Avicenna

Avicenna was one of the most prominent Muslim philosophers and doctors for his time, praised for his great theories and his scholarly conclusions, he learned from the self-taught method, which made him more relevant to society.

Biography of Avicenna

He was born on August 16, 980 in Afshana of the Greater Khorasan province , Bukhara , which is currently Iran , Muslim from cradle and with Muslim parents, he grew up as a normal child , however, his innate interest in science of nature and medicine was extremely fast, even some connoisseurs consider him precocious since from the age of 13 and 14 he began to study in depth on these matters by his own decision. At that age, Avicenna could recite the entire Qur’an , which is the holy book in Islam.

His father was appointed a civil servant, he decided to move with him to Bukhara , a place where he learned various knowledge such as mathematics , physics , logical philosophy and delved deeper into the Koran , he advanced extremely quickly in his learning as a self-taught person , So he was precocious in absolutely everything that his career was concerned with, two years later, at 16 years old he was already directing famous doctors and a year later, at 17 years old he already carried quite a great fame, being recognized as the one who achieved save the life of Emir Nuh ibn Mansur.

He was given permission to enter the royal library , in which there was a lot of information never known abroad, in this he was able to expand his knowledge, about mathematics, astronomy and music , when Avicenna reached his majority, he was recognized as a scholar , one of the most important and precious of the time , since there was no science at that time that had not been studied, thus becoming a court doctor and the main adviser in what to scientific subjects , until the Samani kingdom fell in 999.

At the age of twenty he wrote 10 books distinguished by the name of “The treatise of the resultant and the result” , in the same way he studied exhaustively the customs of the time and emptied it all into a book called ” Innocence and Sin” and Although he was already famous enough for the time, with these books his fame spread and proliferated throughout Persia.

In the year 1021 Avicenna was filled with political and social murmurings , which crystallized the perception that the people had of Avicenna , so he went to jail, however, with cunning he disguised himself as a dervish , a type of religious monk in those regions and evaded the law, escaping from the place.

Progressively at 32 years of age, he began with what is most recognized, his masterpiece, the famous Canon of Medicine , a series of 5 books that contain all the medical and pharmacological knowledge that was a trend for the time.

He died in August of the year 1037 at the age of 57 , due to a deep-rooted history of intestinal crises , he tried to heal himself, but the drug had fatal effects on his anatomy and his body , experts say that he died from overwork and excess of pleasure.

Thought

Avicenna did not have a very structured thinking, he was extremely liberal and always focused on studying and focusing on everything that caught his attention, he thought that being encapsulated in monotony was a waste of time and that knowledge was what every man should seek as a goal to have a full life full of wisdom.

Theories

Avicenna was a very curious man , for which he studied men from many areas , which led him to develop one of his greatest theories , the dual theory that had his name attached, a theory that affirmed that the soul and the body, although they were together and mixed sometimes, they were not the same, they did not feel the same way, and for the same reason, they did not get sick from the same things.

Contributions of Avicenna

All his works were great contributions , since they not only helped the evolution of current medicine , but in the same way they focus and encourage the subject to understand the behavior of the culture to which he belonged and the reason for it. Some of their contributions were the following:

• It is the first to distinguish pleurisy , mediastinitis, and subphrenic abscess.
• Specifically describe the two forms of facial paralysis (central and peripheral)
• It explains step by step the symptoms of the diabetic .
• Describe different variants of jaundice.
• It gives a description of the cataract , of meningitis, etc .
• Feel the role of rats in the spread of plague.
• Indicates that certain infections are transmitted through the placenta.
• It is the first to advocate rectal enema treatments.
• Discover that blood leaves the heart to go to the lungs, and back , and accurately exposes the heart’s ventricular and valve systems.
• He is the first to correctly describe the anatomy of the human eye.

Plays

Some of his most relevant works by Avicenna were the following:

• The treatise of the resultant and the result.
• Innocence and sin.
• Canon of medicine.

Phrases

• Therefore in medicine we must know the causes of health and disease.
• Medicine is the art of maintaining health and eventually curing disease that occurs in the body.
• The knowledge of anything, since all things have causes, is not acquired or complete unless it is known by their causes.
• The rain fall in stormy weather is very polluted areas and impure in nature, because at that time the violent winds stir up clouds where rain comes.

Importance of Avicenna

In the Persia of the Avicenna period he was a great influence , however, he was one of the promoters of the evolution of current medicine , his discoveries and contributions were great steps for the medicines that today are extremely common, so, Thanks to this , extensive knowledge in medicine and philosophy was obtained through the volumes of his books and other works that progressively helped the development of humanity.