ابن سينا به 22 سالگي رسيده بود كه پدرش درگذشت وي در اين ميان برخي كارهاي دولتي امير ساماني عبدالملك دوم را برعهده گرفته بود كه تقريبا پس از دو سال بواسطه دگرگونيهاي سياسي و سقوط فرمانروايي سامانيان در بخارا، به گرگانج در شمال غربي خوارزم رفت و به حضور علي ابن مامون بن محمد خوارزمشاه، از فرمانروايان آل مامون (387 ـ 399 ق) معرفي شد. پس از چندي به گفته ابن سينا بار ديگر «ضرورت وي را بر آن داشت كه گرگانج را ترك كند» قصد وي، پيوستن به دربار شمس المعالي قابوس بن وشمگير فرمانرواي زيادي گرگان بوده است، اما سپاهيان قابوس بر وي شوريد و او را خلع و زنداني كرده بودند. پس از درگذشت قابوس (سال 403 ق) ابن سينا آزاد شد و پس از مدتي درنگ در گرگان به همراه شاگرد وفادارش ابوعبيد جوزجاني كه در اين زمان به او پيوسته بود راهي ري شد. (در حدود 404 ق). تغييرات سياسي و اوضاع اجتماعي وي بار د يگر او را مجبور به ترك آن شهر كرد اين بار به همدان و راه يافتن به كاخ شمس الدوله براي معالجه وي كه به بيماري قولنج مبتلا بود. ابن سينا چهل روز در كاخ گذرانيد و در پايان خلعتهاي فراوان يافت و به خانه خود بازگشت، در حالي كه در شمار نزديكان و همنشينان شمس الدوله در آمده بود. در سال 406 ق شمس الدوله او را به وزارت خود گماشت اما سپاهيان او بروي شوريدند و ابن سينا 40 روز متواري شد در آن هنگام شمس الدوله بار ديگر دچار بيماري قولنج شد و ابن سينا را احضار كرد و از وي بسيار پوزش خواست، كه پس از بهبود بيماري او (شمس الدوله) مجدداً در پست وزارت جاي گرفت. در اين دوران تاليف كتاب «شفا» را از طبيعيات آن آغاز كرد وي كتاب اول «قانون» در پزشكي را پيش از آن تاليف كرده بود در اين ميان چنين بر مي آيد كه ابن سينا از زندگاني آرامي برخوردار بوده است زيرا بنا بر گزارش جوزجاني، روزها را به كارهاي وزارت شمس الدوله مي گذراند و شبها دانشجويان بر وي گرد مي آمدند و از كتاب شفا و قانون مي خواندند. پس از مرگ شمس الدوله (412 ق) پسرش سماء الدوله ابوالحسن به جاي او نشست و از ابن سينا خواست كه وزارت او را بپذيرد اما ابن سينا از پذيرفتن اين مقام سر باز زد وي ترجيح داد كه ديگر در آن دولت نماند و به آن خدمت ادامه ندهد و مطمئن شد كه احتياط در آن است كه براي رسيدن به دلخواه خود، پنهان بزيد و منتظر فرصتي باشد تا از آن ديار دور شود. او در آن مدت پنهاني، پس از نوشتن بقيه كتاب شفا و پايان دادن همه بخشهاي طبيعيات (بجز الحيوان) و «الهيات» آن، و بخش «منطق» را آغاز كرد و برخي از آن را نوشت در اين ميان ظاهراً بين ابن سينا و فرمانرواي اصفهان مكاتباتي صورت گرفته است كه افشاي آن منجر به زنداني شدن وي گرديد. و بنا به گزارش «ابن اثير» مدت 4 ماه در قلعه اي بين راه همدان و اصفهان سپري كرده است. پس از آزادي به همدان بازگشت و به نوشتن بقيه كتاب شفا پرداخت. ابن سينا پس از مدتي همدان را به قصد اصفهان ترك كرد. (414 ق) از اين هنگام به بعد دوران چهارده، پانزده ساله زندگي آرام ابن سينا آغاز مي شود. وي اكنون از نزديكان و همنشينان علاء الدوله (فرمانرواي اصفهان) بود كه مروي دانش دوست و دانشمند پرور به شمار مي رفت. شبهاي جمعه مجلس مناظره اي در حضور وي تشكيل مي شد كه ابن سينا دانشمندان ديگر در آن شركت مي كردند. ابن سينا در همه دانش ها سرآمد ايشان بود. وي در اصفهان كتاب شفا را با نوشتن بخشهاي «منطق»، «مجسطي»، «اقليدس»، «رياضيات» و «موسيقي» به پايان رسانيد. او كتاب الانصاف را نيز در اصفهان تاليف كرد، اما اين كتاب و بسياري ديگر از دارايي هاي وي درجمله سلطان مسعود غزنوي به اصفهان و تصرف آن از ميان رفت.
