When did Avicenna live?
Massage
One of the greatest Persian medics was Avicenna, also known as Ibn Sina, who lived from 980AD to 1037AD. His works included a comprehensive collection and systematisation of the fragmentary and unorganised Greco-Roman medical literature that had been translated Arabic by that time, augmented by notes from his own experiences. One of his books, "Al-Qānūn fī aṭ-Ṭibb" (The Canon of Medicine) has been called the most famous single book in the history of medicine in both East and West. Avicenna excelled in the logical assessment of conditions and comparison of symptoms and took special note of analgesics and their proper use as well as other methods of relieving pain, including massage.
Avicenna
Avicenna was a devout Muslim and sought to reconcile rational philosophy with Islamic theology. His aim was to prove the existence of God and His creation of the world scientifically and through reason and logic. Avicenna's views on Islamic theology (and philosophy) were enormously influential, forming part of the core of the curriculum at Islamic religious schools until the 19th century. Avicenna wrote a number of short treatises dealing with Islamic theology. These included treatises on the prophets (whom he viewed as "inspired philosophers"), and also on various scientific and philosophical interpretations of the Quran, such as how Quranic cosmology corresponds to his own philosophical system. In general these treatises linked his philosophical writings to Islamic religious ideas; for example, the body's afterlife.
Italophilia
Saint Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican priest born in Aquino in 1225, was a philosopher and theologian. He was one of the greatest minds of the Middle Ages, and he had a widespread influence on Western thought. He was considered then, as he is now, to be the greatest theologian and philosopher of the Catholic Church. He is best known for his major work, the "Summa Theologica.
Medicine in Azerbaijan
Copy of “The Canon of Medicine” work written in Arabic, in 1030, by doctor Ibn Sina, famed in Europe as “Avicenna” and who also was in Azerbaijan where he collected information about medicine, was found out in Azerbaijan among other manuscripts about medicine. In his work Ibn Sina wrote about Saburkhast settlement in Azerbaijan. This copy of “The Canon” was made in Baghdad, in 1143 and is considered one of the most ancient manuscripts in the sphere of pharmacology and medicine in the world and the most ancient in Azerbaijan, which was broadly used both in whole Muslim world and also in Christian Europe and which had a great influence upon development of medicine. There are descriptions of hundreds of medicines in it.
Avicenna
In his book "The Physician" (1988) Noah Gordon tells the story of a young English medical apprentice who disguises himself as a Jew to travel from England to Persia and learn from Avicenna, the great master of his time. The novel was adapted into a feature film, "The Physician", in 2013. Avicenna was played by Ben Kingsley.
The Book of Healing
In "The Book of Healing", Avicenna discussed the mind, its existence, the mind and body relationship, sensation, perception, etc. He wrote that at the most common level, the influence of the mind on the body can be seen in voluntary movements, in that the body obeys whenever the mind wishes to move the body. He further writes that the second level of influence of the mind on the body is from emotions and the will. As an example, he states that if a plank of wood is placed as a bridge over a chasm, a person could hardly creep over it without falling if that person only pictures himself/herself in a possible fall so vividly that the "natural power of limbs accord with it." He also writes that strong negative emotions can have a negative effect on the vegetative functions of an individual and may even lead to death in some cases. He also discusses hypnosis ("al Wahm al-Amil"), stating that one could create conditions in another person so that he/she accepts the reality of hypnosis. Avicenna was also the first to divide human perception into the five external senses (the classical senses of hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch known since antiquity) and the five internal senses which he discovered himself. The five internal senses he discovered were: the "sensus communis" (seat of all senses) which integrates sense data into percepts; the imaginative faculty which conserves the perceptual images; the sense of imagination which acts upon these images by combining and separating them, serving as the seat of the practical intellect; "Wahm" (instinct) which perceives qualities (such as good and bad, love and hate, etc.) and forms the basis of a person's character whether or not influenced by reason; and intentions ("ma'ni") which conserve all these notions in memory.
Hadi Sabzavari
Avicenna
Psychology in medieval Islam
Abu-Ali al-Husayn ibn Abdalah ibn-Sina (980-1030), known to the west as Avicenna, was a Persian polymath who is widely regarded for his writings on such diverse subjects as philosophy, physics, medicine, mathematics, geology, Islamic theology, and poetry. In his most widely celebrated work, the Canon of Medicine (Al-Qanun-fi-il-Tabb), he provided descriptions and treatments for such conditions as insomnia, mania, vertigo, paralysis, stroke, epilepsy, and depression as well as male sexual dysfunction. He was a pioneer in the field of psychosomatic medicine, linking changes in mental state to changes in the body.
Nerva
Due to the lack of written sources on this period, much of Nerva's life has remained obscure. The most substantial surviving account of the reign of Nerva was written by the 3rd-century historian Cassius Dio. His "Roman History", which spans nearly a millennium, from the arrival of Aeneas in Italy until the year 229, was composed more than one hundred years after Nerva had died. Further details are added by an abridged biography from the "Epitome de Caesaribus", a work alleged to have been authored by the 4th-century historian Aurelius Victor.
Avicenna (crater)
Avicenna is a lunar impact crater that lies on the far side of the Moon, just beyond the western limb on the northern rim of the Lorentz basin. It is named after the Persian physician Avicenna. It lies to the north-northwest of the larger crater Nernst, and to the southeast of Bragg.
Islamic philosophy
While Avicenna (980–1037) often relied on deductive reasoning in philosophy, he used a different approach in medicine. Ibn Sina contributed inventively to the development of inductive logic, which he used to pioneer the idea of a syndrome. In his medical writings, Avicenna was the first to describe the methods of agreement, difference and concomitant variation which are critical to inductive logic and the scientific method.
Muhammad ibn Rustam Dushmanziyar
Muhammad was a great military commander who managed to protect his kingdom from its neighbors, including the Buyids, Ghaznavids and Seljuqs. He invited the philosopher Avicenna to his court after Avicenna left the court of the Buyids, where he made an encyclopedia dedicated to the emir. The great philosopher and scientist died in 1037. The library of Avicenna was later plundered by the Ghaznavids who carried it off to Ghazni where it was later destroyed by the Ghurids under their ruler Ala al-Din Husayn.
Baladeva Vidyabhushana
Baladeva Vidyabhushana (ca 1700-1793 AD) was an Indian Gaudiya Vaishnava acharya (religious teacher).Despite being renowned all over the world as the Gaudiya Vedanta Acarya, the scarcity of available authentic biodata has led misinformed authors to spread incorrect information about his life incidents. There is no known historical evidence regarding either his birth place or date, nor any known reference to it in his works. Some wrongly believe that he disappeared in 1768. However, his "Aisvarya-kadambini" is dated 1779 (year 1701 of Shaka era). The original manuscript is preserved at the City Palace in Jaipur. While his birth date is unknown, a document preserved at the Jaipur Archives dated the fourteenth day of the Bhadra month of Saṁvat 1850 (nineteenth of September, 1793 AD) describes his ceremony of condolence presided by King Pratap Singh of Jaipur (ruled 1778-1803 AD). On the basis of this evidence, it is unrealistic to assume that he was born much before 1700 AD. 
The earliest documents that mention Vidyabhusana belong to the 1740s. According to oral tradition, he was born in Odisha (possibly near Remuna, Balasore). Yet it is not clear when and how this oral tradition started. The first mention to it in written form was not earlier than late 19th century.
