author
Avicenna
980–1037
A brilliant physician and philosopher of the Islamic Golden Age, he wrote books that shaped medicine and thought for centuries. His best-known work, The Canon of Medicine, became a standard text far beyond his own time and place.
1 Audiobook
A Compendium on the Soul
by Avicenna
About the author
Born near Bukhara around 980, Avicenna — also known as Ibn Sina — showed unusual talent early and built a reputation as both a scholar and a healer. He lived during a politically unsettled time and served at different courts, all while writing on medicine, philosophy, logic, and the natural sciences.
He is best remembered for two enormous achievements: The Canon of Medicine, a major medical encyclopedia, and The Book of Healing, a wide-ranging philosophical and scientific work. His writing brought together Greek learning, especially Aristotle, with his own original thinking, and his influence reached both the Islamic world and medieval Europe.
What makes Avicenna so compelling is the range of his mind. He was not only a practicing physician but also a serious thinker about the soul, knowledge, and the nature of reality, and his work stayed important long after his death in 1037.