Avicenna

Ibn Sina (c. 980 – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna (/ˌævɪˈsɛnə, ˌɑːv-/ A(H)V-iss-EN-ə), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian rulers. He is often described as the father of early modern medicine. His philosophy was of the Peripatetic school derived from Aristotelianism.

His most famous works are The Book of Healing, a philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and The Canon of Medicine, a medical encyclopedia which became a standard medical text at many medieval European universities and remained in use as late as 1650. Besides philosophy and medicine, Avicenna's corpus includes writings on astronomy, alchemy, geography and geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics, and works of poetry.

Avicenna wrote most of his philosophical and scientific works in Arabic, but also wrote several key works in Persian, while his poetic works were written in both languages. Of the 450 works he is believed to have written, around 240 have survived, including 150 on philosophy and 40 on medicine.