Friday, November 12, 2021

Introduction

 

To God,
in gratitude
for giving me
an appreciation
of science
as a tenet
of my faith
 
*****

I am not a Muslim. I am simply a man in search of truth -- the truth about myself, my people, my country, my world, my universe and God. In my search for truth, the following women and men have served as beacons of hope and fountains of knowledge.  They have brought light into my world ... and into yours.  

As Salaam Alaikum,

Everett Jenkins
November 14, 2021
Fairfield, California

Notes on the Use of Muslim Scientists and Inventors

 For this on-line work, entries are listed alphabetically ignoring spaces, commas, hyphens and apostrophes. Listings which contain identical names are listed in chronological order unless the name is the beginning of a series of individuals from the same country. In that case, the names are grouped in chronological order within the context of the individual country.



In order to facilitate ease of reference, names used are those by which the person is commonly known to the Muslim world. Arabic names that begin with prefixes such as the "al"in "al-'Abbas" are listed under the root portion of the name. Thus, a listing for "al-'Abbas" would be found under "'Abbas."


Additionally, the following abbreviations are used in this text: b. = born; d. = died; c. = circa (or about); r. = period of reign; and ? = uncertain.

Appendices

Appendix A:  Arabic Names


This compilation of Muslim Scientists and Inventors is ultimately a compendium of Arabic names. Generally, Arabic names consist of five components:

(1)ism derived from Islamic or pre-Islamic tradition (e.g., Ibrahim, Dawud, 'Abd Allah [ "servant of God"], Asad [ "lion"]);

(2)kunya, a surname, denoting the father of the oldest son (e.g., Abu Ja'far ["father of Ja'far"]; or an attribute (e.g., Abu al-Atahiya ["father of folly"];

(3)nasab,the father's/mother's name (e.g., Ibn Rushd ["son of Rushd"];

(4) nisba, the place of origin, or residence (e.g., al-Qurashi ["from the tribe of Quraysh"]; and

(5)laqab, one or more surnames (e.g., al-Atrash ["the deaf one"], al-Jahiz [ "the goggle-eyed"].

A typical Arab name would follow the formula: laqab -kunya - ism - nasab - nisba - laqab. For example, the name 'Izz al-Din Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Sayf al-Din Abi al-Mansur Muhammad ibn 'Izz al-Din Abi al-Qasim Thabit ibn Muhammad ibn Husayn ibn Hasan ibn Rizq Allah al-Qurashi al-Tahhan consists of the following components:

'Izz al-Din {laqab}

Abu Ja'far{kunya}

Muhammad{ism}

ibn Sayf al-Din{father's laqab}

Abi al-Mansur{father's kunya}

Muhammad{father's ism}

ibn 'Izz al-Din{father's laqab}

Abi al-Qasim{grandfather's kunya}

Thabit{grandfather's ism}

ibn Muhammad{great-grandfather}

ibn Husayn {great-great-grandfather}

ibn Hasan {great-great-great-grandfather}

ibn Rizq Allah{great-great-great-great-grandfather}

al-Qurashi {nisba}

al-Tahhan{laqab ["the miller"])

Index A



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‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan
‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (646-705). Umayyad caliph from 685 to 705 who succeeded in restoring the unity of the Arabs under Syrian leadership by ending the second fitnah. During his tenure, the administration was centralized; Arabic was substituted for Greek and Persian; and Islamic coinage was issued. Also, during his reign, the‘Uthmanic text of the Qur’an was re-edited with vowel-punctuation; the postal service was reorganized and expanded; the damaged Ka'ba was repaired; the tradition of weaving a silk cover for the Ka'ba began; and the Dome of the Rock was built in Jerusalem.

'Abd al-Malik was a well-educated man and a capable ruler, despite the many political problems that impeded his rule. During his reign, all important records were translated into Arabic, and for the first time a special currency for the Muslim world was minted, which led to war with the Byzantine Empire under Justinian II. The Byzantines were led by Leontios at the Battle of Sebastopolis in 692 in Asia Minor and were decisively defeated by 'Abd al-Malik after the defection of a large contingent of Slavs. The Islamic currency was then made the only currency exchange in the Muslim world. Also, many reforms happened in his time as regards agriculture and commerce.

'Abd al-Malik became caliph after the death of his father Marwan I in 685. Within a few years, he dispatched armies, under al-Hajjaj bin Yousef, on a campaign to reassert Umayyad control over the Islamic empire. Hajjaj first defeated the governor of Basra and then led his forces into Hejaz, where Ibn Zubayr was killed -- ending his short claim to the caliphate. The Siege of Mecca in 692 started with Hajjaj at the head of about 2000 Syrians he set out against 'Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, the caliph of Hejaz at Mecca. Hajjaj advanced unopposed as far as his native Taif, which he took without any fighting and used as a base. The caliph had charged him first to negotiate with 'Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr and to assure him of freedom from punishment if he capitulated. However, if the opposition continued, to starve him out by siege, but on no account to let the affair result in bloodshed in the Holy City. Since the negotiations failed and al-Hajjaj lost patience, he sent a courier to ask 'Abd al-Malik for reinforcements and also for permission to take Mecca by force. He received both, and thereupon bombarded Mecca using catapults from the mountain of Abu Qubays. The bombardment continued during the Pilgrimage or Hajj.

After the siege had lasted for seven months and 10,000 men, among them two sons of 'Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, had gone over to al-Hajjaj, 'Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr with a few loyal followers, including his youngest son, were killed in the fighting around the Ka'ba (October 692).

Hajjaj's success led 'Abd al-Malik to assign him the role of governor of Iraq and give him free rein in the territories he controlled. Hajjaj arrived when there were many deserters in Basra and Kufa. He promptly and forcefully impelled them to return to combat. Hajjaj, after years of serious fighting, quelled religious disturbances, including the rebellion launched by Salih ibn Musarrih and continued after Salih's death by Shahib. These rebels repeatedly defeated more numerous forces and at their height entered Kufah. However, 'Abd al-Malik's Syrian reinforcements enabled Hajjaj to turn the tide.

Under Hajjaj, Arab armies put down the revolt of 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath in Iraq from 699 to 701, and also took most of Turkestan. 'Abd al-Rahman rebelled following Hajjaj's repeated orders to push further into the lands of Zundil. After his defeat in Iraq, again achieved through 'Abd al-Malik's dispatch of Syrian reinforcements to Hajjaj, 'Abd al-Rahman returned east. There one city closed its gates to him and in another he was seized. However, Zundil's army arrived and secured his release. Later, 'Abd al-Rahman died and Zundil sent his head to Hajjaj who sent it to 'Abd al-Malik. These victories paved the way for greater expansions under 'Abd al-Malik's son al-Walid.

'Abd al-Malik was effective in increasing the size of the empire. In the Maghreb (western North Africa), in 686, a force led by Zuhayr ibn Qais won the Battle of Mamma over Byzantines and Berbers led Kusayla, on the Qairawan plain, and re-took Ifriqiya and its capital Kairouan.

In 695, Hasan ibn al-Nu'man captured Carthage and advanced into the Atlas Mountains. A Byzantine fleet arrived and retook Carthage. However, in 698, Hasan ibn al-Nu'man returned and defeated Tiberios III at the Battle of Carthage. The Byzantines withdrew from all of Africa except Ceuta.

Hasan met trouble from the Zenata tribe of Berbers under al-Kahina. They inflicted a serious defeat on him and drove him back to Barqa. However, in 702, 'Abd al-Malik strongly reinforced him. With a large army and the support of the settled population of North Africa, Hasan pushed forward. He decisively defeated the Zenata in a battle at Tabarka, 85 miles west of Carthage. He then developed the village of Tunis ten miles from the destroyed Carthage. Around 705, Musa ibn Nusayr replace Hasan. 'Abd al-Malik pacified much of North Africa, although he failed to take Ceuta.


'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan was the first caliph to make his own coins.  These coins -- these dinars -- were the first gold coins with an Arabic inscription, as previously money had been silver Sassanian goins, and gold and copper Byzantine coins.  By making his own coins in 691 or 692, Caliph Abd al-Malik could now keep his rule independent from Byzantium and unify all Muslims with one currency.

The new dinar was copied from the Byzantine currency, the solidus. It was similar in both size and weight, and on the face were three standing figures, like the Byzantine coin, which had the figures of Heracles, Heraclias Constantine, and Heraclonas.  A big difference was the Arabic testimony of Islam surrounding the design on the reverse.  "In the name of God, there is no deity but God; He is One; Muhammad is the messenger of God."

The Byzantine Emperor was furious with this development, as new money meant competition and he refused to accept it, responding with a new coin.  This angered Caliph 'Abd al-Malik, who made another coin with an upright figure of the caliph, wearing an Arab headdress and holding a sword, again with the testimony of Islam on the reverse, where the coin was also dated.

The coin "throwing" continued, and true to form the Byzantine emperor replied with yet another, and by this point in 697 'Abd al-Malik had had enough, and introduced the first Islamic coin withou any figures.  On both sides of this new dinar were verses from the Qur'an, which made each piece an individual message of the faith.  'Abd al-Malik then issued a decree making it the only currency to be used throughout Umayyad lands.  All remaining Byzantine and Arab-Byzantine pieces had to be handed to the treasury, to be melted down and re-struck.  Those we did not comply faced the death penalty.

 

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Amiri, Sarah bint Yousef Al

Sarah bint Yousef Al Amiri (b. 1987, United Arab Emirates) is the Minister of State for Advanced Technology within the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology in the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), chair of the UAE Space Agency, and the United Arab Emirates Council of Scientists, and Deputy Project Manager of the Emirates Mars Mission. 

Amiri was born in the United Arab Emirates in 1987. She studied computer science at the American University of Sharjah,  earning bachelor's and master's degrees.  She was always interested in aerospace engineering but grew up at a time when the United Arab Emirates did not have a space program.

Amiri began her career at the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology, where she worked on DubaiSat-1 and DubaSat-2.  In 2018 she was appointed the chairwoman of the UAE Council for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and in 2016 the head of the Emirates Scientist Council.

