PERSON

Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā

Name (arabic)

أبو علي الحسين بن عبد الله بن سينا

Name (translit)

Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā

Alias

Ibn Sīnā [Avicenna]
شيخ ابن سينا
الشيخ الرئيس ابي علي الحسين بن عبد الله بن سينا
Abū ʿAlī
Al-Shaykh al-Raʾīs
Avicenna

Born

370H/980J

Died

428H/1036J

Born in

Lived in

Died in

Teacher of

Misattribution

Misidentification

Notes

Ibn Sīnā [Latin: Avicenna], renowned for his great works in philosophy and medicine, was also interested in the mathematical sciences; he dealt with a number of problems related to astronomy and cosmology that had an impact on later astronomical work in Islamic regions and in Europe. Ibn Sīnā left an autobiography that was completed by Abū ʿUbayd al-Jūzjānī. Ibn Sīnā lived in Bukhārā (985 -1005) where he studied Ptolemy’s Almagest, basically being self-taught. It is said that he had access to the library of Nūḥ b. Manṣūr (d. 997), which included many books by the “Ancients.” Ibn Sīnā lived in Gurganj (1005-12) where he wrote the Station of the Earth. He then resided in Jurjān (1012–14), and wrote his Comprehensive Observations, a treatise on the Correction of the Longitude of Jurjān, and his Summary of the Almagest (which he probably later incorporated into al-Shifāʾ). It was here that Jūzjānī began studying the Almagest with him. In 1014–15, Ibn Sīnā moved to Rayy and then on to Hamadhān (1015–24), where he wrote several parts of the Shifāʾ. He lived his final years in Iṣfahān, where he completed the final parts of the Shifāʾ, including the Almagest, composed the Najāt (the abridgement of the Shifāʾ that included logic, natural philosophy, and theology), and wrote his treatise on Astronomical Instruments during periods of observation for the ruler ʿAlāʾ al-Dawla. After Ibn Sīnā’s death, Jūzjānī added supplemental treatises on astronomy and mathematics to his Najāt.There are many astronomical works associated with Ibn Sīnā, but 9 can be identified as authentic, and these can be classified into four general categories: summaries of Ptolemy’s Almagest, works on instruments and observational astronomy, philosophical and cosmological works, and miscellaneous works. [BEA [S. Ragep]; for more details see Ragep and Ragep 2004]. Also see:GAL I, 589-99; Suppl. 812-828.

Number in MAMS

317

Biography URL

ismi_id

74607

Authored Works

44 works:

Astrology

Risālah fī al-radd ʿalá al-munajjimīn , رسالة في الردّ على المنجّمين

Astronomical Instruments

Maqālah fī al-ṭarīq alladhī ātharahu ʿalá sāʾir al-ṭuruq fī ittikhādh al-ālāt al-raṣadiyyah , مقالة في الطريق الذي آثره على سائر الطرق في إتّخاذ الآلات الرصدية

Astronomy: General

al-Arṣād al-kulliyyah wa-maʿrifat tarkīb al-aflāk ka-al-mukhtaṣar min kitāb al-Majisṭī , الأرصاد الكلّية ومعرفة تركيب الأفلاك كالمختصر من كتاب المجسطي
Ibtidāʾ al-maqālah al-muḍāfah ilá mā ukhtuṣira min kitāb al-Majisṭī mā laysa yadullu ʿalayhi al-Majisṭī , ابتداء المقالة المضافة إلي ما اختصر من كتاب المجسطي ما ليس يدلّ عليه المجسطي
Maqālah fī kayfiyyat al-raṣd wa-muṭābaqatihi maʿ al-ʿilm al-ṭabīʿī , مقالة في كيفيّة الرصد ومطابقته مع العلم الطبيعي
Maʿrifah tarkīb al-aflāk , معرفة تركيب الأفلاك
Raṣadhā-yi kullī , رصدها كلّي
Risālah-i adwār (Ibn Sīnā) , رساله ادوار
Talkhīṣ kitāb Baṭlamyūs fī al-taʿlīm wa-huwa kitāb al-Majisṭī , تلخيص كتاب بطلميوس في التعليم وهو كتاب المجسطي

Astronomy: Practical

Urjūzah fī fuṣūl al-sanah , أرجوزة في فصول السنة

Astronomy: Theoretical/hayʾaẗ al-ʿālam

Fī anna laysa lil-arḍ ḥarakah intiqāl , في أنّ ليس للأرض حركة إنتقال
Risālah fī al-hayʾah (Pseudo-Ibn Sīnā) , رسالة في الهيئة
ʿIllah qiyām al-arḍ fī ḥayyizihā fī wasaṭ al-samāʾ , علّة قيام الأرض في حيّزها في وسط السماء

