Ibn Shaddad, Abu Muhammad
Ibn Shaddad, Abu Muhammad (Abu Muhammad ibn Shaddad). Twelfth century chronicler of Zirid descent. His history of the Maghrib, now lost, was used by well-known Arab historians.
Abu Muhammad ibn Shaddad see Ibn Shaddad, Abu Muhammad
Ibn Shaddad, Abu Muhammad (Abu Muhammad ibn Shaddad). Twelfth century chronicler of Zirid descent. His history of the Maghrib, now lost, was used by well-known Arab historians.
Abu Muhammad ibn Shaddad see Ibn Shaddad, Abu Muhammad
Ibn Shaddad, Baha‘al-Din
Ibn Shaddad, Baha‘al-Din (Baha‘al-Din ibn Shaddad) (Bahā' ad-Dīn Yusuf ibn Rafi ibn Shaddād) (March 7, 1145 - November 8, 1234). Biographer of Saladin. From 1188 until Saladin’s death in 1193, he was in constant attendance of the Ayyubid ruler. His Biography of Saladin is considered to be without parallel in the historical literature of medieval Islam.
Bahā' ad-Dīn Yusuf ibn Rafi ibn Shaddād (the honorific title "Bahā' al-Dīn" means "splendour of the faith") was a 12th-century Muslim jurist and scholar, an Arabian historian of great note, notable for writing a biography of Saladin whom he knew well.
Ibn Shaddād was born in Mosul on March 7, 1145. In Mosul, he studied the Qur'an, hadith, and Muslim law before moving to the Nizamiyya madrasa in Baghdad where he rapidly became mu'id ("assistant professor"). About 1173, he returned to Mosul as mudarris ("professor"). In 1188, returning from Hajj, ibn Shaddād was summoned by Saladin who had read and been impressed by his writings. He was "permanently enrolled" in the service of Saladin, who appointed him qadi al-'askar ("judge of the army"). In this capacity, he was an eye witness at the Siege of Acre and the Battle of Arsuf and provided "a vivid chronicle of the Third Crusade". Saladin and ibn Shaddād soon became close friends and the sultan appointed him to several high administrative and judicial offices. Ibn Shaddād remained an intimate and trusted friend of Saladin, "seldom absent for any length of time", as well as one of his main advisers for the rest of the sultan's life. After Saladin's death, ibn Shaddād was appointed qadi ("judge") of Aleppo. He died in Aleppo on November 8, 1234.
Ibn Shaddād's best-known work is his biography of Saladin, which is based for the most part on personal observation and provides a complete portrait as Muslims saw Saladin. Published in English as The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin, the Arab title (al-Nawādir al-Sultaniyya wa'l-Maḥāsin al-Yūsufiyya) translates as "Sultany Anecdotes and Josephly Virtues". Ibn Shaddād also wrote several works on the practical application of Islamic law: The Refuge of Judges from the Ambiguity of Judgements, The Proofs of Judgments, and The Epitome, as well as a monograph entitled The Virtues of the Jihad. Much of the information known about Ibn Shaddād derives from Ibn Khallikan's contemporary Biographical Dictionary (Wafāyāt al-a'yān, literally "Obituaries of Eminent Men").
Ibn Shaddād was contemporary to the events he writes and it makes his history particularly valuable.
Baha'al-Din ibn Shaddad see Ibn Shaddad, Baha‘al-Din
Bahā' ad-Dīn Yusuf ibn Rafi ibn Shaddād see Ibn Shaddad, Baha‘al-Din
Ibn Shaddad, Baha‘al-Din (Baha‘al-Din ibn Shaddad) (Bahā' ad-Dīn Yusuf ibn Rafi ibn Shaddād) (March 7, 1145 - November 8, 1234). Biographer of Saladin. From 1188 until Saladin’s death in 1193, he was in constant attendance of the Ayyubid ruler. His Biography of Saladin is considered to be without parallel in the historical literature of medieval Islam.
Bahā' ad-Dīn Yusuf ibn Rafi ibn Shaddād (the honorific title "Bahā' al-Dīn" means "splendour of the faith") was a 12th-century Muslim jurist and scholar, an Arabian historian of great note, notable for writing a biography of Saladin whom he knew well.
Ibn Shaddād was born in Mosul on March 7, 1145. In Mosul, he studied the Qur'an, hadith, and Muslim law before moving to the Nizamiyya madrasa in Baghdad where he rapidly became mu'id ("assistant professor"). About 1173, he returned to Mosul as mudarris ("professor"). In 1188, returning from Hajj, ibn Shaddād was summoned by Saladin who had read and been impressed by his writings. He was "permanently enrolled" in the service of Saladin, who appointed him qadi al-'askar ("judge of the army"). In this capacity, he was an eye witness at the Siege of Acre and the Battle of Arsuf and provided "a vivid chronicle of the Third Crusade". Saladin and ibn Shaddād soon became close friends and the sultan appointed him to several high administrative and judicial offices. Ibn Shaddād remained an intimate and trusted friend of Saladin, "seldom absent for any length of time", as well as one of his main advisers for the rest of the sultan's life. After Saladin's death, ibn Shaddād was appointed qadi ("judge") of Aleppo. He died in Aleppo on November 8, 1234.
