Ibn-Sina Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Ibn-Sina - Research Paper Example The Samanid dynasty ruled so well until the 10th century when it began weakening. As such, by the time Avicenna was born, Nuh ibn Mansur had taken over Sultan in Bukhara, though he was struggling to maintain control of the empire. Ibn Sina was lucky to come from one of the influential families in the country. At the time of his birth, his father was the governor of the village. As a result, he was able to receive good education with the help of his father. He was also lucky to have grown up alongside some of the most learned people in the country. His biography indicates that Ibn Sina was a very clever child right from his childhood (Khan 3). At the age of ten, he was not only able to memorize and recite the Quran, but was also able to memorize most of the Arabic poetry. At only thirteen years of age, Ibn Sina began studying medicine. To the amazement of many, he was able to begin treating patients after just three years of his study. Apart from medicine, he also studied metaphysics and logic, being taught by some of the best lecturers of his time (Goodman 3). However, being passionate of knowledge, he was able to further his studies on all areas on his own. In his autobiography, we learn that Ibn Sina was mostly self-taught even though he also received help from others at crucial times. Ibn Sina remained unknown to many for a very long time. It is reported that his knowledge and skills in medicine is what made him known to the public. In this regard, Goodman (4) shows that his skills in medicine made him receive recognition from Samanid ruler Nuh Ibn Mansur and the rest of the nation. His medicine publications immediately proved of great value to the nation and the beyond. For example, his first major work, the canon (al-Qanun fi’l-Tibb), was adopted by many universities in Europe as a medical textbook (Heath 23). Like in the European countries, the Islamic world also used the canon as a medical textbook until the early modern period. After the success of his first major work, the canon, Ibn Sina came up with another publication, the Cure (al-Shifa’), which also had a huge influence upon European scholars of the time, like Thomas Aquinas. As a metaphysical philosopher of being, Ibn Sina was a philosopher with a lot of interest in understanding his existence in the world with regard to his contingency (Janssens 31). In fact, his philosophies were mainly rooted in trying to build a coherent and comprehensive system that conforms with the religious exigencies of the Islamic culture. It is for this reason that many people regard him as the first major Islamic philosopher. The most evident is his philosophical articulation of God as the Necessary Existence, from which his theory of the soul, cosmos, and intellect is based (Khan 14). In addition, Ibn Sina articulated a development in the philosophical enterprise in Islamic tradition, as opposed to apologetic issues of concern for building the relationship between philosophy and r eligion in an attempt to make a philosophical sense of key religious doctrines, as well as analyze and interpret the Quran (Goodman 6). Several researches have been conducted in the recent past in an attempt to locate Ibn Sina within the Neoplatonic and Aristotelian tradition. However, Ibn Sina strongly rejected the pre-existent theory, despite accepting Neoplatonic epistemology. In Islamic sciences, Avicenna wrote several short stories commenting on the selected verses of the Quran and chapters