Categorization of the Sciences

Aqsām al-ʿulūm al-ʿaqlīyah , أقسام العلوم العقلية

Geography: Practical

Fī ṭūl Jurjān , في طول جرجان

Geography: Theoretical/hayʾaẗ al-arḍ

Maqālah fī khawāṣṣ khaṭṭ al-istiwāʾ , مقالة في خواصّ خطّ الإستواء

Geometry: General

Dhikr uṣūl handasiyyah , ذكر أصول هندسية
Kitāb al-uṣūl al-handasiyyah li-Uqlīdis , كتاب الأصول الهندسيّة لأقليدس
Risālah dar handasah , رساله در هندسه
Risālah fī taḥqīq al-zāwiyah , رسالة في تحقيق الزاوية
Taḥqīq mabādiʾ al-handasah , تحقيق مبادئ الهندسة

MATHEMATICS

Meteorology

Risālah dhikr asbāb al-raʿd wa-al-barq , رسالة ذكر أسباب الرعد والبرق
Risālah fī al-āthār al-ʿulwiyyah , رسالة في الآثار العلويّة

MUSIC

al-Madkhal ilá ṣināʿat al-mūsīqá , المدخل إلى صناعة الموسيقى
Jawāmiʿ ʿilm ṣināʿat al-mūsīqá , جوامع علم صناعة الموسيقى

Natural Philosophy/ṭabīʿiyyāt

Ajwibat al-Shaykh al-Raʾīs ʿan masāʾil Abī al-Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī , أجوبة الشيخ الرئيس عن مسائل أبي الريحان البيروني
al-Samāʾ wa-al-ʿālam , السماء والعالم
al-Ṭūl wa-al-ʿarḍ , الطول والعرض

References

Gutas, Dimitri. 2014. Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition: Introduction to Reading Avicenna’s Philosophical Works. Second edition. Boston: Brill.
Ragep, Sally. 2007. “Ibn Sīnā: Abū ʿAlī al‐Ḥusayn Ibn ʿAbdallāh Ibn Sīnā”. In The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, 570-72. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Ragep, F. Jamil, and Sally Ragep. 2004. “The Astronomical and Cosmological Works of Ibn Sīnā: Some Preliminary Remarks”. In Sciences, Techniques Et Instruments Dans Le Monde Iranien (Xe– XIXe siècle), eds. Nasr Pourjavady and Živa Vesel, 3-15. Tehran: Presses Universitaires d’ Iran / Institut Français de Recherche en Iran.

Actes du colloque tenu à l'Université de Téhéran (7-9 juin 1998)

Rozenfeld, Boris, and Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu. 2003. Mathematicians, Astronomers and Other Scholars of Islamic Civilisation and Their Works (7th-19th c.). Istanbul: Research Centre for Islamic History, Art, and Culture.

Pp. 122-28 (no. 317).

Dānishpazhūh, Muḥammad-Taqī. 1985. Al‐Najāt Min al‐gharq Fī baḥr al‐dalālāt. Tehran: Dānešgāh‐i Tehrān.
Madwar, Muḥammad, Imām Aḥmad, and Ibrāhīm Maḏkūr. 1980. Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī Ibn ʿAbdallāh: Al-Shifāʾ; ʿIlm Al-hayʾa (Part 4 of Mathematics [al-Riyāḍiyyāt]). Cairo: al-Hayʾaẗ al-Miṣriyyaẗ al-ʿĀmmaẗ li-al-Kitāb.
Saliba, George. 1980. “Ibn Sīnā and Abū ʿUbayd al‐Jūzjānī: The Problem of the Ptolemaic Equant”. Journal for the History of Arabic Science 4: 376-403.

Reprinted in: "A History of Arabic Astronomy." New York: New York University Press, 1994, pp. 85-112.

Gohlman, William. 1974. The Life of Ibn Sīnā: A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Renaud, Michel. 1973. “Le De Celo Et Mundo d’Avicenne”. Bulletin De Philosophie médiévale 15: 92-130.
Qāsim, Maḥmūd. 1969. Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī Ibn ʿAbdallāh: Al-Shifāʾ; Al-ṭabīʿiyyāt; Al-samāʾ Wa-Al-ʿālam; Al-Kawn Wa-Al-fasād; Al-afʿāl Wa-Al-infiʿālāt (Part 2 of Natural Philosophy). Cairo: Dār al-Kātib al-ʿArabī.
Wiedemann, Eilhard, and Th. Juynboll. 1927. “Avicennas Schrift über Ein Von Ihm Ersonnenes Beobachtungsinstrument”. Acta Orientalia 11 (5): 81-167.

Reprinted in: "Gesammelte Schriften zur Arabisch‐Islamischen Wissenschaftsgeschichte." Frankfurt am Main, 1984, Vol. 2, pp. 1117-1203.

Wiedemann, Eilhard. 1925. “Über Ein Von Ibn Sînâ (Avicenna) Hergestelltes Beobachtungsinstrument”. Zeitschrift für Instrumentenkunde 45: 269-75.

Reprinted in: Gesammelte Schriften zur Arabisch‐Islamischen Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Frankfurt am Main, 1984, Vol. 2, pp. 1110-1116.

Von Mehren, A. 1884. “Vues d’Avicenne Sur l’astrologie Et Sur Le Rapport De La Responsabilité Humaine Avec Le Destin”. Muséon 3: 382-403.