Contributions of Muslim
Scientists Abu Ali Ibn e Sina: Avicenna
(also Ibn Sīnā or Abu Ali Sina;ابن سینا; c. 980 – June 1037) was a Persian polymath who is
regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, thinkers and
writers of the Islamic Golden Age. He has been described as the father of early
modern medicine. Of the 450 works he is known to have written, around 240 have
survived, including 150 on philosophy and 40 on medicine.
Besides philosophy and medicine,
Avicenna's corpus includes writings on astronomy, alchemy, geography and
geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics, and works
of poetry.
Endowed with great powers of
absorbing and retaining knowledge this Muslim scholar also made valuable
contributions to the field of science. He is considered to be the founders of
Medicine and also added his great efforts to the fields of Mathematics,
Astronomy, Medicinial Chemistry, Philosophy, Palae ontology and Music. His most
famous book is "Al Qannun" which brings out the features of human
physiology and medicine. Sina is also considered as a father of the science of
Geology on account of his invaluable book on mountains in which he discussed
matters relating to earth's crust and gave scientific reasons for earthquakes.
He is the author of 238 books which are fine instances of his thoughts
regarding various subjects in diverse ways.
Name
Avicenna is a Latin corruption of
the Arabic patronym Ibn Sīnā (ابن سينا), meaning "Son of Sina", a rare Persian
masculine given name of uncertain etymology.[citation needed] However, Avicenna
was not the son, but the great-great-grandson of a man named Sina. His full
name was Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Sīnā (أبو علي الحسين بن عبد الله بن الحسن بن علي بن
سينا).
Circumstances
Ibn Sina created an extensive
corpus of works during what is commonly known as the Islamic Golden Age, in
which the translations of Greco-Roman, Persian, and Indian texts were studied
extensively. Greco-Roman (Mid- and Neo-Platonic, and Aristotelian) texts
translated by the Kindi school were commented, redacted and developed
substantially by Islamic intellectuals, who also built upon Persian and Indian
mathematical systems, astronomy, algebra, trigonometry and medicine.[22] The
Samanid dynasty in the eastern part of Persia, Greater Khorasan and Central
Asia as well as the Buyid dynasty in the western part of Persia and Iraq
provided a thriving atmosphere for scholarly and cultural development. Under
the Samanids, Bukhara rivaled Baghdad as a cultural capital of the Islamic
world.
The study of the Quran and the
Hadith thrived in such a scholarly atmosphere. Philosophy, Fiqh and theology
(kalaam) were further developed, most noticeably by Avicenna and his opponents.
Al-Razi and Al-Farabi had provided methodology and knowledge in medicine and
philosophy. Avicenna had access to the great libraries of Balkh, Khwarezm,
Gorgan, Rey, Isfahan and Hamadan. Various texts (such as the 'Ahd with
Bahmanyar) show that he debated philosophical points with the greatest scholars
of the time. Aruzi Samarqandi describes how before Avicenna left Khwarezm he
had met Al-Biruni (a famous scientist and astronomer), Abu Nasr Iraqi (a
renowned mathematician), Abu Sahl Masihi (a respected philosopher) and Abu
al-Khayr Khammar (a great physician).
Biography
Early life
Avicenna was born c. 980 in Afshana,
a village near Bukhara (in present-day Uzbekistan), the capital of the
Samanids, a Persian dynasty in Central Asia and Greater Khorasan. His mother,
named Sitāra, was from Bukhara; his father, Abdullāh, was a respected Ismaili
scholar from Balkh, an important town of the Samanid Empire, in what is today
Balkh Province, Afghanistan. His father worked in the government of Samanid in
the village Kharmasain, a Sunni regional power. After five years, his younger
brother, Mahmoud, was born. Avicenna first began to learn the Quran and
literature in such a way that when he was ten years old he had essentially
learned all of them.
According to his autobiography,
Avicenna had memorised the entire Quran by the age of 10. He learned Indian
arithmetic from an Indian greengrocer, Mahmoud Massahi and he began to learn
more from a wandering scholar who gained a livelihood by curing the sick and
teaching the young. He also studied Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) under the
Sunni Hanafi scholar Ismail al-Zahid. Avicenna was taught some extent of
philosophy books such as Introduction (Isagoge)'s Porphyry (philosopher),
Euclid's Elements, Ptolemy's Almagest by an unpopular philosopher, Abu Abdullah
Nateli, who claimed philosophizing.
