|
 Abu- Ali- Ibn-Sino (known as Avicenna), an outstanding physician, astronomer and philosopher, was born in 980 in Afshona village, near Bukhara. A big number of his scientific works became a heritage for European and Asian scientist. He wrote books in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, music art, philology, philosophy and novels
Avicenna astonished people with his warm interest in different sciences, unique skills and critical thinking from the early childhood. He read the holy Muslims book “Koran” when he was 10 years old. As a teenager, he seriously interested in medicine and had read all books in this field he could find. He started treating people when he got a certain medical skills. He was in the confidence of the Samanides’ ruler and became his personal doctor. It was a defining moment of his life, as he got an access to the ruler’s rich library. He had extended his knowledge thanks to these unique manuscripts.
By his 20 years, Avicenna became an author of several works in ethics and medicine. He developed a multivolume medical dictionary. Due to political environment in Bukhara and his father’s death he had to leave the native city. First, he lived in Khorezm and then in Iran for a long time. He left his motherland in 1008 when he discarded an offer to serve to Sultan Makhmud Gaznevi and had to wander along alien countries and cities. Even in such difficult conditions, he continued working and treating people. Just imagine those conditions when a great scientist was creating and only few educated people could be interested in his work.
He wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of 29 subjects, of which around 274 have survived. His most famous works are “Kitab ash-shifa” (The Book of Healing), a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and “Al-Kanun fi-t-tibb” (The Canon of Medicine) which consists of 5 books.
His “Canon of Medicine” is a great “Pentateuch” describing the whole system of the medicine. It was the main medical guidance in Eastern and Western countries till XVII century. In the first book, Avicenna gives definitions to medicine and its objects; list of human’s organs; causes of diseases, their classifications and common treatments.
He described simple medicaments which can be extracted from herbs and barks in the second book. There are almost eight hundred kinds of medicines which are of vegetable, animal and mineral origin with notes about their medicinal property and application methods.
In his third and fourth books, Avicenna gives a detailed classification of different diseases of human body’s vitals, such as: brain, nervous system, eye, respiratory apparatus, teeth, cordis (heart) and digestive apparatus. These books give guidance how to treat skull, nose, jaw, collar bone and feather’s fractures. Avicenna was the first in the world who described the structure of the eye-muscle.
The fifth book of the “Canon” offers methods of preparation and token doses of different medicines which have a complex mixture. A medicine could consist of 37 ingredients.
There were no limits for his medical knowledge! In his time he was able to recognize causes and treatment of the following diseases: meningitis, meningitis and gastric ulcer. He could perceive plague from cholera, describe lepra, icterus and Siberian plague. Avicenna has developed such doctrine of pulsus which is probably can be supplemented since then.
Just learned the logic, natural science, medicine he started studying metaphysics, which was one of the general directions of philosophy of that time. His excellent poetry also should be noted.
Avicenna is one of the talented scientists that made an invaluable contribution in sciences and art development.
Avicenna died, in his 57 year, and was buried in Khamacane, Iran.
Newer news items:
Older news items:
|