Ibn Shaddād's best-known work is his biography of Saladin, which is based for the most part on personal observation and provides a complete portrait as Muslims saw Saladin. Published in English as The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin, the Arab title (al-Nawādir al-Sultaniyya wa'l-Maḥāsin al-Yūsufiyya) translates as "Sultany Anecdotes and Josephly Virtues". Ibn Shaddād also wrote several works on the practical application of Islamic law: The Refuge of Judges from the Ambiguity of Judgements, The Proofs of Judgments, and The Epitome, as well as a monograph entitled The Virtues of the Jihad. Much of the information known about Ibn Shaddād derives from Ibn Khallikan's contemporary Biographical Dictionary (Wafāyāt al-a'yān, literally "Obituaries of Eminent Men").
Ibn Shaddād was contemporary to the events he writes and it makes his history particularly valuable.
Baha'al-Din ibn Shaddad see Ibn Shaddad, Baha‘al-Din
Bahā' ad-Dīn Yusuf ibn Rafi ibn Shaddād see Ibn Shaddad, Baha‘al-Din
Ibn Shaddad, ‘Izz al-Din
Ibn Shaddad, ‘Izz al-Din (‘Izz al-Din ibn Shaddad) (1217-1285). Geographer and historian from Aleppo. He wrote a historical topography of Syria and the Jazira.
'Izz al-Din ibn Shaddad see Ibn Shaddad, ‘Izz al-Din
'Izz al-Din ibn Shaddad see Ibn Shaddad, ‘Izz al-Din
Ibn Shahin al-Zahiri
Ibn Shahin al-Zahiri. High official at the court of the Mameluke sultans Barsbay and Jaqmaq of the fifteenth century. He left a vivid picture of Egypt under the Mamelukes and also wrote an oneirocritical (dream interpretation) treatise which was widely circulated.
Ibn Shahin al-Zahiri. High official at the court of the Mameluke sultans Barsbay and Jaqmaq of the fifteenth century. He left a vivid picture of Egypt under the Mamelukes and also wrote an oneirocritical (dream interpretation) treatise which was widely circulated.
Ibn Shahrashub
Ibn Shahrashub (Zayn al-Din). Imami theologian, preacher and jurist of Mazandaran in Persia. He had the reputation of being the greatest Shi‘a scholar of his time and was highly thought of even by the Sunnis.
Zayn al-Din see Ibn Shahrashub
Ibn Shahrashub (Zayn al-Din). Imami theologian, preacher and jurist of Mazandaran in Persia. He had the reputation of being the greatest Shi‘a scholar of his time and was highly thought of even by the Sunnis.
Zayn al-Din see Ibn Shahrashub
Ibn Shanabudh
Ibn Shanabudh (d. 939). “Reader” of the Qur‘an. The vizier Ibn Muqla had him flogged because he had introduced in the public prayer Qur‘anic readings which varied from the recension (the revised text) of Caliph ‘Uthman.
Ibn Shanabudh (d. 939). “Reader” of the Qur‘an. The vizier Ibn Muqla had him flogged because he had introduced in the public prayer Qur‘anic readings which varied from the recension (the revised text) of Caliph ‘Uthman.
Ibn Sharaf
Ibn Sharaf (d. 1068). Arab poet.
Ibn Sharaf (d. 1068). Arab poet.
Ibn Sina
Ibn Sina (Abu 'Ali al-Hussain ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina) (Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn ibn Sina) (Abū ‘Alī al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sīnā') (Abū Alī Sīnā) (Avicenna) (c. 980 - 1037). Persian polymath and the foremost physician and philosopher of his time. Known in the West as Avicenna, he was also an astronomer, chemist, geologist, logician, paleontologist, mathematician, physicist, poet, psychologist, scientist and teacher.
Ibn Sīnā studied medicine under a physician named Koushyar. Ibn Sina wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived. In particular, 150 of his surviving treatises concentrate on philosophy and 40 of them concentrate on medicine. His most famous works are The Book of Healing, a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopaedia, and The Canon of Medicine, which was a standard medical text at many medieval universities. The Canon of Medicine was used as a text-book in the universities of Montpellier and Louvain as late as 1650.
Ibn Sina was born near Bukhara (now in Uzbekistan), which was then the capital of the Persian Samanid dynasty. The son of a government official, Ibn Sina studied medicine and philosophy in Bukhara. Endowed with extraordinary intelligence and intellectual independence, he was largely self-taught and by the age of eighteen had mastered all the then known sciences.
At the age of 18, Ibn Sina was rewarded for his medical abilities with the post of court physician to the Samanid ruler of Bukhara. He remained in this position until the fall of the Samanid Empire in 999. After that, Ibn Sina traveled extensively. He spent the last fourteen years of his life as the scientific adviser and physician to the rulers of Isfahan, first with Shams al-Dawla, and later with Sama’ al-Dawla. In these last years of his life, Ibn Sina made astronomical investigations.
Ibn Sina died at Hamadhan, where a monument was later erected to celebrate the millennium of his birth.
