The Golden Age of Islam: Ibn Sina or Abu Ali Sina, another great philosopher after Aristotle
The Golden Age of Islam, covers the period from 750 AD to 1258 AD, covering architecture, religious research, medicine, new thinking and philosophy. In this episode, Dr. Tony Street will tell us about the great philosopher and influential physician Ibn Sina (or Abu Ali Sina), who was born in 980 in Bukhara, present-day Uzbekistan. Ibn Sina was a Persian citizen who surpassed Aristotle as one of the best philosophers. He still holds a special place among Muslim scholars. (BBC Urdu has translated this radio series.)
The nearly 500-year period in the "Golden Age of Islam" led to significant political and cultural changes in the Middle East.
During the 12th century, Western Europe re-examined ancient Greek philosophy. Researchers have identified Aristotle as a respected philosopher rather than a "controversial pagan." In the process, Western researchers benefited from a translation movement in which writings written in Arabic were translated into Latin. This process began in the late 11th century.
Arab philosophers studied Aristotle and this study came to the aid of Latin civilization. And then Latin scholars began to try to understand Aristotle's work directly from the Greek language. Ibn Sina was an important Arab philosopher who greatly influenced Latin scholars.
In the process of understanding Aristotle from the Latin civilization, Ibn Sina was always present there through his books, especially during Aristotle's metaphysics.
Ibn Sina's metaphysics has been the only metaphysics in Europe since the middle of the 12th century. Ibn Sina's metaphysics was always studied during Aristotle's study of metaphysics in the 12th century. Its value declined after 1250 AD, but Ibn Sina was still cited for many years to understand Aristotle's philosophy.
In one of Ibn Sina's writings, an attempt was made to understand the distance between God and His servant. This research then became part of the religious philosophy of the Italian philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas. This philosophy was one of the great achievements of the ancient Christian religion.
Ibn Sina is frequently mentioned in Aristotle's European Studies. In Arabic, his name is Abu Ali Ibn Sina. He was a great philosopher and well-known physician who wrote books in Arabic in his time. He was born in Bukhara in 980 AD in what is now Central Asia. He traveled extensively in Central Asia and the Persian Empire. They eventually settled in the present-day city of Isfahan, Iran. He died in the year 1037. He was still far from home at the time of his death.
How did a Persian citizen in Central Asia, who knew how to speak Arabic, reach Greek philosophy during the 10th century?
The answer lies in a movement to acquire knowledge by translating, which began in the eighth century. The movement aimed to translate books from Greek into Arabic. It was even bigger than the movement to translate from Arabic to Latin in the 12th century.
The capital of this movement of the Abbasid Empire was Baghdad, the newly built capital. The study of the science and philosophy of ancient Greek civilization was reviewed here.
There is a gap of about two centuries between the arrival of this movement and the emergence of Ibn Sina as a great philosopher. Many famous Arab philosophers preceded him, including al-Farabi, a great name who died in 950 AD, 30 years before the birth of Ibn Sina. Al-Farabi was highly respected by Ibn Sina. They considered him their second teacher, Aristotle the first and Al-Farabi the second.
Most of the philosophers in Baghdad were associated with the writings of Aristotle. At the same time, philosophers such as al-Farabi continued their personal work, but the real purpose of the 10th century was to translate and review Aristotle's work into Arabic.
Ibn Sina changed all that. By the time he died, he had become a great philosopher, surpassing even Aristotle. This is true, at least to the extent of Muslim philosophers.
The 57 years of Ibn Sina's life are part of an Islamic era that began centuries later, when Arab armies had conquered Persian territory and since then the citizens of Persia have made great cultural advances in Islamic civilization.
Ibn Sina himself was a citizen of Persia, but he wrote two of his most important writings in Arabic. At the beginning of this period, around the year 950, the Persians took the cultural lead from the Arabs. But then in the last years of Ibn Sina, the Turks got the leadership.
Ibn Sina used to move, it was his custom to go from one city to another. Because they wanted to avoid the approaching Turkish army. During his life he sought refuge somewhere in the Persian Empire.
He left his home at the age of 20 and walked north from Bukhara to Gurganj. He also spent time in today's Iranian cities of Hamedan and Tehran, and eventually settled in Isfahan. It is as if they were afraid to work in a Turkish empire.
With this journey he was able to get rid of the poor states which were surrounded by enemies. The courts of these cities had neither the resources nor the desire to encourage philosophers.
They took refuge in the Al-Buwayh dynasty in the Abbasid Empire in cities where philosophers were supported in their courts.
We know so much about Ibn Sina because he wrote his autobiography around 1012 AD. And also because one of his students wrote a book about him in which all the information about the years after 1012 till his death is preserved.
