Contents
😉 Friends, continuing the rubric “Stories of Successful People”, I would not like to miss the story of the great Avicenna. The article “Ibn Sina Avicenna: Biography of the Great Sage” will tell you a lot of interesting things.
The authority of truth and the ruler of the sages – this is how Ibn Sina (Avicenna) was called in the Muslim East. And, according to the outstanding English philosopher of the 13th century Roger Bacon, Ibn Sina surpassed all famous scientists in his time.
The thinker’s achievements are represented by different areas of knowledge: philosophy, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, geology, linguistics …
Avicenna: biography
Abu Ali Ibn Sina (full name: Abu Ali Hussein ibn Abdullah ibn al-Hasan ibn Ali ibn Sina) was born on August 16 (zodiac sign Leo) 980 near Bukhara – then the political center of the Samanid empire.
His father was a follower of Islamism, a religiously philosophical doctrine that denied some of the basic tenets of orthodox Islam.
Listening to the conversations of adults about “soul and mind”, the boy from his early childhood was introduced to philosophy. At the age of ten, he spoke Arabic and knew the Koran by heart. Then he mastered the basics of logic and geometry and began an independent study of physics and metaphysics.
From a young age, the guy became interested in the art of polemics and already in his school years considered himself “the best in posing questions.” Talking about his experience of cognition, the thinker writes that he did not sleep completely even a single night. During the day I did not do anything other than science and mathematics.
Interestingly, Abu Ali did not take anything for granted and checked all the evidence himself.
Also, the young man began to master medicine. “Medicine is not a hard science. In a very short time, I mastered it so much that even the best men of medicine did not refuse to learn from me. Then I was sixteen years old. I began to visit the sick. Through experience I have discovered methods of treatment that have not yet been described, ”he wrote.
Healing the ruler
The glory of the 17-year-old healer reached the ruler of Bukhara. The ruler suffered from a disease that the court doctors were unable to cure. He called the guy to him. Having healed the ruler, Abu Ali received, as a reward, access to the emir’s library, which consisted of many rooms filled with chests with books.
Bukhara
“I got acquainted with the list of predecessor books and requested the ones that were needed. I have read these books carefully. I learned all the useful things that were in them, having learned the degree of scholarship of each of the authors, ”Ibn Sina said.
If anything was difficult for the young man, it was Aristotle’s Metaphysics. “I re-read it forty times and memorized it, but I still did not understand, neither its content, nor its purpose. In despair, I said to myself – this work, to the understanding of which there is no way, ”- he complained.
By chance, in the market, Abu Ali came across the work of the great philosopher Abu Nasr Al-Farabi, dedicated to the interpretation of Aristotle. “When I got home, I immediately started reading. The purpose of this book was immediately revealed to me, ”we read in the biography of the thinker.
Subsequently, Ibn Sina named Al-Farabi as his second teacher after Aristotle.
Ibn Sina as Vizier
When the thinker turned 21, he left Bukhara – the years of wandering began. At that time, he had to learn both loud glory and persecution. Many times he, finding himself at the courts of the rulers as a doctor and adviser, became a victim of court intrigues.
Having healed the ruler of Hamadan, Ibn Sina was rewarded with the post of vizier (minister).
Once in a new role, he wrote recommendations for the emir on improving the system of public administration, which the environment did not like very much. The courtiers arrested Avicenna, plundered his house and demanded that the ruler execute the scientist.
However, the emir gave his healer the opportunity to escape, and when a new attack of illness occurred, he returned the philosopher. The emir offered to take up a ministerial post again, as well as write a book with commentary on the works of Aristotle.
To which Ibn Sina replied: “If it suits you that I write a book where I set out what I believe to be true, without entering into discussions with those who hold different from my point of view, and without burdening myself with their refutation, I will do it . “
Having secured the consent of the ruler, the thinker began writing his main 18-volume philosophical work, which he called the “Book of Healing”. And then again – the ruler’s disfavor, imprisonment, escape …
“Canon of Medicine”
Avicenna spent the last twelve years of his life in Isfahan, a city that gave refuge to many philosophers, writers, legal experts, and doctors. There was a well-known hospital in Iran.