Regarded by Muslims as one of the greatest Islamic philosophers, Avicenna is an important figure in the fields of medicine and philosophy. Ibn Sina’s work The Canon of Medicine was long pre-eminent in Southwest Asia and North Africa and was used in Europe as a textbook. It is significant as a systematic classification and summary of medical and pharmaceutical knowledge up to and including Ibn Sina’s time. The first Latin translation of the work was made in the 12th century of the Christian calendar, the Hebrew version appeared in 1491, and the Arabic text in 1593, the second text ever printed in Arabic.
Ibn Sina’s best known philosophical work is Kitab al-Shifa (“Book of Healing”), a collection of treatises on Aristotelian logic, metaphysics, psychology, the natural sciences, and other subjects. Ibn Sina’s own philosophy was based on a combination of Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism. Contrary to orthodox Islamic thought, Ibn Sina denied personal immortality, the existence of any individual soul, that God has an interest in individuals, and that there had been any creation of the world in time. Ibn Sina believed that there was a dualism of mind and matter, where matter was passive, and creation had been an act of instilling existence into the passive substance. For Ibn Sina, the only place where there was no such dualism was in God. Because of his views, Ibn Sina became the main target of an attack on philosophy by the Islamic philosopher al-Ghazzali. Nevertheless, Ibn Sina’s philosophy remained influential throughout the Middle Ages.
Ibn Sina’s Kitab al-Najat (“Book of Salvation”) is a compendium of his work in metaphysics. In spite of Ibn Sina’s interest in metaphysics, he remained an orthodox Muslim, and wrote a number of books on theology. In his later years, Ibn Sina also wrote some allegorical mystical works. These works were important in the development of Sufism.
Most scholars agree that Ibn Sina was the most renowned and influential philosopher of medieval Islam. Ibn Sina’s works united philosophy with the study of nature. Over a hundred of Ibn Sina’s works have survived. His texts cover such subjects as philosophy and science as well as religious, linguistic and literary matters. Ibn Sina’s works are not the product of a man who simply lived in books, since most of his energies were taken up with the day-to-day affairs of state.
In 1954, 131 authentic and 110 doubtful works were listed in his bibliography. Known primarily as a philosopher and physician, Ibn Sina contributed also to all the sciences that were accessible in his day: natural history, physics, chemistry, astronomy, mathematics and music. He wrote on economics, politics, moral and religious questions, Qur’anic exegesis, and poetry. Ibn Sina’s influence on medieval European philosophers such as Michael Scot, Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, and Thomas Aquinas is undeniable.
Ibn Sina was born in August or September of 980, in Afshena, Transoxiana Province of Bukhara to Abd-Allah of Balkh (now in Afghanistan). Abd-Allah was the well-to-do governor of Transoxiana Province under the Samanid ruler Nuh II ibn Mansur. Ibn Sina may have descended from a Turkish family on his father’s side, but his mother, Sitara, was clearly Persian.
After his brother, Mahmud, was born five years later, the family moved to Bukhara, one of the principal cities of Transoxiana and capital of the Samanid emirs from 819 to 1005. Exhibiting an early interest in learning, young Ibn Sina had read the entire Qur’an by age ten. His father was attracted to Isma‘ili Shi‘ite doctrines, preached locally by Egyptian missionaries, but Ibn Sina resisted his father’s influence. There was much discussion in his home regarding geometry, philosophy, theology, and even accounting methods. Ibn Sina was sent to study with an Indian vegetable seller who was also a surveyor. It was from him that Ibn Sina became acquainted with the Indian system of calculation, making use of the zero in computations.
A well-known philosopher came to live with the family for a few years and had an extraordinary influence on the young scholar. Abu ‘Abd Allah al-Natili stimulated Ibn Sina’s love of theoretical disputation, and the youth’s earlier readings in jurisprudence enabled him to tax al-Natili’s powers of logic daily. The tutor convinced Abd-Allah that Ibn Sina’s career should be an academic one. Ibn Sina was studying Aristotelian logic and Euclidean geometry when the teacher decided to move to a different home. Undaunted, Ibn Sina soon mastered texts in natural sciences and metaphysics, then medicine, which he did not consider very difficult. He taught physicians, even practicing medicine for a short time. At the age of sixteen, he was also engaging in disputations on Muslim law.
For the next year and a half, Ibn Sina returned to the study of logic and all aspects of philosophy, keeping files of syllogisms and praying daily at the mosque for guidance in his work. So obsessed did he become with philosophical problems and so anxious to know all that he hardly took time for sleep. Aristotle’s Metaphysica (Metaphysics) became an intellectual stumbling block until his reading of a work by Abu Nasr al-Farabi clarified many ideas for him. Soon all of Aristotle became understandable, and Ibn Sina gave alms to the poor in gratitude.
When Sultan Nuh ibn Mansur of Bukhara became ill, he sent for Ibn Sina, upon the advice of his team of physicians. Because of his help in curing the ruler, Ibn Sina gained access to the palace library, thus acquainting himself with many new books. When not studying, Ibn Sina was given to drinking wine and satisfying a large sexual appetite which he retained to the end of his life. Ibn Sina claimed that after the age of eighteen he learned nothing new, only gained greater wisdom. When the palace library was destroyed in a fire, critics blamed Ibn Sina, who, they said, wished to remove the sources of his ideas. There is no proof of that charge.
