AVICENNA (Aim `ALI AL-HUSAIN rim ABDALLAH IBN Sam), Arabian philosopher and physician : b. Afskena, near Bokhara, 980; d. Hamadan 1037. His precocity was extraor dinary, at ten he knew the Koran by rote; also much Arabic poetry. He learned the rudi ments of medicine, arithmetic and geometry from wandering teachers. At seventeen he received a court appointment as physician to the amir, and had access to the library of the Samanids. The dynasty of the latter ended in 1004 and thereafter Avicenna led a very ardu ous life, wandering from place to place. Finally at Jorgan, near the Caspian Sea, he met with a friend, who secured him a dwelling in which he lectured on logic and astronomy. Later he was imprisoned under Taga Addaula, but es caped and fled to Ispahan, where he was wel corned by the prince. His later years were spent in the service of Abu Ya 'far 'Ala Ad daula, to whom he acted as physician and literary adviser, and whom he accompanied even on his campaigns. His greatest work is the
(Canon of Medicine,' based on the Greek med ical works. It was long used as a textbook both in the Orient and Occident, and is still highly prized in the former; an Arabic edition of it was published at Rome in 1593, and a Hebrew version at Naples in 1491. About 100 treatises are ascribed to Avicenna. Scarcely any science was left untouched by him. Among his med ical works translated into Latin are menta Cordialia,> tCanticum de Medicina> and de Syrupo Acetoso.' He followed Aristotle in philosophy. In this field his Logic' and 'Metaphysics' have gone through several editions. Consult Brockelmann, der arabischen Litteratur' (Weimar 1899) ; Carra de Vaux, (Vol. I. Paris 1900) ; Ibn Khallikan, 'Bibliographical Dic tionary> (Stone trans., 1842) ; Wiistenfeld, der arabischen Aerzte> (1840).