علاءالدوله پس از حمله مسعود به اصفهان همچنان فرمانرواي آنجا باقي ماند. ابن سينا در سال 427 ق به همراهي علاءالدوله كه راهي همدان بود در ميان راه دچار بيماري قولنج شد كه پس از چند روز در نخستين جمعه رمضان 428 ق در سن 58 سالگي درگذشت و در همان شهر به خاك سپرده شد.
تأليفات
از ميان تأليفات ابن سينا شفا در فلسفه و قانون در پزشكي شهرتي جهاني يافته است. كتاب شفا در هجده جلد در ابواب علوم و فلسفه يعني منطق، رياضي، طبيعيات و الهيات نوشته شده است. منطق شفا امروز نيز همچنان بعنوان يكي از معتبرترين كتابهاي منطق اسلامي مطرح است و طبيعيات و الهيات آن هنوز مورد توجه علاقمندان قرار دارد. كتاب قانون نيز كه تا قرنها از مهمترين كتابهاي پزشكي به شمار مي رفته است، شامل مطالبي درباره قوانين كلي طب، داروهاي تركيبي و غير تركيبي و امراض مختلف است. اين كتاب در قرن دوازدهم ميلادي همراه با آغاز نهضت ترجمه به زبان لاتين ترجمه شد و تا امروز به زبانهاي انگليسي، فرانسه و آلماني نيز برگردانده شده است. قانون كه مجموعه مدوني از كل دانش طبي باستاني و اسلامي و يكي از عاليترين دستاوردهاي فرهنگ اسلامي است، بعنوان متن درسي پزشكي در دانشگاههاي اروپايي مورد استفــاده قرار مي گرفت و تا سال 1650 ميلادي در كنار آثار جالينوس و موندينو در دانشگاههاي لوون و مون پليه تدريس مي شد.
ابن سينا همچنين در زمينه هاي مختلف علمي اقداماتي ارزنده بعمل آورده است. «ابن سينا اقليدس را ترجمه كرد. رصدهاي نجومي را به عمل آورد و اسبابي نظير ورنيه كنوني ابداع كرد. در زمينه حركت، نيرو، خلاء، نور، حرارت و چگالي تحقيقات ابتكاري است. رساله وي در باره كانيها يا مواد معدني تا قرن سيزدهم در اروپا مهمترين مرجع علم زمين شناسي بود.»
نقل از: دائره المعارف بزرگ اسلامي/ جلد چهارم/ ص 1
منبع: دانشگاه علوم پزشکي و خدمات بهداشتي درماني تهران / معاونت پژوهشي
Abu Ali al-Husain ibn Abdollah ibn Sina (Avicenna)
Ibn Sina is often known by his Latin name of Avicenna, although most references to him today have reverted to using the correct version of ibn Sina. We know many details of his life for he wrote an autobiography which has been supplemented with material from a biography written by one of his students.
The autobiography is not simply an account of his life, but rather it is written to illustrate his ideas of reaching the ultimate truth, so it must be carefully interpreted.
A Brief Sketch of his life
Abu Ali al-Hussain Ibn Abdollah Ibn Sina was born in 980 A.D. at Afshana near Bukhara. The young Bu Ali received his early education in Bukhara, and by the age of ten had become well versed in the study of the Qur'an and various sciences. He started studying philosophy by reading various Greek, Muslim and other books on this subject and learnt logic and some other subjects from Abu Abdollah Natili, a famous philosopher of the time. While still young, he attained such a degree of expertise in medicine that his renown spread far and wide.
The course of ibn Sina's life was dominated by the period of great political instability through which he lived. The Samanid dynasty, the first native dynasty to arise in Iran after the Muslim Arab conquest, controlled Transoxania and Khorasan from about 900. Bukhara was their capital and it, together with Samarkand, were the cultural centres of the empire. However, from the middle of the 10th century, the power of the Samanids began to weaken. By the time ibn Sina was born, Nuh ibn Mansur was the Sultan in Bukhara but he was struggling to retain control of the empire.
Ibn Sina's father was the governor of a village in one of Nuh ibn Mansur's estates. He was educated by his father, whose home was a meeting place for men of learning in the area. Certainly ibn Sina was a remarkable child, with a memory and an ability to learn which amazed the scholars who met at his father's home. By the age of ten he had memorised the Qur'an and most of the Arabic poetry which he had read. When ibn Sina reached the age of thirteen he began to study medicine and he had mastered that subject by the age of sixteen when he began to treat patients. He also studied logic and metaphysics, receiving instruction from some of the best teachers of his day, but in all areas he continued his studies on his own. In his autobiography, ibn Sina stresses that he was more or less self-taught but that at crucial times in his life he received help.
It was his skill in medicine that was to prove of great value to ibn Sina for it was through his reputation in that area that the Samanid ruler Nuh ibn Mansur came to hear of him. After ibn Sina had cured the Samanid ruler of an illness, as a reward, he was allowed to use the Royal Library of the Samanids which proved important for ibn Sina's development in the whole range of scholarship.