As a teenager, he was greatly
troubled by the Metaphysics of Aristotle, which he could not understand until
he read al-Farabi's commentary on the work. For the next year and a half, he
studied philosophy, in which he encountered greater obstacles. In such moments
of baffled inquiry, he would leave his books, perform the requisite ablutions,
then go to the mosque, and continue in prayer till light broke on his
difficulties. Deep into the night, he would continue his studies, and even in
his dreams problems would pursue him and work out their solution. Forty times,
it is said, he read through the Metaphysics of Aristotle, till the words were
imprinted on his memory; but their meaning was hopelessly obscure, until one
day they found illumination, from the little commentary by Farabi, which he
bought at a bookstall for the small sum of three dirhams. So great was his joy
at the discovery, made with the help of a work from which he had expected only
mystery, that he hastened to return thanks to God, and bestowed alms upon the
poor.
He turned to medicine at 16, and
not only learned medical theory, but also by gratuitous attendance of the sick
had, according to his own account, discovered new methods of treatment. The
teenager achieved full status as a qualified physician at age 18, and found
that "Medicine is no hard and thorny science, like mathematics and
metaphysics, so I soon made great progress; I became an excellent doctor and
began to treat patients, using approved remedies." The youthful
physician's fame spread quickly, and he treated many patients without asking
for payment.
A number of theories have been
proposed regarding Avicenna's madhab (school of thought within Islamic
jurisprudence). Medieval historian Ẓahīr al-dīn al-Bayhaqī (d. 1169) considered
Avicenna to be a follower of the Brethren of Purity. On the other hand, Dimitri
Gutas along with Aisha Khan and Jules J. Janssens demonstrated that Avicenna
was a Sunni Hanafi. However, the 14th century Shia faqih Nurullah Shushtari
according to Seyyed Hossein Nasr, maintained that he was most likely a Twelver
Shia. Conversely, Sharaf Khorasani, citing a rejection of an invitation of the
Sunni Governor Sultan Mahmoud Ghazanavi by Avicenna to his court, believes that
Avicenna was an Ismaili. Similar disagreements exist on the background of
Avicenna's family, whereas some writers considered them Sunni, some more recent
writers contested that they were Shia.
Adulthood
Ibn Sina's first appointment was
that of physician to the emir, Nuh II, who owed him his recovery from a
dangerous illness (997). Ibn Sina's chief reward for this service was access to
the royal library of the Samanids, well-known patrons of scholarship and
scholars. When the library was destroyed by fire not long after, the enemies of
Ibn Sina accused him of burning it, in order for ever to conceal the sources of
his knowledge. Meanwhile, he assisted his father in his financial labors, but
still found time to write some of his earliest works.
When Ibn Sina was 22 years old,
he lost his father. The Samanid dynasty came to its end in December 1004. Ibn
Sina seems to have declined the offers of Mahmud of Ghazni, and proceeded
westwards to Urgench in modern Turkmenistan, where the vizier, regarded as a
friend of scholars, gave him a small monthly stipend. The pay was small,
however, so Ibn Sina wandered from place to place through the districts of
Nishapur and Merv to the borders of Khorasan, seeking an opening for his
talents. Qabus, the generous ruler of Tabaristan, himself a poet and a scholar,
with whom Ibn Sina had expected to find asylum, was on about that date (1012)
starved to death by his troops who had revolted. Ibn Sina himself was at this
time stricken by a severe illness. Finally, at Gorgan, near the Caspian Sea,
Ibn Sina met with a friend, who bought a dwelling near his own house in which Ibn
Sina lectured on logic and astronomy. Several of Ibn Sina's treatises were
written for this patron; and the commencement of his Canon of Medicine also
dates from his stay in Hyrcania.
Ibn Sina subsequently settled at
Rey, in the vicinity of modern Tehran, the home town of Rhazes; where Majd
Addaula, a son of the last Buwayhid emir, was nominal ruler under the regency
of his mother (Seyyedeh Khatun). About thirty of Ibn Sina's shorter works are
said to have been composed in Rey. Constant feuds which raged between the
regent and her second son, Shams al-Daula, however, compelled the scholar to
quit the place. After a brief sojourn at Qazvin he passed southwards to Hamadãn
where Shams al-Daula, another Buwayhid emir, had established himself. At first,
Ibn Sina entered into the service of a high-born lady; but the emir, hearing of
his arrival, called him in as medical attendant, and sent him back with
presents to his dwelling. Ibn Sina was even raised to the office of vizier. The
emir decreed that he should be banished from the country. Ibn Sina, however,
remained hidden for forty days in sheikh Ahmed Fadhel's house, until a fresh
attack of illness induced the emir to restore him to his post. Even during this
perturbed time, Ibn Sina persevered with his studies and teaching. Every
evening, extracts from his great works, the Canon and the Sanatio, were
dictated and explained to his pupils. On the death of the emir, Ibn Sina ceased
to be vizier and hid himself in the house of an apothecary, where, with intense
assiduity, he continued the composition of his works.