Ibn Sina’s writing career began in earnest at the age of twenty-one with al-Majmu (1001), a comprehensive book on learning for Abu al-Hasan, a prosodist. Then he wrote al-Hasil wa al-mahsul (“The Sun and Substance” -- c. 1002), a twenty-volume commentary on jurisprudence, the Qur’an, and asceticism. There soon followed a work on ethics called al-Birr wa al-ithm (“Good Works and Evil” -- c. 1002). However, the sponsors made no copies of them.
Ibn Sina's father died in 1002, and Ibn Sina was forced to enter government service. He reluctantly left Bukhara for Gurganj, the capital of Khwarazm, where he met Emir 'Ali ibn Ma’mun. From Gurganj, he moved to Fasa, Baward, Tus, Samanqan, and thence to Jajarm on the extreme end of Khurasan. He served Emir Qabus ibn Wushmagir until a military coup forced Ibn Sina to leave for Dihistan, where he became ill. After recovering, he moved to Jurjan.
In Jurjan, Ibn Sina met his pupil and biographer, Abu ‘Ubaid al-Juzjani, who stayed with him throughout much of the remainder of his life. Juzjani thought him exceptionally handsome and wrote that when Ibn Sina went to the mosque on Friday to pray, people would gather to observe at first hand “his perfection and beauty.” While in Jurjan, Ibn Sina wrote al-Mukhtasar al-awsat (The Middle Summary on Logic), al-Mabda’ wa al-ma‘ad (The Origin and the Return), and al-Arsad al-kulliya (Comprehensive Observations). There also Ibn Sina wrote the first part of al-Qanun fi al-tibb (Canon of Medicine), Mukhtasar al-Majisti (Summary of the Almagest), and other treatises. One modern scholar lists one hundred books attributed to Ibn Sina. Another says that the list of Ibn Sina’s works includes several hundred in Arabic and twenty-three in Persian.
From Jurjan, Ibn Sina next moved to al-Rayy, joining the service of al-Saiyyida and her son, Majd al-Dawlah. Civil strife forced him to flee to Qazwin. From there he moved to Hamadhan, where he managed the affairs of Kadhabanuyah. He was called to the court of Emir Shams al-Dawlah to treat the ruler for colic, after which Ibn Sina was made the vizier of his emirate. Because of a mutiny in the army, however, the emir was forced to discharge him. After matters calmed down, Ibn Sina was called back and reinstated as vizier. During this period, public affairs occupied his daytime hours, and he spent evenings teaching and writing. When the emir died, Ibn Sina went into hiding, finishing work on his Kitab al-shifa (Book of Healing). He was arrested for corresponding with a rival ruler, but when Emir ‘Ala’ al-Dawlah attacked Hamadhan four months later, Ibn Sina was set free.
Ibn Sina left Hamadhan for Isfahan with his brother, two slaves, and al-Juzjani to serve Emir ‘Ala’ al-Dawlah. The emir designated every Friday evening for learned discussions with many other masters. However, excluded from the gatherings was a famous scholar and rival of Ibn Sina, Abu al-Rayhan al-Biruni, with whom he carried on a rather bitter correspondence. They had been clients at many of the same courts, but never at the same time. At Isfahan, Ibn Sina completed many of his writings on arithmetic and music. He was made an official member of the court and accompanied the emir on a military expedition to Hamadhan.
When he was rebuked by the emir’s cousin, Abu Mansur, for feigning expertise in philology, Ibn Sina was so stung by the criticism that he studied this subject frantically, compiling his discoveries in a book entitled Lisan al-‘Arab (The Arab Language). During these years, he also continued other experiments in medicine and astronomy. He introduced the use of medicinal herbs and devised an instrument to repair injured vertebrae. He understood that some illnesses arose from psychosomatic causes, and he wrote extensively on the pulse, preventive medicine, and the effects of climate on health. On May 24, 1032, he observed the rare phenomenon of Venus passing through the solar disk.
When he became ill in Isfahan, one of his slaves filled his meal with opium, hoping for his death and an opportunity to steal his money. But Ibn Sina managed to recover under self-treatment. Soon, however, he had a relapse. He died in 1037. Most authorities say that he died and was buried in Hamadhan.
Ibn Sina’s Canon of Medicine remained a principal source for medical research for six centuries, perhaps second only to the Christian Bible in the number of copies produced. Between 1470 and 1500, it went through thirty editions in Latin and one in Hebrew; a celebrated edition was published on a Gutenberg press in Rome in 1593. Ibn Sina’s principal literary contribution was the invention of the Rubaiyat form, quatrains in iambic pentameter, later made famous by Omar Khayyam. Most important of all, Ibn Sina’s philosophical system helped to stimulate a genuine intellectual renaissance in Islam that had enormous influence not only in his own culture but in Western Europe as well. Thomas Aquinas, Averroes (Ibn Rushd), John Duns Scotus, Albertus Magnus, and Roger Bacon learned much from Ibn Sina, even though they disagreed on some particulars.
Most intriguing to the medieval Scholastics were Ibn Sina’s insistence upon essences in everything, the distinction between essence and existence (a notion derived from al-Farabi), the absence of essence in God (whose existence is unique), and the immortality of the soul (which animates the body but is independent of it).