In 2020, Amiri was the science lead for the Emirates Mars Mission, Hope.  The mission was partnered with the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of California, Berkeley, and Arizona State University.  She spoke at TEDxDubai Salon about the Hope Mars Mission. In November 2017, Amiri became the first Emirati to speak at an international TED event when she spoke about the Hope Mars Mission in Louisiana. The mission launched in July 2020 and reached Mars in February 2021 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the United Arab Emirates. In 2015, the World Economic Forum honored Amiri as one of its 50 Young Scientists for her contributions to science, technology and engineering.

In October 2017, Amiri was named Minister of State for Advanced Sciences and became a member of the United Arab Emirates Cabinet. In an effort to increase global scientific collaboration,  Amiri toured scientific institutions in the United States in November 2017.  On November 23, 2020, Amiri was placed on the list of the BBC's 100 Women and, in February 2021, she was also named in Time’s 2021 List of Next 100 Most Influential People.


Index B

 



Biruni
Biruni (Abu Raihan Muhammad al-Biruni) (Abu al-Rayhan al-Biruni) (Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad Biruni) (Alberuni) (September 5, 973 - December 13, 1048).  One of the most original and profound scholars of medieval Islam.  Of Iranian origin, he was equally versed in the mathematical, astronomic, physical and natural sciences and also distinguished himself as a geographer and historian, chronologist and linguist and as an impartial observer of customs and creeds.

Al-Biruni  is considered to be one of the most prominent (if not "the" most prominent) of figures in the phalanx of those universally learned Muslim scholars who characterize the Golden Age of Islamic Science.   His great contributions in so many diverse fields earned him the title al-Ustadh -- “the Master” -- the Professor par excellence.    Indeed, some historians have called the period of his activity as “The Age of al-Biruni.”

Abu Raihan Muhammad al-Biruni was born in Khwarizm (now Kara-kalpakskaya in present day Uzbekistan) in 973.  He studied Arabic, Islamic law, and several other fields of knowledge.  Later, he learned Greek, Syriac, and Sanskrit.  His knowledge of several languages helped him in understanding the available disparate scholarship and to bring a fresh and original approach to his work.  Al-Biruni was of the view that whatever the subject one should use every available source in its original form, investigate the available work with objective scrutiny, and carry out research through direct observation and experimentation.

Al-Biruni was a contemporary of the famous physician Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and is known to have corresponded with him.  Al-Biruni’s contributions are so extensive that an index of his written works covers more than sixty pages.  His scientific work combined with the contributions of al-Haitham (Al-Hazen) and other Muslim scientists laid down the early foundation of modern science. 

Al-Biruni made original and important contributions to science.  He discovered seven different ways of finding the direction of the north and south, and discovered mathematical techniques to determine exactly the beginnings of the season.  He also wrote about the sun and its movements and the eclipse.  In addition, he invented a number of astronomical instruments.  Many centuries before the rest of the world, Al-Biruni theorized that the earth rotated on its axis and made accurate calculations of latitude and longitude.  These observations are contained in his book Al-Athar al-Baqia.  He wrote a treatise on timekeeping in the year 1000 of the Christian calendar.

Al-Biruni was the first to conduct elaborate experiments related to astronomical phenomena.  He stated that the speed of light is immense as compared with the speed of sound.  He described the Milky Way as a collection of countless fragments of the nature of nebulous stars.  Al-Biruni described his observation of the solar eclipse of April 8, 1019, and the lunar eclipse of September 17, 1019.  He observed the lunar eclipse at Ghazna and gave precise details of the exact altitude of various well-known stars at the moment of first contact.  Al-Biruni’s book Al-Tafhim-li-Awail Sina’at al-Tanjim summarizes work on mathematics and astronomy. 

Al-Biruni’s contributions in physics include an accurate determination of the specific weight of eighteen elements and compounds including many metals and precious stones.  His book Kitab-al-Jamahir discusses the properties of various precious stones.  He was a pioneer in the study of angles and trigonometry.  He worked on shadows and chords of circles and developed a method for the trisection of an angle.  He elaborated on the principle of position and discussed Indian numerals.

In the fields of geology and geography, al-Biruni contributed on geological eruptions and metallurgy, to the measurement of the longitudes and latitudes and methods of determining the relative position of one place to another.  He explained the working of natural springs and artesian wells by the hydrostatic principle of communicating vessels.  His book Al-Athar al-Baqiyah fi Qanun al-Khaliyah (The Chronology of Ancient Nations) deals with ancient history and geography.  Al-Biruni observed that flowers have 3, 4, 5, 6, or 18 petals, but never seven or nine. 

Al-Biruni is most commonly known by his association with Mahmud of Ghazna, a famous Muslim king who also ruled India, and his son Sultan Masud.  Impressed by his scholarship and fame, Mahmud took al-Biruni along with him on his journeys to India several times.   Al-Biruni traveled many places in India for about 20 years and studied Hindu philosophy, mathematics, geography and religion from various learned men.  In return, he taught them Greek and Muslim sciences and philosophy.

Al-Biruni’s book Kitab al-Hind (Ta’rikh al-Hind -- History of India), completed in 1030, provides a detailed account of Indian life, religions, languages, and cultures and includes many observations on geography.  He stated that the Indus Valley must be considered as an ancient sea basin filled with alluvials.  In this book, al-Biruni mentions two books Patanjal and Sakaya.  He translated these two Sanskrit books into Arabic.  The former book deals with after death accounts, and the latter with the creation of things and their types.  Abu-al-Fadal’s book Aein-i-Akbari, written six centuries later during the reign of Akbar, was influenced by al-Biruni’s book.

Al-Biruni wrote his famous book Al-Qanun al-Masudi Fi al-Hai‘a Wa al-Nujum (1030) after he returned from India.  The book was dedicated to Sultan Masud and it discusses several theorems of trigonometry, astronomy, solar, lunar and planetary motions, and contains a collection of twenty-three observations of equinoxes.  Another well-known books is Kitab al-Saidana.  This book is an extensive materia medicia that synthesizes Arab medicine with Indian medicine.  His investigations included a description of Siamese twins.  He also wrote on the astrolabe and a mechanical calendar.

Al-Biruni was a scientist who was always mindful of his faith, and who believed himself to be blessed in his scientific endeavors.  He said:  "My experience in the study of astronomy and geometry and experiments in physics revealed to me that there must be a Planning Mind of Unlimited Power.  My discoveries in astronomy showed that there are fantastic intricacies in the universe which prove that there is a creative system and a meticulous control that cannot be explained through sheer physical and material causes."

When Sultan Masud sent al-Biruni three camel loads of silver coins in appreciation of his encyclopedic work Al-Qanun al-Masudi (The Mas’udi Canon), al-Biruni politely returned the royal gift saying, "I serve knowledge for the sake of knowledge and not for money."

Some of al-Biruni's works which were well known in Medieval Europe were: The Chronology of Ancient Nations (Al-Athar al-Baqiya), in which al-Birunu treats the eras, traditions, and histories of the various religious and ethnic groups, known in medieval Islam; The Determination of Coordinates of Cities, the most extensive treatise on mathematical geography written in medieval times; and his Pharmacology, a detailed compilation of sources on drugs known in antiquity and medieval times. 

Without a doubt, al-Biruni was one of the greatest scientists of all times.  However, in spite of his prolific and diverse output, medieval biographers devoted only a few lines to him and the European Latin translators of Arabic manuscripts showed little interest in his works.  In comparison to the honored treatment rendered his contemporaries Ibn Sina and Ibn al-Haitham, al-Biruni was relatively ignored.  The reason for this disregard may lie in the fact that while obviously gifted in scientific and historical matters, al-Biruni was not particularly adept in the more esteemed philosophical matters and, as such, was not well regarded amongst his contemporaries.  Nevertheless, when al-Biruni died in 1048 in Ghazna (Afghanistan), his death brought to an end an illustrious and productive forty-year career.

Al-Biruni was one of the greatest scholars of medieval Islam.  He was both a singular compiler of the knowledge and scientific traditions of ancient cultures and a leading innovator in Islamic science.

Abu al-Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni was born in 973 in Khiva, Khwarizm (in modern day Uzbekistan).  He was of Iranian descent and spent most of his childhood and young adult years in his homeland of Khwarizm, south of the Aral Sea.  (His sobriquet derives from birun – “suburb” -- in reference to his birth in an outlying neighborhood of Khiva.)  Little is known of al-Biruni’s childhood except for the important matter of his education, which was directed by the best local mathematicians and other scholars.  His exceptional intellectual powers must have become apparent very early.  Al-Biruni’s religious background was Shi‘a, although in later years he professed agnostic leanings.  A precocious youth, while still a student in Khwarizm, al-Biruni entered into correspondence with Avicenna (Ibn Sina), one of the leading lights of Islamic medicine.  Some of Avicenna’s replies are preserved in the British Museum.

Although he published some material as a young student, the scope of al-Biruni’s intellectual powers only became apparent when he left Khwarizm to travel and learn abroad.  In al-Biruni’s age, the key to scholarly success lay in attaching oneself to a powerful and influential court society and obtaining noble patronage.  He found the first of many such benefactors in the Samanid sultan Mansur II, after whose demise he took up residence in the important intellectual center of Jurjan, southeast of the Caspian Sea.  From here, al-Biruni was able to travel throughout northeastern Iran.

While at Jurjan, al-Biruni produced his first major work, al-Athar al-baqiyah ‘an al-qurun al-khaliyah (The Chronology of Ancient Nations).  This work is an imposing compilation of calendars and eras from many cultures.  It also deals with numerous issues in mathematics, astronomy, geography, and meteorology.  The work is in Arabic -- the major scientific and cultural language of the time -- as are nearly all of al-Biruni’s later writings, although al-Biruni himself was a native speaker of an Iranian dialect.  As would have been common among Muslim scholars of his time, al-Biruni was also fluent in Hebrew and Syriac, the major cultural and administrative languages in the Semitic world prior to the Arab conquest. 
 
Around 1008, al-Biruni returned to his homeland of Khwarizm at the invitation of the local shah, who subsequently entrusted him with several important diplomatic missions.  In 1017, however, his tranquil life as a scholar-diplomat took a rude turn.  The shah lost his life in a military uprising, and shortly thereafter forces of the powerful Ghaznavid dynasty of neighboring Afghanistan invaded Khwarizm.  Together with many other scholars -- as part of the booty of war -- al-Biruni found himself led away to Ghazna, which was to become his home base for the remainder of his life.