Meanwhile, he had written to Abu
Ya'far, the prefect of the dynamic city of Isfahan, offering his services. The
new emir of Hamadan, hearing of this correspondence and discovering where Ibn
Sina was hiding, incarcerated him in a fortress. War meanwhile continued
between the rulers of Isfahan and Hamadãn; in 1024 the former captured Hamadan
and its towns, expelling the Tajik mercenaries. When the storm had passed, Ibn
Sina returned with the emir to Hamadan, and carried on his literary labors.
Later, however, accompanied by his brother, a favorite pupil, and two slaves,
Ibn Sina escaped from the city in the dress of a Sufi ascetic. After a perilous
journey, they reached Isfahan, receiving an honorable welcome from the prince.
Later life and death
The remaining ten or twelve years
of Ibn Sīnā's life were spent in the service of the Kakuyid ruler Muhammad ibn
Rustam Dushmanziyar (also known as Ala al-Dawla), whom he accompanied as
physician and general literary and scientific adviser, even in his numerous
campaigns.
During these years he began to
study literary matters and philology, instigated, it is asserted, by criticisms
on his style. A severe colic, which seized him on the march of the army against
Hamadan, was checked by remedies so violent that Ibn Sina could scarcely stand.
On a similar occasion the disease returned; with difficulty he reached Hamadan,
where, finding the disease gaining ground, he refused to keep up the regimen
imposed, and resigned himself to his fate.
His friends advised him to slow
down and take life moderately. He refused, however, stating that: "I
prefer a short life with width to a narrow one with length". On his
deathbed remorse seized him; he bestowed his goods on the poor, restored unjust
gains, freed his slaves, and read through the Quran every three days until his
death. He died in June 1037, in his fifty-eighth year, in the month of
Ramadan and was buried in Hamadan, Iran.
Philosphy
Ibn Sīnā wrote extensively on
early Islamic philosophy, especially the subjects logic, ethics, and
metaphysics, including treatises named Logic and Metaphysics. Most of his works
were written in Arabic – then the language of science in the Middle East – and
some in Persian. Of linguistic significance even to this day are a few books
that he wrote in nearly pure Persian language (particularly the Danishnamah-yi
'Ala', Philosophy for Ala' ad-Dawla'). Ibn Sīnā's commentaries on Aristotle
often criticized the philosopher,[citation needed] encouraging a lively debate
in the spirit of ijtihad.
Avicenna's Neoplatonic scheme of
"emanations" became fundamental in the Kalam (school of theological
discourse) in the 12th century.
His Book of Healing became
available in Europe in partial Latin translation some fifty years after its
composition, under the title Sufficientia, and some authors have identified a
"Latin Avicennism" as flourishing for some time, paralleling the more
influential Latin Averroism, but suppressed by the Parisian decrees of 1210 and
1215.
Avicenna's psychology and theory
of knowledge influenced William of Auvergne, Bishop of Paris[41] and Albertus
Magnus, while his metaphysics influenced the thought of Thomas Aquinas.
Metaphysical doctrine
Early Islamic philosophy and
Islamic metaphysics, imbued as it is with Islamic theology, distinguishes more
clearly than Aristotelianism between essence and existence. Whereas existence
is the domain of the contingent and the accidental, essence endures within a
being beyond the accidental. The philosophy of Ibn Sīnā, particularly that part
relating to metaphysics, owes much to al-Farabi. The search for a definitive
Islamic philosophy separate from Occasionalism can be seen in what is left of
his work.
Following al-Farabi's lead,
Avicenna initiated a full-fledged inquiry into the question of being, in which
he distinguished between essence (Mahiat) and existence (Wujud). He argued that
the fact of existence can not be inferred from or accounted for by the essence
of existing things, and that form and matter by themselves cannot interact and
originate the movement of the universe or the progressive actualization of
existing things. Existence must, therefore, be due to an agent-cause that
necessitates, imparts, gives, or adds existence to an essence. To do so, the
cause must be an existing thing and coexist with its effect.
Avicenna's consideration of the
essence-attributes question may be elucidated in terms of his ontological
analysis of the modalities of being; namely impossibility, contingency, and
necessity. Avicenna argued that the impossible being is that which cannot
exist, while the contingent in itself (mumkin bi-dhatihi) has the potentiality
to be or not to be without entailing a contradiction. When actualized, the contingent
becomes a 'necessary existent due to what is other than itself' (wajib al-wujud
bi-ghayrihi). Thus, contingency-in-itself is potential beingness that could
eventually be actualized by an external cause other than itself. The
metaphysical structures of necessity and contingency are different. Necessary
being due to itself (wajib al-wujud bi-dhatihi) is true in itself, while the
contingent being is 'false in itself' and 'true due to something else other
than itself'. The necessary is the source of its own being without borrowed
existence. It is what always exists.
