Who was Ibn Sina? Which are the Avicenna’s famous quotes ? Google Doodle celebrates Persian mathematician and scientist
As the world celebrates his 1038th birthday, we trace the astonishing life of this genius philosopher, medic and poet
POLYMATH extraordinaire Ibn Sina was the father of modern medicine who devoted his entire life to the pursuit of knowledge.
As Google Doodle celebrates his 1038th birthday, we trace the astonishing life of this genius philosopher, medic and poet.
Who was Ibn Sina?
The Persian polymath is known as one of the most influential physicians and astronomers of his time.
Also known as Aviecenna, he is often described as the father of modern medicine.
The Muslim philosopher was born on Afshona in Uzebekistran on August 22, 980AD.
By the age of ten he had memorised the entire Quran, and by 18 he had become a qualified physician.
As a teenager he was fixated by Aristotle's Metaphysics, which he read 40 times.
He spent his life healing the rich and the poor, all the while amassing an ever-growing mountain of knowledge.
During his career he wrote 450 works - nearly half of which have survived.
His best-known works are The Book of Healing, a philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and The Canon of Medicine, a medical encyclopedia.
The latter became a go-to medical text at many medieval universities, and continued to be used as late as 1650 - more than 600 years after it was first written.
Alongside philosophy and medicine, his works also including writings on Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics, geography and geology, psychology, alchemy, astronomy and poetry.
He died in June 1037 at the age of 58 in the month of Ramadan and was buried in Hamadan, Iran.
What is his name?
The genius is often known as Avicenna, a Latin corruption of the Arabic patronym Ibn Sīnā, a Persian male name meaning "Son of Sina".
However, as he was the great-great-grandson of a man named Sina, his full name was accordingly lengthy.
True fans might know him better as: Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Sīnā (أبو علي الحسين بن عبد الله بن الحسن بن علي بن سينا).
What quotes is he famous for?
Avicenna had a way with words as well as a knack for healing. Uttered more than 1,000 years ago, these words still have a ring of truth.
- The world is divided into men who have wit and no religion and men who have religion and no wit.
- The knowledge of anything, since all things have causes, is not acquired or complete unless it is known by its causes.
- Width of life is more important than length of life.
- Is it the fault of wine if a fool drinks it and goes stumbling into darkness?
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What is a Google Doodle?
In 1998, the search engine founders Larry and Sergey drew a stick figure behind the second 'o' of Google as a message to that they were out of office at the Burning Man festival and with that, Google Doodles were born.
The company decided that they should decorate the logo to mark cultural moments and it soon became clear that users really enjoyed the change to the Google homepage.
In that same year, a turkey was added to Thanksgiving and two pumpkins appeared as the 'o's for Halloween the following year.
Now, there is a full team of doodlers, illustrators, graphic designers, animators and classically trained artists who help create what you see on those days.
Among the Doodles published in past months were designs commemorating German scientist Robert Koch, Jan Ingenhousz (who discovered photosynthesis) and the 50th anniversary of kids coding languages being introduced.
And the search giant celebrated the 2017 Autumn Equinox , which marked the official ending of summer and the coming of autumn.
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