AVICENNA (a corruption of IBN-SINA), a celebrated Arabian physician and philosopher, honoured with the title of Sheikh-al-rais, or the prince of physicians, was born at Afshena, near Kharmethan, a city of Bokhara, where his father, a native of Balkh in Persia, held the office of governor. After some years his father returned to the city of Bokhara, and here Avicenna was educated with extreme care. At the age of ten he was already perfectly versed in the theology of the Koran, in arithmetic, algebra, and the principles of grammar and law. Abu-Abdallah Nathili, a native of Napolis in Syria, at that time professed philosophy at Bokhara with high reputation. Under him Avicenna studied Porphyry's Introduction to the Categories of Aristotle, Euclid's Elements, and the Almagest of Ptolemy; and having soon surpassed the attainments of his master, he began to study the higher sciences alone. In philosophy he devoted himself chiefly to the works of Aristotle, whose Metaphysics he is said to have read forty times before he fully apprehended the meaning. At the age of 16, he was seized with a passion for natural philosophy and medicine, which he studied under a Christian physician named Ben-Yahya. After some time he resumed his philosophical studies with so much ardour, that for a year and a half he never slept for a whole night at a time. At the age of 18 he had acquired so high a reputation that the Emir Noun Ibn-Mansur, who was a sufferer from severe disease, put himself under his care, and derived so much benefit from his skill, that Avicenna was loaded with favours. Among these not the least was the use of the rich library of the prince, in which he found opportunity for perfecting himself in scientific knowledge. This library was some time after consumed by fire, an accident which was maliciously attributed to Avicenna, who was accused of wishing to destroy the works by which he had so amply profited. At the age of 21 he composed a complete body of science, with the exception of mathematics, to which he gave the name of the Collection. On the death of his father, whom he had latterly assisted in his public duties, he quitted Bokhara and lived for some time in Djordjan, and other towns of Kharasm and Khorassan. At Djordjan he formed the acquaintance of Abu-Mohammed Schirazi, a powerful patron of science, who gave him a house, in which he delivered public lectures on logic and the Almagest. Here Avicenna wrote several treatises for his friend, and began his great work the Canon of Medicine. On leaving Djordjan he changed his residence several times, and finally settled at Hamadhan, the prince of which, Schems-ed-Daulah, in reward for his medical services, made him his vizier. Having given dissatisfaction to the emir's troops, he was forced to retire into concealment, but was soon recalled, and restored to all his honours. Every evening he gave lessons in philosophy and medicine, at the conclusion of which musicians and dancers were called in, and the rest of the evening was spent in festivity. During this time he composed his great philosophical work the Al-Shefa, and continued to write the Canon. After the death of Schems-ed-Daulah, Avicenna lost favour at court, and having been convicted of secretly corresponding with the prince of Isparian, he was shut up in a fortress. He succeeded at length in making his escape, and found his way to Isparian, where he enjoyed an honourable repose during the last fourteen years of his life, during which time he composed the greater part of his numerous works. He accompanied his new master in numerous warlike expeditions,
Avienus
Avila.
the fatigues of which finally subdued a constitution injured by severe study and excess. Seeing his end approaching, he distributed his goods among the poor, freed his slaves, and betaking himself to devotion, prepared to die as a good Mussulman. He died at Hamadhan in the 428th year of the Hegira (A.D. 1036) in the 57th year of his age. His excesses and infirmities gave rise to the saying, 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. Even in the schools of Europe his writings were held in high esteem. Of his works, said to amount to more than a hundred, the principal are his Canon of Medicine, which long enjoyed an immense reputation as a body of medical science, and has been often reprinted in a Latin translation; and the Al-Shefa or Healing, an encyclopaedia of philosophy, of which the greater part exists in MS. in the Bodleian library. (Abulfarag. Hist. Orient. ed. Pocock, Oxon. 1672; Ibn-Khalikan, Diet. Biogr. ed. M. de Slane, Paris, 1842; Casiri Biblioth. Arab. Hisp.; Aboulfeda, Annales, Copenh. 1789; Mines de l'Orient, t. iii. p. 167.)