VITA

he first gave thanks to God, and soon on the following day he distributed many alms to the poor, out of love for God and also for the honor of Him whose book had been bought. Avicenna progressed in doctrine, authority, and fame, and not undeservedly, since he had learned all the aforementioned sciences while in his eighteenth year, so that he was celebrated throughout the entire region. Wherefore, when at that time Nuch, the most invincible son of the most victorious King, was ruling Buchara and was laboring under a disease of the greatest danger, so much so that all the physicians had already despaired of his health, he ordered Avicenna to be summoned to him. Avicenna finally went to the King, and having first conferred with the physicians who were present, he provided a remedy for the lord.

When he was held by an ardent desire to study medicine, he asked the illustrious lord to admit him to the Royal Library; for in that very place there were very many chests full of books by ancient authors, many of which he saw that he had not seen before, nor had he even heard them named, from the reading of which he learned many useful things. He had a neighbor, a man named Abuelchezin el Larudi, at whose request he composed a book common to all sciences with wonderful doctrine and ornamentation, though he did not write in it those things which are known by experience. While Avicenna was writing these things, he was in the twenty-first year of his age. There was also another neighbor of his who was called Abubach el Barche, at whose request he not only wrote a book on demonstration, which contained twenty books, but also a book whose title was on grace and satisfaction. After the composition of these, Halī, the father of the most learned Avicenna, passed away.

After his father died, Avicenna began to handle the Prince's affairs. He first departed from Buchara and betook himself to Carnes; subsequently, it was necessary for him to seek Barud, and from Barud he went to Intrizit, then he sought Ciminat, and from there to Sarzet, which is the final part of the borders of Corasani, then to Sorzano, and he also traveled to Dehestem, a region of the Persians, and there he labored under a very serious disease. Afterward, he returned to Sorsano, in which place and time he wrote a booklet on the beginning and the return, and composed a book on universal magic, which philosophers call occult philosophy; he also wrote many other volumes here, among which he committed to letters the books of the Canon, and abbreviations on truth and falsehood, and also other treatises. He wrote the remaining volumes in the mountains.

After he departed from the mountains, he came to Eleram; here he found the Prince laboring under melancholy, whom he restored to health. During this time, he composed the booklet Almahad, that is, on the place of souls after separation from the body. When he was compelled to depart from here due to certain urgent personal affairs, he came to Cazin, and from there he proceeded to Abdan; there he found the most illustrious Prince laboring under colic pains and cured him. This Prince, besides giving Avicenna many gifts, also chose him as the primary and most honorable counselor among all others. And there, requested by his disciple Sorsano to provide him with expositions of the books of Aristotle, he wrote a book on natural things which are manifestly true and well-known; he also began to write a booklet on preserving health. And because he was detained by many affairs, if any desired to learn anything from him, who were certainly many, they approached him at night. Where, after he had explained the reading, music, banquets, and drink followed, so that the students would spend time with Avicenna not without the greatest pleasure.

Then the most excellent Avicenna, together with his brother, his disciple Sorsano, and two servants, departed from Abdan, dressed in the priestly garment of the Persians, and proceeded to Aspaham. When certain most grave men, his friends and associates and primary figures at the court of the Prince of Isphecā, understood of Avicenna's arrival, they came to meet him joyfully and hosted him with the most honorable hospitality. Similarly, the Prince also received him kindly and honorably, and convened the primary doctors so that they might dispute in his presence, to all of whom Avicenna responded. And staying in this place, he completed the booklet on preserving health, and added to it a correction of errors that occur in the regimen of health, since no one before him had done this; and he completed his work on dialectics and on truth and falsehood. Afterward, he wrote abbreviations of the books of Euclid, of mathematics, and also of Alchemy. He also added to the work on truth and falsehood ten chapters contradicting Mamandari; at the end of which he wrote a geography of the globe. He also added to the books of Euclid two very opportune orders and excellent meanings in metaphysics; he also added to the book of Alchemy two modes of questioning and inquiry which the ancient wise men had omitted. He also composed a book on animals and plants.

And when he was conversing with the most illustrious King Semsaledule about magic and astronomical sciences, King Semsaledule persuaded Avicenna to apply himself to such studies, which studies he pursued with the greatest diligence; and to complete them, he instructed his disciple Sorsano to find instruments opportune for those sciences. And so, together with Sorsano, he studied the knowledge of the stars and constellations for ten years. Nevertheless, Avicenna, who could understand and do all things, prepared all the instruments with his own hands, which no one had prepared before. While he was devoting himself to studies of this kind, he collected certain abbreviations in these sciences approved by experiment, and he thought to add them to the books of the Canon, which he was unable to carry out. For he began to labor with an ill condition in his head; whence, fearing that perhaps a tumor might arise from it against nature that could even destroy him, he ordered snow to be brought, which, placed in a linen cloth, he wrapped around his head, and thus he was restored to health. Avicenna was indeed a strong man who did not at all abstain from sexual activity; wherefore, when he knew himself to be weakened by this cause due to resolution physiological process of "dissolving" or thinning of humors/spirits, he always abstained from any purging and dissolving medicine. Whence it happened that when he was with the most illustrious King in the army, he fell into the most vehement colic pains, and when he suspected that something might happen that would force him to flee,