Ironically, this deportation afforded al-Biruni his greatest intellectual opportunity.  The Ghaznavids appreciated scholarly talent, and the sultan, Mahmud, attached al-Biruni to his court as official astronomer/astrologer.  Mahmud was in the process of expanding his frontiers in every direction.   The most coveted lands were in India, and during the sultan’s campaigns there al-Biruni was able to steep himself in the world of Hindu learning.  In India, he taught eager scholars his store of Greek, Persian, and Islamic knowledge.  In return, he acquired fluency in Sanskrit, the doorway to what was, for al-Biruni, essentially a whole new intellectual universe. 

In 1030, al-Biruni completed his marvelous Tar’ikh al-Hind. This masterpiece remains, in the eyes of many scholars, the most important treatise on Indian history and culture produced by anyone prior to the twentieth century.  The degree of scholarly detachment and objectivity displayed in al-Biruni's history of India is almost without parallel for the time, and the work consequently is still of enormous value to contemporary scholars. 

Almost at the same time, al-Biruni produced another work dedicated to the sultan Mas‘ud ibn Mahmud, heir to the Ghaznavid throne.  Kitab al-qanun al-Mas‘udi fi ‘l-hay’a wa ‘l-nujum (Canon Masudicus -- c. 1030) is the largest and most important of al-Biruni’s mathematical and geographical studies.

During his long and productive life, al-Biruni authored many other treatises of varying length -- he himself claimed to have produced more than one hundred -- in addition to those mentioned above.  They include essays on arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and astrology, a pioneering effort in mineralogical classification, and, toward the end of his career, material on the medical sciences.  His compendia of Indian and Chinese minerals, drugs, potions, and other concoctions, still not systematically studied, may be of immense value to pharmacology.  Some of these works have been lost.  They are known only through references by other scholars.  Many survive but await translation into European languages.

In the golden age of medieval Islam, a small number of incredibly versatile and creative intellects stood at the interface of Semitic, Hellenistic, Persian, and Hindu culture and learning.  Their syntheses and insights often brought about quantum leaps in scientific and historical thought in Islam -- so vast, in fact, that in some cases their achievements were fully appreciated only by later ages better prepared to comprehend them.  Al-Biruni was one of these intellects and, for some historians, the most important of all.  The Chronology of Ancient Nations, for example, constitutes an unprecedented attempt to periodize the history of the known world by comparing and cross-referencing large numbers of chronologies and calendrical systems.  His work provides a basis for chronological studies which has yet to be fully exploited.


Al-Biruni’s immense store of astronomical and geographical knowledge led him to the verge of modern scientific ideas about the earth and the universe.  He was familiar with the concept that Earth rotates on its axis to produce the apparent movement of celestial bodies, rather than those bodies revolving around Earth (although he did not necessarily endorse the idea).  His insights with respect to geography were profound.  On the basis of reports of various flotsam found in the seas, al-Biruni reasoned that the continent of Africa must be surrounded by water, thus taking exception with the Ptolemaic cosmography popular in Christendom, which held that Africa extended indefinitely to the south.  Upon examining the Indus Valley in what is now Pakistan, al-Biruni correctly guessed that it had once been a shallow sea filled in through the centuries by alluvial deposits from the river.  Al-Biruni also explained the operation of artesian springs and wells essentially in terms of modern hydrostatic principles.  He devised a system of geographical coordinates which is still a marvel to cartographers.

In medieval Islam, the significance of scholarship may often be determined by how frequently a scholar’s materials were copied by later generations of researchers (a practice for which modern scholars are grateful, since much otherwise would now be lost.  The thirteenth century geographer Yaqut, for example, cited al-Biruni extensively in his own work.  Yaqut’s material on oceanography and general cosmography is drawn almost verbatim from his illustrious predecessor. 

Like many scholars in Islam’s golden age, al-Biruni was a polymath, a Renaissance man before there was a Renaissance.  Some modern scholars have criticized him for writing extensively on astrology, usually at the behest of his noble patrons.  Astrology, however, was in a certain sense a means of popularizing the science of the time, and al-Biruni most likely used it to reach a lay audience, just as contemporary popular science writers often simplify and make use of analogy.  He seems to have regarded astrology as a gesture to simple people who wanted immediate, practical results from science.

Al-Biruni’s astounding versatility has prompted some to place him in a league with Leonardo da Vinci as one of the greatest geniuses of all time.  The most appropriate description, however, comes from his students, patrons, and other contemporaries.  To them, al-Biruni was simply “The Master.” 



al-Ustadh see Biruni
Abu Raihan Muhammad al-Biruni see Biruni
Abu al-Rayhan al-Biruni see Biruni
“The Master” see Biruni
Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad Biruni see Biruni

Index C

Index D

 Dimashqi 


Shams al-Din al-Ansari al-Dimashqi or simply al-Dimashqi (Arabic: شمس الدين الأنصاري الدمشقي‎) (1256–1327) was a medieval Arab geographer, completing his main work in 1300. Born in Damascus — as his name "Dimashqi" implies—he mostly wrote of his native land, the Greater Syria (Bilad ash-Sham), upon the complete withdrawal of the Crusaders. He became a contemporary of the Mamluk sultan Baibars, the general who led the Muslims in war against the Crusaders. His work is of value in connection with the Crusader Chronicles. He died while in Safad, in 1327.

Al-Dimashqi (1325) gives very detailed accounts of each island in the Malay archipelago, its population, flora, fauna and customs. He mentions "the country of Champa ... is inhabited by Muslims and idolaters. The Islam came there during the time of Caliph Uthman ... and Ali, many Muslims who were expelled by the Umayyads and by Al-Hajjaj, fled there, and since then a majority of the Cham have embraced Islam."

Of their rivals the Khmer, Al-Dimashqi (1325) mentions they inhabit the island of Komor (Khmer), also called Malay Island, a land of many towns and cities, rich-dense forests with huge, tall trees, and white elephants; they supplemented their income from the trade routes not only by exporting ivory and aloe, but also by engaging in piracy and raiding on Muslim and Chinese shipping.

Index E

Index F

Razi, Fakhr al-Din al-

Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (Fakhruddin Razi) (1149 or 1150 – 1209) often known by the sobriquet "Sultan of the Theologians", was a Persian polymath, an influential Islamic scholar and one of the pioneers of inductive logic. He wrote various works in the fields of medicine, chemistry, physics, astronomy, cosmology, literature, theology, ontology, philosophy, history, and jurisprudence. He was one of the earliest proponents and skeptics that came up with the concept of the Multiverse, and compared it with the astronomical teachings of Qur'an.  An ardent opponent to the geocentric model and the Aristotelian notions of a single universe revolving around a single world, Al-Razi argued for the existence of an outer space beyond the known world.

Al-Razi was born in Ray, Iran, and died in Herat, Afghanistan.  He left a very rich corpus of philosophical and theological works that reveals influences from the works of Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Abu'l-Baralat al-Baghdadi, and al-Ghazali.  Two of his works titled Mabāhith al-mashriqiyya fī ‘ilm al-ilāhiyyāt wa-'l-tabi‘iyyāt (Eastern Studies in Metaphysics and Physics) and al-Matālib al-‘Aliya (The Higher Issues) are usually regarded as his most important works.


Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, whose full name was Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Ḥusayn, was born in 1149 or 1150 CC (543 or 544 AH) in Ray (close to modern day Tehran), whence his nisba (an adjective indicating the person's place of origin, tribal affiliation, or ancestry), "al-Razi". According to Ibn al-Sha' 'ar al-Mawsili (died 1256), one of al-Razi's earliest biographers, al-Razi's great-grandfather had been a rich merchant in Mecca. Either his great-grandfather or his grandfather migrated from Mecca to Tabaristan (a mountainous region located on the Caspian Sea coast of northern Iran) in the 11th century of the Christian calendar, and some time after that the family settled in Ray. Having been born into a family of Meccan origin, al-Razi claimed descent from the first caliph Abu Bakr (c. 573–634 CC), and was known by medieval biographers as al-Qurashī (a member of the Quraysh, the tribe of the prophet Muhammad to which also Abu Bakr belonged). However, it is not clear from which precise lines of descent al-Razi envisioned his purported ties with Abu Bakr, and the poet Ibn 'Unayn (d. 1233 CC) actually praised al-Razi for being a descendant of the second caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab (d. 644 CC).


Fakhr al-Din first studied with his father, Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn al-Makkī, himself a scholar of some repute who wrote a magnum opus in Kalam (Islamic scholastic theology).  Al-Razi later studied at Merv and Maragheh,  where he was one of the pupils of Majd al-Din al-Jili, who in turn had been a disciple of al-Ghazali.  


Fakhr al-Din became a leading proponent of the Ash'ari school of theology. His commentary on the Qur'an was the most-varied and many-sided of all extant works of the kind, comprising most of the material of importance that had previously appeared. He devoted himself to a wide range of studies and is said to have expended a large fortune on experiments in alchemy. He taught at Ray (Central Iran) and Ghazni (eastern Afghanhistan), and became head of the university founded by Mohammed ibn Tukush at Herat (western Afghanistan).


In his later years, Fakhr al-Din also showed interest in mysticism, although this never formed a significant part of his scholastic work. He died in Herat (Afghanistan) in 1209 CC (606 AH), where his tomb is still venerated today.


One of al-Razi's outstanding achievements was his unique interpretive work on the Qur'an  called Mafātiḥ al-Ghayb (Keys to the Unseen) and later nicknamed Tafsīr al-Kabīr (The Great Commentary).  It was called Tafsir al-Kabir because it was 32 volumes in length. This work contains much of philosophical interest. One of al-Razi's major concerns was the self-sufficiency of the intellect. His acknowledgment of the primacy of the Qur'an grew with his years. Al-Razi's rationalism -- his epistemological view the regarded reason as the chief source and test of knowledge -- undoubtedly held an important place in the debate in the Islamic tradition on the harmonization of reason and revelation. 