Avicenna
Along with Rhazes, Abulcasis, Ibn al-Nafis, and al-Ibadi, Ibn Sīnā is considered an important compiler of early Muslim medicine. He is remembered in the Western history of medicine as a major historical figure who made important contributions to medicine and the European Renaissance. His medical texts were unusual in that where controversy existed between Galen and Aristotle's views on medical matters (such as anatomy), he preferred to side with Aristotle, where necessary updating Aristotle's position to take into account post-Aristotelian advances in anatomical knowledge. Aristotle's dominant intellectual influence among medieval European scholars meant that Avicenna's linking of Galen's medical writings with Aristotle's philosophical writings in the "Canon of Medicine" (along with its comprehensive and logical organisation of knowledge) significantly increased Avicenna's importance in medieval Europe in comparison to other Islamic writers on medicine. His influence following translation of the "Canon" was such that from the early fourteenth to the mid-sixteenth centuries he was ranked with Hippocrates and Galen as one of the acknowledged authorities, ("prince of physicians").
Avicenna Directories
The Avicenna Directory project was a public database of worldwide medical schools, schools of pharmacy, schools of public health and educational institutions of other academic health professions. The Avicenna Directory was maintained by the University of Copenhagen in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) in the years 2008-2015.
Italophilia
Leonardo da Vinci, born in 1452 in Vinci, was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. His genius, perhaps more than that of any of his contemporaries, epitomized the creative energy of the Renaissance. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time, and his Mona Lisa is regarded by many to be the most famous painting in the world. His anatomical drawings have never been surpassed in detail and accuracy, and are still in use today.
Iranian philosophy
Avicennism was also influential in medieval Europe, particularly his doctrines on the nature of the soul and his existence-essence distinction, along with the debates and censure that they raised in scholastic Europe. This was particularly the case in Paris, where Avicennism was later proscribed in 1210. Nevertheless, his psychology and theory of knowledge influenced William of Auvergne and Albertus Magnus, and his metaphysics influenced the thought of Thomas Aquinas.
Iranian philosophy
In the Islamic Golden Age, due to Avicenna's (Ibn Sina's; born near Bukhara) successful reconciliation between Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism along with Kalam, Avicennism eventually became the leading school of Islamic philosophy by the 12th century. Avicenna had become a central authority on philosophy by then, and several scholars in the 12th century commented on his strong influence at the time:
Avicenna International College
Semmelweis University
Avicenna
Avicenna made an argument for the existence of God which would be known as the "Proof of the Truthful" (Arabic: "al-burhan al-siddiqin"). Avicenna argued that there must be a "necessary existent" (Arabic: "wajib al-wujud"), an entity that cannot "not" exist and through a series of arguments, he identified it with the Islamic conception of God. Present-day historian of philosophy Peter Adamson called this argument one of the most influential medieval arguments for God's existence, and Avicenna's biggest contribution to the history of philosophy.
History of Italy (1559–1814)
The Enlightenment played a distinctive, if small, role in 18th century Italy, 1685-1789. Although most of Italy was controlled by conservative Habsburgs or the pope, Tuscany had some opportunities for reform. Leopold II of Tuscany abolished the death penalty in Tuscany and reduced censorship. From Naples Antonio Genovesi (1713–69) influenced a generation of southern Italian intellectuals and University students. His textbook "Diceosina, o Sia della Filosofia del Giusto e dell'Onesto" (1766) was a controversial, attempt to mediate between the history of moral philosophy, on the one hand, and the specific problems encountered by 18th-century commercial society, on the other. It contained the greater part of Genovesi's political, philosophical, and economic thought - guidebook for Neapolitan economic and social development. Science flourished as Alessandro Volta and Luigi Galvani made break-through discoveries in electricity. Pietro Verri was a leading economist in Lombardy. Historian Joseph Schumpeter states he was ‘the most important pre-Smithian authority on Cheapness-and-Plenty’. The most influential scholar on the Italian Enlightenment has been Franco Venturi.
Islamic philosophy
Some orientalists (or those particularly influenced by Thomist scholarship) argued that Avicenna was the first to view existence ("wujud") as an accident that happens to the essence ("mahiyya"). However, this aspect of ontology is not the most central to the distinction that Avicenna established between essence and existence. One cannot therefore make the claim that Avicenna was the proponent of the concept of essentialism "per se", given that existence ("al-wujud") when thought of in terms of necessity would ontologically translate into a notion of the "Necessary-Existent-due-to-Itself" ("wajib al-wujud bi-dhatihi"), which is without description or definition and, in particular, without quiddity or essence ("la mahiyya lahu"). Consequently, Avicenna's ontology is 'existentialist' when accounting for being–"qua"–existence in terms of necessity ("wujub"), while it is essentialist in terms of thinking about being–"qua"–existence in terms of "contingency–"qua"–possibility" ("imkan" or "mumkin al-wujud", meaning "contingent being").
Tawhid
An ontological argument for the existence of God was first proposed by Avicenna (965-1037) in the "Metaphysics" section of "The Book of Healing" Other forms of the argument also appear in Avicenna's other works, and this argument became known as the Proof of the Truthful.
Islamic philosophy
Avicenna (980–1037) developed his own system of logic known as "Avicennian logic" as an alternative to Aristotelian logic. By the 12th century, Avicennian logic had replaced Aristotelian logic as the dominant system of logic in the Islamic world.
Transit of Venus
The Persian polymath Avicenna claimed to have observed Venus as a spot on the Sun. This is possible, as there was a transit on May 24, 1032, but Avicenna did not give the date of his observation, and modern scholars have questioned whether he could have observed the transit from his location at that time; he may have mistaken a sunspot for Venus. He used his transit observation to help establish that Venus was, at least sometimes, below the Sun in Ptolemaic cosmology, i.e. the sphere of Venus comes before the sphere of the Sun when moving out from the Earth in the prevailing geocentric model.
Averroes
In his philosophical writings, Averroes attempted to return to Aristotelianism, which according to him had been distorted by the Neoplatonist tendencies of Muslim philosophers such as Al-Farabi and Avicenna. He rejected al-Farabi's attempt to merge the ideas of Plato and Aristotle's, pointing out the difference between the two, such as Aristotle's rejection of Plato's theory of ideas. He also criticized Al-Farabi's works on logic for misinterpreting its Aristotelian source. He wrote an extensive critique of Avicenna, who was the standard-bearer of Islamic Neoplatonism in the Middle Ages. He argued that Avicenna's theory of emanation had many fallacies and was not found in the works of Aristotle. Averroes disagreed with Avicenna's view that existence is merely an accident added to essence, arguing the reverse; something exists "per se" and essence can only be found by subsequent abstraction. He also rejected Avicenna's modality and Avicenna's argument to prove the existence of God as the Necessary Existent.
Floating man
Before the French philosopher Descartes (1596–1650) pointed out the existence of the conscious self as a turning point in epistemology, using the phrase "Cogito ergo sum," the 11th century Iranian philosopher Avicenna had referred to the existence of consciousness in the flying man argument. Thus, long before Descartes, Avicenna had established an argument for the existence of knowledge by presence without any need for the existence of the body.
Abū-Sa'īd Abul-Khayr
There is evidence that Abū-Sa'īd and Avicenna, the Persian physician and philosopher, corresponded with one another. Abū-Sa'īd records several meetings between them in his biography. The first meeting is described as three days of private conversation, at the end of which Abū-Sa'īd said to his followers that everything that he could see (i.e. in visions), Avicenna knew, and in turn Avicenna said that everything he knew Abū-Sa'īd could see, in realistic theory presents the superlative connection between Islamic Saints of God(أولياء,Awliya) revealing the reliability of such spiritual powers as believed to be placed on them by Allah( الله,God).
