Avicenna

Avicenna, also known as Ibn Sina, was a Persian polymath who lived from 980 to 1037. He made enduring contributions to medicine, philosophy, astronomy, logic, and the natural sciences, shaping both the Islamic Golden Age and later European thought.

Born in Afshana near Bukhara (in present-day Uzbekistan), he studied widely from an early age and authored hundreds of works, of which about 240 survive. He wrote primarily in Arabic, with some Persian writings.

In medicine he wrote The Canon of Medicine (Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb), a vast medical encyclopedia that systematized Galenic and Hippocratic knowledge, organized into five books, and covering anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, and clinical observation. It served as a standard reference in both the Islamic world and Europe for several centuries.

In philosophy he synthesized Aristotelian philosophy with Neoplatonism and Islamic theology, addressing logic, metaphysics, ethics, and the philosophy of mind. His influential writings helped to transmit ancient Greek philosophy to medieval Europe, influencing thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas.

Avicenna spent his later years as a physician and scholar at various courts in the region and died in Hamadan in 1037. His works were translated into Latin in the 12th century and remained central to medical and philosophical curricula for centuries.