Al-Razi's development of Kalam (Islamic scholastic theology) led to the evolution and flourishing of theology among Muslims. Al-Razi experienced different periods in his thinking, affected by the Ash'ari school of thought and later by al-Ghazali. Al-Razi tried to make use of elements of Mu tazila and Falsafah, and although he had some criticisms of Ibn Sina (Avicenna), al-Razi was, nevertheless, greatly affected by him. The most important instance showing the synthesis of al-Razi's thought may be the problem of the eternity of the world and its relation to God. He tried to reorganize the arguments of theologians and philosophers on this subject, collected and critically examined the arguments of both sides. He considered, for the most part, the philosophers' argument for the world's eternity stronger than the theologians' position of putting emphasis on the temporal nature of the world. It is perhaps best to view al-Razi's theoretical life as a journey from a young dialectician -- a young philosopher who views the world in terms of complementary opposites -- to a more religious condition.  Indeed, it appears that al-Razi came to present different thoughts of diverse schools, such as those of Mutazilite and Asharite, in his exegesis, The Great Commentary.


Al-Razi, in dealing with his conception of physics and the physical world in his Matalib al-‘Aliya, criticizes the idea of the geocentric model within the universe and explores the notion of the existence of a multiverse in the context of his commentary on the Quranic verse, "All praise belongs to God, Lord of the Worlds." Al-Razi raises the question of whether the term "Worlds" in this verse refers to multiple worlds within this single universe or cosmos, or to many other universes or a multiverse beyond this known universe.

Al-Razi states:

It is established by evidence that there exists beyond the world a void without a terminal limit (khala' la nihayata laha), and it is established as well by evidence that God Most High has power over all contingent beings (al-mumkinat ). Therefore He the Most High has the power (qadir ) to create millions of worlds (alfa alfi 'awalim) beyond this world such that each one of those worlds be bigger and more massive than this world as well as having the like of what this world has of the throne (al-arsh), the chair (al-kursiyy), the heavens (al-samawat ) and the earth (al-ard ), and the sun (al-shams) and the moon (al-qamar ). The arguments of the philosophers (dala'il al-falasifah) for establishing that the world is one are weak, flimsy arguments founded upon feeble premises.

Al-Razi rejected the Aristotelian and Avicennian notions of a single universe revolving around a single world. He describes their main arguments against the existence of multiple worlds or universes, pointing out their weaknesses and refuting them. This rejection arose from his affirmation of atomism -- the natural philosophy proposing that the physical universe is composed of fundamental indivisible components known as atoms -- as advocated by the Ash'ari school of Islamic theology.  Atomism proposes the existence of vacant space in which the atoms move, combine and separate Al-Razi discussed more on the issue of the void – the empty spaces between stars and constellations in the universe, that contain few or no stars – in greater detail in volume 5 of the Matalib. There he argued that there exists an infinite outer space beyond the known world, and that God has the power to fill the vacuum with an infinite number of universes.


Al-Razi had written over a hundred works on a wide variety of subjects. His major works include:

  • Tafsir al-Kabir (The Great Commentary) (also known as Mafatih al-Ghayb)
  • Asraar at-Tanzeel wa Anwaar at-Ta'weel (The Secrets of Revelation & The Lights of Interpretation). Tafsir of selected verses from the Qur'an 

(Note: This work should not be confused with the book of Tafsir by Nasir al-Din al-Baydawi called: Anwaar at-Tanzeel wa Asraar at-Ta'weel (The Lights of Revelation and The Secrets of Interpretation) or more commonly Tafsir al-Baydawi.) 

  • Asas al-Taqdis (The Foundation of Declaring Allah's Transcendence) -- A refutation of Ibn Khuzayma, the Karramite, and the Anthropomorphists. 
  • ‘Aja’ib al-Qur’an (The Mysteries of the Qur'an)
  • Al-Bayan wa al-Burhan fi al-Radd ‘ala Ahl al-Zaygh wa al-Tughyan
  • Al-Mahsul fi ‘Ilm al-Usul
  • Al-Muwakif fi ‘Ilm al-Kalam
  • ‘Ilm al-Akhlaq (Science of Ethics)
  • Kitab al-Firasa (Book on Firasa)
  • Kitab al-Mantiq al-Kabir (Major Book on Logic)
  • Kitab al-nafs wa’l-ruh wa sharh quwa-huma (Book on the Soul and the Spirit and their Faculties)
  • Mabahith al-mashriqiyya fi ‘ilm al-ilahiyyat wa-’l-tabi‘iyyat (Eastern Studies in Metaphysics and Physics)
  • Al-Matālib al-‘Āliyyah min al- 'ilm al-ilahī (The Higher Issues) – his last work. Al-Razi wrote al-Matālib during his writing of al-Tafsir and he died before completing both works.
  • Muḥaṣṣal Afkār al-Mutaqaddimīn wal-Muta'akhkhirīn (The Harvest/Compendium of the Thought of the Ancients and Moderns)
  • Nihayat al ‘Uqul fi Dirayat al-Usul
  • Risala al-Huduth
  • Sharh al-Isharat (Commentary on the al-Isharat wa-al-Tanbihat of Ibn Sina)
  • Sharh Asma' Allah al-Husna (Commentary on Asma' Allah al-Husna)
  • Sharh Kulliyyat al-Qanun fi al-Tibb (Commentary on Canon of Medicine)
  • Sharh Nisf al-Wajiz li'l-Ghazali (Commentary on Nisf al-Wajiz of Al-Ghazali )
  • Sharh Uyun al-Hikmah (Commentary on Uyun al-Hikmah)
  • Kitāb al-Arba'īn Fī Uṣūl al-Dīn'


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Farabi
Farabi (Abu Nasr Muhammad al-Farabi) (Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Tarkhan ibn Uzalagh al-Farabi) (Abu Nasr ibn Muhammad ibn Tarkhan ibn Auzlagh al-Farabi) (Abu al-Nasr Muhammad ibn al-Farakh al-Farabi) (al-Pharabius) (Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Tarḫān ibn Awzlaġ al-Fārābi) (Alpharabius) (b. c. 872 – d. between December 14, 950 and January 12, 951).  Muslim polymath and one of the greatest scientists and philosophers of Persia and the Islamic world of his time.  He was also a cosmologist, logician, musician, psychologist and sociologist.  He became known in the West under the names of Alfarabius (Alpharabius) and Avennasar (Abunaser).

Al-Farabi was a major contributor to philosophy, logic, sociology and science.  He was best known as the “Second Teacher” (al-Mou’allim al-Thani), Aristotle being the first.  Al-Farabi was largely responsible for cementing the position of Peripatetic philosophy at the core of nearly all philosophic thought in the Islamic world (and also, derivatively, much of the Christian world) through such an extensive series of written commentaries on Aristotle’s works that philosophical studies thereafter were dominated by his commentaries.   Al-Farabi’s other major achievement was the creation of a cogent theory of an Islamic political philosophy based on Plato’s notions of supreme ruler-philosopher.  This theory allowed a rational explanation of prophecy and the relatively unique role of prophetic revelation in a particular time and place.  It also provided a universal definition of the purpose and goal of human society and government in general.

Al-Farabi, whose Latin name is Alfarabius, was born in Farab, Transoxiana (now Uzbekistan), of Turkish parentage.  His ancestors were originally of Persian descent and his father was a general.  After completing his education at Farab and Bukhara, he moved to Baghdad for higher studies, where his teachers were Christian Syrians expert in Greek philosophy.  In Baghdad, al-Farabi studied several languages, science and technology, and philosophy.  He also traveled to Damascus and Egypt for further studies.  Eventually he came to live at the court of Sayf ad-Dawla (916-967), the ruler of Aleppo (now in Syria).  Al-Farabi died a bachelor in Damascus in 950.

Al-Farabi was a qadi (a judge) in the early years of his long career.  He eventually decided to take up teaching as his profession.  Al-Farabi showed remarkable competence in several languages.  Due to his exceptional talents in several branches of science and philosophy, he received the attention of King Saif al-Dawla at Halab (Aleppo).  However, due to some unfortunate circumstances, he suffered great hardships and was once demoted to the position of caretaker of a garden.

Al-Farabi’s major contributions were in logic, philosophy and sociology.  He also contributed immensely to mathematics, science, medicine, and music.  He was also an encyclopedist.  Al-Farabi’s great contribution in logic was that he made the study of logic systematic by dividing the subject into two categories: takhayyul (idea) and thubut (proof).  Al-Farabi attempted to reconcile Platonism and Aristotelism with theology and wrote commentaries on physics, logic, and meteorology.  Al-Farabi held the belief that philosophy and Islam are in harmony.  He proved the existence of the void in his contribution to physics.  His book Kitab al-Ihsa al-‘Ulum presents fundamental principles and classification of sciences from a fresh perspective.

Al-Farabi wrote several books on sociology, the most famous of which is the book entitled ‘Ara Ahl al-Madina al-Fadila’ (The Model City).  It is a significant contribution to sociology and political science.  He also wrote books on metaphysics and psychology that included his original work.  Al-Farabi states that an isolated individual cannot achieve all the perfections by himself and without the aid of many other individuals.  It is the innate disposition of every man to join another human being or other men in the labor he ought to perform.  Therefore, to achieve what he can of that perfection, every man needs to stay in the neighborhood of others and associate with them. 

Al-Farabi was also an expert in music.  He contributed to musical notes and invented several musical instruments.  Al-Farabi could play his instruments so well as to make people laugh or weep.  His book on music, entitled Kitab al-Musiqa, was well known.

Al-Farabi wrote a large number of books in several fields that include his original contribution.  One hundred seventeen books are known to have survived.  Of these, forty-three books are on logic, seven each on political science and ethics, eleven on metaphysics, and twenty-eight books on medicine, sociology, music and commentaries.  Al-Farabi’s book ‘Fusus al-Hikam was used as a text book of philosophy for several centuries in Europe.  He had great influence on science and philosophy for several centuries.

Al-Farabi, like many other Muslim philosophers, traveled widely, visiting centers of learning and meeting with the learned masters of his time.  He spent the last few years of his life in Aleppo, at the court of Sayf-ad-Dawlah.