In his autobiography, Ibn Sina writes that he himself understood philosophy without a teacher. But he admits that one of al-Farabi's writings explained metaphysics to him, after which he gave up the idea of giving it up. The book reiterates that he studied Aristotle's work independently. That is, he did his own research in Baghdad, free from the tradition of teaching and learning. He says he decided to enter the field at the age of 18.
It is this neutrality that enables him to make a philosophical study of many personalities and to make a correct assessment of the claims made in them, even if these claims were made by a great philosopher at that time.
In his autobiography, he cites how his ideas solidified modern philosophical research. Surely this is an example of a person who has acquired knowledge from himself. He read the current traditions of philosophy, reviewed them, rejected some and improved some.
Why did Ibn Sina write all this in his autobiography?
This is because they came from an environment where the accepted traditions of philosophy did not exist. They were now a place where everyone was educated in Baghdad by their best teachers. As Ibn Sina traveled east, he met educated people in Baghdad. If they felt inferior in front of them, they would think that they had no right to reject the philosophical research of a person educated in Baghdad.
Writing a biography and asserting one's superiority over educated philosophers in Baghdad are two different things. It would have been very difficult to win arguments against him, but Ibn Sina had apparently won all his battles.
We have a letter. Ibn Sina wrote this at a time when he had initially taken refuge under the rule of Al-Buwayh. He wrote this letter to the philosophers of Baghdad and the background was that Ibn Sina had a discussion with a former student of Baghdad on an issue.
In his letter, Ibn Sina asks who taught the educated people in Baghdad these things about the universe and whether they can really answer Ibn Sina's questions about it. We do not have an answer to this letter. But it is possible that the philosophers of Baghdad may have discarded Ibn Sina's letter. They had decided that they would ignore Ibn Sina. But history has proved them wrong.
A few years later, Ibn Sina wanted to buy a book by a Baghdad philosopher so that he could review and critique his findings. By this time he had become famous and people were afraid of him. Let Ibn Sina not buy his book because this philosopher himself was forced to buy all his books so that Ibn Sina could not read this book and criticize it.
Ibn Sina wrote many books but was careless in preserving them. In the year 1020, it was realized that no copy of one of his early writings could be saved. This was his commentary on Aristotle's research. So his students asked him to write an alternative. Ibn Sina forbade it. At the time, he only wanted to write a book on his philosophical ideas.
This was an important literary moment in Islamic history. Many well-known personalities were mentioned in Islamic civilization, but this was the moment when everything had to change.
Aristotle would have been mentioned in Ibn Sina's later writings, but his philosophy and arguments would not have been taken seriously. Ibn Sina's writings were now the center of reference in Arabic philosophy or religious literature. He reached a point where people would either agree or disagree with him and add to his words. It would not be wrong to say that he had become an expert in philosophy.
Services in medicine and the concept of God
What can be said about so many books of Ibn Sina. People who are interested in the history of medicine may be surprised that their services in the field of medicine are rarely mentioned here.
One of his books is the one that was included in the curriculum of every medical college in Europe from the 14th century to 1715 in one form or another. His other scientific services are not mentioned here. This is because the value of these services is nothing compared to philosophical writings.
One of his main ideas is the concept of soul. This argument is often compared to the work of the French philosopher Renے Descartes. The main idea is: 'I think. Maybe that's why I exist. "
Much attention has been paid here to their services in metaphysics. They have the idea of 'the difference between one's character and one's existence'. Even before him, philosophers had spoken on this subject. But no one had made it the basis of their metaphysics on such a large scale.
For Ibn Sina, the difference between one's goodness and one's existence was the most important issue. "Anything meets its characteristics, like a human, a cat or a tree," he said. It may be clear what the object is, but it is not clear if it exists. It's the same thing if you understand something without deciding what it is. "
He meant that everything is known by its characteristics. But it is also possible that this thing has its own separate existence. In making this distinction, Ibn Sina asks what is to be understood as what it is, that is, whether its characteristics give it meaning or its existence.
According to him, only things that can be described exist. This sentence is important in its own way. Ibn Sina is one of those philosophers who decides a matter based on the current situation. He believed in cause and effect (meaning cause and effect in English).
According to him, since this world was created by God out of necessity, if there was another world, it would be similar to everything in that world. Everything in the world has a need for something else.
They talk about everything based on its characteristics and its existence. According to him, if there was no great reason behind the creation of the world, it would not exist. If it is proved that there is a reason behind the creation of the world, then it will also be in accordance with the philosophy of characteristics and existence. That is, what is a thing is its existence.
It can also be said, 'What is God? The answer lies in the existence of God.
After Ibn Sina, the knowledge of theology changed, whether it was about the East or the West. As Ibn Sina began to be cited in Europe, so did his work in the East. As this argument for the existence of God is told in the seminaries, or as the scholars talk about the virtues of God.
Understand that when a young Christian goes to church and a Muslim goes to a seminary to acquire religious knowledge, he immediately becomes indebted to Ibn Sina.
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