dealings of organs such as the eye and the heart, but also provided a list of more than 500 potential remedies for common illnesses. His knowledge as a botanist was on full display as he described the effects of plants and their roots on the human body.
The Polymath also worked on another important book called “The book of Healing” (“Kitāb al-Shifā”) in 1014 and finally published his work in 1027. Unlike the “Canon of Medicine”, this book was intended to be a bridge to the soul and span across topics such as logic, natural sciences, mathematics and metaphysics.
Did you know?
- Ibn Sina subscribed to the teachings of his mentor ancient Roman physician and researcher Aelius Galenus (aka Galen), especially on medical views such as pulse taking and pharmacology. However, he did not side with Galen when it came to functions surrounding the cardiovascular system.
- The polymath influenced renowned personalities such as French philosopher René Descartes and German philosopher and scientist Albertus Magnus.
- At age 10, Ibn Sina was officially certified as a Quran Hafiz (one who has memorized the entire Quran). It is said that his knowledge rivaled that of his teachers by the time he was fourteen, as he could not learn anything else from them at that time.
- Due to Avicenna’s successful endeavor to integrate Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism together with Kalam, Avicennism had established itself as the leading school of Islamic thought in the medieval Islamic world by the 12th century.
- In the 10th century, Ibn Sina created a hollow syringe that was used to remove cataracts by suction.
- In spite of Ibn Sina’s best efforts to recover from Colic, it was rumored that one of his slaves slowly poisoned him, rendering his treatment useless. Due to this, he died at an untimely age.
- Death came for Ibn Sina in June 1037, at the age of 58, after a long struggle with colic. He was laid to rest in what is now a mausoleum at his tomb in Hamadan, Iran.
Next on the list is another brilliant Islamic Golden Era scholar known as Ibn Khaldun. The name of the social scientist is thought to have been adopted from a distant ancestor of ‘Abdur-Rahman ibn Muhammad.
Born in Tunisia in 1332, Ibn Khaldun was raised by parents who were rich Yemenite Arabs. His family had made a home in Spain but then relocated to Tunisia after the fall of Seville in 1248.
In his teens, the Arab scholar served in the court of the Egyptian ruler al-Malik udh-Dhahir Barquq. He also received his early education in Egypt. He eventually left this service and relocated to Fez in Morocco in search of greater educational opportunities and more exposure to cutting-edge information.
Following this, his career was disrupted for a very long time by a political rivalry in the region. During this time of upheaval, he took shelter in the little Algerian village of Qalat Ibn Salama for three years, where he wrote “Al-Muqaddimah” (‘The Introduction’) – the first volume of his work on global history that would earn him an indelible place in the annals of history, sociology, and philosophy.
He also thought about an idea he termed as Asabiyyah . Under the term, he noted the cyclical nature of the development and fall of human civilization and the causes behind it.
Whereas most writers before Khaldun interpreted history primarily through a political lens, his contribution was to highlight the ecological, social, psychological, and economic forces that governed the visible occurrences. This sparked a revolution in historical research (i.e. sociology).
Some Interesting Facts about Ibn Khaldun
- Ibn Khaldun, a Muslim Arab philosopher, developed the foundations of modern economics 400 years before it was adopted by Scottish philosopher, Adam Smith.
- Khaldun contributed to the field of international economics by introducing the pioneering theory of growth.
- He had his education at the Ez-Zitouna University and also studied under renowned Islamic scholars.
- He was influenced by other renowned thinkers such as Ibn Sina, Muhammad and Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali.
- The Arab scholar is said to have a sign