According to some scholars, Ibn Sina’s insistence upon observation and experimentation helped to turn Western thought in the direction of the modern scientific revolution. His theories on the sources of infectious diseases, his explanation of sight, his invention of longitude, and his other scientific conclusions have a truly remarkable congruence with modern explanations. The application of geometrical forms in Islamic art, his use of the astrolabe in astronomical experiments, and his disputations on the immortality of the soul demonstrate Ibn Sina’s universal genius.
Abu 'Ali al-Hussain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina see Ibn Sina
Abu 'Ali al-Husayn ibn Sina see Ibn Sina
Avicenna see Ibn Sina
Abū ‘Alī al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sīnā' see Ibn Sina
Abū Alī Sīnā see Ibn Sina
Ibn Sina (Abu 'Ali al-Hussain ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina) (Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn ibn Sina) (Abū ‘Alī al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sīnā') (Abū Alī Sīnā) (Avicenna) (c. 980 - 1037). Persian polymath and the foremost physician and philosopher of his time. Known in the West as Avicenna, he was also an astronomer, chemist, geologist, logician, paleontologist, mathematician, physicist, poet, psychologist, scientist and teacher.
Ibn Sīnā studied medicine under a physician named Koushyar. Ibn Sina wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived. In particular, 150 of his surviving treatises concentrate on philosophy and 40 of them concentrate on medicine. His most famous works are The Book of Healing, a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopaedia, and The Canon of Medicine, which was a standard medical text at many medieval universities. The Canon of Medicine was used as a text-book in the universities of Montpellier and Louvain as late as 1650.
Ibn Sina was born near Bukhara (now in Uzbekistan), which was then the capital of the Persian Samanid dynasty. The son of a government official, Ibn Sina studied medicine and philosophy in Bukhara. Endowed with extraordinary intelligence and intellectual independence, he was largely self-taught and by the age of eighteen had mastered all the then known sciences.
At the age of 18, Ibn Sina was rewarded for his medical abilities with the post of court physician to the Samanid ruler of Bukhara. He remained in this position until the fall of the Samanid Empire in 999. After that, Ibn Sina traveled extensively. He spent the last fourteen years of his life as the scientific adviser and physician to the rulers of Isfahan, first with Shams al-Dawla, and later with Sama’ al-Dawla. In these last years of his life, Ibn Sina made astronomical investigations.
Ibn Sina died at Hamadhan, where a monument was later erected to celebrate the millennium of his birth.
Regarded by Muslims as one of the greatest Islamic philosophers, Avicenna is an important figure in the fields of medicine and philosophy. Ibn Sina’s work The Canon of Medicine was long pre-eminent in Southwest Asia and North Africa and was used in Europe as a textbook. It is significant as a systematic classification and summary of medical and pharmaceutical knowledge up to and including Ibn Sina’s time. The first Latin translation of the work was made in the 12th century of the Christian calendar, the Hebrew version appeared in 1491, and the Arabic text in 1593, the second text ever printed in Arabic.
Ibn Sina’s best known philosophical work is Kitab al-Shifa (“Book of Healing”), a collection of treatises on Aristotelian logic, metaphysics, psychology, the natural sciences, and other subjects. Ibn Sina’s own philosophy was based on a combination of Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism. Contrary to orthodox Islamic thought, Ibn Sina denied personal immortality, the existence of any individual soul, that God has an interest in individuals, and that there had been any creation of the world in time. Ibn Sina believed that there was a dualism of mind and matter, where matter was passive, and creation had been an act of instilling existence into the passive substance. For Ibn Sina, the only place where there was no such dualism was in God. Because of his views, Ibn Sina became the main target of an attack on philosophy by the Islamic philosopher al-Ghazzali. Nevertheless, Ibn Sina’s philosophy remained influential throughout the Middle Ages.
Ibn Sina’s Kitab al-Najat (“Book of Salvation”) is a compendium of his work in metaphysics. In spite of Ibn Sina’s interest in metaphysics, he remained an orthodox Muslim, and wrote a number of books on theology. In his later years, Ibn Sina also wrote some allegorical mystical works. These works were important in the development of Sufism.
Most scholars agree that Ibn Sina was the most renowned and influential philosopher of medieval Islam. Ibn Sina’s works united philosophy with the study of nature. Over a hundred of Ibn Sina’s works have survived. His texts cover such subjects as philosophy and science as well as religious, linguistic and literary matters. Ibn Sina’s works are not the product of a man who simply lived in books, since most of his energies were taken up with the day-to-day affairs of state.
In 1954, 131 authentic and 110 doubtful works were listed in his bibliography. Known primarily as a philosopher and physician, Ibn Sina contributed also to all the sciences that were accessible in his day: natural history, physics, chemistry, astronomy, mathematics and music. He wrote on economics, politics, moral and religious questions, Qur’anic exegesis, and poetry. Ibn Sina’s influence on medieval European philosophers such as Michael Scot, Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, and Thomas Aquinas is undeniable.
Ibn Sina was born in August or September of 980, in Afshena, Transoxiana Province of Bukhara to Abd-Allah of Balkh (now in Afghanistan). Abd-Allah was the well-to-do governor of Transoxiana Province under the Samanid ruler Nuh II ibn Mansur. Ibn Sina may have descended from a Turkish family on his father’s side, but his mother, Sitara, was clearly Persian.
