A TRIBUTE TO GREAT MUSLIM SCIENTISTS 4

                  IBN-SINA

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Abu ali al-Hussain Ibn Abdallah Ibn sina was born in 980 A.D at Afshana near bukhara. the young Bu ali received his early education in Bukhara, and by the age of ten had become well versed in the study of the Quran and various sciences. He started studying philosophy by reading various Greek, Muslim and other books on this subject and learnt logic and some other subjects from Abu Abdallah Natili, a famous philosopher of the time, while still young, he attained such a degree of expertise in medicine that his renown spread far and wide. At the age of 17, he war fortunate in curing nooh Ibn Mansoor, the king of Bukhhara, of an illness in which all the well-known physicians had given up hope, on his recovery, the king wished to reward him hut the young physician only desired permission to use his uniquely stocked library. on his father's death, Bu Ali left bukhara and traveled to Jurjan where Khawarizm shah welcomed hi,. There, he met his famous contemporary Abu Raihan al-Biruni. Later he moved to Ray and then to Ramadan, where he wrote his famous book al-Qanun fi al-Tibb. here he treated shams al-Daulah, the king of hamadan, for severe colic. from hamadan he moved to isphahan, where he completed many of his monumental writings. nevertheless, he continued travleing and the excessive mental exertion as well as political turmoil spotlit his health. Finlayy, he returned to hamadan where he died in 1037 A.D he was the most famous physician, philosopher, encyclopedic, mathematician and astronomer of his time. his major contribution to medical science was his famous book al-Qanun, known as the 'Canon' in the west. The Qanun fi Al-Tibb is an immense encyclopedia of medicine extending over a million words. it surveyed the entire menial knowledge available from ancient and Muslim sources. Due to its systematic approach, 'formal perfection as well as its intrinsic value, the Qanun superseded Razi's  Hawi, Ali Ibn Abbas's Maliki, and even the works of Galen, and remained supreme for six centuries' In addition to bringing together the then available knowledge, the book is rich with the author's original contribution. His important original contribution includes such advances as recognition of the contagious nature of photolysis and tuberculosis, distribution of diseases by water and soil, and interaction between psychology and health. in addition to describing pharmacological methods, the book described 760 drugs and became the most authentic materia medica of the era. he was also the first to describe meningitis and made rich contributions to anatomy, gynecology and child health. his philosophical encyclopedia Kitab al-Shifa was a monumental work, embodying a vast field of konwledge from philosophy to science. He classified the entire field into theoretical knowledge whcih included physics, mathematics and metaphysics while his classification of practical knowledge ethics, economics and politics. his philosophy synthesizes Aristotelian tradition, Neoplastic influences and Muslim thelogy. Ibn sina also contributed to mathematics. physics. music and other fields. He explained the xasting out of nies and its application to the verification of squares and cubes. he made several astronomical observations, and devised a contrivance similar to the vernier, to increase the precision of instrumental readings. in Physics. his contribution comprised the study of different forms of enery, heat, light and mechanical. and such concepts as force. vacuum and and infinity. He made the important observation that if the. perception of light is due to the emission of some sort of particles by the luminous source, the speed of light must be finite. he propounded and interconnection between time and motion, and also made investigations on specific gravity and used an air thermometer. in the field of music, his contribution was an improvement over Farabi's work and was far ahead of knowledge prevailing elsewhere on the subject. Ibn-sina observed that in the series of consonances represented by (n +1) /n. the ear is unable to distinguish them when n-45. in the field of chemistry, he did not believe in the possibility of chemical transmutation because, in his opinion, the metals differed in a fundamental sense. These views were radically opposed to those prevailing at the time. His treatise on minerals was one of the main sources of geology of the Christian encyclopedic of the thirteenth century. Besides shifa his well-known treatises in philosophy are a Najat and Isharat. 


(Created by Dr. Jamal-ud-din khan MBBS)