Avicenna

Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā (ابو علی الحسین ابن عبدالله ابن سینا); c. 980 in Bukhara, Khorasan – 1037 in Hamedan), also known as Ibn Seena and commonly known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna (Greek Aβιτζιανός), was a Persian Muslim polymath and the most important physician and Islamic philosopher of his time. He was also an astronomer, chemist, Hafiz, logician, mathematician, poet, psychologist, scientist, Sheikh, soldier, statesman and theologian.

Avicenna wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived. In particular, 150 of his surviving treatises concentrate on philosophy and 40 of them concentrate on medicine.

Avicenna was born into an ethnically Persian family. His father was a part of the heterodox Ismāʿīlī sect, and his home served as a meeting place for men of learning. Avicenna had the best teachers while growing up, and by age 14 he had mastered many subjects and had already memorized the Quran. From the age of 14 to 18 he taught himself. Avicenna also learned about subjects that interested him. Those included law, natural sciences, and medicine. He was good at all of the subjects but he had a talent for medicine. Sometime before he turned 18 years old, he cured a Samanid chief and because of what he did he was allowed into the libraries that were taken care of by the Samanid dynasty’s prince’s. By the age of 18 he had become a master of the most important works of science in his time. Also, his reputation as a doctor had grown.

From 1015 to 1022 Avicenna was a high official and doctor to the ruler of Hamadan. After the ruler of Hamadan died Avicenna was put in prison. He was released four months later when Hamadan was captured by Alā al-Dawla, the ruler of Isfahan. Alā al-Dawla only captured Hamadan for a short period of time. He escaped as a dervish (a member of the Muslim society known for dancing) to Isfahan to work for Alā al-Dawla as a physician. In 1030, the Ghaznawids launched an attack on Isfahan and some of Avicenna’s work was lost and possibly stolen. He died during an attack on the city of Hamadan.

Further reading

• A good introduction to his life and philosophical thought is Avicenna by Lenn E. Goodman (Cornell University Press: 1992, updated edition 2006)

Other websites

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Avicenna

• Avicenna an article by Seyyed Hossein Nasr on Encyclopedia Britannica Online
• Philosophy Bites podcast interview with Peter Adamson on Avicenna.
• Avicenna An article by encyclopedia Iranica
• Biography & Works from Routledge
• Ibn Sina (Islamic Philosophy Online)
• Ibn Sina from the Encyclopedia of Islam
• Avicenna/Ibn Sina at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Physician's Day in Iran: A Reference Article on Pur Sina (Avicenna) by Manouchehr Saadat Noury
• Biography of Avicenna (in English)
• Biography of Avicenna
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Avicenna