After his brother, Mahmud, was born five years later, the family moved to Bukhara, one of the principal cities of Transoxiana and capital of the Samanid emirs from 819 to 1005. Exhibiting an early interest in learning, young Ibn Sina had read the entire Qur’an by age ten. His father was attracted to Isma‘ili Shi‘ite doctrines, preached locally by Egyptian missionaries, but Ibn Sina resisted his father’s influence. There was much discussion in his home regarding geometry, philosophy, theology, and even accounting methods. Ibn Sina was sent to study with an Indian vegetable seller who was also a surveyor. It was from him that Ibn Sina became acquainted with the Indian system of calculation, making use of the zero in computations.
A well-known philosopher came to live with the family for a few years and had an extraordinary influence on the young scholar. Abu ‘Abd Allah al-Natili stimulated Ibn Sina’s love of theoretical disputation, and the youth’s earlier readings in jurisprudence enabled him to tax al-Natili’s powers of logic daily. The tutor convinced Abd-Allah that Ibn Sina’s career should be an academic one. Ibn Sina was studying Aristotelian logic and Euclidean geometry when the teacher decided to move to a different home. Undaunted, Ibn Sina soon mastered texts in natural sciences and metaphysics, then medicine, which he did not consider very difficult. He taught physicians, even practicing medicine for a short time. At the age of sixteen, he was also engaging in disputations on Muslim law.
For the next year and a half, Ibn Sina returned to the study of logic and all aspects of philosophy, keeping files of syllogisms and praying daily at the mosque for guidance in his work. So obsessed did he become with philosophical problems and so anxious to know all that he hardly took time for sleep. Aristotle’s Metaphysica (Metaphysics) became an intellectual stumbling block until his reading of a work by Abu Nasr al-Farabi clarified many ideas for him. Soon all of Aristotle became understandable, and Ibn Sina gave alms to the poor in gratitude.
When Sultan Nuh ibn Mansur of Bukhara became ill, he sent for Ibn Sina, upon the advice of his team of physicians. Because of his help in curing the ruler, Ibn Sina gained access to the palace library, thus acquainting himself with many new books. When not studying, Ibn Sina was given to drinking wine and satisfying a large sexual appetite which he retained to the end of his life. Ibn Sina claimed that after the age of eighteen he learned nothing new, only gained greater wisdom. When the palace library was destroyed in a fire, critics blamed Ibn Sina, who, they said, wished to remove the sources of his ideas. There is no proof of that charge.
Ibn Sina’s writing career began in earnest at the age of twenty-one with al-Majmu (1001), a comprehensive book on learning for Abu al-Hasan, a prosodist. Then he wrote al-Hasil wa al-mahsul (“The Sun and Substance” -- c. 1002), a twenty-volume commentary on jurisprudence, the Qur’an, and asceticism. There soon followed a work on ethics called al-Birr wa al-ithm (“Good Works and Evil” -- c. 1002). However, the sponsors made no copies of them.
Ibn Sina's father died in 1002, and Ibn Sina was forced to enter government service. He reluctantly left Bukhara for Gurganj, the capital of Khwarazm, where he met Emir 'Ali ibn Ma’mun. From Gurganj, he moved to Fasa, Baward, Tus, Samanqan, and thence to Jajarm on the extreme end of Khurasan. He served Emir Qabus ibn Wushmagir until a military coup forced Ibn Sina to leave for Dihistan, where he became ill. After recovering, he moved to Jurjan.
In Jurjan, Ibn Sina met his pupil and biographer, Abu ‘Ubaid al-Juzjani, who stayed with him throughout much of the remainder of his life. Juzjani thought him exceptionally handsome and wrote that when Ibn Sina went to the mosque on Friday to pray, people would gather to observe at first hand “his perfection and beauty.” While in Jurjan, Ibn Sina wrote al-Mukhtasar al-awsat (The Middle Summary on Logic), al-Mabda’ wa al-ma‘ad (The Origin and the Return), and al-Arsad al-kulliya (Comprehensive Observations). There also Ibn Sina wrote the first part of al-Qanun fi al-tibb (Canon of Medicine), Mukhtasar al-Majisti (Summary of the Almagest), and other treatises. One modern scholar lists one hundred books attributed to Ibn Sina. Another says that the list of Ibn Sina’s works includes several hundred in Arabic and twenty-three in Persian.
From Jurjan, Ibn Sina next moved to al-Rayy, joining the service of al-Saiyyida and her son, Majd al-Dawlah. Civil strife forced him to flee to Qazwin. From there he moved to Hamadhan, where he managed the affairs of Kadhabanuyah. He was called to the court of Emir Shams al-Dawlah to treat the ruler for colic, after which Ibn Sina was made the vizier of his emirate. Because of a mutiny in the army, however, the emir was forced to discharge him. After matters calmed down, Ibn Sina was called back and reinstated as vizier. During this period, public affairs occupied his daytime hours, and he spent evenings teaching and writing. When the emir died, Ibn Sina went into hiding, finishing work on his Kitab al-shifa (Book of Healing). He was arrested for corresponding with a rival ruler, but when Emir ‘Ala’ al-Dawlah attacked Hamadhan four months later, Ibn Sina was set free.
