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

The Life of Avicenna

...duties, if there were any who desired to learn anything from him, who certainly were many, they approached him at night. Where, after he had explained the lesson, music, a feast, and drink soon followed: so that the disciples stayed with him not without the greatest pleasure. Then with his brother and the disciple Sorsanus, and two servants, he departed from Abdau, dressed in the priestly garment of the Persians, and set out for Aspheam. And when certain very grave men, his friends and associates and primary men at the court of the Prince of Ispeca, had learned of the arrival of Avicenna, they came to meet him joyfully, and entertained him with the most honorable hospitality. The Prince likewise received him kindly and honorably, and summoned 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 the Correction of Errors that are made in the regimen of health, since no one before him had done this, and likewise put the finishing touches on his Dialectics and the books on Truth and Falsehood, and wrote the Abbreviations of the books of Euclid and 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 world; furthermore, he added to the books of Euclid two very opportune orders and excellent meanings in Metaphysics, and also added to the book of Alchemy two modes of questioning and inquiry: for so Sorsanus calls them, which the ancients had passed over. He also composed a book on animals and plants. And when he was conversing with King Sensaledule about magical and astronomical sciences, King Sensaledule persuaded Avicenna to apply himself to such studies, which studies he pursued with the greatest diligence, and to perfect them, he instructed his disciple Sorsanus to find tools suitable for those sciences. And so, together with Sorsanus, he studied the knowledge of stars and sidereal bodies for ten years. Nevertheless, Avicenna, who was able to understand and do everything, prepared all the instruments with his own hands, which no one had prepared before. While he was devoting effort to studies of this kind, he collected certain abbreviations approved by experiment for these sciences and thought to add them to the Books of the Canon, which he could not execute at all: for he began to labor with an ill condition in his head, whence fearing that perhaps an unnatural tumor might arise from it, which could even destroy him, he ordered snow to be brought, which he placed in a linen cloth and wrapped around his head himself, and thus he was restored to health. Avicenna was indeed a strong man, who did not at all abstain from sexual matters, wherefore when he knew himself to be weak from this cause due to resolution, he always abstained from every purgative and laxative medicine. Whence it happened that when he was with the King in the army, he fell into most vehement colic pains, and since he suspected that something might happen by which he would be forced to flee, one day he ordered eight clysters to be administered to himself, from the heat and frequent administration of which an ulceration of the intestines arose. Later, when he was returning with the King, he fell into the comitial disease original: "morbum comitialem", a traditional term for epilepsy, for this disease followed the colic pains. He was treating the excoriation of the intestines with counteracting clysters, but regarding the colic pains, with hot medicines added to the clysters; for he ordered two drachmas of celery seeds, to dispel the wind that was the cause of the pain, to be put into the clysters, but the servants who served him put in five drachmas: from which greater quantity, which heated him too much, the ulceration was increased. For the comitial disease, he was aided by a Mithridatic confection; but the servants secretly mixed a notable quantity of opium into the Mithridatic confection; for, because Avicenna had threatened the servants harshly, as those who had not behaved correctly in his affairs, they pursued him with hatred: so that they procured his death, and thus accelerated it with these medicines. And when he was so ill, through a litter carried by pack animals, they brought him to Ispecham original: "Ispecham Aspeam", and there under the best regimen he began to feel better in the said place: and he sometimes visited King Sensaledule: but since he did not at all abstain from sexual matters, he slipped now for the better, now for the worse. And when he was called again by the King, he fell into the same disease: wherefore he came to Medena, where, when he realized his strength was weak, he abdicated all medicinal regimen: for he said that his governing faculty had clearly abandoned him, so that he could hope for nothing that would be profitable to his health. Therefore, Avicenna first commended his soul to God, then ordered his goods to be distributed to the poor, and gave freedom to the servants who were present. He met his day on Friday, in the month of July, which is the Maometan original: "Maomethanorum", meaning Muslim month of Rhamadan, in the year of the arrival of Maomet 428, who, having been born in the year 370 after the arrival of Maomet, lived 58 years. They buried him in the city of Chemedan, and there his monument stands to this day. Sorsanus testified that he was present for all these things, and also heard Avicenna when he was at Sorzanus and reading on truth and falsehood and also studying Dialectics. I have written these in the order in which Sorsanus had written them before, and I have interpreted them almost word for word. Wherefore let those who read consult their goodness if I sometimes seem to repeat certain things, which perhaps if I had removed, I would have rendered a more polished and brighter speech. And there are some things which seemed to me entirely dry, and which certainly should have been ornamented with the lights of speech, yet I did not change them: for I could easily have done so, but I did not wish to put my sickle into another man's harvest; it will be enough for me to have provided the material for others to write. For whoever wishes to weave a more beautiful history about the life of such a man (which I ask and pray that studious men may do) will be able to collect it from these. First the name of the most wise man, and the name of his parents, his homeland, education, teachers, discipline, method of learning, enormous business, under what law he lived, what religion he had; likewise his wisdom and doctrine, his disciples, and his courtesy, affability, and honest pleasures with them and others, his disputes; that besides the fact that he completed medicine,