Avicenna

Avicenna, Ibn-Sina (980-1037), the most famous representative of Arabic medicine, called El-Sheikh-Al-Rais, i.e., Prince of Physicians, by origin from the Persian province of Khorasan; he studied medicine and philosophy. He lived at the courts of many Persian rulers and was even a vizier. Avicenna composed more than 100 works on philosophy, natural science, and medicine. The greatest significance in the history of the development of medicine was his famous 'Canon of Medical Art,' in which all the theoretical and practical medicine of his time is presented in a strictly systematic form. This large manual consists of 5 books, which in turn are divided into sections and subsections. The first book is devoted to anatomy, physiology, general etiology and symptomatology, general dietetics, prevention, and general therapy. The second book contains the doctrine of simple medicinal substances and their effects. The third book presents private pathology and therapy, covering all special areas of medicine. The fourth contains surgery, the general doctrine of fever, infectious diseases, skin diseases, and cosmetics, and the fifth - complex medicinal substances and antidotes. A. did not create his own particular school, being only a talented interpreter and strict follower of the ideas of Hippocrates and Galen, but his works were so comprehensively and beautifully presented and moreover saturated with his own observations and experience, that they almost completely displaced and overshadowed all other major medical works. The Canon was translated into Arabic and Hebrew languages, appeared in 29 Latin editions, and for many centuries served as the main source of medical education. This book was still widely known in the West in the 17th century, while in the East it has retained its significance to the present day.