The Canon of Medicine (Canon Medicinae), Vol. I

The Life of Avicenna

He said that the science of medicine was not at all difficult, since he had completed it perfectly in a very short time, to such an extent that the senior physicians listened to him speaking about medicine most willingly and called him to all the sick. When he was still only sixteen years old, and held by an incredible love and desire for the sciences, and having already experienced many things, he devoted himself again to dialectics and natural science for a year and a half, with such persistence that he did not rest for a full night during that time, and indeed applied all his care to his studies during the day. If, while studying, he noticed anything beautiful or good, paper was at hand on which he wrote everything he selected, and he also composed many things of his own invention with God's favor. Furthermore, he was a most religious, merciful, just, and pleasant man who feared God, always giving thanks to Him in all things and always imploring His aid, which I judge to be by no means hidden from anyone who has ever read his writings. Indeed, if it happened (as Sorsanus reports) that he had to read something arduous and difficult which fatigued his mind through study, this was his only way of relaxing his soul. For, tired from reading, he would enter the temple in the morning, and after offering prayer to God, he would return home in the evening and, with lights kindled, would apply himself assiduously to his studies. If vigils had exhausted him and rendered him weary, he was accustomed to drink a goblet of wine for the restoration of his strength, then he would return to his accustomed studies. He was also often accustomed to dream of arduous difficulties, which he would unravel even while sleeping, and upon waking he realized he had solved them perfectly. He therefore wished to embrace all these sciences, and he did not pass over anything that men can know by the natural light of the intellect. He first applied himself to the knowledge of dialectics, natural, and supernatural things, and he progressed in them. But when he turned his study to metaphysical matters and understood their most subtle inquiries less well, he read the entire book of that science forty times, committed it to memory, yet even because of this he could not penetrate those supernatural things; for which reason, led by the despair of learning that science, he decided to dismiss it as entirely imperceptible. But when, by chance on a certain day, he had gone to the market square, and there were books for sale there which were being auctioned as usual to the highest bidder, the herald who was selling them, upon seeing Avicenna, brought him a certain book. Avicenna told him that he did not at all wish to buy it, as he hoped to learn nothing from it. The herald insisted, however, that he buy it, especially since he could have it for a cheap price: for he said he would give it for three denarii. Driven by this stimulus, he bought the book. It was indeed the book which Albumazar Alpharabius original: "Albumazar Alpharabius" had written on the declaration of divine science. When he had read this book, he soon began to understand many of the things he had already memorized. For this reason, he was vehemently joyful. And since he was a religious and merciful man (as was said above), he gave thanks to God first, and soon on the following day gave many gifts to the poor, thinking he was doing something pleasing to God, and favoring the dignity of him whose book was bought. Avicenna progressed in doctrine, authority, and fame, and not undeservedly, since he had learned such great sciences, as many as we have already said, at the age of eighteen, so that he was celebrated throughout the whole region. Wherefore, when at that time Nuch, the most invincible son of the King of Buchara, was reigning 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, who finally set out to the King and, having spoken with those physicians who were present earlier, provided a remedy for the King. But when he was held by an ardent desire to study medicine, he asked the King to admit him to the Royal Library: for indeed in it were many cases full of books by ancient authors, many of which he saw that he had not seen before, nor had he heard them named, from the reading of which he learned much. There was a neighbor of his named Abuelchezin el Larudi, at whose prayers he composed a book common to all sciences in doctrine and ornament, yet he did not write in it things that are known by experience. While Avicenna was writing this, he was in the twenty-first year of his life. There was another neighbor of his who was called Abubach el Barche, at whose prayers he wrote not only the Book of Demonstration, which contained twenty books, but also a book whose title was On Grace and Satisfaction. After the composition of these, Hali, the father of Avicenna, met his end. With his father deceased, he began to handle the affairs of the Prince. First he 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 Corasan: then he returned to Sorzanus, in which place and time he wrote the booklet On Beginning and Return, and composed the 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 of the Abbreviation of Truth and Falsehood, and also other treatises. The remaining volumes, however, he wrote in the mountains. But after he departed from the mountains, he came to Eleram. Here he found the Prince laboring under melancholy, whom he restored to health, during which time he composed the booklet Almahad, that is, on the place of souls after separation from the body. But when he was compelled to depart from here, with certain business pressing and urgent, he came to Cazin, and from there went to Abbam: there he found the King laboring with colic pains and cured him, who besides giving many gifts to Avicenna, also chose him as the primary and most honorable counselor among all, and there, asked by his disciple Sorsanus to hand over to him expositions of the books of Aristotle, he wrote the Book of Natural Things, which are clearly true and known; he also began to write a booklet on preserving health. And since he was occupied with many