Al-Farabi was one of the earliest Islamic thinkers to transmit to the Arab world the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle (which he considered essentially identical), thereby greatly influencing such later Islamic philosophers as Avicenna and Averroes.

Influenced in his metaphysical views by both Aristotle and the Neoplatonist Roman philosopher Plotinus, al-Farabi posited a Supreme Being who had created the world through the exercise of rational intelligence.  He believed this same rational faculty to be the sole part of the human being that is immortal, and thus he set as the paramount human goal the development of the rational faculty.  Al-Farabi gave considerably more attention to political theory than did any other Islamic philosopher, adapting the Platonic system (as developed in Plato’s Republic and Laws) to the contemporary Muslim political situation in The Perfect City.

Al-Farabi was the first Islamic philosopher to uphold the primacy of philosophical truth over revelation, claiming that, contrary to the beliefs of various other religions, philosophical truth is the same throughout the world.  He formulated as an ideal a universal religion in which all other existing religions are considered symbolic expressions of the universal religion.  Of about 100 works by al-Farabi, many have been lost, including his commentaries on Aristotle.  Many others have been preserved in medieval Latin translations only.  In addition to his philosophical writings, al-Farabi compiled a Catalogue of Sciences, the first Muslim work to attempt a systematization of human knowledge.  He also made a contribution to musical theory in his Great Book of Music.

Al-Farabi’s philosophy represents the first serious attempt in Islamic philosophy to bring about a rapprochement between the teachings of Plato and Aristotle. It was toward this end that he wrote many commentaries and expositions on Plato’s and Aristotle’s treatises.  Despite such commentaries, he came to be known for his works on logic and political philosophy.  In logic, ethics, and metaphysics he followed Aristotle; in politics he preferred Plato.

Al-Farabi argues that all existing beings are divided into necessary and possible existents.  Necessary beings exist by virtue of themselves and need no external cause of their existence.  Possible beings are those that can exist or not exist, and their existence requires an external cause.  Farabi then goes on to argue that if one were to strip all the accidental (unnecessary) attributes of a existent thing, what would be left is the essence of that thing.  Therefore, all existent beings for Farabi consist of an essence to which existence is added.  It is only God, Farabi tells us, for whom essence and existence are one and the same.

Farabi’s views on the origin of the world seem to have been influenced by the Neoplatonic doctrine of emanation.  According to Farabi, God, in contemplating himself, emanates an intellect from himself and from this intellect, which contemplates itself, emanates the Second Intellect, and so forth until the Tenth Intellect, which Farabi calls the “Agent Intellect.”  These intellects, for Farabi, provide the intermediary world between the incorporeal world and ours, the world of generation and corruption.

Al-Farabi, who interprets Aristotle’s account of the intellects in his own way, argues that Aristotle believes in four different intellects.   These intellects are: Intellect in Potentiality, which he identifies with the human soul and its ability to think; Intellect in Actuality, which is their realization within the corporeal world of the intelligible; the Acquired Intellect, which to him is attained when the intellect in actuality reflects upon the intelligible; and finally there is the Agent Intellect, which is the cause of thinking. 

Al-Farabi is perhaps the greatest logician of Islam.  He undertook an extensive study and critique of the entire Aristotelian Organon.  His principal contributions to logic were his analysis of principles of syllogistic reduction, his emphasis on hypothetical and disjunctive syllogisms (arguments involving “if ... then ...” and “either ... or ...” premises), his discussion of induction, and his account of the use of the categorical syllogism in arguments by analogy.  In addition to these significant contributions, he also offered an in-depth treatment of the status of future contingencies and the determination of future events.

Post-Farabi Muslim logicians remained under his influence.  Even those who modified or criticized his views often came to know of Aristotle through his eyes.  The most notable example is Ibn Sina (Avicenna), who was highly influenced by Farabi’s view on logic.

Al-Farabi believed that there is but one fundamental religion and that the various religions were manifestations of it.  Affirming the truth of all religions, al-Farabi maintained that each religion is applicable to its particular milieu.  All religions, therefore, are like points on the circumference of a circle aiming at the center, which is God.  What differentiates people is not the variety of religions they profess, but ignorance of the fact that all persons are manifestations of God on different planes of reality and at different stages of spiritual progress.

Expanding upon the oneness of truth, Farabi elaborates on the notion of prophecy.  Farabi’s interpretation of prophecy, a view that brought condemnation from orthodox scholars, led him to consider a prophet as someone who has mastered philosophy as well as spirituality.  A prophet in Farabi’s view is a perfect human being, one who has actualized all of that person’s intellectual and spiritual potentialities.  According to Farabi, the traditional concept of prophecy, in which God chooses a prophet based on his own will, is incorrect.

Once human perfection is attained, the prophet assumes two responsibilities, being a philosopher and being a statesman.  The acquired intellect of the philosopher through its contact with the Agent Intellect brings about illumination, which Farabi identifies as revelation (wahy).  The prophet, in addition to being a perfect philosopher, is a perfect statesman whose primary responsibility is to govern the state justly.  In order to govern, the prophet must use his illuminated intellect to make decisions that will insure the common good of the people.

For Farabi, the philosophical mind at the peak of its development becomes like matter to the Active Intellect.  Prophets are those who have attained this state and go beyond the philosophical truth to imaginative truth, which is then transformed into symbols, figures, and actions, through which societies can be moved towards a greater degree of moral insight and ethical practice.

Since all things come into being from a single cause, Farabi declares, a good state follows the principle of having a prophet-philosopher as the ruler, and hence the cause of the good state.  The prophetic aspect of the ruler enables him to communicate with the masses, who understand only the language of persuasion.  The prophet’s philosophical side, on the other hand, allows the prophet as ruler to speak to the intellectual elite, who can understand reasoning and will accept only that which is rationally justifiable.  This view of the prophet as ruler also implies that the principles of religion ultimately are consistent with philosophical principles and that the apparent inconsistency between religion and philosophy stems from the failure to realize that each one is designed for a different task.

According to Farabi, the human being has an innate yearning for community life, and as such attains happiness only within the state.  Following Plato, Farabi believes that people are happy if and only if they fulfill the function for which they were created.  Since human beings are unequal in that they have various capacities for service, it is therefore the responsibility of the state to insure that its citizens are placed where their true nature can best be utilized. 

Like Plato in the Republic, Farabi models his ideal state after the human body.  As a natural model in which there exists a hierarchy consisting of mind, spirit, and body.  The highest level in this hierarchy -- the mind -- has a natural right to dominate and harmonize the lower levels.  In government, accordingly, the prophet is the “unruled ruler,” who governs by virtue of his divine wisdom.

Some historians of philosophy contend that Farabi was likely a Shi‘ite since he was patronized by Sayf ad-Dawlah, a Shi‘ite king, and therefore his political philosophy should be viewed in that context.   That is, the ruler of the Farabian state would resemble a Shi‘ite imam, who as possessor of divine wisdom, with access to esoteric truth, is therefore qualified to rule.

Since a good state is a natural state and it is only natural for human beings to want to be happy, it is the responsibility of the state to insure that its citizens be happy, according to Farabi.  He treats the subject of happiness and its attainment extensively. 

There are three alternative interpretations of the nature of happiness according to Farabi: happiness as a purely theoretical activity, happiness as a practical activity exclusively, and happiness as a harmonious combination of the theoretical and the practical.

Arguing that theoretical excellence brings about practical excellence, Farabi concludes that it is the task of philosophy to actualize the perfection of the theoretical.  Accordingly, Farabi argues that human perfection as the ultimate goal is achieved by a rapprochement of theoretical and practical reason.  Although Farabi contended that theoretical perfection is to be sought through metaphysical inquiry, there are indications that Farabi believed that, practically speaking, theoretical perfection could not be attained even in the best of cases. 

Although the practical component of happiness is presented by Farabi as a private activity of a moral nature, true happiness, according to him, is possible only within the context of a society.  Thus, Farabi emphasizes the necessity of a perfect political order and a supreme ruler whose virtuous character can bestow happiness upon the citizens.  The purpose of life for Farabi is the full development of the rational faculty and the attainment of truth through philosophical contemplation.  Such an end in life can be fulfilled only in well-organized societies wherein just rulers govern.  However, to be just one needs the type of theoretical wisdom that makes it possible to devise practical laws.  Farabi states that those societies that are governed by rulers who are the repositories of philosophical wisdom are “good societies," while others are "ignorant" or “misguided" societies. 


Abu al-Nasr Muhammad ibn al-Farakh al-Farabi see Farabi
Abu Nasr Muhammad al-Farabi see Farabi
Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Tarkhan ibn Uzalagh al-Farabi see Farabi
Avennasar see Farabi
Alfarabius see Farabi
Second Teacher see Farabi

Index G

Index H

Index I

Ibn al-Haytham
Ibn al-Haytham (Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham) (Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham) (Alhazen) (Avennathan) (965 in Basra - c. 1039 in Cairo).  Arab mathematician known in the West as Alhazen or Avennathan.   He is considered to be Islam’s greatest scientist who devoted his life to physics, astronomy, mathematics, and medicine.  His treatise Optics, in which he deftly used experiments and advanced mathematics to understand the action of light, exerted a profound influence on many European natural philosophers.  In addition to his Latinized names of Alhazen and Avennathan, Ibn al-Haytham is sometimes called al-Basri.  He is also nicknamed Ptolemaeus Secundus ("Ptolemy the Second") or simply "The Physicist" in medieval Europe.

Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham (commonly known as Alhazen, the Latinized form of his first name, al-Hasan) was born in Basra (Iraq) in 965.  He was given a traditional Muslim education, but at an early age he became perplexed by the variety of religious beliefs and sects, because he was convinced of the unity of truth.  When he was older, he concluded that truth could be attained only in doctrines whose matter was sensible and whose form was rational.  He found such doctrines in the writings of Aristotle and in natural philosophy and mathematics. 

