AVICENNA, or AVICENES, the prince of Arabian philosophers and physicians, was born at Assena, a village in the neighbourhood of Buckharia. His father was from Balkh in Persia, and had married at Buckharia. The first years of Avicenna were devoted to the study of the koran and the belles lettres. He soon showed what he was likely to become afterwards; and the progress he made was so rapid, that when he was but ten years old he was perfectly intelligent in the most hidden senses of the koran. Abu-Abdallah, a native of Napolis, in Syria, at that time professed philosophy at Buckharia with the greatest reputation. Avicenna studied under him the principles of logic; but being soon disgusted with the slow manner of the schools, he set about studying alone, and read all the authors who had written on philosophy, without any other help than that of their commentators. Possessed with an extreme desire to become acquainted with all sorts of sciences, he likewise devoted himself to the study of medicine; and, persuaded that the medical art consists as much
in practice as in theory, he sought every opportunity of visiting the sick, and afterwards confessed that he had learned more from experience than from all the books he had read. He was now in his sixteenth year, and was already celebrated as being the light of his age. At this period he resolved to resume his studies of philosophy, which medicine had caused him to neglect; and he spent a year and a half in this painful labour, without ever sleeping all the time a whole night together. If he felt himself oppressed by sleep or exhausted by study, a glass of wine refreshed his wasted spirits, and gave him new vigour for study; if, in spite of him, his eyes for a few minutes shut out the light, he then endeavoured to recollect and meditate upon all the things which had occupied his thoughts before sleep. At the age of twenty-one he conceived the bold design of incorporating, in one work, all the objects of human knowledge; and carried it into execution in a kind of Encyclopædia, to which he gave the title of the Utility of Utilities. He died at Hamadan, aged 58 years, in the 428th year of the Hegira, and of Christ 1036.
The knowledge he had of physic did not secure him from the ailments that afflict human nature. He was attacked by several maladies in the course of his life, and in particular was very subject to the colic. His excesses in pleasures, and his infirmities, made a poet who wrote his epitaph say, that the profound study of philosophy had not taught him good morals, nor that of medicine the art of preserving his own health.
Avicenna, after his death, enjoyed so great a reputation, that till the twelfth century he was preferred for the study of philosophy and medicine to all his predecessors. His works were the only writings in vogue in schools, even in Europe. The following are their titles:—1. Of the Utility and Advantage of Science, twenty books. 2. Of Innocence and Criminality, two books. 3. Of Health and Remedies, eighteen books. 4. Canons of Physic, fourteen books. 5. On Astronomical Observations, one book. 6. On Mathematical Sciences. 7. Of Theorems, or Mathematical and Theological Demonstrations, one book. 8. On the Arabic Language and its Properties, ten books. 9. On the Last Judgment. 10. On the Origin of the Soul, and the Resurrection of Bodies. 11. Of the End we should propose to ourselves in Harangues and Philosophical Argumentations. 12. Demonstration of the Collateral Lines in the Sphere. 13. Abridgement of Euclid. 14. On Finity and Infinity. 15. On Physics and Metaphysics. 16. On Animals and Vegetables, &c. 17. The Encyclopædia mentioned above.