Avicenna — Abu 'Ali al-Husayn ibn 'Abd Allah
ibn Sina
(980 - 1037)
The “Leonardo da Vinci of the Muslim World,” known as Avicenna in the West. Born in Bukhara, today Uzbekistan. Wrote on theology,
metaphysics, astronomy, philology, poetry, and medicine, including Al-Qanun
fi al-Tibb (The Cannon of Medicine), a codification of all existing
medical knowledge that was used as a reference in Europe well into the
fifteenth century. Ibn Sina’s philosophy is based on an ontological
foundation in which God, the Necessary Being (wajib al-wujud),
is the only being which is pure Goodness, the source of all existence.
Everything else derives its being (mahiyya) and its existence
(wujud) from the Necessary Being and hence is contingent upon
God. The contingent beings (mumkin al-wujud) are then divided
into two kinds: (1) Those which are necessary in the sense that they
cannot “not be;” they are contingent by themselves but receive
from the First Cause the quality of being necessary. These beings are
the simple substances (mujarradat). And (2) beings which are
only contingent, the composed bodies of the sublunary world which come
into being and pass away. Ibn Sina attempted to integrate Greek philosophy
and Islam in an original synthesis which places God at the center of
philosophy based on the self-evident truths.
Among Ibn Sina’s medical works, Canon of Medicine,
is the ordered Summa of all the medical knowledge up to his time. Divided
into five books, this major work of Islamic medical tradition was used
as the basic textbook for teaching medicine for seven centuries both
in the East as well as in the West. Translated by Gerard of Cremona
between 1150 and 1187, the Canon formed the basis of teaching
at all European universities. It appears in the oldest known syllabus
of teaching given to the School of Medicine at Montpellier, dating from
1309, and in all subsequent ones until 1557.
Ibn Sina’s influence on the subsequent developments
of intellectual thought is vast. In the Muslim world, his philosophy
was instrumental in the emergence of Ishraqi (Illuminist) school
of Suhrawardi. Ibn ‘Arabi combined Ibn sina's work with
other doctrines and Mulla Sadra integrated it into the intellectual
perspectives of Shi‘ism. In the West, Thomas Aquinas used some
of his proofs in the Catholic theology and although the Renaissance
brought a violent reaction against him, Ibn Sina holds a secure place
in the history of Western philosophy through his influence on major
Christian philosophers.
Sources: Center
for Islam and Science; Saudi Aramco World, (January-February
2002) |