By devoting himself completely to learning, Alhazen achieved fame as a scholar and was given a political post at Basra.  In an attempt to obtain a better position, he claimed that he could construct a machine to regulate the flooding of the Nile.  The Fatimid caliph al-Hakim, wishing to use this sage’s expertise, persuaded him to move to Cairo.  Alhazen, to fulfill his boast, was trapped into heading an engineering mission to Egypt’s southern border.  On his way to Aswan, he began to have doubts about his plan, for he observed excellently designed and perfectly constructed buildings along the Nile, and he realized that his scheme, if it were possible, would have already been carried out by the creators of these impressive structures.  His misgivings were confirmed when he discovered that the cataracts south of Aswan made flood control impossible.  Convinced of the impracticability of his plan, and fearing the wrath of the eccentric and volatile caliph, Alhazen pretended to be mentally deranged.  Upon his return to Cairo, he was confined to his house until al-Hakim’s death in 1021. 

Alhazen then took up residence in a small domed shrine near the Azhar mosque.  Having been given back his previously sequestered property, he resumed his activities as a writer and teacher.  He may have earned his living by copying mathematical works, including Euclid’s Stoicheia (c. fourth century B.C.T.; Elements) and Mathematike suntaxis (c.150; Almagest), and may also have traveled and had contact with other scholars.

The scope of Alhazen’s work is impressive.  He wrote studies on mathematics, physics, astronomy, and medicine, as well as commentaries on the writings of Aristotle and Galen.  He was an exact observer, a skilled experimenter, and an insightful theoretician.  He put these abilities to excellent use in the field of optics.  He has been called the most important figure in optics between antiquity and the seventeenth century.  Within optics itself, the range of his interests was wide. He discussed theories of light and vision, the anatomy and diseases of the eye, reflection and refraction, the rainbow, lenses, spherical and parabolic mirrors, and the pinhole camera (camera obscura).

Alhazen’s most important work was Kitab al-Manazir, commonly known as Optics.  Not published until 1572, and only appearing in the West in the Latin translation Opticae thesaurus Alhazeni libri vii, it attempted to clarify the subject by inquiring into its principles.  He rejected Euclid’s and Ptolemy’s doctrine of visual rays (the extramission theory, which regarded vision as analogous to the sense of touch).  For example, Ptolemy attributed sight to the action of visual rays issuing conically from the observer’s eye and being reflected from various objects.  Alhazen also disagreed with past versions of the intromission theory, which treated the visible object as a source from which forms (simulacra) issued.  The atomists, for example, held that objects shed sets of atoms as a snake sheds its skin; when this set enters the eye, vision occurs.  In another version of the intromission theory, Aristotle treated the visible object as a modifier of the medium between the object and the eye.  Alhazen found the atomistic theory unconvincing because it could not explain how the image of a large mountain could enter the small pupil of the eye.  He did not like the Aristotelian theory because it could not explain how the eye could distinguish individual parts of the seen world, since objects altered the entire intervening medium.  Alhazen, in his version of the intromission theory, treated the visible object as a collection of small areas, each of which sends forth its own ray.  He believed that vision takes place through light rays reflected from every point on an object’s surface converging toward an apex in the eye.

According to Alhazen, light is an essential form in self-luminous bodies, such as the sun, and an accidental form in bodies that derive their luminosity from outside sources.  Accidental light, such as the moon, is weaker than essential light, but both forms are emitted by their respective sources in exactly the same way: noninstantaneously, from every point on the source, in all directions, and along straight lines.  To establish rectilinear propagation for essential, accidental, reflected, and refracted radiation, Alhazen performed many experiments with dark chambers, pinhole cameras, sighting tubes, and strings.

In the first book of Optics, Alhazen describes the anatomy of the eye.  His description is not original, being based largely on the work of Galen, but he modifies traditional ocular geometry to suit his own explanation of vision.  For example, he claims that sight occurs in the eye by means of the glacial humor (what would be called the crystalline lens), because when this humor is injured, vision is destroyed.  He also uses such observations as eye pain while gazing on intense light and afterimages from strongly illuminated objects to argue against the visual-ray theory, because these observations show that light is coming to the eye from the object.  With this picture of intromission established, Alhazen faces the problem of explaining how replicas as big as a mountain can pass through the tiny pupil into the eye.

He begins the solution of this problem by recognizing that every point in the eye receives a ray from every point in the visual field.  The difficulty with this punctiform analysis is that, if each point on the object sends light and color in every direction to each point of the eye, then all this radiation would arrive at the eye in total confusion.  For example, colors would arrive mixed.  Simply put, the problem is a superfluity of rays.  To explain vision, each point of the surface of the glacial humor needs to receive a ray from only one point in the visual field.  In short, it is necessary to establish a one-to-one correspondence between points in the visual field and points in the eye.

To fulfill this goal, Alhazen notices that only one ray from each point in the visual field falls perpendicularly on the convex surface of the eye.  He then proposes that all other rays, those falling at oblique angles to the eye’s surface, are refracted and so weakened that they are incapable of affecting visual power.  Alhazen even performed an experiment to show that perpendicular rays are strong and oblique rays weak. He shot a metal sphere against a dish both perpendicularly and obliquely.  The perpendicular shot fractured the plate, whereas the oblique shot bounced off harmlessly.  Thus, in his theory, the cone of perpendicular rays coming into the eye accounts for the perception of the visible object’s shape and the laws of perspective.

Book 2 of Optics contains Alhazen’s theory of cognition based on visual perception, and book 3 deals with binocular vision and visual errors.  Catoptrics (the theory of reflected light) is the subject of book 4.  Alhazen here formulates the laws of reflection. Incident and reflected rays are in the same plane, and incident and reflected angles are equal.  The equality of the angles of incidence and reflection allows Alhazen to explain the formation of an image in a plane mirror.  As throughout Optics,  Alhazen uses experiments to help establish his contentions.  For example, by throwing an iron sphere against a metal mirror at an oblique angle, he found that the incident and reflected movements of the sphere were symmetrical.  The reflected movement of the iron sphere, because of its heaviness, did not continue in a straight line, as the light ray does, but Alhazen did not contend that the iron sphere is an exact duplicate of the light ray.

Alhazen’s investigation of reflection continues in books 5 and 6 of Optics.  Book 5 contains the famous “Problem of Alhazen”: For any two points opposite a spherical reflecting surface, either convex or concave, find the point or points on the surface at which the light from one of the two points will be reflected to the other.  Today it is known that the algebraic solution of this problem leads to an equation of the fourth degree, but Alhazen solved it geometrically by the intersection of a circle and a hyperbola.

Book 7, which concludes Optics, is devoted to dioptrics (the theory of refraction).  Although Alhazen did not discover the mathematical relationship between the angles of incidence and refraction, his treatment of the phenomenon was the most extensive and enlightening before that of Rene Descartes.  As with reflection, Alhazen explores refraction through a mechanical analogy.  Light, he says, moves with great speed in a transparent medium such as air and with slower speed in a dense body such as glass or water.  The slower speed of the light ray in the denser medium is the result of the greater resistance it encounters, but this resistance is not strong enough to hinder its movement completely.  Since the refracted light ray is not strong enough to maintain its original direction in the denser medium, it moves in another direction along which its passage will be easier (that is, it turns toward the normal).  This idea of the easier and quicker path was the basis of Alhazen’s explanation of refraction, and it is a forerunner of the principle of least time associated with the name of Pierre de Fermat.

Optics was Alhazen’s most significant work and by far his best known, but he also wrote more modest treatises in which he discussed the rainbow, shadows, camera obscura, and Ptolemy’s optics as well as spheroidal and paraboloidal burning mirrors.  The ancient Greeks had a good understanding of plane mirrors, but Alhazen developed an exhaustive geometrical analysis of the more difficult problem of the formation of images in spheroidal and paraboloidal mirrors.

Although Alhazen’s achievements in astronomy do not equal those in optics, his extant works reveal his mastery of the techniques of Ptolemaic astronomy.  These works are mostly short tracts on minor problems, for example, sundials, moonlight, eclipses, parallax, and determining the gibla (the direction to be faced in prayer).  In another treatise, he was able to explain the apparent increase in size of heavenly bodies near the horizon, and he also estimated the thickness of the atmosphere.

His best astronomical work, and the only one known to the medieval West, was Hay’at al-‘alan (tenth or eleventh century; on the configuration of the world).  This treatise grew out of Alhazen’s desire that the astronomical system correspond to the true movements of actual heavenly bodies.  He therefore attacked Ptolemy’s system, in which the motions of heavenly bodies were explained in terms of imaginary points moving on imaginary circles.  In his work, Alhazen tried to discover the physical reality underlying Ptolemy’s abstract astronomical system.  He accomplished this task by viewing the heavens as a series of concentric spherical shells whose rotations were interconnected.  Alhazen’s system accounted for the apparent motions of the heavenly bodies in a clear and untechnical way, which accounts for the book’s popularity in the Middle Ages.

Alhazen’s fame as a mathematician has largely depended on his geometrical solutions of various optical problems, but more than twenty strictly mathematical treatises have survived.  Some of these deal with geometrical problems arising from his studies of Euclid’s Elements, whereas others deal with quadrature problems, that is, constructing squares equal in area to various plane figures.  He also wrote a work on lunes (figures contained between the arcs of two circles) and on the properties of conic sections.  Although he was not successful with every problem, his performance, which exhibited his masterful command of higher mathematics, has rightly won for him the admiration of later mathematicians.

For most scientific historians, Alhazen was the greatest Muslim scientist, and Optics was the most important work in the field from Ptolemy’s time to Johannes Kepler’s.  Alhazen extricated himself from the limitations of such earlier theories as the atomistic, Aristotelian, and Ptolemaic and integrated what he knew about medicine, physics, and mathematics into a single comprehensive theory of light and vision.  Although his theory contained ideas from older theories, he combined these ideas with his new insights into a fresh creation, which became the source of a new optical tradition.

Alhazen's optical theories had some influence on Islamic scientists, but their main impact was on the West.  Optics was translated from Arabic into Latin at the end of the twelfth century.  It was widely studied, and in the thirteenth century, Witelo (also known as Vitellio) made liberal use of Alhazen’s text in writing his comprehensive book on optics.  Roger Bacon, John Peckham, and Giambattista della Porta are only some of the many thinkers who were influenced by Alhazen’s work.  Indeed, it was not until Kepler, six centuries later, that work on optics progressed beyond the point to which Alhazen’s ideas had taken the subject matter.  Indeed, it would not be going too far to say that Alhazen’s optical theories defined the scope and goals of the field from his day to ours.