Isfahan University of Medical Sciences
Abu ubaid al juzjani was a famous pupil of Avicenna. He spent many years with his master in Isfahan, becoming his lifetime companion. After Avicenna's death, he completed Avicenna's autobiography with a concluding section. He and the other students of Avicenna continued teaching in Avicenna's school in Isfahan.
Geologic time scale
The 11th-century Persian geologist Avicenna (Ibn Sina, died 1037) and the 13th-century Dominican bishop Albertus Magnus (died 1280) extended Aristotle's explanation into a theory of a petrifying fluid. Avicenna also first proposed one of the principles underlying geologic time scales, the law of superposition of strata, while discussing the origins of mountains in "The Book of Healing" (1027). The Chinese naturalist Shen Kuo (1031–1095) also recognized the concept of "deep time".
History of logic
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980–1037) was the founder of Avicennian logic, which replaced Aristotelian logic as the dominant system of logic in the Islamic world, and also had an important influence on Western medieval writers such as Albertus Magnus. Avicenna wrote on the hypothetical syllogism and on the propositional calculus, which were both part of the Stoic logical tradition. He developed an original "temporally modalized" syllogistic theory, involving temporal logic and modal logic. He also made use of inductive logic, such as the methods of agreement, difference, and concomitant variation which are critical to the scientific method. One of Avicenna's ideas had a particularly important influence on Western logicians such as William of Ockham: Avicenna's word for a meaning or notion ("ma'na"), was translated by the scholastic logicians as the Latin "intentio"; in medieval logic and epistemology, this is a sign in the mind that naturally represents a thing. This was crucial to the development of Ockham's conceptualism: A universal term ("e.g.," "man") does not signify a thing existing in reality, but rather a sign in the mind ("intentio in intellectu") which represents many things in reality; Ockham cites Avicenna's commentary on "Metaphysics" V in support of this view.
Avicenna Research Institute
Avicenna Research Institute (ARI; ) ) – affiliated to ACECR – was established in Tehran in order to achieve latest medical technologies through conducting clinical and laboratory research projects in 1998. The institute consists of three research centers including Reproductive Biotechnology Research Center (RBRC), Monoclonal Antibody Research Center (MARC) and Nanobiotechnology Research Center (NBRC). ARI also includes Avicenna Biotechnology Incubator and Avicenna Infertility Clinic (AIC).
Named after Ibn Sina, the research institute was found in 1998 in Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran.
Dynamics of the celestial spheres
The Islamic philosophers al-Farabi (c.872–c.950) and Avicenna (c.980–1037), following Plotinus, maintained that Aristotle's movers, called intelligences, came into being through a series of emanations beginning with God. A first intelligence emanated from God, and from the first intelligence emanated a sphere, its soul, and a second intelligence. The process continued down through the celestial spheres until the sphere of the Moon, its soul, and a final intelligence. They considered that each sphere was moved continually by its soul, seeking to emulate the perfection of its intelligence. Avicenna maintained that besides an intelligence and its soul, each sphere was also moved by a natural inclination ("mayl").
Apollinaris of Ravenna
The early 20th-century "Catholic Encyclopaedia" rendered the traditional version as follows:
He was made Bishop of Ravenna, Italy, by Saint Peter himself. The miracles he wrought there soon attracted official attention, for they and his preaching won many converts to the Faith, while at the same time bringing upon him the fury of the idolaters, who beat him cruelly and drove him from the city. He was found half-dead on the seashore, and kept in concealment by the Christians, but was captured again and compelled to walk on burning coals and a second time expelled. But he remained in the vicinity, and continued his work of evangelization. We find him then journeying in the Roman province of Aemilia [in Italy]. A third time he returned to Ravenna. Again he was captured, hacked with knives, had scalding water poured over his wounds, was beaten in the mouth with stones because he persisted in preaching, and was flung into a horrible dungeon, loaded with chains, to starve to death; but after four days he was put on board a ship and sent to Greece. There the same course of preachings, miracles and sufferings continued; and when his very presence caused the oracles to be silent, he was, after a cruel beating, sent back to Italy. All this continued for three years, and a fourth time he returned to Ravenna. By this time Vespasian was Emperor, and he, in answer to the complaints of the pagans, issued a decree of banishment against the Christians. Apollinaris was kept concealed for some time, but as he was passing out of the gates of the city, was set upon and savagely beaten, probably at Classis, a suburb, but he lived for seven days, foretelling meantime that the persecutions would increase, but that the Church would ultimately triumph. It is not certain what was his native place, though it was probably Antioch. Nor is it sure that he was one of the seventy-two disciples of Christ, as has been suggested. The precise date of his consecration cannot be ascertained, but he was Bishop of Ravenna for twenty-six years.
Avicenna
Avicenna authored a five-volume medical encyclopedia: "The Canon of Medicine" ("Al-Qanun fi't-Tibb"). It was used as the standard medical textbook in the Islamic world and Europe up to the 18th century. The "Canon" still plays an important role in Unani medicine.
History of physics
In the 7th to 15th centuries, scientific progress occurred in the Muslim world. Many classic works in Indian, Assyrian, Sassanian (Persian) and Greek, including the works of Aristotle, were translated into Arabic. Ibn Sīnā (980–1037), known as "Avicenna", was a polymath from Bukhara (in present-day Uzbekistan) responsible for important contributions to physics, optics, philosophy and medicine. He is most famous for writing "The Canon of Medicine", a text that was used to teach student doctors in Europe until the 1600s.
The Canon of Medicine
Avicenna divides the beginning stage of life in the following table, according to Oskar Cameron Gruner's edition of the "Canon of Medicine":
Avicenna generalizes youth as having a "hot" temperament, but comments that there is controversy over which periods of youth are hotter. The general notion that youth are "hot" in temperament is due to youth's supposed relationship to members of the body that are hot. For example, blood was considered "hot" as was mentioned earlier, therefore youth is assumed to be hot partially due to blood being more "plentiful" and "thicker", according to Avicenna. Evidence for youth having an excess of blood is suggested by Avicenna's observation that nose bleeds are more frequent within youth. Other contributing factors are the youth's association with sperm and the consistency of their bile. Further description of youth in regards to heat and moisture is given with respect to sex, geographical location, and occupation. "The Canon" says, for example, that females are colder and more moist.
Nicola Vicentino
During the late 1540s his reputation as a music theorist grew. He established his reputation as a composer with his publication of a book of madrigals in Venice in 1546, and in 1551 he took part in one of the most famous events in 16th century music theory, the debate between Vicente Lusitano and himself in Rome in 1551. The topic of the debate was the relationship of the ancient Greek genera to contemporary music practice, in particular whether contemporary music could be explained in terms of the diatonic genus alone (as Lusitano claimed) or (as Vicentino claimed) was best described as a combination of the diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic genera, the last of which contained a microtone. The debate was rather unlike those among contemporary musicologists, being more like a refereed prize fight, with a panel of judges; they awarded the prize to Lusitano. Unbowed, Vicentino continued his experiments, and went on to build the archicembalo which could play the music he described in his publications.