The Necessary exists
'due-to-Its-Self', and has no quiddity/essence (mahiyya) other than existence
(wujud). Furthermore, It is 'One' (wahid ahad) since there cannot be more than
one 'Necessary-Existent-due-to-Itself' without differentia (fasl) to
distinguish them from each other. Yet, to require differentia entails that they
exist 'due-to-themselves' as well as 'due to what is other than themselves';
and this is contradictory. However, if no differentia distinguishes them from
each other, then there is no sense in which these 'Existents' are not one and
the same. Avicenna adds that the 'Necessary-Existent-due-to-Itself' has no
genus (jins), nor a definition (hadd), nor a counterpart (nadd), nor an
opposite (did), and is detached (bari) from matter (madda), quality (kayf),
quantity (kam), place (ayn), situation (wad), and time (waqt).
Avicenna's theology on
metaphysical issues (ilāhiyyāt) has been criticized by some Islamic scholars,
among them al-Ghazali, Ibn Taymiyya, and Ibn al-Qayyim.[page needed] While
discussing the views of the theists among the Greek philosophers, namely
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle in Al-Munqidh min ad-Dalal ("Deliverance
from Error"), al-Ghazali noted that the Greek philosophers "must be
taxed with unbelief, as must their partisans among the Muslim philosophers,
such as Ibn Sina and al-Farabi and their likes." He added that "None,
however, of the Muslim philosophers engaged so much in transmitting Aristotle's
lore as did the two men just mentioned. The sum of what we regard as the authentic
philosophy of Aristotle, as transmitted by al-Farabi and Ibn Sina, can be
reduced to three parts: a part which must be branded as unbelief; a part which
must be stigmatized as innovation; and a part which need not be repudiated at
all.
Argument for God's existence
Avicenna made an argument for the
existence of God which would be known as the "Proof of the Truthful"
(Arabic: al-burhan al-siddiqin). Avicenna argued that there must be a
"necessary existent" (Arabic: wajib al-wujud), an entity that cannot
not exist and through a series of argument, he identified it with God of Islam.
Present-day historian of philosophy Peter Adamson called this argument one of
the most influential medieval arguments for God's existence, and Avicenna's
biggest contribution to the history of philosophy.
Al-Biruni correspondence
Correspondence between Ibn Sina
(with his student Ahmad ibn 'Ali al-Ma'sumi) and Al-Biruni has survived in
which they debated Aristotelian natural philosophy and the Peripatetic school.
Abu Rayhan began by asking Avicenna eighteen questions, ten of which were
criticisms of Aristotle's On the Heavens.
Theology
Avicenna was a devout Muslim and
sought to reconcile rational philosophy with Islamic theology. His aim was to
prove the existence of God and His creation of the world scientifically and
through reason and logic. Avicenna's views on Islamic theology (and philosophy)
were enormously influential, forming part of the core of the curriculum at
Islamic religious schools until the 19th century. Avicenna wrote a number of
short treatises dealing with Islamic theology. These included treatises on the
prophets (whom he viewed as "inspired philosophers"), and also on
various scientific and philosophical interpretations of the Quran, such as how
Quranic cosmology corresponds to his own philosophical system. In general these
treatises linked his philosophical writings to Islamic religious ideas; for
example, the body's afterlife.
There are occasional brief hints
and allusions in his longer works however that Avicenna considered philosophy
as the only sensible way to distinguish real prophecy from illusion. He did not
state this more clearly because of the political implications of such a theory,
if prophecy could be questioned, and also because most of the time he was
writing shorter works which concentrated on explaining his theories on philosophy
and theology clearly, without digressing to consider epistemological matters
which could only be properly considered by other philosophers.
Later interpretations of
Avicenna's philosophy split into three different schools; those (such as al-Tusi)
who continued to apply his philosophy as a system to interpret later political
events and scientific advances; those (such as al-Razi) who considered
Avicenna's theological works in isolation from his wider philosophical
concerns; and those (such as al-Ghazali) who selectively used parts of his
philosophy to support their own attempts to gain greater spiritual insights
through a variety of mystical means. It was the theological interpretation
championed by those such as al-Razi which eventually came to predominate in the
madrasahs.
Avicenna memorized the Quran by
the age of ten, and as an adult, he wrote five treatises commenting on suras
from the Quran. One of these texts included the Proof of Prophecies, in which
he comments on several Quranic verses and holds the Quran in high esteem.
Avicenna argued that the Islamic prophets should be considered higher than
philosophers.
