Ibn Sina
Ibn Sina fled Gurganj, accompanied by another refugee from
Mahmud, a Christian artist named Abu Sahl. Hearing that Ibn
Sina had absconded, Mahmud ordered a portrait to be drawn of
Ibn Sina which was then copied and distributed throughout his
realm. Ibn Sina and Abu Sahl were hunted men. Caught in the
open by a sandstorm, they could do nothing but shelter under
their cloaks. When the storm passed, Abu Sahl was dead.
The ailing Ibn Sina made it to Jurjanj (Gurgan in today’s Iran)
where he met a young man, Al-Juzjani, who would become his
companion, biographer and all-round champion. Ibn Sina cured
the amir of the nearby city, Ray, of his melancholy, and the amir
of Hamadan, Shams al-Dawla, of a bowel disease. In gratitude
Shams al-Dawla made Ibn Sina his vizier – his prime minister.
Ibn Sina lived from 1015 to 1024 in and around Hamadan, his
duties as vizier occasioning frequent travel. He made use of
the travel time by dictating his latest work to his amanuensis,A l-Ju z ja n i , a s
they rode.
The Canon
of Medicine,
which
would be
the primary
textbook for
doctors for
500 years,
was largely
composed
while riding from one town to the next, its
contents drawn directly from Ibn Sina’s prodigious memory.
In 1021, Ibn Sina’s patron and protector, Shams al-Dawla,
passed away and his son, Sama al-Dawla, became amir. The
new ruler asked Ibn Sina to stay on as vizier but he was wary
of Sama’s intentions and secretly wrote to the ruler of Isfahan,
Ala al-Dawla, offering him his services. Unfortunately for Ibn
Sina, his correspondence with a rival ruler leaked to Sama
and the enraged amir promptly imprisoned his vizier while
Ala and Sama settled their differences on the battlefield.
Defeated, Sama took refuge in the same castle where he had
imprisoned Ibn Sina. The victorious Ala al-Dawla withdrew
to Isfahan and Sama al-Dawla cautiously emerged from his
bolthole, taking Ibn Sina with him and offering him all sorts
of blandishments to become his vizier once again. But Ibn
Sina had made up his mind. In the last of the daring escapes
that marked his life, he fled Hamadan disguised as a Sufi with
the faithful Al-Juzjani, his brother Mahmud and two slaves
accompanying him.
The group of escapees made it to Isfahan, where Ala al-Dawla
greeted Ibn Sina with genuine delight. It was a meeting of
minds and Ibn Sina spent the rest of his life in the company
and service of the amir of Isfahan. At the previous courts where
Ibn Sina had found employment, there was always the sense
that the great scholar was looking after himself and that if the
going for his patron got tough he would head for the exit. But
this was not the case with Ala al-Dawla. Ibn Sina served him
faithfully through all the amir’s vicissitudes. For five years in
Isfahan, Ibn Sina had intellectual freedom and the support
of an amir personally interested in the pursuit of knowledge.
But then, in 1029, his old nemesis, Mahmud of Ghazna, moved
against Isfahan, sending his son, Masud, to conquer the city.
Ibn Sina fled with Ala al-Dawla and Masud took Isfahan, only
for the news to reach him of his father’s death. Masud promptly
rushed back to Ghazna to claim the throne from his brothers,
killing those who got in the way, and Ala al-Dawla took the
chance to reclaim his city. But having removed his fraternal
rivals, Masud marched on Isfahan again. Over the next few
years, Masud repeatedly conquered Isfahan and Ala al-Dawla
repeatedly took it back when Masud had to deal with other
problems in his sprawling kingdom.
It was during one of the final withdrawals from Isfahan,
with Masud’s army rapidly approaching, that Ibn Sina fell
ill. If he was to avoid capture, Ibn Sina knew he had to get
himself fit enough to travel. But he overprescribed, causing
a suppurating wound that was exacerbated by Ibn Sina’s
insistence on continuing regular sexual intercourse with
his concubines. Thus weakened, the greatest doctor of the
age died during Ramadan in 1037. Lucid to the end, Ibn Sina
realised his death was near, telling Al-Juzjani: “The governor
that used to rule my body is too weak to rule any longer.
Treatment is of no further use.”I
bn Sina buried himself in learning,
mastering everything he read and
committing it to memory3 x^ ©AlamyABOVE Ibn Sina
(or Avicenna as his
name was rendered
into Latin) remains
a significant
figure in history,
commemorated
in stamps by
many countries