Only one keyboard instrument using his 31-note-to-the-octave system survives from the Renaissance: the ‘Clavemusicum Omnitonum Modulis Diatonicis Cromaticis et Enearmonicis', built by Vito Trasuntino of Venice in 1606 to play the diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic. It is on display at the International museum and library of music in Bologna.
Calorie restriction
Ancient medicine, the province of Hippocrates and Galen after him, taught that the very fat were destined to die suddenly more often than the slender. Around 1000 A.D. Avicenna taught the elderly to eat less than when they were young. Around 1500 because his health was failing due to gluttony, the Venetian nobleman Luigi Cornaro adopted a calorie restricted diet at age 35 and went on to live to be 102 years old. His very successful book "Discorsi della vita sobria" described his regimen, restricting himself to of food daily (including bread, egg yolk, meat, and soup) and of wine.
Anandavardhana
Ānandavardhana (c. 820–890 CE) was the author of "Dhvanyāloka", or "A Light on Suggestion" ("dhvani"), a work articulating the philosophy of "aesthetic suggestion" ("dhvani", "vyañjanā"). The philosopher Abhinavagupta (c. 950 – 1016 CE) wrote an important commentary on it, the "Locana", or "The Eye".
Histoire de ma vie
Although Casanova was Venetian (born April 2, 1725, in Venice, died June 4, 1798, in Dux, Bohemia, now Duchcov, Czech Republic), the book is written in French, which was the dominant language in the upper class at the time. The book covers Casanova's life only through 1774, although the full title of the book is "Histoire de ma vie jusqu'à l'an 1797" ("History of my Life until the year 1797").
Early Islamic philosophy
Some "orientalists" (or those particularly influenced by Thomist scholarship) argued that Avicenna was the first to view existence ("wujud") as an accident that happens to the essence ("mahiyya"). However, this aspect of ontology is not the most central to the distinction that Avicenna established between essence and existence. One cannot therefore make the claim that Avicenna was the proponent of the concept of essentialism "per se", given that existence ("al-wujud") when thought of in terms of necessity would ontologically translate into a notion of the "Necessary-Existent-due-to-Itself" ("wajib al-wujud bi-dhatihi"), which is without description or definition, and particularly without quiddity or essence ("la mahiyya lahu"). Consequently, Avicenna's ontology is 'existentialist' when accounting for being qua existence in terms of necessity ("wujub"), while it is 'essentialist' in terms of thinking about being qua existence ("wujud") in terms of contingency qua possibility ("imkan"; or "mumkin al-wujud": contingent being).
Philosophy of happiness
Avicenna (c. 980–1037), also known as 'Ibn-Sina', was polymath and jurist; he is regarded as one of the most significant thinkers in the Islamic Golden Age. According to him, happiness is the aim of humans, and that real happiness is pure and free from worldly interest. Ultimately, happiness is reached through the conjunction of the human intellect with the separate active intellect.
History of leprosy
The Persian polymath Avicenna (c. 980–1037) was the first outside of China to describe the destruction of the nasal septum in those suffering from leprosy.
History of pain theory
In the 11th century, Avicenna theorized that there were a number of feeling senses including touch, pain and titillation.
Avicenna
In 1980, the Soviet Union, which then ruled his birthplace Bukhara, celebrated the thousandth anniversary of Avicenna's birth by circulating various commemorative stamps with artistic illustrations, and by erecting a bust of Avicenna based on anthropological research by Soviet scholars.
Near his birthplace in Qishlak Afshona, some north of Bukhara, a training college for medical staff has been named for him.
On the grounds is a museum dedicated to his life, times and work.
The Avicenna Prize, established in 2003, is awarded every two years by UNESCO and rewards individuals and groups for their achievements in the field of ethics in science.
The aim of the award is to promote ethical reflection on issues raised by advances in science and technology, and to raise global awareness of the importance of ethics in science.
Avicenna
The Avicenna Directories (2008–15; now the World Directory of Medical Schools) list universities and schools where doctors, public health practitioners, pharmacists and others, are educated. The original project team stated "Why Avicenna? Avicenna ... was ... noted for his synthesis of knowledge from both east and west. He has had a lasting influence on the development of medicine and health sciences. The use of Avicenna's name symbolises the worldwide partnership that is needed for the promotion of health services of high quality."
In June 2009 Iran donated a "Persian Scholars Pavilion" to United Nations Office in Vienna which is placed in the central Memorial Plaza of the Vienna International Center. The "Persian Scholars Pavilion" at United Nations in Vienna, Austria is featuring the statues of four prominent Iranian figures. Highlighting the Iranian architectural features, the pavilion is adorned with Persian art forms and includes the statues of renowned Iranian scientists Avicenna, Al-Biruni, Zakariya Razi (Rhazes) and Omar Khayyam.
Tabula rasa
In the eleventh century, the theory of "tabula rasa" was developed more clearly by the Persian philosopher Avicenna (Ibn Sina in Arabic). He argued that the "...human intellect at birth resembled a "tabula rasa", a pure potentiality that is actualized through education and comes to know," and that knowledge is attained through "...empirical familiarity with objects in this world from which one abstracts universal concepts," which develops through a "...syllogistic method of reasoning; observations lead to propositional statements, which when compounded lead to further abstract concepts." He further argued that the intellect itself "...possesses levels of development from the static/material intellect ("al-‘aql al-hayulani"), that potentiality can acquire knowledge to the active intellect ("al-‘aql al-fa‘il"), the state of the human intellect at conjunction with the perfect source of knowledge."
Avicenna
Following al-Farabi's lead, Avicenna initiated a full-fledged inquiry into the question of being, in which he distinguished between essence ("Mahiat") and existence ("Wujud"). He argued that the fact of existence cannot be inferred from or accounted for by the essence of existing things, and that form and matter by themselves cannot interact and originate the movement of the universe or the progressive actualization of existing things. Existence must, therefore, be due to an agent-cause that necessitates, imparts, gives, or adds existence to an essence. To do so, the cause must be an existing thing and coexist with its effect.
Athanasia of Aegina
The life of St. Athanasia is contained only in a vitae, which is held in the manuscript, Vaticanus Graecus 1660, of 916 CE. The author is unknown but most likely a man who wrote soon after St. Athanasia's death.
Avicenna
According to his autobiography, Avicenna had memorised the entire Quran by the age of 10. He learned Indian arithmetic from an Indian greengrocer, Mahmoud Massahi and he began to learn more from a wandering scholar who gained a livelihood by curing the sick and teaching the young. He also studied Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) under the Sunni Hanafi scholar Ismail al-Zahid. Avicenna was taught some extent of philosophy books such as Introduction (Isagoge)'s Porphyry (philosopher), Euclid's Elements, Ptolemy's Almagest by an unpopular philosopher, Abu Abdullah Nateli, who claimed philosophizing.
Annales Ceccanenses
The Annales Ceccanenses, also called the Chronicon Fossae novae, is a chronicle of world history from the birth of Jesus down to 1218. It was a written in the late twelfth and early thirteenth century by an anonymous monk of Fossanova Abbey, near Ceccano. It is partially dependent on the "Annales Cavenses" and "Annales Casinenses", and contains no original material prior to the year 1120. After that it is a valuable source for the history of the Papacy.
