Avicenna (Ibn Sina) was a philosopher and physician, born in Afshana, near Boukhara (presently, Pakistan). He wrote an early tenth-century medical encyclopedia, al-Qanun fi al-Tibb, known as Canons of Medicine in the West.

A precocious child, Avicenna was already well versed in the Al-Quram (the sacred book of Islam) and in the Shariah or Islamic law, at the age of ten. Showing great intelligence, he learned virtually without tutoring in mathematics, physics, medicine, and Eastern and Greek philosophy, the latter recently translated into Arabic by the Afghan sage al-Biruni (A.D. 975-1067). At the age of seventeen, Avicenna cured the prince of Boukhara of a serious illness, and the prince, out of gratitude, gave him free access to his vast royal library. After the fall of this ruler, Avicenna traveled through the Middle East and the western part of the Indian subcontinent, and finally established himself in Djouzdjan...