Abu Ali Sina

This entry continues from the previous post on our short break to the west of Iran. On the second day of our journey (15 June), we visited the grave of Ibn Sina (Abu Ali Sina or Avicenna), the 11th c. scientist, astronomer and physician.

The grave complex is adjacent to a pleasant round garden at the Bou Ali Roundabout, and includes a small museum with the works of Ibn Sina in different languages. My attention was drawn to an inscription of a poem by Ibn Sina in the book room, which runs as follows in Persian:

Az qahr-e gol-e siyah ta owj-e zohal
Kardam hame moshkelat-e alam ra hall
Birun jastam ze qeid mokr o hil
Har band goshoude shod magar band-e ajal

In a free (and rather awkward) paraphrase, this roughly means “I have been able to unlock the mysteries of nature, from the humblest plant until the heights of the planets, and I have been able to escape from the machinations of enemies and to break all fetters, except the fetters of death.”

Abu Ali Sina’s Canon of Medicine book was the main medical textbook in European universities until the 17th century. His medical outlook sees the human organism as a whole, consisting of body and soul. The body’s health depends on the balance of the four humours (earth, fire, water and air), the main elements that the physical world is also made of. Any imbalance in the four elements within the body gives rise to illness, hence many of the treatments in this system depend on various foodstuffs that re-align the body’s balance.
This is a topic I have written in some detail in Among the Iranians, but it may be worth coming back to in the next post.