Verdiana
Knowledge of Verdiana and her life comes from two hagiographies, one from the fourteenth century and the other from the fifteenth. The first was redacted around 1340 and attributed to Biagio, a monk and perhaps abbot of the Vallombrosan convent of Santa Trinità in Florence during the first half of the fourteenth century. Very little else is known about him other than the fact that around 1340 he collected and assembled from preexisting materials a compendium of the lives of saints venerated in Florence and Tuscany, now contained in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana. Verdiana’s second hagiographer, Lorenzo Giacomini, was a native of Castelfiorentino born circa 1369. He entered into the Dominican order in Florence in 1383, and after acting as a lettore for many years in various convents, including those of the Roman and Lombard provinces, he was made bishop of Acaia in 1413 by Pope John XXII. It is thought to be shortly after this time, around 1420, that he wrote a new vita in deference to his native city and to his particular devotion to Verdiana. His account borrowed faithfully from Biagio, though Giacomini sought to enrich it with miracles and information on the cult and translations of Verdiana known from contemporary traditions and his own experience. It is this version, erroneously attributed to Bishop Attone of Pistoia, that appears in the Acta Sanctorum. Because of the two vitae, it is possible for scholars to compare Verdiana’s hagiographically “typical” life in Biagio’s earlier vita and the greater emphasis on Verdiana’s connection to the community of Castelfiorentino in Lorenzo Giacomini’s.
Avicennite
Avicennite (thallium(III) oxide) is an oxide mineral. It was discovered around the Dzhuzumli village, Samarqand, Uzbekistan. It is named after Avicenna, a Persian doctor and polymath.
History of diabetes
In medieval Persia, Avicenna (980–1037) provided a detailed account on diabetes mellitus in "The Canon of Medicine", "describing the abnormal appetite and the collapse of sexual functions," and he documented the sweet taste of diabetic urine. Like Aretaeus before him, Avicenna recognized a primary and secondary diabetes. He also described diabetic gangrene, and treated diabetes using a mixture of lupine, trigonella (fenugreek), and zedoary seed. Avicenna also described diabetes insipidus very precisely for the first time, though it was much later that Thomas Willis differentiated it from diabetes mellitus in a chapter of his book "Pharmaceutice rationalis" (1674).
Avicenna
Avicenna subsequently settled at Rey, in the vicinity of modern Tehran, the home town of Rhazes; where Majd Addaula, a son of the last Buwayhid emir, was nominal ruler under the regency of his mother (Seyyedeh Khatun). About thirty of Ibn Sina's shorter works are said to have been composed in Rey. Constant feuds which raged between the regent and her second son, Shams al-Daula, however, compelled the scholar to quit the place. After a brief sojourn at Qazvin he passed southwards to Hamadãn where Shams al-Daula, another Buwayhid emir, had established himself. At first, Ibn Sina entered into the service of a high-born lady; but the emir, hearing of his arrival, called him in as medical attendant, and sent him back with presents to his dwelling. Ibn Sina was even raised to the office of vizier. The emir decreed that he should be banished from the country. Ibn Sina, however, remained hidden for forty days in sheikh Ahmed Fadhel's house, until a fresh attack of illness induced the emir to restore him to his post. Even during this perturbed time, Ibn Sina persevered with his studies and teaching. Every evening, extracts from his great works, the "Canon" and the "Sanatio", were dictated and explained to his pupils. On the death of the emir, Ibn Sina ceased to be vizier and hid himself in the house of an apothecary, where, with intense assiduity, he continued the composition of his works.
Avicennia rumphiana
The generic name is in honour of the Mediaeval Persian physician Avicenna (980–1037).
The specific name is in honour of the German-born Dutch-speaking naturalist Georg Eberhard Rumphius (Georg Eberhard Rumpf, 1627–1702) who studied the natural history of eastern Indonesia while working there for the Dutch East India Company.
Opioid
During the Islamic Golden Age, the use of opium was discussed in detail by Avicenna (c. 980 – June 1037 AD) in "The Canon of Medicine". The book's five volumes include information on opium's preparation, an array of physical effects, its use to treat a variety of illness, contraindications for its use, its potential danger as a poison and its potential for addiction. Avicenna discouraged opium's use except as a last resort, preferring to address the causes of pain rather than trying to minimize it with analgesics. Many of Avicenna's observations have been supported by modern medical research.
Avicenna
His friends advised him to slow down and take life moderately. He refused, however, stating that: ""I prefer a short life with width to a narrow one with length"". On his deathbed remorse seized him; he bestowed his goods on the poor, restored unjust gains, freed his slaves, and read through the Quran every three days until his death. He died in June 1037, in his fifty-eighth year, in the month of Ramadan and was buried in Hamadan, Iran.
The Book of Healing
In the medieval Islamic world, due to Avicenna's successful reconciliation of Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism along with Kalam, Avicennism eventually became the leading school of early Islamic philosophy by the 12th century, with Avicenna becoming a central authority on philosophy.
Early Islamic philosophy
Avicenna (Ibn Sina) is considered the father of modern medicine, for his introduction of experimental medicine and clinical trials, the experimental use and testing of drugs, and a precise guide for practical experimentation in the process of discovering and proving the effectiveness of medical substances, in his medical encyclopedia, "The Canon of Medicine" (11th century), which was the first book dealing with experimental medicine. It laid out the following rules and principles for testing the effectiveness of new drugs or medications, which still form the basis of modern clinical trials:The first documented description of a peer review process is found in the "Ethics of the Physician" written by Ishaq bin Ali al-Rahwi (854–931) of al-Raha, Syria, who describes the first medical peer review process. His work, as well as later Arabic medical manuals, state that a visiting physician must always make duplicate notes of a patient's condition on every visit. When the patient was cured or had died, the notes of the physician were examined by a local medical council of other physicians, who would review the practising physician's notes to decide whether his/her performance have met the required standards of medical care. If their reviews were negative, the practicing physician could face a lawsuit from a maltreated patient.
History of astrology
For example, Avicenna’s 'Refutation against astrology' "Resāla fī ebṭāl aḥkām al-nojūm", argues against the practice of astrology while supporting the principle of planets acting as the agents of divine causation which express God's absolute power over creation. Avicenna considered that the movement of the planets influenced life on earth in a deterministic way, but argued against the capability of determining the exact influence of the stars. In essence, Avicenna did not refute the essential dogma of astrology, but denied our ability to understand it to the extent that precise and fatalistic predictions could be made from it.
Thomas Aquinas
Saint Thomas Aquinas (; , lit. "Thomas of Aquino"; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church. He was an immensely influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism, within which he is also known as the Doctor Angelicus and the Doctor Communis. The name "Aquinas" identifies his ancestral origins in the county of Aquino in present-day Lazio, Italy.
Qumri
Abu Mansur al-Hasan ibn Nuh al-Qumri () (also transliterated as “al-Qamari” and "al-Qumri")(fl. mid 10th Century, d. 980-990) was a Persian tenth century court physician to the Samanid Prince al-Mansur, and was based in the city of Bukhara. Qumri is theorized to be Avicenna’s teacher.
Soul
Following Aristotle, Avicenna (Ibn Sina) and Ibn al-Nafis, a Persian philosopher, further elaborated upon the Aristotelian understanding of the soul and developed their own theories on the soul. They both made a distinction between the soul and the spirit, and the Avicennian doctrine on the nature of the soul was influential among the Scholastics. Some of Avicenna's views on the soul include the idea that the immortality of the soul is a consequence of its nature, and not a purpose for it to fulfill. In his theory of "The Ten Intellects", he viewed the human soul as the tenth and final intellect.