If the fortunes of the Samanid rulers had taken a turn for the better, ibn Sina's life would have been very different. Nuh ibn Mansur, in an attempt to keep in power, had put Sebüktigin, a former Turkish slave, as the ruler of Ghazna and appointed his son Mahmud as governor of Khorasan. However the Turkish Qarakhanids, already in control of most of Transoxania, joined with Mahmud and moved to depose the Samanids. After gaining Khorasan they took Bukhara in 999. There followed a period of five years in which the Samanids tried to regain control but their period of power was over.
The defeat of the Samanids and another traumatic event, the death of his father, changed ibn Sina's life completely. Without the support of a patron or his father, he began a life of wandering round different towns of Khorasan, acting as a physician and administrator by day while every evening he gathered students round him for philosophical and scientific discussion. He served as a jurist in Gurganj, was in Khwarazm, then was a teacher in Gurgan and next an administrator in Rayy. Perhaps most remarkable is the fact that he continued to produce top quality scholarship despite his chaotic life style.
After this period of wandering, ibn Sina went to Hamadan in west-central Iran. Here he settled for a while becoming court physician. The ruling Buyid prince, Shams ad-Dawlah, twice appointed him vizier. Politics was not easy at that time and ibn Sina was forced into hiding for a while by his political opponents and he also spent some time as a political prisoner in prison.
Ibn Sina's two most important works are Kitab al-Shifa (The Book of Healing) and Qanun fi al-Tibb (The Canon of Medicine). The first is a scientific encyclopaedia covering logic, natural sciences, psychology, geometry, astronomy, arithmetic and music. The second is the most famous single book in the history of medicine. These works were begun while he was in Hamadan.
After being imprisoned, ibn Sina decided to leave Hamadan in 1022 on the death of the Buyid prince who he was serving, and he travelled to Isfahan. Here he entered the court of the local prince and spent the last years of his life in comparative peace. In Isfahan he completed his major works begun in Hamadan and also wrote many other works on philosophy, medicine and the Arabic language.During military campaigns ibn Sina was expected to accompany his patron and many of his works were composed on such campaigns. It was on one such military campaign that he took ill and, despite attempting to apply his medical skills to himself, died.
His books
Ibn Sina's wrote about 450 works, of which around 240 have survived. Of the surviving works, 150 are on philosophy while 40 are devoted to medicine, the two fields in which he contributed most. He also wrote on psychology, geology, mathematics, astronomy, and logic. His most important work as far as mathematics is concerned, however, is his immense encyclopaedic work, the Kitab al-Shifa' (The Book of Healing). One of the four parts of this work is devoted to mathematics and ibn Sina includes astronomy and music as branches of mathematics within the encyclopaedia. In fact he divided mathematics into four branches, geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, and music, and he then subdivided each of these topics. Geometry he subdivided into geodesy, statics, kinematics, hydrostatics, and optics; astronomy he subdivided into astronomical and geographical tables, and the calendar; arithmetic he subdivided into algebra, and Indian addition and subtraction; music he subdivided into musical instruments.
Ibn Sina made astronomical observations and we know that some were made in Isfahan and some in Hamadan. He made several correct deductions from his observations. For example he observed Venus as a spot against the surface of the Sun and correctly deduced that Venus must be closer to the Earth than the Sun. Ibn Sina invented an instrument for observing the coordinates of a star. The instrument had two legs pivoted at one end; the lower leg rotated about a horizontal protractor, thus showing the azimuth (1), while the upper leg marked with a scale and having observing sights, was raised in the plane vertical to the lower leg to give the star's altitude. Another of ibn Sina's contributions to astronomy was his attempt to calculate the difference in longitude between Baghdad and Gurgan by observing a meridian transit of the moon at Gurgan. He also correctly stated, with what justification it is hard to see, that the velocity of light is finite.
Mechanics was a topic which ibn Sina classified under mathematics. In his work Mi'yar al-'aqul ibn Sina defines simple machines and combinations of them which involve rollers, levers, windlasses, pulleys, and many others.
Ibn Sina is known to have corresponded with al-Biruni. There have been eighteen letters which ibn Sina sent to al-Biruni in answer to questions that he had posed are given. These letters cover topics such as philosophy, astronomy and physics. There is other correspondence from ibn Sina which has been preserved which has been surveyed by the scholars whose topics include arguments against theologians and those professing magical powers, and refutation of the opinions those who having a superficial interest in a branch of knowledge. Ibn Sina writes on certain topics in philosophy, and writes letters to students who must have asked him to explain difficulties they have encountered in some classic text.
1- Azimuth : the direction of a celestial object from the observer, expressed as the angular distance from the north or south point of the horizon to the point at which a vertical circle passing through the objects intersects the horizon.