Merit Research Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences (ISSN: 2354-323X) Vol. 3(4) pp. 165-175, April, 2015 Available online http://www.meritresearchjournals.org/mms/index.htm Copyright © 2015 Merit Research Journals Review Avicenna (Ibn S īnā): A par excellence influential Iranian physician and philosopher – scientist, and the prince of physicians Nāsir p ūyān (Nasser Pouyan) Abstract Nāsir p ūyān (Nasser Pouyan), Tehran, Avicenna, Latin name of Ab ū ʻAl ī S īnā (980-1037), a famous and influen- 16616-18893, Iran tial Persian physician and philosopher- Scientist, as a brilliant youth at Bukh ārā, mastered nearly all the sciences of his day by the age of 19. E-mail: [email protected] While serving as a royal physician to various rulers in Iran, he wrote his many works, mostly in Arabic. The most famous of these were the Canon of Medicine which was one million words long in five volumes and ranked among the famous books in the history of medicine. He wrote also a vast scientific and philosophical encyclopedia Kitab al- Shif āʼ (The Book of Healing), a lengthy account of Aristotelian logic, metaphysics, and physiology. His own philosophy was Neo- Platonic mysticism con- structed on Aristotelian base, which Avicenna attempted to reconcile with the main doctrines of Islam. Avicenna described anthrax, dementia, epilepsy, headache, and pleurisy. He recognized the contagiousness of tuberculosis, and advised freshening of ununited fractures. Although, Avicenna wrote little regarding dentistry that was new, he stressed the importance of keeping the teeth clean. He recommended for this purpose a number of dentifrices such as burnt hart ʼs horn, salt, meerschaum, and ... His works were widely read in the medieval Near East, and in Latin translations, in the Europe of Middle ages. Keywords: Canon of Medicine, Medicine, Philosophy, Shif ā INTRODUCTION The most widely influential Persian contributor to world trans-Caspian province, a tax-collector’s son. Here is a medicine was Avicenna whose standing both in Islam and man who starting with none of the advantages of life be- Christendom was equal to Galen (129-200) the famous comes, while still a youth, the adviser and confident of his Greek physician and prolific writer (Lyons, Albert S. ruler, who, change his city though he may, yet always Medicine: An Illustrated History, M.D., Abradale Press, becomes the leading citizen within a few months, and New York, 1987). Ibn Sīnā, the prince of physicians, whose writings influenced all over the world, although he whose great work, the Canon of Medicine was widely read, never travelled outside central Asia. He was hailed by his and in Latin translation, formed the foundation of univer- compatriots as the Second Teacher, the Chief Master; he sity medical course in the West from 1250 to 1600 (Porter, has been set by Dante in Paradise along with the greatest 1996). Say, he was one of the greatest men that this world intellects of the non-Christian world; and William Harvey has ever seen. It is not court of the caliphs or one of the (1578-1657) brilliant British physician will say 600 years noble families of Baghdad that produces this prodigy. He after his death to his friend Aubrey: “Go to the foun- is the son of a middle-class countryman in a far-away tain-head and read Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) Greek phi 166 Merit Res. J. Med. Med. Sci. Figure 1. Avicenna (980-1037). One of the Islam ʼs greatest intellects, authored al- Qanun (the Canon), probably the most in- fluential text of all the times. losopher and scientist, Cicero (Marcus Julius Cicero, night in sleep nor passed a whole day in any other occu- 106-43B.C. Roman orator, author, and statesman) and pation but study. Whenever I met with an obscure point, it Avicenna.” Ḥusayn bin ‘Abd All āh Ḥasan bin ‘Al ī bin S īnā was my custom to perform the total ablution and then was the son of a citizen of Balkh. His mother’s name has proceed to a mosque where I would pray to God to grant been preserved; she was one Sat āra, the daughter of a me comprehension and unlock for me the gates of diffi- householder in Afshana, a village not very far from the culty. I found medicine an easy subject.” (Figure 1) modern town of Bukh ārā. Avicenna himself was probably born in the village of Kharmesan, also in the province of Balkh, being the elder of two sons. His brother’s name One of the Islam ʼs greatest intellects, authored al- was Ma ḥmūd. His father moved his