19. Ibn Sina
(370-428H/980-1037AD)

Avicenna is the most outstanding Muslim scientist and one of the world’s most famous scholars. He was a philosopher, a physician, a mathematician and an astronomer(109). 

His full name is Abu Ali al-Hussain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina, known as Achaikh Arrais. He was also known as the third teacher after Aristotle and al-Farabi. He is known to Europeans as ‘Avicenna’. Ibn Sina was born near Bukhara (Uzbekistan) in 980 AD and died in Hamadan in 1037. He received his first education in Bukhara. He studied the Koran, the rules of language, literature, philosophy, logic, geometry, astronomy, medicine, and natural science. Ibn Sina became a reference in medicine, astronomy, mathematics and philosophy before reaching the age of 20(110).

It was through his reputation in medicine that princes invited him to cure them. He cured the prince of Bukhara, Nuh ibn Mansur, prince of Hamadan, Shams ad-Dawlah, and prince of Asphahan, Alaâ ad-Dawlah. They welcomed him in their libraries, which allowed him to sharpen his learning and gain all sorts of knowledge(111).

In addition to ibn Sina’s scientific interests, he was a politician who participated in the administration of the state’s affairs. Shams ad-Dawlah appointed him as a vizier, but the prince’s son imprisoned him. However, he escaped from prison after several months and fled to Asphahan, where he spent the last part of his life under the patronage of its prince ‘Alaâ ad-Dawlah’. He died in Hamadan(112).

Medical Contributions

Ibn Sina mastered medicine in particular. He made new discoveries in this field; he was the first to describe a worm that he called the "round worm", currently known as "anklestoma". He also studied neurological dysfunctions and was able to reach certain pathologic and psychological facts through psychoanalysis. He believed in the existence of an interaction between psychology and physical health. He also described the brain’s apoplexy resulting of excess in the blood flow(113). 

Ibn Sina made original contributions in medicine, based on his own observations. He founded his conclusions on experiments and was able to reach new observations, including the contagious nature of tuberculosis, and the propagation of diseases through water and soil. He also described at length dermatological and sexually transmitted diseases. Moreover, he described the pharmaceutical preparation of some medicines(114).

Inb Sina was also the first to describe the irritation of the brain’s envelope, distinguishing it from other chronic irritations. He elaborated the first clear diagnostic of neck's scleroses and of meningitis He also described the facial paralysis and its causes. He made the distinction between the paralysis caused by a dysfunction in the brain and that resulting of a local dysfunction(115).

Scientific contributions in other fields

Ibn Sina made important contributions in physics, through the study of several natural phenomena such as motion, force, vacuum, infinity, light and heat. He made the observation that if the perception of light is due to the emission of some particles from a luminous source, the speed of light must be finite(116).

Ibn Sina made contributions in geology with a treatise on the formation of mountains, precious stones and metals. In this treatise, he discussed the effect of earthquakes, water, the degree temperature, sediments, fossilisation and erosion(117).

Ibn Sina was also an outstanding mathematician and astronomer. He studied infinite bodies from religious, physical, and mathematical perspectives. His findings helped Newton and Leibniz to develop infinite numerals(118) in the 17th century.

Major Works

Ibn Sina wrote more than 200 works, including books and treatises. Among the most famous of these :

- Al-Qanun, known as the ‘Canon’ : one of Ibn Sina’s most important and original works. Ibn Sina’s reputation in medicine is due to this book, which became very famous in the East and in the West. Al-Qanun was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremonia in the 12th century. In the last 30 years of the 15th century, it was published sixteen times - fifteen editions being in Latin and one in Hebrew. Al-Qanun was reedited more than twenty times during the sixteenth century(119). It remained the textbook for medical education in European schools until the 19th century. In 1996, Al-Qanun was reedited by the Institute of the History of Arab and Islamic Science, affiliated to the University of Frankfurt, within the framework of a collection of Islamic Medicine realised by Fuad Sizkine.

-'Kitab Al-Shifa' (Book of Healing) was a philosophical encyclopaedia covering a vast area of knowledge in logic, natural science and philosophy.

-'Kitab al-Najat' (Book of Rescue) a less complex summary of Kitab Al-Shifa.

-'Kitab al-Isharat wa Tanbihate' : contains studies in natural science, Sufism, theology and ethics.

Ibn Sina has many other works in medicine, philosophy, music, language, theology, psychology, logic, natural science, mathematics and astronomy.