Principle of individuation
The late Roman philosopher Boethius (480–524) touches upon the subject in his Isagoge, where he says that things which are individuals and are discrete only in number, differ only by accidental properties. The Persian philosopher Avicenna (980-1037) first introduced a term which was later translated into Latin as "signatum", meaning 'determinate individual'. Avicenna argues that a nature is not of itself individual, the relation between it and individuality is an accidental one, and we must look for its source not in its essence, but among accidental attributes such as quantity, quality, space and time. However, he did not work out any definite or detailed theory of individuation. His successor Averroes (1126–1198) argued that matter is numerically one, since it is undetermined in itself and has no definite boundaries. However, since it is divisible, this must be caused by quantity, and matter must therefore have the potential for determination in three dimensions (in the same way a rough and unhewn lump of marble has the potential to be sculpted into a statue).
Medicine in the medieval Islamic world
"Ibn Sina", more commonly known in west as Avicenna was a Persian polymath and physician of the tenth and eleventh centuries. He was known for his scientific works, but especially his writing on medicine. He has been described as the "Father of Early Modern Medicine". Ibn Sina is credited with many varied medical observations and discoveries, such as recognizing the potential of airborne transmission of disease, providing insight into many psychiatric conditions, recommending use of forceps in deliveries complicated by fetal distress, distinguishing central from peripheral facial paralysis and describing guinea worm infection and trigeminal neuralgia. He is credited for writing two books in particular: his most famous, "al-Canon fi al Tibb" ("The Canon of Medicine"), and also "The Book of Healing". His other works cover subjects including angelology, heart medicines, and treatment of kidney diseases.
Aeghyna
Aighyna, Aeghyna, Aegyna, Aigino, or Aichina, probably a Saxon, was the duke of Gascony ("Vasconia") from 626 or 627 to his death in 638. He succeeded Genial. The chief source for his reign is Fredegar.
Avicenna
Meanwhile, he had written to Abu Ya'far, the prefect of the dynamic city of Isfahan, offering his services. The new emir of Hamadan, hearing of this correspondence and discovering where Ibn Sina was hiding, incarcerated him in a fortress. War meanwhile continued between the rulers of Isfahan and Hamadãn; in 1024 the former captured Hamadan and its towns, expelling the Tajik mercenaries. When the storm had passed, Ibn Sina returned with the emir to Hamadan, and carried on his literary labors. Later, however, accompanied by his brother, a favorite pupil, and two slaves, Ibn Sina escaped from the city in the dress of a Sufi ascetic. After a perilous journey, they reached Isfahan, receiving an honorable welcome from the prince.
Avicenna
Avicenna's Neoplatonic scheme of "emanations" became fundamental in the "Kalam" (school of theological discourse) in the 12th century.
Transmission of the Greek Classics
Decades after Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina ("Avicenna") compiled the ideas of many Muslim philosophers of the previous centuries and established a new school which is known as Avicennism. After this period, Greek philosophy went into a decline in the Islamic world. Theologians such as Al-Ghazali argued that many realms of logic only worked in theory, not in reality. His ideas would later influence Western European religious ideas. In response to Al-Ghazali's "The Incoherence of the Philosophers", the Andalusian philosopher Ibn Rushd ("Averroes"), the most famous commentator on Aristotle and founder of Averroism, wrote a refutation entitled "The Incoherence of the Incoherence".
Dionysius Periegetes
Dionysius Periegetes (, literally Dionysius the Voyager or Traveller, often Latinized to "Dionysius Periegeta"), also known as Dionysius of Alexandria or Dionysius the African, was the author of a description of the then-known world in Greek hexameter verse. He is believed to have been from Alexandria and to have lived around the time of Hadrian (r. 117–138 CE), though some date his lifetime as late as the end of the 3rd century.
Seddiqin argument
Avicenna focuses on the view that God is a necessary being in itself. This argument is based on contingency. The claim of Avicenna is that we can establish the existence of God directly by consideration of his existence itself. In other words in the proof of sincere, Avicenna tries to reach the existence of God just through an analysis of existence itself along with the supposition that God is the necessary existent. According to him, if we reflect on any things generally and consider only to its existence, then the existence is either necessary or not. If the existence is necessary then it is God-Avicenna call it (al-Wajib al-wujud) and if the existent is not necessary then it is impossible or contingent. It is not impossible because we assume that it is something therefore it must be contingent. In fact, if we consider the existence of existent alone then it is either the necessary or contingent. The contingent, in respect to its existence, needed ab alio or something which brings it into existence. The preponderant itself is necessary or contingent. If it is necessary, then it is God. If it is contingent, then it is in need of a transcendent cause. The series of these transcendent causes themselves are finite or infinite. The finite series finally arrives to God since that the last member doesn't need to any cause and therefore itself is by definition the Necessary Existent. If the series would be infinite then series as a whole needed to its components in its existence and therefore is contingent.
Avicenna
Avicenna's legacy in classical psychology is primarily embodied in the "Kitab al-nafs" parts of his "Kitab al-shifa" ("The Book of Healing") and "Kitab al-najat" ("The Book of Deliverance"). These were known in Latin under the title De Anima (treatises "on the soul"). Notably, Avicenna develops what is called the "flying man" argument in the Psychology of "The Cure" I.1.7 as defense of the argument that the soul is without quantitative extension, which has an affinity with Descartes's "cogito" argument (or what phenomenology designates as a form of an ""epoche"").
Al-isharat wa al-tanbihat
Avicenna was born in Afsanah at 980, a village near Bukhara. His father counted as ruler of a region by the name of keramaytan. Avicenna along with his family after moving to Bukhara, continued his studies. According to Nasr, Avicenna had many teachers including Nātelī physicians Abū Manṣūr Qomrī and Abū Sahl Masīḥī. Avicenna wrote nearly 250 works on diverse sciences in medieval period including long and short treatises such as the Daneshnameh Alaei (The Book of Science Dedicated to 'Alii' al-Dawlah). Avicenna wrote Isharat when he was under the criticism of certain literary scholars, showing his skill in Arabic language by a philosophy book as Isharat. Nasr refers to the book of Isharat as the last and greatest masterpiece of Avicenna.
Avicennia
The generic name honours Persian physician Avicenna (980-1037).
Materia medica
The experimental scientific method was introduced into the field of materia medica in the thirteenth century by the Andalusian-Arab botanist Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, the teacher of Ibn al-Baitar. Al-Nabati introduced empirical techniques in the testing, description and identification of numerous materia medica, and he separated unverified reports from those supported by actual tests and observations. This allowed the study of materia medica to evolve into the science of pharmacology. Avicenna (980–1037 AD) was a Persian philosopher, physician, and Islamic scholar. He wrote about 40 books on medicine. His two most famous books are "The Canon of Medicine" and "The Book of Healing", used in medieval universities as medical textbooks. He did much to popularize the connection between Greek and Arabic medicine, translating works by Hippocrates, Aristotle and Galen into Arabic. Avicenna stressed the importance of diet, exercise, and hygiene. He also was the first to describe parasitic infection, to use urine for diagnostic purposes and discouraged physicians from the practice of surgery because it was too base and manual.
Candidus of Fulda
The preserved "Life" of Abbot Aegil of Fulda (died 822) in prose and verse and the lost "Life" of Abbot Baugolf of Fulda (d. 802) were both written by Bruun Candidus of Fulda.
The "Life" of Abbot Eigil ("Vita Aegili"), written around 840, is the first known illustrated biography.
