Avicenna (/ˌævəˈsɛnə/; also Ibn Sīnā or Abu Ali Sina; Persian: ابن سینا; c. 980 – June 1037) was a Persian[4][5] polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age.[6] He has been described as the father of early modern medicine.[7][8][9] Of the 450 works he is known to have written, around 240 have survived, including 150 on philosophy and 40 on medicine.[10]His most famous works are The Book of Healing, a philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and The Canon of Medicine, a medical encyclopedia[11][12][13] which became a standard medical text at many medieval universities[14] and remained in use as late as 1650.[15]In 1973, Avicenna's Canon Of Medicine was reprinted in New York.[16]
Adulthood
Ibn Sina's first appointment was that of physician to the emir, Nuh II, who owed him his recovery from a dangerous illness (997). Ibn Sina's chief reward for this service was access to the royal library of the Samanids, well-known patrons of scholarship and scholars. When the library was destroyed by fire not long after, the enemies of Ibn Sina accused him of burning it, in order for ever to conceal the sources of his knowledge. Meanwhile, he assisted his father in his financial labors, but still found time to write some of his earliest works.[32]
