Ibn Sina (Avicenna)

Known for

The Canon of Medicine, a standard medical textbook in Europe and the Islamic world for centuries

Biography

Persian physician and philosopher born near Bukhara, who served as physician and vizier at several courts in Persia.

Contributions

• Wrote the Canon of Medicine, which organized all known medicine and was taught in Europe into the 1600s
• Recognized that some diseases are contagious and recommended quarantine
• Set out rules for testing new drugs
• Wrote on motion, light and geology in Kitab al-Shifa

Major works

• Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb (The Canon of Medicine)
• Kitab al-Shifa (The Book of Healing)