The "Vita Aegili" is an "opus geminatum" or "twinned work," that is, a work consisting of a pair of texts, one in prose and one in verse. Candidus says that the Abbot of Fulda, Raban Maur, instructed him to compose the life.
The "Vita Aegili" is an outstanding specimen of biography from the Carolingian Renaissance and an important source for the monastic reform of Benedict of Aniane. Candidus describes the conflict between Eigil's predecessor Ratgar (whom Candidus depicts as the unicorn that attacks the shepherd in Psalm 21) and the monastic community, which led to his deposition by Louis the Pious in 817, and also provides information about the discussions concerning the election of Ratgar's successor. He also describes two churches built at Fulda: first St. Salvator, the so-called Ratger-basilica, completed and augmented with two crypts by the monk Rachulf and dedicated 1. November 819, and second, St. Michael erected by Rabanus Maurus and dedicated 15. January 822. Candidus explains that its architecture—a centralized building with eight columns in the nave, one central column in the crypt and one single keystone in the vault—has a spiritual meaning, representing Christ and his ecclesia. Candidus also quotes the "tituli" (inscriptions) that Rabanus composed for the altars of both churches, and Eigil's two epitaphs, written by Eigil himself and by Rabanus. Candidus also recounts the dedication ceremony of St. Salvator and the translation of the relics of St. Boniface from his tomb in the centre of the church to his new crypt in the western apse. The hymns"Te deum" and "Gloria in excelsis", which were sung during the ceremony, are translated into verse.
The source for the Vita's lost illustration to this hymns may have been the aforementioned apse picture, which Candidus claims he executed, and which is probably reflected in three sacramentary manuscripts of the Ottonian age (Göttingen, Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek 2° Ms. theol. 231 Cim., fol. 111r; Udine, Archivio Capitolare, Cod. 1, f. 66v; Bamberg State Library, Msc.Lit.1, fol. 165v).
Aristotelian physics
In "The Book of Healing" (1027), the 11th-century Persian polymath Avicenna developed Philoponean theory into the first coherent alternative to Aristotelian theory. Inclinations in the Avicennan theory of motion were not self-consuming but permanent forces whose effects were dissipated only as a result of external agents such as air resistance, making him "the first to conceive such a permanent type of impressed virtue for non-natural motion". Such a self-motion ("mayl") is "almost the opposite of the Aristotelian conception of violent motion of the projectile type, and it is rather reminiscent of the principle of inertia, i.e. Newton's first law of motion."
The eldest Banū Mūsā brother, Ja'far Muhammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir (800-873), wrote the "Astral Motion" and "The Force of Attraction". The Persian physicist, Ibn al-Haytham (965-1039) discussed the theory of attraction between bodies. It seems that he was aware of the magnitude of acceleration due to gravity and he discovered that the heavenly bodies "were accountable to the laws of physics". The Persian polymath Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī (973-1048) was the first to realize that acceleration is connected with non-uniform motion (as later expressed by Newton's second law of motion). During his debate with Avicenna, al-Biruni also criticized the Aristotelian theory of gravity firstly for denying the existence of levity or gravity in the celestial spheres; and, secondly, for its notion of circular motion being an innate property of the heavenly bodies.
Avicenna
Avicenna (; also Ibn Sīnā or Abu Ali Sina; ;  – June 1037) was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age. He has been described as the father of early modern medicine. Of the 450 works he is known to have written, around 240 have survived, including 150 on philosophy and 40 on medicine.
Avicenna
The study of the Quran and the Hadith thrived in such a scholarly atmosphere. Philosophy, Fiqh and theology (kalaam) were further developed, most noticeably by Avicenna and his opponents. Al-Razi and Al-Farabi had provided methodology and knowledge in medicine and philosophy. Avicenna had access to the great libraries of Balkh, Khwarezm, Gorgan, Rey, Isfahan and Hamadan. Various texts (such as the 'Ahd with Bahmanyar) show that he debated philosophical points with the greatest scholars of the time. Aruzi Samarqandi describes how before Avicenna left Khwarezm he had met Al-Biruni (a famous scientist and astronomer), Abu Nasr Iraqi (a renowned mathematician), Abu Sahl Masihi (a respected philosopher) and Abu al-Khayr Khammar (a great physician).
Medieval medicine of Western Europe
Medieval European medicine became more developed during the Renaissance of the 12th century, when many medical texts both on Ancient Greek medicine and on Islamic medicine were translated from Arabic during the 13th century. The most influential among these texts was Avicenna's "The Canon of Medicine", a medical encyclopedia written in "circa" 1030 which summarized the medicine of Greek, Indian and Muslim physicians until that time. The "Canon" became an authoritative text in European medical education until the early modern period. Other influential texts from Jewish authors include the "Liber pantegni" by Isaac Israeli ben Solomon, while Arabic authors contributed "De Gradibus" by Alkindus and "Al-Tasrif' by Abulcasis.
Avicenna
The treatises of Ibn Sīnā influenced later Muslim thinkers in many areas including theology, philology, mathematics, astronomy, physics, and music. His works numbered almost 450 volumes on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived. In particular, 150 volumes of his surviving works concentrate on philosophy and 40 of them concentrate on medicine.
His most famous works are "The Book of Healing", and "The Canon of Medicine".
History of paleontology
In 1027, the Persian naturalist, Ibn Sina (known as "Avicenna" in Europe), proposed an explanation of how the stoniness of fossils was caused in "The Book of Healing". He modified an idea of Aristotle's, which explained it in terms of vaporous exhalations. Ibn Sina modified this into the theory of petrifying fluids ("succus lapidificatus"), which was elaborated on by Albert of Saxony in the 14th century and was accepted in some form by most naturalists by the 16th century.
Middle Eastern philosophy
The Persian polymath Avicenna wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects. Many philosophical works, among them The Book of Healing, have survived.
Adomnán
Adomnán's most important work, and the one for which he is best known, is the "Vita Columbae" (i.e. "Life of Columba"), a hagiography of Iona's founder, Saint Columba, probably written between 697 and 700. The format borrows to some extent from Sulpicius Severus' "Life of Saint Martin of Tours". Adamnan adapted traditional forms of Christian biography to group stories about Columba thematically rather than chronologically, and present Columba as comparable to a hero in Gaelic mythology. Wetherill suggests that one of the motivations for writing the Vita was to offer Columba as a model for the monks, and thereby improve Adomnan's standing as abbot. The biography is by far the most important surviving work written in early medieval Scotland, and is a vital source for our knowledge of the Picts, as well as a great insight into the life of Iona and the early medieval Gaelic monk.
Master Jesus
Helena Blavatsky, a founder of the Theosophical Society, wrote in 1877: "Apollonius, a contemporary of Jesus of Nazareth, was, like him, an enthusiastic founder of a new spiritual school. Perhaps less metaphysical and more practical than Jesus, less tender and perfect in his nature, he nevertheless inculcated the same quintessence of spirituality, and the same high moral truths." Some Theosophists such as C.W. Leadbeater and the teachers of Neo-Theosophy, Alice A. Bailey and Benjamin Creme, have written that the Master Jesus was also incarnated as Apollonius of Tyana after his incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth. It is believed that he attained the fifth level of initiation (the "resurrection") when he became an Ascended Master at the end of his life as Apollonius of Tyana. However, if Apollonius was a contemporary of Jesus as Blavatsky wrote, Jesus could not have reincarnated as him. Benjamin Creme gets around this by claiming that Jesus lived from 24 BC to AD 9 (instead of the usual dates given of Jesus' lifetime as being c. 6 BC to c. AD 30 or AD 33). This means that Jesus "could" have incarnated as Apollonius of Tyana, since according to Creme, Apollonius lived from AD 16 to c. AD 97. However, one of the possible chronologies of Apollonius of Tyana's life sometimes cited give his life span as being from AD 40 to AD 120, thus making it possible that, even if the usual dates of Jesus' lifetime are accepted (c. 6 BC to c. AD 30 or AD 33), he "still" could have incarnated as Apollonius of Tyana. However, other modern scholarship, more often cited, gives the dates of Appolonius' life span as c. AD 15 to c. AD 100, thus making it problematic, realistically speaking, that Jesus could have incarnated as him.