Thought experiments
While he was imprisoned in the
castle of Fardajan near Hamadhan, Avicenna wrote his famous "Floating
Man" – literally falling man – thought experiment to demonstrate human
self-awareness and the substantiality and immateriality of the soul. Avicenna
believed his "Floating Man" thought experiment demonstrated that the
soul is a substance, and claimed humans cannot doubt their own consciousness,
even in a situation that prevents all sensory data input. The thought
experiment told its readers to imagine themselves created all at once while
suspended in the air, isolated from all sensations, which includes no sensory
contact with even their own bodies. He argued that, in this scenario, one would
still have self-consciousness. Because it is conceivable that a person,
suspended in air while cut off from sense experience, would still be capable of
determining his own existence, the thought experiment points to the conclusions
that the soul is a perfection, independent of the body, and an immaterial
substance. The conceivability of this "Floating Man" indicates that
the soul is perceived intellectually, which entails the soul's separateness
from the body. Avicenna referred to the living human intelligence, particularly
the active intellect, which he believed to be the hypostasis by which God
communicates truth to the human mind and imparts order and intelligibility to
nature. Following is an English translation of the argument:
One of us (i.e. a human being)
should be imagined as having been created in a single stroke; created perfect
and complete but with his vision obscured so that he cannot perceive external
entities; created falling through air or a void, in such a manner that he is
not struck by the firmness of the air in any way that compels him to feel it, and
with his limbs separated so that they do not come in contact with or touch each
other. Then contemplate the following: can he be assured of the existence of
himself? He does not have any doubt in that his self exists, without thereby
asserting that he has any exterior limbs, nor any internal organs, neither
heart nor brain, nor any one of the exterior things at all; but rather he can
affirm the existence of himself, without thereby asserting there that this self
has any extension in space. Even if it were possible for him in that state to
imagine a hand or any other limb, he would not imagine it as being a part of
his self, nor as a condition for the existence of that self; for as you know
that which is asserted is different from that which is not asserted, and that
which is inferred is different from that which is not inferred. Therefore the
self, the existence of which has been asserted, is a unique characteristic, in
as much that it is not as such the same as the body or the limbs, which have
not been ascertained. Thus that which is ascertained (i.e. the self), does have
a way of being sure of the existence of the soul as something other than the
body, even something non-bodily; this he knows, this he should understand
intuitively, if it is that he is ignorant of it and needs to be beaten with a
stick [to realize it].
— Ibn Sina, Kitab Al-Shifa, On
the Soul
However, Avicenna posited the
brain as the place where reason interacts with sensation. Sensation prepares
the soul to receive rational concepts from the universal Agent Intellect. The
first knowledge of the flying person would be "I am," affirming his
or her essence. That essence could not be the body, obviously, as the flying
person has no sensation. Thus, the knowledge that "I am" is the core
of a human being: the soul exists and is self-aware. Avicenna thus concluded
that the idea of the self is not logically dependent on any physical thing, and
that the soul should not be seen in relative terms, but as a primary given, a
substance. The body is unnecessary; in relation to it, the soul is its
perfection. In itself, the soul is an immaterial substance.
The Canon of Medicine
Avicenna authored a five-volume
medical encyclopedia: The Canon of Medicine (Al-Qanun fi't-Tibb). It was used
as the standard medical textbook in the Islamic world and Europe up to the 18th
century. The Canon still plays an important role in Unani medicine.
Liber Primus Naturalium
Avicenna considered whether
events like rare diseases or disorders have natural causes. He used the example
of polydactyly to explain his perception that causal reasons exist for all
medical events. This view of medical phenomena anticipated developments in the
Enlightenment by seven centuries.
The Book of Healing
Earth sciences
Ibn Sīnā wrote on Earth sciences
such as geology in The Book of Healing. While discussing the formation of
mountains, he explained:
Either they are the effects of
upheavals of the crust of the earth, such as might occur during a violent
earthquake, or they are the effect of water, which, cutting itself a new route,
has denuded the valleys, the strata being of different kinds, some soft, some
hard ... It would require a long period of time for all such changes to be
accomplished, during which the mountains themselves might be somewhat
diminished in size.
Philosophy of science
In the Al-Burhan (On
Demonstration) section of The Book of Healing, Avicenna discussed the
philosophy of science and described an early scientific method of inquiry. He
discusses Aristotle's Posterior Analytics and significantly diverged from it on
several points. Avicenna discussed the issue of a proper methodology for
scientific inquiry and the question of "How does one acquire the first
principles of a science?" He asked how a scientist would arrive at
"the initial axioms or hypotheses of a deductive science without inferring
them from some more basic premises?" He explains that the ideal situation
is when one grasps that a "relation holds between the terms, which would
allow for absolute, universal certainty". Avicenna then adds two further
methods for arriving at the first principles: the ancient Aristotelian method
of induction (istiqra), and the method of examination and experimentation
(tajriba). Avicenna criticized Aristotelian induction, arguing that "it
does not lead to the absolute, universal, and certain premises that it purports
to provide." In its place, he develops a "method of experimentation
as a means for scientific inquiry."
