IBN SINA
(Avicenna)
Ibn Sina, who died in 1037 AD, is known in the West as Avicenna. He was a renaissance man, a Sufi who excelled in mathematics, which he studied under Al Khawarizmi. He also excelled in medicine, science, astronomy, law, music, poetry and philosophy.
His medical reference al-Qanun fi al-Tibb (the canon in Medicine) was the largest ever written with more than one million words and remained the world's authority on the subject until the nineteenth century. His portrait can be found in the great hall of the school of medicine, University of Paris.
His books include: A'hwal al-Nafs ( Conditions of the Psyche ) in psychology and the novel Hayy Ibn Yaqzan. This novel was the story of a child stranded on a deserted island who grew up and recognized God by contemplating nature. This novel became the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe after discarding the spiritual aspects in Hayy.
Ibn Sina diagnosed cancer and used surgical operations to remove it. He also attributed stomach ulcers to psychological factors, such as tension and depression, and physical factors affecting the stomach. He attributed infections to traces left in the air by the sick. This led to the use of quarantines to control the spread of infectious diseases.
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Revised on 10/3/99
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