In the Isfahan period, the scientist wrote, probably, the most famous work in the history of medicine – “The Canon of Medicine”, which by the XNUMXth century. remained the main guide for doctors in Europe and the East.
Among the achievements of Avicenna in the field of medicine is the role of the retina in the visual process, the influence of meteorological conditions on human health. The role of the brain as a nerve center, a work on invisible carriers of diseases.
Latin copy of the “Canon of Medicine”
In particular, he wrote that: “The main preservation of health in art is the harmony of the following factors:
- balance of nature;
- removal of excess;
- choice of food;
- preservation of physique;
- physical and mental condition;
- improved nasal breathing. “
In addition, the thinker devoted a lot of time to astronomy. He invented unprecedented astronomical instruments, initiated the construction of an observatory. He was engaged in problems of logic, mathematics, physics, music. He wrote poems.
Ibn Sina Avicenna: biography (audio):
According to the testimony of his students, Ibn Sina demonstrated incredible efficiency and amazing memory. He could write and dictate entire treatises without having to consult books.
Where is Ibn Sina buried?
Accompanying the emir on the campaign to Hamadan, the scientist felt the end approaching. “Heal yourself, teacher,” pleaded his disciples who were nearby. “Now it is in vain to heal – that’s all,” the thinker replied.
From the words of the students, dying, the teacher said: “We leave in full consciousness and take only one thing with us: the realization that we have not learned anything.” Avicenna died on June 24, 1037, at the age of 56. Buried in Hamadan (Iran).
Avicenna – the king of scientists
Avicenna is credited with over 400 works written in Arabic and over 20 in Farsi. In his philosophical works, Ibn Sina, in particular, lays out the doctrine of matter and form, motion, time and space, finiteness and infinity. Here are some points of his philosophy.
Creation and being
According to Avicenna, God carries out only the act of creation. Further, the world develops itself, without any divine participation – as a system closed in time and space.
God gives rise to the primary mind, from which the mind of a lower order emerges downward. As a result, the lower levels of being are formed. But, unlike the neo-Platonists, he presents matter not as the end result of the ascent of the Absolute (God) and not as a shadow of the ideal divine world, but as a necessary element of every possible existence.
Soul
The Thinker wrote about the immortality of the human soul. At the same time, he argued the impossibility of physically raising the dead. Refuted the doctrine of transmigration of souls.
The soul preserves its existence independently of the body, and its highest meaning lies in the process of incessant cognition. The sage saw paradise for philosophers in the knowledge of truth, hell in ignorance.
He considered sleep to be an analogue of the “otherworldly” life of the soul. In a dream, the mind receives an independent life, independent of external senses. In essence, mystical insight or the knowledge of the “innermost world” are the same dreams, but in reality.
Action
He formulated the idea of the law of inertia, which was later substantiated by Galileo. Avicenna: “The body is characterized by attraction, which moves it and with the help of which it senses obstacles.
The body can never be stopped in its movement by an obstacle, unless the attraction in it is weakened. The stronger the natural attraction, the harder it is for the body to perceive the compulsory attraction. “
Another fundamentally new idea formulated by Ibn Sina was the proof of the dependence of the speed of movement on the resistance of other bodies and the specific gravity of the body itself.
Time
Avicenna developed the Aristotle understanding of time as momentum. “If there is no movement, then there can be no time,” he said. A similar idea was substantiated by Leibniz in the XNUMXth century.
Ibn Sina Avicenna: biography in the film “Avicenna”
😉 Friends, was the information “Ibn Sina Avicenna: biography of a great sage” useful for you? Subscribe to the newsletter of articles to your email. mail. Fill out the form above: name and e-mail.