family to Bukārā in Qanun (the Canon), probably the most influential text A.D. 985, and Avicenna began his education. From the of all the times very first he was instructed in the Qur ān. ‘Al ī’s extraordi- nary memory at once displayed itself. He was one of At the early days of Avicenna’s practice, N ūḥ bin Man ṣūr those remarkable children, who learn to recite the whole Sāmānī, the seventh of a successful line of s āmānids Qur ān by heart. His next subject was rhetoric. Then he rulers fell ill, and the regular physicians having failed to was sent to the geometrician, from whom he also learnt bring about a cure, Avicenna was called in. He affected a algebra and arithmetic, and under whom he studied as- cure to the intense delight of the ruler. He was given a tronomy. Within a few years was considered fit to start place of honour in the court and was further rewarded by theology under Ism ā‘īl and logic under al-Nātil ī. At the age being granted the right of access at any time to the royal of sixteen, on the advice of Ab ū Sahl ‘ls ā bin Ya ḥyā library. By this time the library was well stocked with use- al-Mas īhī a Christian physician of Jurj ān, Ibn S īnā started ful and scarce manuscripts, including many Greek vol- medicine and took as his tutor Ab ū Sahl. He besides the umes. Avicenna writes “I went there, and found a great glory that is rightly his as the adviser and companion of number of rooms filled with books packed up in trunks. I Avicenna, was himself no mean physician. His knowledge then read the catalogue of the primitive authors and found of medicine was acquired chiefly at Baghdad. Later he left therein all that I required. I saw many books, the very titles the court of the caliph for that of Ma’m ūn ibn Muhammad of which were unknown to most people, and others which Khw ārizmsh āh and here he became acquainted with I never met with before or since.” Avicenna was then just Avicenna. Avicenna in his autobiography writes: “at first I eighteen. The library was destroyed by fire and most of treated patients not for fees, but for my own instruction. the manuscripts perished. Avicenna according to later During this period of my studies I never passed a whole writers had a hand in the outbreak, being desirous that his Pouyan 167 rivals in the medical world should have no access to the send him to me.” texts which he had studied there. But this is probably By this portrait Avicenna was recognized. According to mere slander, although a Persian historian, Mas‘ūd Aur- Niz āmī, Q ābūs sent for Avicenna and loaded him with rāq, states that the story was related of him also by con- honours. But Avicenna himself relates that he reached temporary writers. Jūrjan just too late to see Q ābūs, who had been deposed Anyhow, after Avicenna finished his education, he en- and cast into prison a short while before. Avicenna at age tered the court of the king of Khw ārizm and never re- of thirty two in 1020 while was still at Jurj ān, met Ab ū turned to his native land. In A.D. 1001, his father died and ‘Ubayd ‘Abd al-Wāḥid bin Muhammad al-Jūzj ānī, his fa- he left Bukh ārā. Ibn S īnā in his diary writes: “the necessity mous disciple, secretary and friend. Either the death of forced me to leave my native land,” but he does not de- Qābūs or undesirable publicity caused Avicenna to flee scribe its nature. At that time Abu ’l-Husayn Ahmad bin again. This time he turned west and passing through the Muhammad al-Suhayl ī, a man of scholarly tastes, was forests of M āzandr ān made his way across the Elburz prime minister at Khw ārizm. Here Avicenna turned and Mountains and came to Rayy, the capital of ‘Ir āq-i‘Ajam was treated with the greatest respect. The tyrant Ma ḥmūd [Iraq of non-Arab]. Here he found himself in that great Ghaznav ī who in the art of war had been so completely mountain plain which embraced the great cities of Persia successful, was determined to make his court as brilliant of those days Rayy, Isfah ān and Hamadan. All these were in intellect as it was rich in spoils. The court of Khw ārizm, under the rule of a member of the Buwayhid family. In far inferior in power, was yet vastly superior in art and Rayy a woman, named Sayy īda, the widow of Fakhr science, for Abu ’l-‘Abb ās Ma’m ūn, the Khw ārizmsh āh, al-dawla, was ruling on behalf of her infant son, Majd was himself a philosopher and a friend of scholars. al-dawla Daylam ī. Avicenna was received with all re- Ma ḥmūd sent an imperious summons to the spectfully.