Ibn Sina left Hamadhan for Isfahan with his brother, two slaves, and al-Juzjani to serve Emir ‘Ala’ al-Dawlah. The emir designated every Friday evening for learned discussions with many other masters. However, excluded from the gatherings was a famous scholar and rival of Ibn Sina, Abu al-Rayhan al-Biruni, with whom he carried on a rather bitter correspondence. They had been clients at many of the same courts, but never at the same time. At Isfahan, Ibn Sina completed many of his writings on arithmetic and music. He was made an official member of the court and accompanied the emir on a military expedition to Hamadhan.
When he was rebuked by the emir’s cousin, Abu Mansur, for feigning expertise in philology, Ibn Sina was so stung by the criticism that he studied this subject frantically, compiling his discoveries in a book entitled Lisan al-‘Arab (The Arab Language). During these years, he also continued other experiments in medicine and astronomy. He introduced the use of medicinal herbs and devised an instrument to repair injured vertebrae. He understood that some illnesses arose from psychosomatic causes, and he wrote extensively on the pulse, preventive medicine, and the effects of climate on health. On May 24, 1032, he observed the rare phenomenon of Venus passing through the solar disk.
When he became ill in Isfahan, one of his slaves filled his meal with opium, hoping for his death and an opportunity to steal his money. But Ibn Sina managed to recover under self-treatment. Soon, however, he had a relapse. He died in 1037. Most authorities say that he died and was buried in Hamadhan.
Ibn Sina’s Canon of Medicine remained a principal source for medical research for six centuries, perhaps second only to the Christian Bible in the number of copies produced. Between 1470 and 1500, it went through thirty editions in Latin and one in Hebrew; a celebrated edition was published on a Gutenberg press in Rome in 1593. Ibn Sina’s principal literary contribution was the invention of the Rubaiyat form, quatrains in iambic pentameter, later made famous by Omar Khayyam. Most important of all, Ibn Sina’s philosophical system helped to stimulate a genuine intellectual renaissance in Islam that had enormous influence not only in his own culture but in Western Europe as well. Thomas Aquinas, Averroes (Ibn Rushd), John Duns Scotus, Albertus Magnus, and Roger Bacon learned much from Ibn Sina, even though they disagreed on some particulars.
Most intriguing to the medieval Scholastics were Ibn Sina’s insistence upon essences in everything, the distinction between essence and existence (a notion derived from al-Farabi), the absence of essence in God (whose existence is unique), and the immortality of the soul (which animates the body but is independent of it).
According to some scholars, Ibn Sina’s insistence upon observation and experimentation helped to turn Western thought in the direction of the modern scientific revolution. His theories on the sources of infectious diseases, his explanation of sight, his invention of longitude, and his other scientific conclusions have a truly remarkable congruence with modern explanations. The application of geometrical forms in Islamic art, his use of the astrolabe in astronomical experiments, and his disputations on the immortality of the soul demonstrate Ibn Sina’s universal genius.
Abu 'Ali al-Hussain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina see Ibn Sina
Abu 'Ali al-Husayn ibn Sina see Ibn Sina
Avicenna see Ibn Sina
Abū ‘Alī al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sīnā' see Ibn Sina
Abū Alī Sīnā see Ibn Sina
Ibn Sirin
Ibn Sirin (Muhammad ibn Sirin) (Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Sirin al-Ansari) (653/654-728). Muslim interpreter of dreams. He was also a traditionist, renowned for his piety and for the reliability of the information which he transmitted.
Muhammad ibn Sirin was born in Basra, Iraq. He was a Muslim interpreter of dreams who lived in the 8th century. He was a contemporary of Anas ibn Malik.
Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Sirin Al-Ansari was born in Basra in the 33rd year after Muhammad's migration from Makkah to the Yathrib, now Al-Madina. His birth came two years before the end of the rule of Caliph Óthman ibn Áffan. Muhammad's father (the name Abu Bakr was seldom used) was one of the many captives taken by the great Muslim warrior Khaled ibn Al-Walid when he embarked on his campaign to conquer Al-Sham (the area comprising Syria, Lebanon and Palestine), under the caliphate (rule) of Ómar ibn Al-Khattab (583–684). He was a coppersmith from a town called Jirjaya, settled and working in a place called 'Ain Al-Tamr, where a decisive battle took place in Hijra (migration) year 12.
Muhammad worked as an ambulant cloth merchant, or peddler, in Al-Basra. The fact that he was deaf or quick-of-hearing did not prevent him from becoming one of the most fabulous storytellers of his time about Muhammad, quoting such prominent personalities as Abu Hurayrah, 'Abdullah ibn 'Omar, and Anas ibn Malek. Known as Ibn Sirin, Muhammad was one of the first ascetics of Al-Basra. He became the prime imam in religion and an erudite in the Qur'an. He was described by one of his contemporaries (Abu Ná'eem) as wise, heeding God and perspicacious, sharing food with his brethren and travelers, strongly interceding in favor of the lonely and those who were punished for one reason or another. He was alert, cautious, honest and properly maintaining whatever was entrusted to him. He used to weep at night and smile and rove around all day. And he fasted every other day. No one was as religious or as knowledgeable as him in his art. His family was so generous that they would not hesitate to offer to their visitor the last loaf of bread in their house. He used to savor and recite poetry.
