His full name was Hussain ibn Abdullah ibn Hassan ibn Ali ibn Sina. He was born in Afshana, near Bukhara around 980 to a
Persian family. He was born in Khurmaithan, a village near
Bukhara in
Greater Khorasan which was his mother's hometown. His father, Abdullah, was a respected
Ismaili scholar from
Balkh, an important town of the
Persian Empire, in what is today contemporary
Afghanistan. Prominent theologian
Henry Corbin believed that Ibn Sina himself was a
Twelver Shi'a. His mother was named Setareh. His father was at the time of his son's birth the governor in one of the
Samanid Nuh ibn Mansur's estates. He had his son very carefully educated at
Bukhara. Ibn Sina's independent thought was served by an extraordinary intelligence and memory, which allowed him to overtake his teachers at the age of fourteen. As he said in his autobiography, there was nothing that he had not learned when he reached eighteen.
Ibn Sīnā was put under the charge of a tutor, and his precocity soon made him the marvel of his neighbours; he displayed exceptional
intellectual behaviour and was a
child prodigy who had
memorized the Qur'an by the age of 10 (10 or 7? it says 7 in the theology section below) and a great deal of
Persian poetry as well. He learned
Indian arithmetic from an
Indian greengrocer, and he began to learn more from a wandering scholar who gained a livelihood by curing the sick and teaching the young. He also studied
Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) under the Hanafi scholar Ismail al-Zahid.
As a teenager, he was greatly troubled by the
Metaphysics of
Aristotle, which he could not understand until he read
al-Farabi's commentary on the work. For the next year and a half, he studied
philosophy, in which he encountered greater obstacles. In such moments of baffled inquiry, he would leave his books, perform the requisite ablutions (
wudu), then go to the
mosque, and continue in prayer (
salah) till light broke on his difficulties. Deep into the night he would continue his studies, and even in his dreams problems would pursue him and work out their solution. Forty times, it is said, he read through the Metaphysics of
Aristotle, till the words were imprinted on his memory; but their meaning was hopelessly obscure, until one day they found illumination, from the little commentary by
Farabi, which he bought at a bookstall for the small sum of three dirhams. So great was his joy at the discovery, thus made by help of a work from which he had expected only mystery, that he hastened to return thanks to God, and bestowed alms upon the poor.
He turned to
medicine at 16, and not only learned medical theory, but also by gratuitous attendance of the sick had, according to his own account, discovered new methods of treatment. The teenager achieved full status as a qualified physician at age 18, and found that "Medicine is no hard and thorny science, like
mathematics and
metaphysics, so I soon made great progress; I became an excellent doctor and began to treat patients, using approved remedies." The youthful physician's fame spread quickly, and he treated many patients without asking for payment.
His first appointment was that of physician to the
emir, who owed him his recovery from a dangerous illness (997). Ibn Sina's chief reward for this service was access to the royal
library of the
Samanids, well-known patrons of scholarship and scholars. When the library was destroyed by fire not long after, the enemies of Ibn Sina accused him of burning it, in order for ever to conceal the sources of his knowledge. Meanwhile, he assisted his father in his financial labours, but still found time to write some of his earliest works.
When Ibn Sina was 22 years old, he lost his father. The
Samanid dynasty came to its end in December 1004. Ibn Sina seems to have declined the offers of
Mahmud of Ghazni, and proceeded westwards to
Urgench in the modern
Uzbekistan, where the
vizier, regarded as a friend of scholars, gave him a small monthly stipend. The pay was small, however, so Ibn Sina wandered from place to place through the districts of
Nishapur and
Merv to the borders of
Khorasan, seeking an opening for his talents.
Qabus, the generous ruler of
Dailam and central
Persia, himself a poet and a scholar, with whom Ibn Sina had expected to find an asylum, was about that date (1012) starved to death by his troops who had revolted. Ibn Sina himself was at this season stricken down by a severe illness. Finally, at
Gorgan, near the
Caspian Sea, Ibn Sina met with a friend, who bought a dwelling near his own house in which Ibn Sina lectured on
logic and
astronomy. Several of Ibn Sina's treatises were written for this patron; and the commencement of his Canon of Medicine also dates from his stay in
Hyrcania.
Ibn Sina subsequently settled at
Rai, in the vicinity of modern
Tehran, (present day capital of Iran), the home town of
Rhazes; where
Majd Addaula, a son of the last
Buwayhid emir, was nominal ruler under the regency of his mother (
Seyyedeh Khatun). About thirty of Ibn Sina's shorter works are said to have been composed in
Rai. Constant feuds which raged between the regent and her second son,
Shams al-Daula, however, compelled the scholar to quit the place. After a brief sojourn at
Qazvin he passed southwards to Hamadãn where
Shams al-Daula, another
Buwayhid emir, had established himself. At first, Ibn Sina entered into the service of a high-born lady; but the emir, hearing of his arrival, called him in as medical attendant, and sent him back with presents to his dwelling. Ibn Sina was even raised to the office of
vizier. The emir consented that he should be banished from the country. Ibn Sina, however, remained hidden for forty days in a
sheikh Ahmed Fadhel's house, until a fresh attack of illness induced the emir to restore him to his post. Even during this perturbed time, Ibn Sina persevered with his studies and teaching. Every evening, extracts from his great works, the Canon and the Sanatio, were dictated and explained to his pupils. On the death of the emir, Ibn Sina ceased to be vizier and hid himself in the house of an
apothecary, where, with intense assiduity, he continued the composition of his works.
Meanwhile, he had written to
Abu Ya'far, the
prefect of the dynamic city of
Isfahan, offering his services. The new emir of Hamadan, hearing of this correspondence and discovering where Ibn Sina was hidden, incarcerated him in a fortress. War meanwhile continued between the rulers of Isfahan and Hamadãn; in 1024 the former captured Hamadan and its towns, expelling the Tajik
mercenaries. When the storm had passed, Ibn Sina returned with the emir to Hamadan, and carried on his literary labours. Later, however, accompanied by his brother, a favourite pupil, and two slaves, Ibn Sina escaped out of the city in the dress of a
Sufi ascetic. After a perilous journey, they reached Isfahan, receiving an honourable welcome from the prince.
The remaining ten or twelve years of Ibn Sīnā's life were spent in the service of
Abu Ja'far 'Ala Addaula, whom he accompanied as physician and general literary and scientific adviser, even in his numerous campaigns.
During these years he began to study
literary matters and
philology, instigated, it is asserted, by criticisms on his style. He contrasts with the nobler and more intellectual character of
Averroes. A severe
colic, which seized him on the march of the army against Hamadan, was checked by remedies so violent that Ibn Sina could scarcely stand. On a similar occasion the disease returned; with difficulty he reached Hamadan, where, finding the disease gaining ground, he refused to keep up the regimen imposed, and resigned himself to his fate.
His friends advised him to slow down and take life moderately. He refused, however, stating that: "I prefer a short life with width to a narrow one with length". On his deathbed remorse seized him; he bestowed his goods on the poor, restored unjust gains, freed his slaves, and every third day till his death listened to the reading of the Qur'an. He died in June 1037, in his fifty-eighth year, and was buried in
Hamedan,
Iran
