I HAVE written earlier about the contributions of Muslim philosophers and historiographers to world history and philosophy. I suggest that our learned individuals study, research and write with devotion and a sense of involvement. Our universities should introduce regular study-research courses to ensure that the coming generations remain informed, enlightened and committed to further enhance and escalate the thoughts and philosophies, with a view to educate public opinion and thinking.
In the year 980 AD, in a small village in Bukhara where Buddhism, Christianity and Islam met in harmony, a genius was born who was named Ali Ibn-i-Sina. His mother bore the poetic name of Sotareh. At home, father, mother and brothers freely discussed mathematics, philosophy and Muslim jurisprudence. His tutor took him through logic, Euclid and Ptolemy’s Al-Majest. He studied natural sciences on his own, finding metaphysics and medicine of great personal interest. It is said that he read and studied Aristotle’s metaphysics 30 times, and yet couldn’t comprehend the ‘reasoning’. By chance, he borrowed Farabi’s Commentaries on Metaphysics, rushed home and read it again. He took on Aristotle once again and from then on, metaphysics became comprehensible and meaningful to him.
Ibn-i-Sina’s first attempt to write was at the age of 20, when he was in Bukhara. The Maj’mua, and a treatise on Jurisprudence are his earliest writings. As an incident that brings about unforeseen effects on mankind, Ibn-i-Sina had a chance meeting with Al Juzjani who, later in life, became his biographer.
Ibn-i-Sina started writing his now-famous Mukhtasur-ul-Awsut and Al-Qanoon, and his world-famous Kitab-ul-Shifa. He migrated to Ispahan, disguised as a Sufi. He wrote his Theory of the Celestial Sphere and introduced the escalation of knowledge and inquiry, taken up decades later by Galileo and Copernicus, without acknowledging Ibn-i-Sina’s earlier initiatives and fundamental philosophy.
Ibn-i-Sina recognized the importance of the Arabic language and studied it earnestly. In due course, he wrote his now-famous Le’san-ul-Arab. He even evolved Arabic terminology which greatly assisted Arab historiographers, mathematicians, astronomers and philosophers, all of whom were encouraged and who referred to his famous Hikmat-ul-Mushriqiya (Philosophy of the East/Orient), in which he also expressed his thoughts on many disciplines.
Nizam-ul-Mulk’s Siyasat Nama provides the best and most mature ideas on Ibn-i-Sina’s life and thoughts. From Juzjani, we know that his writings numbered nearly one hundred, and the positive aspect is that most are still available. However, a great loss for literature and philosophy is the loss of Ibn-i-Sina’s Kitab-ul-Insaf, written to harmonize the thoughts of contemporary philosophers.
Ibn-i-Sina’s neologism enriched Arabic philosophical literature and it constitutes a far more valuable contribution than any made by Al-Kindi the Arab or Farabi the Turk. He contributed positively in establishing Arabic terminology for many years and introduced into the language subtilities never used earlier.
His Danish Nama was the earliest work on philosophy, logic and natural sciences.
Ibn-i-Sina’s Metaphysics, the basis of all truth, preceded Descartes by several hundred years, who stated: “Our being is impregnable and unassailable.”
Inspired by Ibn-i-Sina’s writings, a small group of philosophers, in the 12th and 13th centuries, braving the formidable opposition of the theologians, engaged in what became one of the most far-reaching conflicts in the realm of ideas; later taken up by Galileo. Their response took the form of synthesis, because they were rationally cognizant of the religious aspect of truth and knowledge.
It is imperative that cultural exchanges between the scholars of Azerbaijan and our scholars should encourage earnest inquiry and research into the life and thoughts of the Muslim philosopher, Ali Ibn-i-Sina.
I HAVE written earlier about the contributions of Muslim philosophers and historiographers to world history and philosophy. I suggest that our learned individuals study, research and write with devotion and a sense of involvement. Our universities should introduce regular study-research courses to ensure that the coming generations remain informed, enlightened and committed to further enhance and escalate the thoughts and philosophies, with a view to educate public opinion and thinking.