He was particularly renowned for his extraordinary skill in interpreting dreams as attested by the Arabs' greatest intellectuals, such as Al-Gaheth, Ibn Qutaybah and Ibn Khaldun, who considered his work as crucial in this field.
The most notable of the books attributed to Ibn Sirin is Dreams and Interpretations.
Muhammad Ibn Sirin see Ibn Sirin
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Sirin al-Ansari see Ibn Sirin
Ibn Sirin (Muhammad ibn Sirin) (Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Sirin al-Ansari) (653/654-728). Muslim interpreter of dreams. He was also a traditionist, renowned for his piety and for the reliability of the information which he transmitted.
Muhammad ibn Sirin was born in Basra, Iraq. He was a Muslim interpreter of dreams who lived in the 8th century. He was a contemporary of Anas ibn Malik.
Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Sirin Al-Ansari was born in Basra in the 33rd year after Muhammad's migration from Makkah to the Yathrib, now Al-Madina. His birth came two years before the end of the rule of Caliph Óthman ibn Áffan. Muhammad's father (the name Abu Bakr was seldom used) was one of the many captives taken by the great Muslim warrior Khaled ibn Al-Walid when he embarked on his campaign to conquer Al-Sham (the area comprising Syria, Lebanon and Palestine), under the caliphate (rule) of Ómar ibn Al-Khattab (583–684). He was a coppersmith from a town called Jirjaya, settled and working in a place called 'Ain Al-Tamr, where a decisive battle took place in Hijra (migration) year 12.
Muhammad worked as an ambulant cloth merchant, or peddler, in Al-Basra. The fact that he was deaf or quick-of-hearing did not prevent him from becoming one of the most fabulous storytellers of his time about Muhammad, quoting such prominent personalities as Abu Hurayrah, 'Abdullah ibn 'Omar, and Anas ibn Malek. Known as Ibn Sirin, Muhammad was one of the first ascetics of Al-Basra. He became the prime imam in religion and an erudite in the Qur'an. He was described by one of his contemporaries (Abu Ná'eem) as wise, heeding God and perspicacious, sharing food with his brethren and travelers, strongly interceding in favor of the lonely and those who were punished for one reason or another. He was alert, cautious, honest and properly maintaining whatever was entrusted to him. He used to weep at night and smile and rove around all day. And he fasted every other day. No one was as religious or as knowledgeable as him in his art. His family was so generous that they would not hesitate to offer to their visitor the last loaf of bread in their house. He used to savor and recite poetry.
He was particularly renowned for his extraordinary skill in interpreting dreams as attested by the Arabs' greatest intellectuals, such as Al-Gaheth, Ibn Qutaybah and Ibn Khaldun, who considered his work as crucial in this field.
The most notable of the books attributed to Ibn Sirin is Dreams and Interpretations.
Muhammad Ibn Sirin see Ibn Sirin
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Sirin al-Ansari see Ibn Sirin
Ibn Suda
Ibn Suda (Sawda) (c. 1550-1903). Name of a number of Maliki scholars and judges of Fez (fl. c.1550-1903).
Mohammed ibn al-Talib al-Tawudi ibn Suda (1700-95) was one of the most influential scholars of the 18th century in Morocco, both politically and intellectually. He is described by the Egytian historian, Al-Jabarti, as the "crescent of the Maghrib". He went on the hajj in 1767-8 and studied in Medina with Mohammed ibn Abdel Karim al-Samman (1718-1775), founder of the Sammaniyya branch of the Khalwatiyya and in Cairo with the Indian scholar Mohammed Murtada al-Zabidi (d. 1791). In Cairo he also taught the Muwatta of Malik ibn Anas at the Al-Azhar. Ibn Suda was appointed by the sultan in 1788 to reform the curriculum at the Qarawiyin University of Fez, where he was installed as mufti and shaykh al-jamaa. Ibn Suda is also well known as the author of a commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari and as the teacher of Ahmed ibn Idris.
Sawda see Ibn Suda
Ibn Suda (Sawda) (c. 1550-1903). Name of a number of Maliki scholars and judges of Fez (fl. c.1550-1903).
Mohammed ibn al-Talib al-Tawudi ibn Suda (1700-95) was one of the most influential scholars of the 18th century in Morocco, both politically and intellectually. He is described by the Egytian historian, Al-Jabarti, as the "crescent of the Maghrib". He went on the hajj in 1767-8 and studied in Medina with Mohammed ibn Abdel Karim al-Samman (1718-1775), founder of the Sammaniyya branch of the Khalwatiyya and in Cairo with the Indian scholar Mohammed Murtada al-Zabidi (d. 1791). In Cairo he also taught the Muwatta of Malik ibn Anas at the Al-Azhar. Ibn Suda was appointed by the sultan in 1788 to reform the curriculum at the Qarawiyin University of Fez, where he was installed as mufti and shaykh al-jamaa. Ibn Suda is also well known as the author of a commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari and as the teacher of Ahmed ibn Idris.
Sawda see Ibn Suda
Ibn Sulaym al-Aswani
Ibn Sulaym al-Aswani. Fatimid propagandist of the tenth century. His work on Nubia is one of the principal medieval sources on the eastern Sudan.
Ibn Sulaym al-Aswani. Fatimid propagandist of the tenth century. His work on Nubia is one of the principal medieval sources on the eastern Sudan.
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