and dietetics, hygiene and environment, metaphysics, God and Creation, philosophy of being, angelology, oriental philosophy, philosophy of knowledge, the “Biology” of the soul, and alchemy and astrology.

The death of Ibn Sina

While participating in an expedition led by the emir 'Ala ad-Dawla in Kermanshah, Avicenna fell ill. He died in Hamadan in August 1037 (the first Friday of Ramadan 428 AH), at the age of fifty-seven. He had suffered for a long time from an intestinal illness, the exact nature of which is debated: colon cancer, amoebic dysentery, criminal poisoning...

Mausoleum and statue

Avicenna is buried near Hamadan. His tomb has remained a place of pilgrimage to this day. Until 1950, it was only marked by a simple granite “lantern of the dead”. In 1952, a monumental mausoleum was inaugurated over his tomb in Hamadan. It is a granite colonnade with 12 pillars, symbolizing Avicenna's twelve sciences of knowledge, crowned by a conical roof. On this occasion, photographs of his skull were taken, allowing a Soviet anthropologist and sculptor to create a “portrait” of Avicenna. This white marble statue is located near the mausoleum.

Struggle around Ibn Sina

Avicenna is claimed by many countries because he was born in a region called Turkestan and he traveled extensively and stayed in Muslim countries. Recognize him as theirs: Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey as well as many distant Arab countries which, on the grounds of a supposed stay, give him particular veneration.