Al-Haitham was one of the most eminent physicists, whose contributions to optics and the scientific methods are outstanding.  Ibn al-Haitham was born in 965 in Basra (in present day Iraq), and received his education in Basra and Baghdad.  He traveled to Egypt and Spain.  He spent most of his life in Spain, where he conducted research in optics, mathematics, physics, medicine and development of scientific methods.

Al-Haitham conducted experiments on the propagation

of light and colors, optic illusions and reflections.  He examined the refraction of light rays through transparent medium (air, water) and discovered the laws of refraction.  He also carried out the first experiments on the dispersion of light into its constituent colors.  In detailing his experiment with spherical segments (glass vessels filled with water) , he came very close to discovering the theory of magnifying lenses which was developed in Italy three centuries later.  It took another three centuries before the law of sines was proposed by Snell and Descartes.

Al-Haitham’s book Kitab al-Manazir was translated into Latin in the Middle Ages, as was also his book dealing with the colors of sunset.  He dealt at length with the theory of various physical phenomena such as the rainbow, shadows, eclipses, and speculated on the physical nature of light.  Virtually all of the medieval Western writers on optics based their optical work on al-Haitham’s Opticae Thesaurus.  His work also influenced Leonardo da Vinci and Johannes Kepler.  His approach to optics generated fresh ideas and resulted in great progress in experimental methods.

Al-Haitham was the first to describe accurately the various parts of the eye and gave a scientific explanation of the process of vision.  He contradicted Ptolemy’s and Euclid’s theory of vision that the eye sends out visual rays to the object of the vision.  According to al-Haitham, the rays originate in the object of vision and not the eye. 

Al-Haitham also attempted to explain binocular vision, and gave a correct explanation of the apparent increase in size of the sun and the moon when near the horizon.  He is known for the earliest use of the camera obscura.  Through these extensive researches on optics, al-Haitham came to be considered the Father of Modern Optics.

In al-Haitham’s writings, one finds a clear explanation of the development of scientific methods as developed and applied by the Muslims, the systematic observation of physical phenomena and their relationship to a scientific theory.  This was a major breakthrough in scientific methodology, as distinct from guess work, and placed scientific study on a sound foundation comprising systematic relationship between observation, hypothesis and verification.

His research in catoptrics focused on spherical and parabolic mirrors and spherical aberration.  He made the important observation that the ratio between the angle of incidence and refraction does not remain constant and investigated the magnifying power of a lens.  His catoptrics contains the important problem known as Alhazen’s problem.  It comprises drawing lines from two points in the plane of a circle meeting at a point on the circumference and making equal angles with the normal at that point.  This leads to an equation of the fourth degree.   Al-Hazen also solved the shape of an aplantic surface of reflection.

In his book Mizan al-Hikmah, al-Haitham discussed the density of the atmosphere and developed a relation between it and the height.  He also studied atmospheric refraction.  Al-Haitham discovered that the twilight only ceases or begins when the sun is nineteen degrees below the horizon and attempted to measure the height of the atmosphere on that basis.  He deduced the height of homogeneous atmosphere to be fifty-five miles.

Al-Haitham’s contribution to mathematics and physics is extensive.  In mathematics, he developed analytical geometry by establishing linkage between algebra and geometry.  In physics, he studied the mechanics of motion of a body and was the first to propose that a body move perpetually unless an external force stops it or changes its direction of motion.  This is strikingly similar to the first law of motion.  He has also discussed the theories of attraction between masses, and it appears that he was aware of the magnitude of acceleration due to gravity.

Alhazen wrote more than two hundred books, very few of which have survived.  His monumental treatise on optics has survived through its Latin translation.  During the Middle Ages, his books on cosmology were translated into Latin, Hebrew and other European languages.  Also, he wrote a book on the subject of evolution. 

Alhazen's influence on physical sciences in general, and optics in particular, has been held in high esteem and his ideas heralded in a new era in both theoretical and experimental optical research.  He wrote commentaries on Aristotle, Galen, Euclid and Ptolemy.  Beer and Medler, in their famous work Der Mond, named one of the surface features of the Moon after Alhazen.  It is the name of a ring shaped plain to the West of the hypothetical Mare Crisium.  Additionally, on February 7, 1999, an asteroid was discovered by S. Sposetti at Gnosca, Italy.  The asteroid was named 59239 Alhazen.

Alhazen, the great Muslim scientist, died in 1039 in Cairo, Egypt. 

Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham see Ibn al-Haytham
Haithem, al- see Ibn al-Haytham
Alhazen see Ibn al-Haytham
Avennathan see Ibn al-Haytham
The First Scientist see Ibn al-Haytham
Father of Modern Optics see Ibn al-Haytham


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Ibn Firnas, 'Abbas

 ‘Abbas ibn Firnas (810-887) was an Andalusian polymath, scholar and poet of Berber origin at the court of Cordoba. The invention of the cutting (faceting) of crystal is attributed to him. He is also credited with being the first person to make a scientific attempt to fly when, in 875, he reportedly used a rudimentary glider launched from the Mount of the Bride (Jabal al-'arus) in the Rusafa area, near Cordoba, Spain. The Iraqis built a statue in his memory on the way to Baghdad International Airport, and the Ibn Firnas Airport to the north of Baghdad is named for him. The Ibn Firnas crater on the Moon is also named in his honor.


'Abbas ibn Firnas was a Muslim Andalusian polymath: an inventor, engineer, aviator, physician, Arabic poet, and Andalusian musician. Of Berber descent, he was born in Izn-Rand Onda, Al-Andalus (today's Ronda, Spain), and lived in the Emirate of Cordoba. He is known for an early attempt to fly.

Ibn Firnas designed a water clock called al-Maqata, devised a means of manufacturing colorless glass, invented various planispheres, made corrective lenses ("reading stones"), devised a chain of rings that could be used to simulate the motions of the planets and stars, and developed a process for cutting rock crystal that allowed Spain to cease exporting quartz to Egypt to be cut.

In his house, Ibn Firnas constructed a room in which spectators witnessed stars, clouds, thunder, and lightning, which were produced by mechanisms located in his basement laboratory. He also devised a rudimentary metronome.

Ibn Firnas is also said to have made an attempt at flight using a set of wings. The only evidence for this is an account by the Moroccan historian Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari (d. 1632), composed seven centuries later.

Al-Maqqari is said to have used in his history works many early sources that are no longer extant.  However, in the case of Ibn Firnas, the only source cited by al-Maqqari was a 9th century poem written by Mu'min ibn Said, a court poet of Cordoba under Muhammad I (d. 886), who was acquainted with and usually critical of Ibn Firnas.

It has been suggested that Ibn Firnas' attempt at glider flight might have inspired the attempt by Eilmer of Malmesbury between 1000 and 1010 in England but there is no evidence supporting this hypothesis.

Alternative names include:

'Abbas Abu al-Qasim ibn Firnas ibn Wirdas al-Takurini
'Abbas ibn Firnas
'Abbas ibn Firnas ibn Wardus
'Abbas Qasim ibn Firnas
Ibn Firnas
Ibn Wardus
Ibn Wirdas al-Takurini

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Ibn Sina
Ibn Sina (Abu 'Ali al-Hussain ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina) (Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn ibn Sina) (Abū ‘Alī al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sīnā') (Abū Alī Sīnā) (Avicenna) (c. 980 - 1037). Persian polymath and the foremost physician and philosopher of his time. Known in the West as Avicenna, he was also an astronomer, chemist, geologist, logician, paleontologist, mathematician, physicist, poet, psychologist, scientist and teacher.

Ibn Sīnā studied medicine under a physician named Koushyar. Ibn Sina wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived. In particular, 150 of his surviving treatises concentrate on philosophy and 40 of them concentrate on medicine. His most famous works are The Book of Healing, a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopaedia, and The Canon of Medicine, which was a standard medical text at many medieval universities. The Canon of Medicine was used as a text-book in the universities of Montpellier and Louvain as late as 1650.

Ibn Sina was born near Bukhara (now in Uzbekistan), which was then the capital of the Persian Samanid dynasty.  The son of a government official, Ibn Sina studied medicine and philosophy in Bukhara.  Endowed with extraordinary intelligence and intellectual independence, he was largely self-taught and by the age of eighteen had mastered all the then known sciences.

At the age of 18, Ibn Sina was rewarded for his medical abilities with the post of court physician to the Samanid ruler of Bukhara.  He remained in this position until the fall of the Samanid Empire in 999. After that, Ibn Sina traveled extensively.  He spent the last fourteen years of his life as the scientific adviser and physician to the rulers of Isfahan, first with Shams al-Dawla, and later with Sama’ al-Dawla.  In these last years of his life, Ibn Sina made astronomical investigations.

Ibn Sina died at Hamadhan, where a monument was later erected to celebrate the millennium of his birth.  

Regarded by Muslims as one of the greatest Islamic philosophers, Avicenna is an important figure in the fields of medicine and philosophy.  Ibn Sina’s work The Canon of Medicine was long pre-eminent in Southwest Asia and North Africa and was used in Europe as a textbook.  It is significant as a systematic classification and summary of medical and pharmaceutical knowledge up to and including Ibn Sina’s time.  The first Latin translation of the work was made in the 12th century of the Christian calendar, the Hebrew version appeared in 1491, and the Arabic text in 1593, the second text ever printed in Arabic.

Ibn Sina’s best known philosophical work is Kitab al-Shifa (“Book of Healing”), a collection of treatises on Aristotelian logic, metaphysics, psychology, the natural sciences, and other subjects. Ibn Sina’s own philosophy was based on a combination of Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism.  Contrary to orthodox Islamic thought, Ibn Sina denied personal immortality, the existence of any individual soul, that God has an interest in individuals, and that there had been any creation of the world in time.  Ibn Sina believed that there was a dualism of mind and matter, where matter was passive, and creation had been an act of instilling existence into the passive substance.  For Ibn Sina, the only place where there was no such dualism was in God.  Because of his views, Ibn Sina became the main target of an attack on philosophy by the Islamic philosopher al-Ghazzali.  Nevertheless, Ibn Sina’s philosophy remained influential throughout the Middle Ages.