Logic
An early formal system of
temporal logic was studied by Avicenna. Although he did not develop a real
theory of temporal propositions, he did study the relationship between
temporalis and the implication. Avicenna's work was further developed by Najm
al-Dīn al-Qazwīnī al-Kātibī and became the dominant system of Islamic logic
until modern times. Avicennian logic also influenced several early European
logicians such as Albertus Magnus and William of Ockham. Avicenna endorsed the
law of noncontradiction proposed by Aristotle, that a fact could not be both
true and false at the same time and in the same sense of the terminology used.
He stated, "Anyone who denies the law of noncontradiction should be beaten
and burned until he admits that to be beaten is not the same as not to be
beaten, and to be burned is not the same as not to be burned."
Physics
In mechanics, Ibn Sīnā, in The
Book of Healing, developed a theory of motion, in which he made a distinction
between the inclination (tendency to motion) and force of a projectile, and
concluded that motion was a result of an inclination (mayl) transferred to the
projectile by the thrower, and that projectile motion in a vacuum would not
cease. He viewed inclination as a permanent force whose effect is dissipated by
external forces such as air resistance.
The theory of motion presented by
Avicenna was probably influenced by the 6th-century Alexandrian scholar John
Philoponus. Avicenna's is a less sophisticated variant of the theory of impetus
developed by Buridan in the 14th century. It is unclear if Buridan was
influenced by Avicenna, or by Philoponus directly.
In optics, Ibn Sina was among
those who argued that light had a speed, observing that "if the perception
of light is due to the emission of some sort of particles by a luminous source,
the speed of light must be finite." He also provided a wrong explanation
of the rainbow phenomenon. Carl Benjamin Boyer described Avicenna's ("Ibn
Sīnā") theory on the rainbow as follows:
Independent observation had
demonstrated to him that the bow is not formed in the dark cloud but rather in
the very thin mist lying between the cloud and the sun or observer. The cloud,
he thought, serves simply as the background of this thin substance, much as a
quicksilver lining is placed upon the rear surface of the glass in a mirror.
Ibn Sīnā would change the place not only of the bow, but also of the color
formation, holding the iridescence to be merely a subjective sensation in the
eye.
In 1253, a Latin text entitled
Speculum Tripartitum stated the following regarding Avicenna's theory on heat:
Avicenna says in his book of
heaven and earth, that heat is generated from motion in external things.
Psychology
Avicenna's legacy in classical
psychology is primarily embodied in the Kitab al-nafs parts of his Kitab
al-shifa (The Book of Healing) and Kitab al-najat (The Book of Deliverance).
These were known in Latin under the title De Anima (treatises "on the
soul").[dubious – discuss] Notably, Avicenna develops what is called the
"flying man" argument in the Psychology of The Cure I.1.7 as defense
of the argument that the soul is without quantitative extension, which has an
affinity with Descartes's cogito argument (or what phenomenology designates as
a form of an "epoche").
Avicenna's psychology requires
that connection between the body and soul be strong enough to ensure the soul's
individuation, but weak enough to allow for its immortality. Avicenna grounds
his psychology on physiology, which means his account of the soul is one that
deals almost entirely with the natural science of the body and its abilities of
perception. Thus, the philosopher's connection between the soul and body is
explained almost entirely by his understanding of perception; in this way,
bodily perception interrelates with the immaterial human intellect. In sense
perception, the perceiver senses the form of the object; first, by perceiving
features of the object by our external senses. This sensory information is
supplied to the internal senses, which merge all the pieces into a whole,
unified conscious experience. This process of perception and abstraction is the
nexus of the soul and body, for the material body may only perceive material
objects, while the immaterial soul may only receive the immaterial, universal
forms. The way the soul and body interact in the final abstraction of the
universal from the concrete particular is the key to their relationship and
interaction, which takes place in the physical body.
The soul completes the action of
intellection by accepting forms that have been abstracted from matter. This
process requires a concrete particular (material) to be abstracted into the
universal intelligible (immaterial). The material and immaterial interact
through the Active Intellect, which is a "divine light" containing
the intelligible forms. The Active Intellect reveals the universals concealed
in material objects much like the sun makes color available to our eyes.
Other contributions
Astronomy and astrology
Avicenna wrote an attack on
astrology titled Resāla fī ebṭāl aḥkām al-nojūm, in which he cited passages
from the Quran to dispute the power of astrology to foretell the future. He
believed that each planet had some influence on the earth, but argued against
astrologers being able to determine the exact effects.
Avicenna's astronomical writings
had some influence on later writers, although in general his work could be
considered less developed than Alhazen or Al-Biruni. One important feature of
his writing is that he considers mathematical astronomy as a separate
discipline to astrology. He criticized Aristotle's view of the stars receiving
their light from the Sun, stating that the stars are self-luminous, and
believed that the planets are also self-luminous. He claimed to have observed
Venus as a spot on the Sun. This is possible, as there was a transit on May 24,
1032, but Avicenna did not give the date of his observation, and modern scholars
have questioned whether he could have observed the transit from his location at
that time; he may have mistaken a sunspot for Venus. He used his transit
observation to help establish that Venus was, at least sometimes, below the Sun
in Ptolemaic cosmology, i.e. the sphere of Venus comes before the sphere of the
Sun when moving out from the Earth in the prevailing geocentric model.