Avicenna Directories
The WHO published the World Directory of Medical Schools from 1953–2007. The seventh and final print edition of the directory was published in 2000 and listed around 1700 schools in 162 countries. Between 2000-2007, the WHO published the directory electronically, along with updates received after the 2000 print publication. In August 2007, the WHO signed an agreement with the University of Copenhagen to transfer responsibility for development and maintenance of the directory. In March 2008, the AVICENNA project was announced and in August 2008, the contents of the World Directory of Medical Schools were transferred to the AVICENNA Directory for medicine.
Cultural references to Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian Renaissance painter and polymath who achieved legendary fame and iconic status within his own lifetime. His renown primarily rests upon his brilliant achievements as a painter, the "Mona Lisa" and the "Last Supper", being two of the most famous artworks ever created, but also upon his diverse skills as a scientist and inventor. He became so highly valued during his lifetime that the King of France bore him home like a trophy of war, supported him in his old age and, according to legend, cradled his head as he died.
Seddiqin argument
Avicenna detailed the argument for the existence of God in three books namely Al-ShifaThe Book of Healing and Al-Nejat and Al-isharat wa al-tanbihat. it seems that for the first time applied the argument of Seddiqin. According to Muhammad Legenhausen little pay attention to Avicenna's proof of sincere.Avicenna described the argument as seddiqin( Borhane seddiqin) because this argumentation applies by those who are truthful. According to Avicenna, those who are truthful persons, their argument is pure truth while there is no symbols of untruthfulness in their argumentation. In other words, Seddiqin witness to existence of God and truth just only by one argument which is the essence of Truth and God. Avicenna refers to the argument as follows:
Also Avicenna quotes the Quran to support the argumentation:" Is it not sufficient as regards your Lord that he is witness over all things"(surah 41, verse 53).
History of invertebrate paleozoology
In the medieval Islamic world, Avicenna (979 to 1039 CE), in his "The Book of Healing" (1027), offered an explanation of how the stoniness of fossils was caused. Aristotle previously explained it in terms of vaporous exhalations, which Avicenna modified into the theory of petrifying fluids ("succus lapidificatus"), which was elaborated on by Albert of Saxony in the 14th century and accepted in some form by most naturalists by the 16th century.
Age of Enlightenment
The Enlightenment played a distinctive, if small, role in the history of Italy. Although most of Italy was controlled by conservative Habsburgs or the pope, Tuscany had some opportunities for reform. Leopold II of Tuscany abolished the death penalty in Tuscany and reduced censorship. From Naples, Antonio Genovesi (1713–1769) influenced a generation of southern Italian intellectuals and university students. His textbook "Diceosina, o Sia della Filosofia del Giusto e dell'Onesto" (1766) was a controversial attempt to mediate between the history of moral philosophy on the one hand and the specific problems encountered by 18th-century commercial society on the other. It contained the greater part of Genovesi's political, philosophical and economic thought – guidebook for Neapolitan economic and social development. Science flourished as Alessandro Volta and Luigi Galvani made break-through discoveries in electricity. Pietro Verri was a leading economist in Lombardy. Historian Joseph Schumpeter states he was "the most important pre-Smithian authority on Cheapness-and-Plenty". The most influential scholar on the Italian Enlightenment has been Franco Venturi.
Avicenna
Avicenna's most important Persian work is the "Danishnama-i 'Alai" (, "the Book of Knowledge for [Prince] 'Ala ad-Daulah"). Avicenna created new scientific vocabulary that had not previously existed in Persian. The Danishnama covers such topics as logic, metaphysics, music theory and other sciences of his time. It has been translated into English by Parwiz Morewedge in 1977. The book is also important in respect to Persian scientific works.
George Michael Wickens
A prolific and distinguished humanities scholar, Wickens was the author of "Avicenna: Scientist and Philosopher (1952)". Wickens was fluent in Persian and Arabic and was one the pioneering figures of Persian literature in Canada. He translated several masterpieces of Persian literature as "Boostan" of Sa'di into English.
Avicenna
Avicenna memorized the Quran by the age of ten, and as an adult, he wrote five treatises commenting on suras from the Quran. One of these texts included the "Proof of Prophecies", in which he comments on several Quranic verses and holds the Quran in high esteem. Avicenna argued that the Islamic prophets should be considered higher than philosophers.
Francesco Aviani
He was born in Venice, most likely on November 25th 1662, by Bernardo and by a Magdalene whose surname is unknown, and was most probably baptized in the cathedral on 3 December 1662. Between 1701 and 1703 he decorated with frescoes (today illegible) the villa Chiericati in Soella (his brother Marco the sculptor was also with him). On October 16th 1703 he married Isabella Carcano. On March 26, 1715 he made a will. On the 3rd of April 1715 he died in Vicenza and it is from his age at the moment of death, about fifty-two years that his date of birth was traced to 1662.
Avicenna Prize
The aim of the award is to promote ethical reflection on issues raised by advances in science and technology, and to raise global awareness of the importance of ethics in science. The prize was named after the 11th century Persian physician and philosopher Avicenna (980-1038).
Avicenna
As a teenager, he was greatly troubled by the "Metaphysics" of Aristotle, which he could not understand until he read al-Farabi's commentary on the work. For the next year and a half, he studied philosophy, in which he encountered greater obstacles. In such moments of baffled inquiry, he would leave his books, perform the requisite ablutions, then go to the mosque, and continue in prayer till light broke on his difficulties. Deep into the night, he would continue his studies, and even in his dreams problems would pursue him and work out their solution. Forty times, it is said, he read through the "Metaphysics" of Aristotle, till the words were imprinted on his memory; but their meaning was hopelessly obscure, until one day they found illumination, from the little commentary by Farabi, which he bought at a bookstall for the small sum of three dirhams. So great was his joy at the discovery, made with the help of a work from which he had expected only mystery, that he hastened to return thanks to God, and bestowed alms upon the poor.
History of surgery
Persian physician Avicenna (980–1037) wrote "The Canon of Medicine", a synthesis of Greek and Arab medicine that dominated European medicine until the mid-17th century.
Avicenna
Avicenna considered whether events like rare diseases or disorders have natural causes. He used the example of polydactyly to explain his perception that causal reasons exist for all medical events. This view of medical phenomena anticipated developments in the Enlightenment by seven centuries.
Islamic philosophy
The idea of "essence precedes existence" is a concept which dates back to Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and his school of Avicennism as well as Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi and his Illuminationist philosophy. The opposite idea of "Existence precedes essence" was thus developed in the works of Averroes and Mulla Sadra as a reaction to this idea and is a key foundational concept of existentialism.