Ibn Sina’s Kitab al-Najat (“Book of Salvation”) is a compendium of his work in metaphysics.  In spite of Ibn Sina’s interest in metaphysics, he remained an orthodox Muslim, and wrote a number of books on theology.  In his later years, Ibn Sina also wrote some allegorical mystical works.  These works were important in the development of Sufism.

Most scholars agree that Ibn Sina was the most renowned and influential philosopher of medieval Islam. Ibn Sina’s works united philosophy with the study of nature.  Over a hundred of Ibn Sina’s works have survived.  His texts cover such subjects as philosophy and science as well as religious, linguistic and literary matters.  Ibn Sina’s works are not the product of a man who simply lived in books, since most of his energies were taken up with the day-to-day affairs of state.

In 1954, 131 authentic and 110 doubtful works were listed in his bibliography.  Known primarily as a philosopher and physician, Ibn Sina contributed also to all the sciences that were accessible in his day: natural history, physics, chemistry, astronomy, mathematics and music.  He wrote on economics, politics, moral and religious questions, Qur’anic exegesis, and poetry.  Ibn Sina’s influence on medieval European philosophers such as Michael Scot, Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, and Thomas Aquinas is undeniable.

Ibn Sina was born in August or September of 980, in Afshena, Transoxiana Province of Bukhara to Abd-Allah of Balkh (now in Afghanistan).  Abd-Allah was the well-to-do governor of Transoxiana Province under the Samanid ruler Nuh II ibn Mansur.  Ibn Sina may have descended from a Turkish family on his father’s side, but his mother, Sitara, was clearly Persian.

After his brother, Mahmud, was born five years later, the family moved to Bukhara, one of the principal cities of Transoxiana and capital of the Samanid emirs from 819 to 1005.  Exhibiting an early interest in learning, young Ibn Sina had read the entire Qur’an by age ten.  His father was attracted to Isma‘ili Shi‘ite doctrines, preached locally by Egyptian missionaries, but Ibn Sina resisted his father’s influence.  There was much discussion in his home regarding geometry, philosophy, theology, and even accounting methods.  Ibn Sina was sent to study with an Indian vegetable seller who was also a surveyor.  It was from him that Ibn Sina became acquainted with the Indian system of calculation, making use of the zero in computations.

A well-known philosopher came to live with the family for a few years and had an extraordinary influence on the young scholar.  Abu ‘Abd Allah al-Natili stimulated Ibn Sina’s love of theoretical disputation, and the youth’s earlier readings in jurisprudence enabled him to tax al-Natili’s powers of logic daily.  The tutor convinced Abd-Allah that Ibn Sina’s career should be an academic one.  Ibn Sina was studying Aristotelian logic and Euclidean geometry when the teacher decided to move to a different home.  Undaunted, Ibn Sina soon mastered texts in natural sciences and metaphysics, then medicine, which he did not consider very difficult. He taught physicians, even practicing medicine for a short time.  At the age of sixteen, he was also engaging in disputations on Muslim law.

For the next year and a half, Ibn Sina returned to the study of logic and all aspects of philosophy, keeping files of syllogisms and praying daily at the mosque for guidance in his work.  So obsessed did he become with philosophical problems and so anxious to know all that he hardly took time for sleep.  Aristotle’s Metaphysica (Metaphysics) became an intellectual stumbling block until his reading of a work by Abu Nasr al-Farabi clarified many ideas for him.  Soon all of Aristotle became understandable, and Ibn Sina gave alms to the poor in gratitude.

When Sultan Nuh ibn Mansur of Bukhara became ill, he sent for Ibn Sina, upon the advice of his team of physicians.  Because of his help in curing the ruler, Ibn Sina gained access to the palace library, thus acquainting himself with many new books.  When not studying, Ibn Sina was given to drinking wine and satisfying a large sexual appetite which he retained to the end of his life.  Ibn Sina claimed that after the age of eighteen he learned nothing new, only gained greater wisdom.  When the palace library was destroyed in a fire, critics blamed Ibn Sina, who, they said, wished to remove the sources of his ideas.  There is no proof of that charge.

Ibn Sina’s writing career began in earnest at the age of twenty-one with al-Majmu (1001), a comprehensive book on learning for Abu al-Hasan, a prosodist.  Then he wrote al-Hasil wa al-mahsul (“The Sun and Substance” -- c. 1002), a twenty-volume commentary on jurisprudence, the Qur’an, and asceticism.  There soon followed a work on ethics called al-Birr wa al-ithm (“Good Works and Evil” -- c. 1002).  However, the sponsors made no copies of them.

Ibn Sina's father died in 1002, and Ibn Sina was forced to enter government service.  He reluctantly left Bukhara for Gurganj, the capital of Khwarazm, where he met Emir 'Ali ibn Ma’mun.  From Gurganj, he moved to Fasa, Baward, Tus, Samanqan, and thence to Jajarm on the extreme end of Khurasan.  He served Emir Qabus ibn Wushmagir until a military coup forced Ibn Sina to leave for Dihistan, where he became ill.  After recovering, he moved to Jurjan.

In Jurjan, Ibn Sina met his pupil and biographer, Abu ‘Ubaid al-Juzjani, who stayed with him throughout much of the remainder of his life.  Juzjani thought him exceptionally handsome and wrote that when Ibn Sina went to the mosque on Friday to pray, people would gather to observe at first hand “his perfection and beauty.”  While in Jurjan, Ibn Sina wrote al-Mukhtasar al-awsat (The Middle Summary on Logic), al-Mabda’ wa al-ma‘ad (The Origin and the Return), and al-Arsad al-kulliya (Comprehensive Observations).  There also Ibn Sina wrote the first part of al-Qanun fi al-tibb (Canon of Medicine), Mukhtasar al-Majisti (Summary of the Almagest), and other treatises.  One modern scholar lists one hundred books attributed to Ibn Sina.  Another says that the list of Ibn Sina’s works includes several hundred in Arabic and twenty-three in Persian.

From Jurjan, Ibn Sina next moved to al-Rayy, joining the service of al-Saiyyida and her son, Majd al-Dawlah.  Civil strife forced him to flee to Qazwin.   From there he moved to Hamadhan, where he managed the affairs of Kadhabanuyah.  He was called to the court of Emir Shams al-Dawlah to treat the ruler for colic, after which Ibn Sina was made the vizier of his emirate.  Because of a mutiny in the army, however, the emir was forced to discharge him.  After matters calmed down, Ibn Sina was called back and reinstated as vizier.  During this period, public affairs occupied his daytime hours, and he spent evenings teaching and writing.  When the emir died, Ibn Sina went into hiding, finishing work on his Kitab al-shifa (Book of Healing).  He was arrested for corresponding with a rival ruler, but when Emir ‘Ala’ al-Dawlah attacked Hamadhan four months later, Ibn Sina was set free.

Ibn Sina left Hamadhan for Isfahan with his brother, two slaves, and al-Juzjani to serve Emir ‘Ala’ al-Dawlah.  The emir designated every Friday evening for learned discussions with many other masters.  However, excluded from the gatherings was a famous scholar and rival of Ibn Sina, Abu al-Rayhan al-Biruni, with whom he carried on a rather bitter correspondence.  They had been clients at many of the same courts, but never at the same time.  At Isfahan, Ibn Sina completed many of his writings on arithmetic and music.  He was made an official member of the court and accompanied the emir on a military expedition to Hamadhan.

When he was rebuked by the emir’s cousin, Abu Mansur, for feigning expertise in philology, Ibn Sina was so stung by the criticism that he studied this subject frantically, compiling his discoveries in a book entitled Lisan al-‘Arab (The Arab Language).  During these years, he also continued other experiments in medicine and astronomy.  He introduced the use of medicinal herbs and devised an instrument to repair injured vertebrae.  He understood that some illnesses arose from psychosomatic causes, and he wrote extensively on the pulse, preventive medicine, and the effects of climate on health.  On May 24, 1032, he observed the rare phenomenon of Venus passing through the solar disk.

When he became ill in Isfahan, one of his slaves filled his meal with opium, hoping for his death and an opportunity to steal his money.  But Ibn Sina managed to recover under self-treatment.  Soon, however, he had a relapse.  He died in 1037.  Most authorities say that he died and was buried in Hamadhan.

Ibn Sina’s Canon of Medicine remained a principal source for medical research for six centuries, perhaps second only to the Christian Bible in the number of copies produced.  Between 1470 and 1500, it went through thirty editions in Latin and one in Hebrew; a celebrated edition was published on a Gutenberg press in Rome in 1593.  Ibn Sina’s principal literary contribution was the invention of the Rubaiyat form, quatrains in iambic pentameter, later made famous by Omar Khayyam.  Most important of all, Ibn Sina’s philosophical system helped to stimulate a genuine intellectual renaissance in Islam that had enormous influence not only in his own culture but in Western Europe as well.  Thomas Aquinas, Averroes (Ibn Rushd), John Duns Scotus, Albertus Magnus, and Roger Bacon learned much from Ibn Sina, even though they disagreed on some particulars.

Most intriguing to the medieval Scholastics were Ibn Sina’s insistence upon essences in everything, the distinction between essence and existence (a notion derived from al-Farabi), the absence of essence in God (whose existence is unique), and the immortality of the soul (which animates the body but is independent of it).

According to some scholars, Ibn Sina’s insistence upon observation and experimentation helped to turn Western thought in the direction of the modern scientific revolution.  His theories on the sources of infectious diseases, his explanation of sight, his invention of longitude, and his other scientific conclusions have a truly remarkable congruence with modern explanations.  The application of geometrical forms in Islamic art, his use of the astrolabe in astronomical experiments, and his disputations on the immortality of the soul demonstrate Ibn Sina’s universal genius. 


Abu 'Ali al-Hussain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina see Ibn Sina
Abu 'Ali al-Husayn ibn Sina see Ibn Sina
Avicenna see Ibn Sina
Abū ‘Alī al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sīnā' see Ibn Sina
Abū Alī Sīnā see Ibn Sina