Google Celebrates Avicenna’s Birthday

On Wednesday, August 8, Google changed its search page logo to celebrate the 1,038th birthday of Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna. Avicenna, an Iranian, is one of the most famous philosophers and scientists of the Islamic world who, in his rather short lifetime of 54 years, wrote 450 books and treatises, many of them on medicine and philosophy, of which around 240 survive.

Avicenna, whose full name was Abu Ali Hossein bin Abdollah bin Sina, was born around 980 in a village near Bukhara (in present-day Uzbekistan), the capital of the Samanids, a Persian dynasty. His father, who worked for the Samanid government, sent him to Bukhara to receive an education.

Since his death, Avicenna has become the stuff of legends and his life has given rise to many stories — some of them dubious —  about his genius and mental prowess. He is one of the very few celebrated figures in the history of Iranian thinkers and scientists who has penned an autobiography, short as it is. According to his own words, he was only 10 when he learned the entire Koran by heart.

He was 16, still only a teenager, when he turned to medicine. “I got an urge to learn medicine,” writes Avicenna in his autobiography. “I read studiously everything that prior physicians had written because medicine is not a difficult science. In the shortest time I achieved great successes, so much so that great medical scientists came to me to study with me.”

A Celebrity Physician at 18

One early great success came when he cured the son of the Samanid King, Mansour, after other physicians had failed. “I had just turned 18,” he writes. “Nooh, Mansour’s son, had fallen severely ill. The physicians were helpless in finding a cure for him and since I had made a name for myself in medicine they took me to the court and told Nooh to call me to his bedside. I cured Nooh and was granted ... permission to study in his library. There, I found many books that people had not even heard [of] before and neither had I seen them before that day. I benefited vastly by studying them.”

Avicenna was a polymath who was proficient in medicine, Islamic jurisprudence, logic, geometry, chemistry, physics, geography, geology, astronomy, and philosophy, but, more than anything else, he has been celebrated for his legacy in the field of medicine.

“Avicenna played a great role not only in Iranian medicine, but in the world science of medicine,” says Dr Babak Zamani, a brain and nervous system specialist and a member of the faculty of the Tehran School of Medicine. “In fact, he was one of the masters of [the] eastern school of medicine who founded the scientific medicine based on research, experience and scientific proof, especially through classification. Avicenna’s books are written with a special attention to classification and, for the first time, they define ... modern medicine in terms of curing the body.”

Avicenna’s book, Canon of Medicine, was the standard medical textbook in Europe well into the mid-17th century, and has been translated into 19 languages. Al-Shifa, his other major work, is a scientific and philosophical encyclopedia.

“Avicenna is one of the most prominent medical figures, not only in Iran but in the whole world,” says Dr Javad Vahabzadeh, a psychiatrist and a member of the faculty of the Ardabil School of Medicine. “He very carefully studied works by Hippocrates and Galen, scrutinized them and critiqued their beliefs and their assumptions. Then, based on his own observations and experience, he wrote many works on medicine, the most important of which is Canon.”

Holistic Approach to Medicine

Canon has a holistic approach to the health of the human body. It covers subjects such as when and what to eat, when and what to drink, and the physical exercises that are beneficial to wellbeing. “What makes Avicenna stand out is the scientific method that he employed,” says Dr Zamani. “His classification of diseases, his meticulous observations and his ethical attitude towards treating illnesses are among his valuable contributions.”

Despite the fact that now, Dr Zamani says, the raw data in Avicenna’s books are not considered to be scientifically valuable, “many physicians across the world consider themselves followers of Avicenna. This does not mean that they want to use his therapeutic methods. He was a pioneer in his time and, like him, they want to be innovators in medical science.”

Dr Vahabzadeh believes that Avicenna’s innovations are the basis of modern medical science. “Avicenna was the first physician who suggested that a urine sample from early morning should be thoroughly scrutinized for color, lightness or darkness, sediments, viscosity, etc.,” he says. “He was the first epileptologist [doctor of epilepsy] in the world of medicine and provided a good amount of data about this illness. Avicenna was the first to identify the three stages of tuberculosis of the lungs and the first to uncover the role of psychological factors in physical illnesses.”

For Dr Zamani, one of Avicenna’s great teachings is that of paying attention not only to the illness but to the patient as well. “Avicenna’s cures were psychosomatic,” he says. “He took notice not only of the body of the patient, but of the patient’s whole situation, including the patient’s mental and emotional state. This is still a live topic in medicine because, as a result of vast specialization in modern medicine, doctors now mostly deal with the illnesses, not with the patients.”

He Belongs to the World

According to Dr Zamani, there are those who believe that, more than anything else, Avicenna was a neurologist, because, they say, any physician who “gives equal importance to body and soul is a neurologist. But this contention is, perhaps, like the quarrel over which country Avicenna belongs to and this not a valid contest. He is an honor for the world’s culture and belonged to the Eastern culture where Iran is geographically and politically located. There is this myth in the Middle East that we are better than everybody else and whatever others have comes from us. This view is a sign of primitive thinking. Geographical borders have nothing to do with it.”

Dr Zamani reiterates that Avicenna is a symbol of medicine and that the history of medicine cannot ignore him. “Avicenna is an icon of innovation, medical ethics and the love of humankind for physicians all over the world.”

Avicenna spent most of his last years in Isfahan. In 1037, on a trip to Hamadan, the biblical Ecbatana, he died of severe colic. His mausoleum is in the center of the city and is a magnet for his many admirers.