Avicenna (Arabic, Ibn Sina), 980-1037, was a Persian philosopher who spent his life as a physician and scholar-in-residence at many Islamic courts. He died while in service in Isfahan. Many of his writings were translated in the West. Avicenna's works are of a compendious nature, the most notable being a philosophical encyclopedia. As did other Muslim scholars of the Greek school, he attempted to reconcile philosophy and Islam. For Avicenna, philosophy was the true path to understanding. His summaries of Aristotle reveal a Neoplatonic outlook, especially in his emphasis on the dualism of mind and matter. He saw matter as passive and creation as the act of instilling existence into this passive substance; only in God are being and existence one. Avicenna also wrote numerous works on medicine. His best known is the Canon of Medicine, based primarily on Greco-Roman medical tracts. An extraordinarily popular work, it was translated into Latin and served as a foundation of medical learning in European universities for centuries.
Tamara Green
Bibliography: Afnan, S., Avicenna (1958 repr. 1980); Goodman, L. E., Avicenna (1992); Heath, P., Allegory and Philosophy in Avicenna (1992).
Last modified on: Friday, October 17, 1997.