He also wrote the Summary of the
Almagest, (based on Ptolemy's Almagest), with an appended treatise "to
bring that which is stated in the Almagest and what is understood from Natural
Science into conformity". For example, Avicenna considers the motion of
the solar apogee, which Ptolemy had taken to be fixed.
Chemistry
Ibn Sīnā invented steam
distillation and used it to produce essential oils such as rose essence,
forming the foundation of what later became aromatherapy.
Unlike, for example, al-Razi, Ibn
Sīnā explicitly disputed the theory of the transmutation of substances commonly
believed by alchemists:
Those of the chemical craft know
well that no change can be effected in the different species of substances,
though they can produce the appearance of such change.
Four works on alchemy attributed
to Avicenna were translated into Latin as:
- Liber Aboali Abincine de Anima in arte Alchemiae
- Declaratio Lapis physici Avicennae filio sui Aboali
- Avicennae de congelatione et conglutinatione lapidum
- Avicennae ad Hasan Regem epistola de Re recta
Liber Aboali Abincine de Anima in
arte Alchemiae was the most influential, having influenced later medieval
chemists and alchemists such as Vincent of Beauvais. However Anawati argues
(following Ruska) that the de Anima is a fake by a Spanish author. Similarly
the Declaratio is believed not to be actually by Avicenna. The third work (The
Book of Minerals) is agreed to be Avicenna's writing, adapted from the Kitab
al-Shifa (Book of the Remedy). Ibn Sina classified minerals into stones,
fusible substances, sulfurs, and salts, building on the ideas of Aristotle and
Jabir. The epistola de Re recta is somewhat less sceptical of alchemy; Anawati
argues that it is by Avicenna, but written earlier in his career when he had
not yet firmly decided that transmutation was impossible.
Poetry
Almost half of Ibn Sīnā's works
are versified. His poems appear in both Arabic and Persian. As an example,
Edward Granville Browne claims that the following Persian verses are
incorrectly attributed to Omar Khayyám, and were originally written by Ibn Sīnā:
Legacy
Middle Ages and Renaissance
As early as the 13th century when
Dante Alighieri depicted him in Limbo alongside the virtuous non-Christian
thinkers in his Divine Comedy such as Virgil, Averroes, Homer, Horace, Ovid,
Lucan, Socrates, Plato, and Saladin, Avicenna has been recognized by both East
and West, as one of the great figures in intellectual history.
George Sarton, the author of The
History of Science, described Ibn Sīnā as "one of the greatest thinkers
and medical scholars in history" and called him "the most famous
scientist of Islam and one of the most famous of all races, places, and
times." He was one of the Islamic world's leading writers in the field of
medicine. Along with Rhazes, Abulcasis, Ibn al-Nafis, and al-Ibadi, Ibn Sīnā is
considered an important compiler of early Muslim medicine. He is remembered in
the Western history of medicine as a major historical figure who made important
contributions to medicine and the European Renaissance. His medical texts were
unusual in that where controversy existed between Galen and Aristotle's views
on medical matters (such as anatomy), he preferred to side with Aristotle,
where necessary updating Aristotle's position to take into account
post-Aristotelian advances in anatomical knowledge. Aristotle's dominant
intellectual influence among medieval European scholars meant that Avicenna's
linking of Galen's medical writings with Aristotle's philosophical writings in
the Canon of Medicine (along with its comprehensive and logical organisation of
knowledge) significantly increased Avicenna's importance in medieval Europe in
comparison to other Islamic writers on medicine. His influence following
translation of the Canon was such that from the early fourteenth to the
mid-sixteenth centuries he was ranked with Hippocrates and Galen as one of the
acknowledged authorities, princeps medicorum ("prince of
physicians").
Modern reception
In present-day Iran, Afghanistan
and Tajikistan, he is considered a national icon, and is often regarded as
among the greatest Persians. A monument was erected outside the Bukhara
museum[year needed]. The Avicenna Mausoleum and Museum in Hamadan was built in
1952. Bu-Ali Sina University in Hamadan (Iran), the biotechnology Avicenna
Research Institute in Tehran (Iran), the ibn Sīnā Tajik State Medical
University in Dushanbe, Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences at
Aligarh, India, Avicenna School in Karachi and Avicenna Medical College in
Lahore, Pakistan Ibne Sina Balkh Medical School in his native province of Balkh
in Afghanistan, Ibni Sina Faculty Of Medicine of Ankara University Ankara,
Turkey, the main classroom building (the Avicenna Building) of the Sharif
University of Technology, and Ibn Sina Integrated School in Marawi City
(Philippines) are all named in his honour. His portrait hangs in the Hall of
the Avicenna Faculty of Medicine in the University of Paris. There is a crater
on the Moon named Avicenna and a mangrove genus Avicennia.
