Medicine Dietetics and Pharmacology - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 236

in understanding Aristotle's Metaphysics ,
which he grasped only with the help of
al-Fārābī's commentary. Having cured
the amīr of ‡ urāsān of a severe illness, he
was allowed to make use of the splendid
library of the Sāmānid princes. At the age
of eighteen he had mastered all the then
known sciences. His subsequent progress
was due only to his personal judgment.
His training through contact with life
was at least equal to his development
in intellectual speculation. At the age of
twenty-one he wrote his first philosophi-
cal book. The following year, however,
the death of his father forced him to enter
the administration in order to earn his liv-
ing. His judgment was swiftly appreciated.
Having consulted him on medical mat-
ters, the princes had recourse to him also
in matters of politics. He was a minister
several times, his advice being always lis-
tened to; but he became an object of envy,
sometimes persecuted by his enemies and
sometimes coveted by princes opposing
those to whom he wished to remain loyal.
He took flight and was obliged to hide on
several occasions, earning his living by
medical consultations. He was impris-
oned, escaped, lived for fourteen years in
relative peace at the court of Ifahān and
died at Hamadān, during an expedition
of the prince Alā al-Dawla, in 428/1037.
He was buried there; and a monument
was erected to him to celebrate the ( hi ¡ rī )
millenary of his birth.
If his works are to be understood, they
should not be thought of as those of a phi-
losopher who lived in his topics. He was
occupied all day by affairs of state, and
he laboured by night on his great works,
which were written with astonishing rapid-
ity. He was never safe, and was frequently
compelled to move; he would write on
horseback, and sometimes in prison, his
only resource for reference being his
memory. It has been found surprising

that he differs from Aristotle in his works:
but he quoted him without re-reading
him, and, above all, his independence of
mind inclined him to present his own per-
sonally worked out thought, rather than
to repeat the works of another. Besides,
his personal training was different. He
was a man who lived in touch with the
concrete, constantly faced with difficul-
ties, and a great physician who dealt with
specific cases. Aristotle's Logic seemed to
him insufficient, because it could not be
applied in a way that was sufficiently close
to life. Many recent controversies have
been aroused since the study of his works
has increased, especially at the time of his
millenary, but the most plausible view of
his personality is still the following: he is a
scientific man, who attempts to bring the
Greek theories to the level of that which
needs to be expressed by the study of the
concrete, when apprehended by a great
mind.
The secret of his evolution, however,
will remain concealed from us as long as
we do not possess such important works
as the Kitāb al-Ināf , the “Book of Impar-
tial Judgment”, which investigated 28,000
questions, and his “Eastern Philosophy”,
of which we have only a fragment.

Works
The corpus of Ibn Sīnā's works that
has come down to us is considerable,
but incomplete. To the many questions
that were put to him he replied hastily,
without always taking care to keep his
texts. Al- ⁄ uza ¡ ānī has preserved sev-
eral of these; others have been transmit-
ted with different titles, others lost. The
manuscript of the Ināf disappeared at
the sack of Ifahān, in his own lifetime. The
fundamental bibliography is that which
al- ⁄ uza ¡ ānī included in his biography,
but it is not exhaustive. G.C. Anawati lists
a total of 276 works, including texts noted