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Ali Sina Balkhi a legendary Persian scholar better known in the West as Avicenna was born in 980 AD in Afshana a village near Bukhara in Transoxiana and died in Hamadan in modern Iran in 1037 AD. Avicenna’s achievements are extraordinary indeed. He was a scholar that gained recognition and honour as an authority in several disciplines. He became famous as an astronomer, chemist, geologist, logician, paleontologist, mathematician, physicist, poet, psychologist, scientist and gnostic. Avicenna wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived. In fact, 150 of his surviving treatises concentrate on philosophy and 40 of them on medicine. The world best knows him for his contribution to medicine. His most famous works on medicine were “ The Book of Healing”, a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopedia and “ The Cannon Medicine” which was used as a text book in the medical universities of Europe and Asia as late as in 1650.
Ibn Sina is regarded as a father of modern medicine and clinical pharmacology particularly for his introduction of systematic experimentation and quantization into the study of physiology. He discovered the contagious nature of infections diseases, the introduction of quarantine to limit the spread of contagious diseases, the introduction of experimental medicine, evidence based medicine, clinical trials, randomized controlled trials, efficacy tests, clinical pharmacology, neuropsychiatry, risk factor analysis, the idea of syndrome and the importance of dietetics and the influence of climate and environment on health.
George Sarton, the author of the “ History of Science” wrote in the introduction to the “ History of Science”.___ “ One of the most famous exponents of Muslim universalism and an eminent figure in Islamic learning was Ibn Sina, known in the west as Avicenna ( 981-1037). For a thousand years he has retained his original renown as one of the greatest thinkers and medical scholars in history. His most important medical works are the Qanun ( Canon) and a treatise on cardiac drugs.
The Qanun fi-l-Tibb is an immense encyclopedia of medicine. It contains some of the most illuminating thoughts pertaining to distinction of mediastinitis from pleurisy, contagious nature of phthisis, distribution of disease by water and soil; careful description of skin troubles; of sexual diseases and perversions and of nervous ailments.”
For his colossal scholarly distinction in medicine and several other discipline Ibn Sina was known as “ The Supreme Master” and is credited as one of the greatest thinkers both in the Islamic world and else where. His Canon Medicine, written at the age of 21 was the best known medical text in Europe and Asia for several centuries.
It is regrettable that his later day detractors slandered him on account of envy and jealousy, by accusing him of fondness for his
slave – girls and wine, they also said that Ibn Sina would resort to prayer in the mosque and drink wine at times to receive inspiration to understand the doctrine of intuition.
These slanders have not been taken seriously, and even today Ibn Sina is revered as an outstanding Persian legendary scholar known and respected world –wide especially among the medical fraternity. Avicenna now and forever will be the pride of Persia.
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As Ambassador Hussain has said, it is good to see this article reminding us of one of the luminaries of the past ages of Islam, whose contributions were in various fields of science. I am particularly delighted to notice the acknowledgement of his contributions to psychological sciences.
I wonder how many readers here have heard Ibn Siina’s name mentioned in their psychology classes.
Some things I have read about the venerable scholar many years ago have stayed in my memory. It is written in a 1966 publication on the history of psychiatry that Ibn Siina was among the early observers of the correlation of physiological reactions to “emotional” states – the study of what we now call psychosomatic illnesses. To treat a terribly ill patient, it is said, he put his finger on the patient’s pulse and recited aloud to him the names of provinces, districts, towns, streets, and people. By observing how the patient’s pulse quickened when the names were mentioned Ibn Siina deduced that the patient was in love with a girl whose location Ibn Siina identified through the procedure. The patient was so convinced of the doctor’s prowess. He took the doctor’s advice, married the girl, and recovered from the illness. We may now call it an acute case of love sickness.
Another amusing anecdote: Ibn Siina was also a pioneer in the treatment of psychotic delusions. One of his patients claimed that he was a cow and adopted the behavior of bellowing like one. Ibn Siina, instead trying to convince the patient that he was not a cow rationalistically, accepted the claim and said also that a butcher had been summoned to slaughter him for meat. The patient was bound hand and foot in preparation. After examining the patient again in the bound state, the doctor decided that he was too lean. Not enough meat. He said that the slaughtering can be postponed and the patient should be fattened.
The patient was untied and given food. The patient took to the food enthusiastically. By eating a lot he gained bodily “strength, got rid of his delusion, and was completely cured.”
The only question I have about the article is why it is titled the Pride of Persia and not the pride (or whatever) of all of Islam. If you think about it, his contributions, like that of some others of his time, have become part of the civilization of the whole of humanity, irrespective of religious belief.
I am also aware that some Islamists of the recent past have tried to belittle the significance of figures such as Ibn Siina, as a part of some kind of Islamic religious zeal. That kind of Islamism is of no benefit to anybody.
We must thank Dr Maruf for his informative comment. I have long thought of Ibn Sina as a multi-faceted genius, but I did not know of his contribution to psychology. I agree with Dr Maruf that to call him the Pride of Persia is a limiting description. A special Iranian pride in him is understandable, but I believe that Brother Saybhan will agree that Ibn Sina belongs to te Islamic world as a whole.
” The word “ilm”, knowledge, is the second most used word in the Koran, next to Allah. But in the decadent phases of Islam we Muslims have tended to give far more importance to money and power than to knowledge. It is good to be reminded of the Islamic contribution to knowledge. Brother Shayban’s contribution is welcome