Ibn e Sina

Introduction: (980–1037)
Ibn Sina (Avicenna), was a poet, music theorist, astronomer, and politician,
but he was best known as a philosopher and asa medical doctor. From his
autobiography we learn that he was born in an Isma_ili family in Afshana,
in the Persian region of Bukhara.
By the age of ten, he had completed the study of language and literature
and memorized the Qur_an. He studied Greek logic and mathematics
under his father’s friend al-Natili, a teacher and a prominent advocate of
Isma_ili Shi_ism. However, he soon felt that his education and skills
exceeded his teacher’s and he no longer needed him. By the age of
sixteen, he had covered the various sciences and became a teacher and
practitionerof medicine. Because of his fame as a doctor, he was called
upon to treat the prince Nuh Ibn Mansur, who then gave him access to the
princely library, which was rich in rare books. By eighteen, he was
confident that he had mastered the sciences except for metaphysics. He
read Aristotle’s metaphysics many times without understanding it until he
came across al-Farabi’s interpretation of it. He spent his last years writing
and practicing medicine in Isfahan, but owing to constant travel, insufficient
sleep, and hard work, he fell sick and died. He was buried in Hamadhan
Ibn e Sina’s Work:
Ibn Sina (980-1037) Sirat al-shaykh al-ra'is (The Life of Ibn Sina), ed. and
trans. W.E. Gohlman, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1974. (The
only critical edition of Ibn Sina's autobiography, supplemented with material
from a biography by his student Abu 'Ubayd al-Juzjani. A more recent
translation of the Autobiography appears in D. Gutas, Avicenna and the
Aristotelian Tradition: Introduction to Reading Avicenna's Philosophical Works ,
Leiden: Brill, 1988.)

Ibn Sina (980-1037) al-Isharat wa-'l-tanbihat (Remarks and Admonitions), ed. S.

Dunya, Cairo, 1960; parts translated by S.C. Inati, Remarks and Admonitions,
Part One: Logic, Toronto, Ont.: Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies, 1984,
and Ibn Sina and Mysticism, Remarks and Admonitions: Part 4, London: Kegan
Paul International, 1996. (The English translation is very useful for what it
shows of the philosopher's conception of logic, the varieties of syllogism,
premises and so on.)

Ibn Sina (980-1037) al-Qanun fi'l-tibb (Canon on Medicine), ed. I. a-Qashsh,

Cairo, 1987. (Ibn Sina's work on medicine.)

Ibn Sina (980-1037) Risalah fi sirr al-qadar (Essay on the Secret of Destiny),
trans. G. Hourani in Reason and Tradition in Islamic Ethics, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1985. (Provides insights into a neglected area of
Ibn Sina's thought.)

Ibn Sina (980-1037) Danishnama-i 'ala'i (The Book of Scientific Knowledge), ed.
and trans. P. Morewedge, The Metaphysics of Avicenna, London: Routledge and
Kegan Paul, 1973. (This is a translation of a metaphysical work in Persian.)

Ibn Sina (c.1014-20) al-Shifa' (Healing). (Ibn Sina's major work on philosophy.
He probably began to compose al-Shifa' in 1014, and completed it in 1020.
Critical editions of the Arabic text have been published in Cairo, 1952-83,
originally under the supervision of I. Madkour; some of these editions are given
below.)
Ibn Sina (c.1014-20) al-Mantiq (Logic), Part 1, al-Madkhal (Isagog ), ed. G.
Anawati, M. El-Khodeiri and F. al-Ahwani, Cairo: al-Matba'ah al-Amiriyah, 1952;
trans. N. Shehaby, The Propositional Logic of Ibn Sina, Dordrecht: Reidel, 1973.
(Volume I, Part 1 of al-Shifa'.)

Ibn Sina (c.1014-20) al-'Ibarah (Interpretation), ed. M. El-Khodeiri, Cairo: Dar al-
Katib al-'Arabi, 1970. (Volume I, Part 3 of al-Shifa'.)

Ibn Sina (c.1014-20) al-Qiyas (Syllogism), ed. S. Zayed and I. Madkour, Cairo:
Organisme Général des Imprimeries Gouvernementales, 1964. (Volume I, Part 4
of al-Shifa'.)

Ibn Sina (c.1014-20) al-Burhan (Demonstration), ed. A.E. Affifi, Cairo: Organisme
Général des Imprimeries Gouvernementales, 1956. (Volume I, Part 5 of al-
Shifa'.)

Ibn Sina (c.1014-20) al-Jadal (Dialectic), ed. A.F. Al-Ehwany, Cairo: Organisme
Général des Imprimeries Gouvernementales, 1965. (Volume I, Part 7 of al-
Shifa'.)

Ibn Sina (c.1014-20) al-Khatabah (Rhetoric), ed. S. Salim, Cairo: Imprimerie

Nationale, 1954. (Volume I, Part 8 of al-Shifa'.)

Ibn Sina (c.1014-20) al-Ilahiyat (Theology), ed. M.Y. Moussa, S. Dunya and S.
Zayed, Cairo: Organisme Général des Imprimeries Gouvernementales, 1960; ed.
and trans. R.M. Savory and D.A. Agius, 'Ibn Sina on Primary Concepts in
the Metaphysics of al-Shifa', in Logikos Islamikos, Toronto, Ont.: Pontifical
Institute for Mediaeval Studies, 1984; trans. G.C. Anawati, La métaphysique du
Shifa', Études Musulmanes 21, 27, Paris: Vrin, 1978, 1985. (This is the
metaphysics of al-Shifa', Volume I, Book 5.)

Ibn Sina (c.1014-20) al-Nafs (The Soul), ed. G.C. Anawati and S. Zayed, Cairo:
Organisme Général des Imprimeries Gouvernementales, 1975; ed. F.
Rahman, Avicenna's De Anima, Being the Psychological Part of Kitab al-Shifa',
London: Oxford University Press, 1959. (Volume I, part 6 of al-Shifa'.)
Ibn Sina (c.1014-20) Kitab al-najat (The Book of Salvation), trans. F.
Rahman, Avicenna's Psychology: An English Translation of Kitab al-Najat, Book
II, Chapter VI with Historical-philosophical Notes and Textual Improvements on
the Cairo Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952. (The pyschology of al-
Shifa'.)