In 1980, the Soviet Union, which
then ruled his birthplace Bukhara, celebrated the thousandth anniversary of
Avicenna's birth by circulating various commemorative stamps with artistic
illustrations, and by erecting a bust of Avicenna based on anthropological
research by Soviet scholars. Near his birthplace in Qishlak Afshona, some 25 km
(16 mi) north of Bukhara, a training college for medical staff has been named
for him.[year needed] On the grounds is a museum dedicated to his life, times
and work.
The Avicenna Prize, established
in 2003, is awarded every two years by UNESCO and rewards individuals and
groups for their achievements in the field of ethics in science. The aim of the
award is to promote ethical reflection on issues raised by advances in science
and technology, and to raise global awareness of the importance of ethics in
science.
The Avicenna Directories
(2008–15; now the World Directory of Medical Schools) list universities and
schools where doctors, public health practitioners, pharmacists and others, are
educated. The original project team stated "Why Avicenna? Avicenna ... was
... noted for his synthesis of knowledge from both east and west. He has had a
lasting influence on the development of medicine and health sciences. The use
of Avicenna's name symbolises the worldwide partnership that is needed for the
promotion of health services of high quality."
In June 2009 Iran donated a
"Persian Scholars Pavilion" to United Nations Office in Vienna which
is placed in the central Memorial Plaza of the Vienna International Center. The
"Persian Scholars Pavilion" at United Nations in Vienna, Austria is
featuring the statues of four prominent Iranian figures. Highlighting the
Iranian architectural features, the pavilion is adorned with Persian art forms
and includes the statues of renowned Iranian scientists Avicenna, Al-Biruni,
Zakariya Razi (Rhazes) and Omar Khayyam.
The 1982 Soviet film Youth of
Genius (Russian: Юность гения, translit. Yunost geniya) by Elyor Ishmukhamedov
(ru) recounts Avicenna's younger years. The film is set in Bukhara at the turn
of the millennium.
In Louis L'Amour's 1985
historical novel The Walking Drum, Kerbouchard studies and discusses Avicenna's
The Canon of Medicine.
In his book The Physician (1988)
Noah Gordon tells the story of a young English medical apprentice who disguises
himself as a Jew to travel from England to Persia and learn from Avicenna, the
great master of his time. The novel was adapted into a feature film, The
Physician, in 2013. Avicenna was played by Ben Kingsley.
Arabic works
The treatises of Ibn Sīnā
influenced later Muslim thinkers in many areas including theology, philology,
mathematics, astronomy, physics, and music. His works numbered almost 450
volumes on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived. In particular,
150 volumes of his surviving works concentrate on philosophy and 40 of them
concentrate on medicine. His most famous works are The Book of Healing, and The
Canon of Medicine.
Ibn Sīnā wrote at least one
treatise on alchemy, but several others have been falsely attributed to him.
His Logic, Metaphysics, Physics, and De Caelo, are treatises giving a synoptic
view of Aristotelian doctrine, though Metaphysics demonstrates a significant
departure from the brand of Neoplatonism known as Aristotelianism in Ibn Sīnā's
world; Arabic philosophers[who?][year needed] have hinted at the idea that Ibn
Sīnā was attempting to "re-Aristotelianise" Muslim philosophy in its
entirety, unlike his predecessors, who accepted the conflation of Platonic,
Aristotelian, Neo- and Middle-Platonic works transmitted into the Muslim world.
The Logic and Metaphysics have
been extensively reprinted, the latter, e.g., at Venice in 1493, 1495, and
1546. Some of his shorter essays on medicine, logic, etc., take a poetical form
(the poem on logic was published by Schmoelders in 1836). Two encyclopaedic
treatises, dealing with philosophy, are often mentioned. The larger, Al-Shifa'
(Sanatio), exists nearly complete in manuscript in the Bodleian Library and
elsewhere; part of it on the De Anima appeared at Pavia (1490) as the Liber
Sextus Naturalium, and the long account of Ibn Sina's philosophy given by
Muhammad al-Shahrastani seems to be mainly an analysis, and in many places a
reproduction, of the Al-Shifa'. A shorter form of the work is known as the
An-najat (Liberatio). The Latin editions of part of these works have been
modified by the corrections which the monastic editors confess that they
applied. There is also a حكمت مشرقيه (hikmat-al-mashriqqiyya, in Latin Philosophia
Orientalis), mentioned by Roger Bacon, the majority of which is lost in
antiquity, which according to Averroes was pantheistic in tone.
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