Avicenna: A condensed biography

Abu Ali Ibn Sina (latin: Avicenna) lived from ca. 980 A.C. until 1037 A.C. in Hamadan, Persia, and is regarded in the Oriental world even today as one of the most important physicians and scholars of all time. One peak of Oriental medicine was reached with the “Prince of physicians” as he has been reverentially named. For nearly 700 years, up until the beginning of modern medicine this universal scholar, scientist and philosopher was regarded as an undisputable authority, even in Europe.

Born to the son of a government dignitary, Avicenna was already an accomplished and celebrated scientist at the early age of sixteen. As an inheritor to a vast fortune, Avicenna led a travelling career on Persian Courts, where he was active as a physician, astronomer, politician and writer. Honoured during his lifetime with the title as “Sheikh”, he spent the remaining fourteen years of his life serving as the personal physician and scientific advisor on the Court of the of an Isfahan prince.

His major work, the Canon of Medicine, with the original Arabic title “al-qanun fi at-tibb” (translated into Latin as Canon medicinae, was completed in 1030. Its scientific content inspired and paved the way for European medicine in the Christian-Latin Occident and was counted among the most significant medical textbooks in the Middle East as well as in Europe for a long time. This essential written work of the art of healing is ranked equally with the  writings of Hippocrates (ca. 460 until 370 B.C.) and Galen (129 until ca. 200 A.C.) at all significant European universities.

„Kitab ash-Shifa” (“The Healing“), Avicenna´s best-known philosophical work, contains contributions about Aristotelian logic, metaphysics, natural sciences and other topics. In medieval scholastics, besides Averroes, he was the most outstanding Arab philosopher and mediator of Aristotelian philosophy and natural history. Since the 13th Century the works of Avicenna have not only been particularly adopted at medical faculties but also adhered in the philosophical and scientific spheres.

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